Why not make Fire support actually kill players?

I'm coming from Day of Infamy. I fell in love with the game but because of the low player count, I stopped playing and there are other reasons why I stopped but let's get to the point.

In DOI, having a good officer(commander) is actually very important in winning a game. I once has 96:13 game as an officer. The fire support was the key for that.
It actually killed people with fire support and I don't know what the difference is between DOI and this game. In DOI, when calling in Carpet bombing, you are guaranteed to kill at least 1. Heck, with explosive mortars, I killed so many people in DOI.

But in Sandstorm, you would be lucky to kill 1 with explosive fire support. Only viable fire support option is minigun and helicopter gunship for security and maybe chemical mortars for terrorists.

If there is a way to make commanders more viable, that would make this game so much better.

PS throw in supply drop option so that demolitionists can have more than how many ever rockets they get.

@sam_kdr Because it would be cancer? Fire supports' ineffectiveness is the only thing that stopped me from leaving this game like I left DOI. Free RNG kills shouldn't be in the game. Going 96:13 by clicking with binoculars is perfect evidence for why we shouldn't have DOI-level fire support lol. Supply dropping to let demolitions spam even more is also a horrible idea. It's bad enough that they can carry 2+ RPG rockets, 2+ GL explosives, (not sure if you can still tap resupply for an extra rocket/GL) and a grenade.

I dunno. A little customization and personal control of the strikes might be a good idea. As it is right now everyone knows (ok so mortarts are coming down. If i just hunker for 10 seconds it will be gone)

But what if you could customize the incoming supports, and instead of firing a bunch of rounds quickly, you could set it to be more of a "sustained suppression" where the rounds only land every 5-10 seconds. This would make the supports be a much more effective area denial strategy than currently, even if the changes wouldn't necessarily net more kills.

Either way, I do think some changes need to happen to make supports (and playing as cmdr or obsrvr) more interesting, interactive, and effective.

last edited by AMURKA

In my experience it’s all about placement and a good observer. I have had very successfull matches as commander all due to a good observer who followed me everywhere I went and stayed alive when I called something in and on top of that like I said placement and timing is key it’s not easy and it shouldn’t be but I have killed multiple people with all of them.. explosive mortar.. chemical mortar.. ied drones.. you get the point. But once again you need to know when and where and of coarse once again have a good observer. The only time I get next to no kills with support calls is when my observer(s) have no idea what they are doing or just plain suck.. once again my expirience (over 140 hours lvl 76??)

The maps in Sandstorm are just not built for firesupport.
DoI had kino map designed in a proper linear way that often had an open area section that lended it's self to firesupport/smoke-barrage.

Sandstorm's maps are just too erratic and too big.

@cyoce I understand it could be perceived as RNG but it's really not. Commander and radio have to collaborate and commanders should have knowledge on where to drop the firesupport. There have been many times I go through an explosive mortar infested area without too much damage and survived: this is what I want to not happen. You shouldn't be able to go through an area where mortars are ordered. That will at least for them to get inside and deny entry possibly which is what commanders were the most useful for in DOI. but I get what you are saying

Why not make Fire support actually kill players?

@cyoce said in Why not make Fire support actually kill players?:

@sam_kdr Because it would be cancer?

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Fire support in Day of Infamy was retardedly overpowered. When I was with a friend of mine on one map (can't remember which, Ortanio or something?), I'd just grab a radio as a Rifleman with the rifle grenades and he would be an Officer. He'd alternate between calling in supply crates right behind me so I could get indefinite rifle grenades to cheese the Brits with, calling in Stuka bombs on the building across from us (which got him like eight kills at one point with a single bomb), calling in carpet bombs on said building and calling in artillery on said building. It was broken as fucking hell.

Also, on Sicily you can call fire support on a palm tree in the back about ten feet away from the enemy spawn. My friend got like 21 kills with fire support calls doing that and we never got past the first objective.

@sam_kdr It really is RNG. Is a player controlling where each bomb is dropped? Are they dropped in a predictable sequence? If not, it's RNG.

@cyoce said in Why not make Fire support actually kill players?:

@sam_kdr It really is RNG. Is a player controlling where each bomb is dropped? Are they dropped in a predictable sequence? If not, it's RNG.

Honestly, with how fire support works in this game it's probably more RNG than in Day of Infamy. In Sandstorm, you might survive a rocket barrage while inside a building and you might not. I have no clue what determines that. In DoI you're just going to die lmao.

I know the idea of giving the Observer class the ability to actually control fire support (i.e. man the 30mm minigun on the A-10s) but then you'd have to put even more trust in two teammates to basically carry the rest of your team to victory (and not teamkill half the squad lol).

@marksmanmax I'd rather put my trust in a human that may or not know what they're doing than a bot that definitely has no idea what it's doing. Of course, this would further necessitate the vote kick option, so that's two positives in my book.