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Allowing mechs to relay coordinates directly to the battleship to provide direct artillery support in creeping barrages within a designated zone provides endless strategic opportunities for the role of a player as an artillery forward observer. This mechanism of “calling down fire support” would enable players who have launched a battleship to receive designated pin-point artillery support to high-intensity areas (and perhaps add even greater strategic depth to the game). At the same time, because this change to the mechanics of play of the battleship, the battleship would be unable to defend itself against enemy fire without the instruction by a team, forcing players to either accompany the battleship (rather than camping at a captured AA), provide cover fire against opponents, and feed coordinates into the battleship by painting visible targets.
Additionally, this mechanism would reduce random kills by the battleship of wounded opponents (UNLESS THEY WALKED INTO THE DESIGNATED FIRE ZONE) and force players to pursue the enemies themselves, also forcing them to provide greater protection for the aerial behemoth.
Finally, this mechanism would favour teams that managed to launch their battleship first without unduly reducing the skill level of siege mode: targets would still have to be designated as opposed to automatically tracked by battleship turrets, and this would encourage harassment of enemy resource gathering further (plus create extremely interesting situations where two battleships were providing cover fire to opposing teams).
In summary: Allowing players to designate fire zones for launched aerial battleships provides greater strategic depth to the siege mode, encourages players to carefully “husband” launched battleships, would provide greater incentive for players to harass enemy resource gathering, and up the tension of a game whenever a battleship is airborne.
Edited by Conquistador, November 01 2012 - 08:11 PM.
