[Special Review] Flash Flood: First Look at Artillery

[Blackdrakon30 2,943]

 

Flash Flood:

 

First Look at Artillery

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Hello, Tankers! 'Flash Flood' focuses on informing you about all the latest events. We are back again after the 124th V-Log with some fresh information about the Artillery turret. We can already tell this new weapon is definitely going to make a splash on the battlefield and shake things up. Between massive area damage, respectable power, and a unique vertical parabolic firing trajectory, the new turret is going to be quite interesting to investigate!

 
Let's go ahead and take a look!
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Turret Information:

 

The most important thing to note before we get started is that the Artillery turret is currently a demo. As with Hammer, Vulcan, and Striker when they were initially tested, the finished product turned out somewhat different. The statistics/function of the weapon are liable to change, too - the development team may alter anything, including the damage, fire rate, projectile speed, and reload of the turret.

 

The Artillery turret has several unique features that should be noted, that distinguish it as a turret. The Artillery turret, design wise, is essentially an extremely long barreled turret mounted on a small base. This is then attached to the location on the hull that would normally allow the turret to rotate. As we will discuss later, the artillery turret actually loses horizontal turning in lieu of its most unique feature. The turret in itself looks like a Self-Propelled Howitzer or Artillery Unit. For comparison, an image of the Palmaria 155mm Self-Propelled Howitzer has been included below.
 

The Palmaria 155mm Self-Propelled Howitzer

 
This piece of weaponry was developed in Italy. Perhaps Russia stole their designs for the new turret in Tanki Online? The world may never know. :ph34r:  Notice the similarity in the long turret barrels, even though the Palmaria's base is larger.

 
The turret forfeits horizontal rotation in order to gain the capability of vertical angle adjustment. The ability to flawlessly turn a tank's turret, drive, and fire in Tanki Online has long been hailed as a prime example of skill and expertise. The prime example of a "noob" used to be a player who would never rotate their turret. However, the situation of the Artillery will definitely not apply to that stereotype! The angle of the firing trajectory ranges from 0 to 90 degrees, meaning that the turret can shoot directly forwards or directly upwards. The spacebar is used to charge up the velocity of the shot, which determines the length of the arc the shot travels in.

 

Artillery turret's firing angle range

 

This distinctive style of shooting provides the advantage of being able to shoot enemies over obstacles such as buildings, wall props, and other tanks. This is an excellent utility for damaging opponents who aren't exposed directly. Also, the potential 90-degree firing angle actually allows the player to self-destruct by their own self-damage. This can be accomplished by firing directly upwards and letting the shell hit their tank, as illustrated below.

 

The artillery turret is about to receive damage from its own returning projectile

 

 

The turret has a range as seen in the 124th V-LOG that is capable of firing down a section of train tracks in Osa. This puts Artillery in a unique turret category, as it has a finite range like the Plasma turrets but doesn't lose damage over a long range. The minimum range arc of Artillery deals the same damage as the maximum range arc. The maximum range would be achieved at 45 degrees of firing angle, with the highest launch power. The minimum firing distance is obviously zero, as you can launch the projectile directly upwards and therefore achieve no forwards distance. The (unconfirmed) maximum range, and an image of a shorter range launch are shown below. Note that Artillery may be able to fire longer distances than what was shown.

 

 (Image 1) The artillery turret's long distance range

 

 

(Image 2) The artillery turret's short distance range

 

As briefly mentioned earlier, a factor that affects the range beyond mere angle is the velocity adjustment feature. In the V-LOG, we can see that a velocity factor of "49.5", at an angle of approximately 30 degrees, travels approximately 14 props. This is shown in the image below. We can also draw rough estimates based on the images above. Yours truly painstakingly measured all the distances with Viking to get an approximation of the length in props.  ;) 

• Short Artillery Shot: Approximately 7 props (Image 2)
• Medium Artillery Shot: Approximately 14 props (Image 3)
• Long-Range Artillery Shot: Approximately 45 props (Image 1)

