What's the sound of Artillery?

Boom boom.

Artillery is the only offensive skill offered in FA:S, and as much as the mod has changed with its transition from Half-Life, to Half-Life 2, so has Artillery. In the FA:S forum thread in the General Discussions, this thread sheds some light on the subject (http://forums.firearms-source.com/showthread.php?t=7132).

Naota states "you're now able to select specifically which marked location you want to bombard from all the locations set out by your team's spotters." Which Hitman adds, "We'll be doing a media update on artillery later on, which will go over in more detail the system itself and how Arty 1 is now beneficial to use (unlike in FA1 where it was not)."

Honestly, these additions to Artillery seem to lack the veneer and polish the rest of the mod has. While in the older RCs you were unable to select your target yourself, you could always ask team mates to recall their old targets for you to rain fire on. Hitman also said that Artillery 1 would be useful, but according to StandingCow "but arty 1 you can just fire it" which means Artillery 1 dose not have access to the main feature of artillery, the mortar. Furthermore with under slug grenade launchers removed such as the M203 and GP25, its usefulness seems diminished.

Also, no mention was made about the problem of having to run forward to place artillery markers. The whole purpose of artillery is to engage the enemy from a distance. Having to run to the enemy, to use a weapon meant to be used away from the enemy seems counter productive. Later versions of FA had the option of smoke grenades for artillery markers (though you couldn't actually throw them). The possibility of throw able smoke grenades for artillery targets would solve this issue, and at the same time counter their power with alerting the enemy where an enemy marker is. Of course, this could be impliminted, but hasn't been hinted to you.

What is an improvement for Artillery is the possibility of kill assist though Artillery targets; the person who placed the target, and the person who fired the mortar will each get credit for the kill. This would help Artillery 1 have a role late in the game, other than just a stepping stone to Artillery 2.