There's a large group of enemies in an open area, no cover to block the explosions, a stealthy high ground advantage, and we happen to be in range of the Castle's 5 arties (yes I put 5 down in each little alcove along the wall for immersion).

Here we have a perfect once in a game moment to use the arty effectively. Oh looky here, a mirelurk queen and several lackies wandering around in an open area below me. I'm on Spectacle Island, clearing out the Mirelurks. To summarize my complaints, let me boil them all down in a single story that has just happened to me. This, coupled with the fact it takes several minutes to fire, means that the enemy has usually spotted me and has started chasing me out of the kill zone, and the shells land harmlessly away from them while they beat me to death in a ditch. Meaning you have to get close enough to use it that any chance of stealth is blown out the window. It goes a few feet through the air, hits and invisible wall, and falls to the ground just a few meters from you. The smoke grenade doesn't even have the throw range of a normal grenade.

Most of the time you were lucky to not get killed by your own bomb. This reminds me of the game Mercenaries, where you could call in a fuel air bomb with a destructive radius of two square blocks, but you had to use a smoke grenade. Most of the time when I see a group of unsuspecting baddies I debate for a moment using the arty, but then I realize a well placed grenade or two would get the job done just as well. Most of the time they're spread out gaurding and area, or sitting around in shacks doing jet (which no matter how dilapidated the structure, it can block a nuke from hurting the occupant). Rarely do you see a group of enemies huddled together in an area outside where the artillery barrage would effectively cover.

I feel like there is no situation where the artillery could be used to it's full advantage and it wouldn't be easier and more efficient to use something like a missle launcher or fatman. You just have to put a unit in every settlement and hope you have coverage whenever you need it.Ģ) Too few situations where it actually comes in handy. There's already been plenty of threads discussing this and it bothers me too that there's no way to tell how far your artillery range covers.

Does anyone else feel the artillery was a cheap gimmick tacked on at the last second? It's as if Bethesda realized there was no insentive for people to build settlements and were like 'wait, let's add a glitchy airstrike system that uses settlers to operate, that way it will make it seem like we've actually made something new AND given the settlements a tactical purpose'.ġ) There is no clear indcator to the range of the artillery.

Fallout 4 artillery mod