​

(Image 3) Left number is firing angle, while the right number is velocity factor

 

The Artillery has several features that are shared by other turrets. It has a larger splash damage radius than Thunder, Striker, Twins, or Ricochet with its fresh Alteration. This gives Artillery the ability to decimate hordes of weak opponents in only a few blows. Artillery has a high impact force, which can be used for jostling opposing tankers and throwing off aim; high recoil, making it potentially useful for parkour jumpers; and does not make sandwiches (as far as we know). :ph34r: The damage range is likely somewhere in the range of 600 to 1500 damage. For comparison, Railgun has a damage range of 672 to 1350 at stock M3. The reload time of the turret seems to be similar to that of old Railgun or Shaft, as it is very sluggish to shoot again after launching a shell.
 
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Turret Profile:
 High raw damage
Large splash damage radius
High impact force
High recoil
Long yet limited range
Shoots in an arc over obstacles
Long reload time
Cannot rotate horizontally
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Turret Role:

 

As a new turret, there are several things that we should consider beyond the mere stats. More specifically, we should examine what role the Artillery will take, on account of its unique features. This will be done in a question and answer format addressing the actual the role of Artillery.
 
Q: What hulls will it perform best on? What role will it play on each hull family (Light, Medium Heavy)?
A: In theory, Artillery would work best on medium and heavy hulls due to the heavy splash damage combined with respectable range capabilities. This would allow the Artillery turret to have fair longevity and mitigated recoil while hanging in the back to minimize the disadvantage of speed. Light hulls could provide a quick assassin that launches shells from the sidelines and bombards enemy defenses. The small size of the light hulls also aids in getting the Artillery into tighter positions that would be too narrow for say, Mammoth. However, this seems less than ideal on account of its heavy splash damage, lowered HP that would ensure defeat before a retreat is mounted, and the close combat disadvantages.
 

The Artillery turret mounted on Wasp

 
Medium hulls seem like the best general option because they usually have decent turning speed, which makes up for the lack of horizontal turning capabilities, while not completely forfeiting health. These aspects combined with Artillery's range and features create an adaptable support tank that's deadly in midfield and great for defensive support or offensive support. All three of the individual medium hulls have their distinct advantages; such as Hunter's balanced statistics, Viking's raw speed, and low profile, and Dictator's acceleration and height. 
 

Artillery turret mounted on Viking

 

Heavy hulls minimize the disadvantages of both self-damage and recoil. Speed, acceleration, and rotation speed are sacrificed in lieu of raw bulk used to stay alive. Artillery coupled with heavy hulls like Titan are useful as a powerful defensive support, as they can destroy swarms of attacking enemies from afar while surviving many ranged hits from the likes of Railgun and Thunder. However, if any opponent forces the heavy hull into a close-range situation, it is essentially dead. No speed to flee, and any attempts to destroy the opponent will lead to massive self-damage thanks to the splash that usually works to the turret's advantage.
 

Artillery turret mounted on Titan

 
Q: What role will it play in battle?
A: Artillery is definitely cut out to play the role of a support turret, either as defensive support to prevent the flag camper from being overwhelmed or as offensive support in order to slowly bombard and wear down the opponent's defenses. It cannot be used for Offensive flag capturing because of splash damage and an arc shot, which makes it completely vulnerable at close range, nor can it play the role of pure defense as well as say - Thunder. This is due to the turret's slow reload and limited rotation speed, as it has to rely on the hull to rotate for it. When used with a heavy, like a standard flag camper would use, the tank has extremely sluggish turning.
 
Q: Will it outclass or be outclassed by any other turrets?
A: It may face being outclassed by Shaft or Striker, but this is extremely unlikely because of Artillery's unique ability to launch projectiles over obstacles. This makes it far more potent as enemies cannot hide as easily, compared to merely hiding behind a wall to escape from the gaze of a Striker and Shaft. It will probably not outclass any other turrets due to the reliance on the hull for rotation and long reload time. This prevents it from overshadowing Thunder and Striker, while the inability to rotate prevents it from being better than Railgun. All of these turrets are superior in the midfield, compared to Artillery which struggles in many midfield situations.

Q: How does it play against other turrets?
A: The Artillery turret probably will have an excellent match-up against the likes of Thunder, Striker, Vulcan, and Twins because they would not attempt to engage any tank at close range due to splash damage and (in the case of Vulcan) cumbersome turning speed. This prevents the Artillery from being forced into situations where it damages itself while being able to launch shells at the enemy as they camp behind a barrier. However, the Artillery turret will probably struggle against Smoky, Railgun, Shaft, Isida, Firebird, Freeze, and Hammer due to constant movement tactics used by Rail, the lack of splash damage on Smoky, the raw damage at similar range of Shaft, and the close range power of Isida, Firebird, Freeze, and Hammer that would force the artillery turret to take splash damage.

Q: What maps will it be most effective when used on?
A: The turret will most likely be best on medium-large maps like Rio, Solikamsk, Kungur, Barda, and Iran. These provide shelter, and make it difficult for close-range turrets to approach, while still being small enough that Artillery has range of most of the map. The massive maps like Berlin could be good for artillery, but there are many tall buildings that the turret wouldn't be able to shoot over from far away. Additionally, it may have long range but that only helps it so much on such a large map. 
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Turret Feedback:

 
It appears as though this turret will significantly alter the gameplay of Tanki Online. A possible impact of its introduction on maps like Rio, Polygon, and Noise is fewer players camping, in effect producing more aggressive playing styles being used to counter the Artillery's destructive influences. It could make the use of Thunder as a defensive support turret less common because Artillery tends to play the role better, as it can shoot over allies while providing higher damage with a larger area of splash damage. Shaft, Thunder, Smoky, Railgun, and Vulcan (all the turrets in a similar range group to Artillery) will provide intense competition for the role of offensive support as they all are more adaptable thanks to rotation speed, and can actually move into the role of offense if the situation requires it. 
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Conclusion:

 

That's all the information that we have for now about the Artillery turret. For now we will just need to wait and see how this turret affects the future of Tanki Online gameplay with such unique capabilities. I believe that we will be seeing some massive changes to the battlefield with this new niche turret as it may reinforce camping by shooting from behind walls, but it also may decrease camping thanks to its ability to launch projectiles over barriers that campers hide behind.
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I hope you enjoyed reading this article, and I'll update this topic once more information relating to the Artillery turret is released. See you all later!
 

Sources:

V-LOG 122: (Information)
V-LOG 123: (Title Image)
V-LOG 124: (Information, Images)

Palmaria Howitzer Image

 

Previous 'Flash Flood' Issues:

Issue 1: A Review of Deck-9, Magadan, and Canyon

Issue 2: The Rocket Launcher (Striker)

 

 

Edited February 12, 2017 by Blackdrakon30

[Hex 11,520]

Artillery - Trajectory & Its Uses:

 

The Artillery turret definitely feels and looks like a defensive beast. Its unique vertical aiming - even at the loss of horizontal aiming - opens up a whole new world of flag protection, defense as well as offense. But, why flag protection? You'll see. Illustrated below is what I mean.

 

Map: Silence

Role: Defensive Support

Team: Blue

Turret: Artillery

 

 

Suppose for some minutes that my Thunder over there is actually Artillery. Both the flags have been taken and a stalemate has occurred. Both teams are fiercely competing with each other. The strategy an intelligent person would apply here is to change camera angles so that you can literally see the whole map, get Artillery and rain lead on the Red team.

 

 

Judging from this, I would definitely give the flag to an Artillery-Titan/Mammoth, mine around him/her and keep attacking or going for our teams' flag. This is one of the more useful things I observed while assessing this turret.

Edited February 12, 2017 by Blackdrakon30

[Blackdrakon30 2,943]

Brand new Flash Flood article about the new Artillery turret is fresh off the press! Enjoy!

[AshsPikachuDwij 1,035]

Well done Drakon. Loved the article. Hope to see more such articles :)

[NERF836 202]

This would help like you said in a "flag stalemate" where both teams have the flag and are hiding making it effectively impossible to capture the flag till,the end of the round

[stanzhang 3,291]

 

 

If it can reach that far I think it would be way too overpowered.

[Akame 4,580]

I think 'Parabola' is the correct terminology to describe the line of fire assuming gravitational laws and game physics.

[Blackdrakon30 2,943]

If it can reach that far I think it would be way too overpowered.

It could be tested, but we can calculate it right here and now pretty easily. We know the Artillery can launch projectiles at a range of approximately 45 props, possibly further. The Silence map (according to the wiki) has the dimensions of 29 props by 24 props. Therefore you can assume that Artillery can easily shoot anywhere on the Silence map as long as you can make the arc high enough to travel over the obstacles.

Edited February 12, 2017 by Blackdrakon30

[stanzhang 3,291]

It could be tested, but we can calculate it right here and now pretty easily. We know the Artillery can launch projectiles at a range of approximately 45 props, possibly further. The Silence map (according to the wiki) has the dimensions of 29 props by 24 props. Therefore you can assume that Artillery can easily shoot anywhere on the Silence map as long as you can make the arc high enough to travel over the obstacles.

If it could reach that far, it means that it is going to reach most of the Tanki maps entirely. Silence is already a pretty decent sized map, so the only way to avoid that weapon is to hide behind walls then. Although it has a great distance, I think it is a terrible weapon for small maps like Island or Sandbox due to the intensively fast gameplay in it. As you said, we still have to see how high can the arc be. Hopefully, the arc will be lower as shown on that picture because otherwise it will be almost impossible to get rid of that artillery and during the whole battle it would inflict a significant amount of damage to everyone.

Edited February 12, 2017 by stanzhang

[Viking4s 10,791]

If it could reach that far, it means that it is going to reach most of the Tanki maps entirely. Silence is already a pretty decent sized map, so the only way to avoid that weapon is to hide behind walls then. Although it has a great distance, I think it is a terrible weapon for small maps like Island or Sandbox due to the intensively fast gameplay in it. As you said, we still have to see how high can the arc be. Hopefully, the arc will be lower as shown on that picture because otherwise it will be almost impossible to get rid of that artillery and during the whole battle it would inflict a significant amount of damage to everyone.

Be aware that the trajectory is a parabola, every obstacle that stand in the way (building, roof building) will stop the shell. In this case if you stay close to high building then you're safe.

There is an advantage here for the blue base regarding striking distance as the blue base is higher than the red base so blue shells will go further than if both bases were leveled. However the blue base has significantly less building to protect from red shell coming from above.

Like with the shaft battles, both team will require Artillery in order to counter act each other, teams will have to adapt if enemy team has more artillery than them.

 

Edited February 13, 2017 by Viking4s

[Penguin40 1,714]

You are so damn evil Drak, I was gonna do this very article in AWC!!! NUB!

 

Anyways, jokes aside, really nice job man! Gonna love this turret, except its hard :p

[bc200214_777 582]

Nice article :D

[LIMITFULL 1,793]

Nice BD30!  I now want to try out the turret for fun .. but not sure it will be my next buy...  :mellow:  :unsure: 

[L.a.u.r.e.n 144]

not too bad.... i think that the new turrent will be useful in battles such as noise for example the red team as normally people camp with mines and it could be very useful with the power and accuracy....to use this turrent effectively i suggest we should practice the angles and give an estimate of how accurate the shot has to be aswell.

[NERF836 202]

If it can reach that far I think it would be way too overpowered.

aiming mechanism will be hard to master so you would have a hard time hitting him

[ssANGELOFDEATHss 8]

The new master of the Highways CTF. 

[ethanology 0]

I've been waiting for such a turret for quite some time! Sounds really fun to play around with.

 

Just one question, though, how high could it shoot? For example, could it reach the highest point in Madness from the bottom?

[Penguin40 1,714]

The new master of the Highways CTF.

 

:cough: check wiki. Even with max velocity + correct angle, as it appears from the article the artillery shell cannot reach the other base from one base - Highways length is 65 props, Artillery range is around 45 props. Of course, "subject to change" and it's quite likely the article can be wrong even when on the demo. Of course I don't mean to insult the article, Drak :P

[Zenyth 6,494]

I think Artillery will have a max. range greater than 45 props  :huh:

[pinksheepYT 0]

New Shaft LOL

[Viking4s 10,791]

:cough: check wiki. Even with max velocity + correct angle, as it appears from the article the artillery shell cannot reach the other base from one base - Highways length is 65 props, Artillery range is around 45 props. Of course, "subject to change" and it's quite likely the article can be wrong even when on the demo. Of course I don't mean to insult the article, Drak :P

New Shaft LOL

This will depends of the variant M0, M1, M2, M3 and M3+.

Max distance would be at 45 degrees combined with max power and calculated on an even ground.

If you look at Long range turret such as Striker, its max distance per Variant M varies greatly:

Variant         # Props         Distance increase in %

M0               81.9                -

M1               91.3               11%

M2               97.9               20%

M3              104.5              28%

M3+            112                 37%

 

You see a rough average increase of 10% (or 10 props) in distance per M level. I would expect similar pattern for Arty. Nearly +40% from M0 to M3+.

Looking at mid range turrets (Thunder and Smoky), same principle applies +40% gain in distance from M0 to M3+ : both increase from 100 to 140 meters or from 20 to 28 props.

Edited February 15, 2017 by Viking4s

[Penguin40 1,714]

This will depends of the variant M0, M1, M2, M3 and M3+.

Max distance would be at 45degres and max power and calculated on an even ground.

If you look at Long range turret such as Striker, its max distance per Variant M varies greatky:

Variant         # Props         Distance increase in %

M0               81.9                -

M1               91.3               11%

M2               97.9               20%

M3              104.5              28%

M3+            112                 37%

You see a rough average increase of 10% (or 10 props) in distance per M level. I would expect similar pattern for Arty. Nearly +40% from M0 to M3+.

Looking at mid range turrets (Thunder and Smoky), same principle applies +40% gain in distance from M0 to M3+ : both increase from 100 to 140 meters or from 20 to 28 props.

:cough: drak gets rekt :cough:

 

Ah just kidding. I might expect a lower range tho due to no damage dropoff over range in order to balance it out, (hey, that'd be OP with that and dont tell me Shaft also has it so no balance issues) that's possible. But well, maybe that's right. WAIT a second, if you're both reporters how did this point not get pointed out while Drak was writing?! Of course I'm not wanting leaks, xd :P

[Viking4s 10,791]

:cough: drak gets rekt :cough:

 

Ah just kidding. I might expect a lower range tho due to no damage dropoff over range in order to balance it out, (hey, that'd be OP with that and dont tell me Shaft also has it so no balance issues) that's possible. But well, maybe that's right. WAIT a second, if you're both reporters how did this point not get pointed out while Drak was writing?! Of course I'm not wanting leaks, xd :P

lol. Not everything is revealed at once. We keep some secret and reveal them a little by little in order to maintain the suspense over the time...

[mydoom.exe 5,154]

[LittleWillie 3,199]

Myself, I was reminded of the Swedish Archer howitzer when I saw the Tanki turret design, Obviously I refer to the gun and mount not the vehicle portion. :)

 

Edited February 23, 2017 by LittleWillie