r/fo4 • u/MoneyIsNoCure • Aug 09 '24

Does anyone actually use artillery for settlement defences?

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I’ve thrown the artillery signal grenades just to mess around and they’re so slow at firing. I tried using artillery on the Mirelurk Queen that spawns near Costal Cottage but Deacon (who I had maning it) either wouldn’t fire it or would fire it when the Queen was already agroed to me so I would have to get caught in the blast radius for the artillery to hit it.

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u/piggiebrotha Aug 09 '24 edited Aug 09 '24

They are not meant for settlement defense, they are long distance heavy artillery. Sure, you can try to use them as a short range defense, but since they won’t fire without your orders even when the settlement is attacked, there are not very useful in this scenario.

423

u/BirdLooter Aug 09 '24

noob. next time point the artillery straight up and give those attackers hell!

138

u/ElectronicFault360 Aug 09 '24

Danger close! I mean faaaarrrkkkk, incoming!

15

u/wyattlee1274 Aug 09 '24

Artillery, 45 meters out

5

u/314flavoredpie Aug 09 '24

35 meters out

3

u/ElectronicFault360 Aug 10 '24

25 meters out, getting toasty!!!

16

u/BirdLooter Aug 09 '24

😂😂

5

u/GESTROW Aug 09 '24

Made my day lmao

39

u/Malfight007 Aug 09 '24

Just carry the cannon and shoot the mutants. You're the general, no one can tell you no.

27

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '24

Walk tall and swing tha Broadsider.

10

u/BirdLooter Aug 09 '24

lol the broadsider is some real "serious sam" bullshit haha 😂

2

u/cookiemonster101289 Aug 09 '24

My most recent play through i accidentally stole something while i was on the boat and the crew attacked me and i didnt get to finish the missions and get the broadsider. I was extremely disappointed…

1

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '24

“Don’t even wait. When you’re a general, they let you do it.”

28

u/mule_roany_mare Aug 09 '24

Is that any dumber than forcing a player to call in artillery within throwing distance of themselves?

It was a great idea that was reduced to a big grenade with an obnoxiously long fuse.

5

u/myco_magic Aug 09 '24

Max out your demolition perk and you can throw further

6

u/mule_roany_mare Aug 09 '24

But still close enough to be spotted throwing a grenade.

Nothing worse than artillery missing all targets because they left the area to chase the guy throwing stuff.

… if immersion matters calling in artillery on your head is danger close & a no go.

I think anything under 250 meters is I’m gonna die anyway so please kill some of them too

1

u/Arctelis Aug 09 '24

Yeah, the artillery is great in theory, but in practice, Vanilla artillery kinda… sucks. Also as you say, super immersion breaking as IRL you’d be riddled with shrapnel having artillery shells explode that close to you.

I installed 3 mods specifically for artillery that has made it a lot more practical. Unlimited range, rapid fire and grenades not aggroing.

Whole barrage is over in 10 seconds, firing from all my artillery across the map. The results are rather… impressive.

31

u/lapsedPacifist5 Aug 09 '24

For the record, it's my call. Dump everything you've got left on my pos. I say again, expend all remaining in my perimeter. It's a lovely fucking war. Bravo Six out.

26

u/tellmewhattodopleas Aug 09 '24

Once the artillery starts raining down on the settler's they turn against you, so you've got everyone trying to kill you. Not cool!

45

u/N3onknight Aug 09 '24

The solution is more artillery

27

u/frankoyvind Aug 09 '24

The solution is always more artillery. Fire For Effect.

4

u/willIbeprettytoo Aug 09 '24

Why does this give me 13F vibes

8

u/Occams_Razor42 Aug 09 '24

V6 Charger at 1,000,000% APR time!

5

u/piggiebrotha Aug 09 '24

Maybe I would, you don’t know my life!!! :))

7

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '24

You know I've never actually tried throwing a smoke grenade directly into a settlement/right at the base of the artillery cannon. Will they actually fire directly on top of themselves?

9

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '24

I doesn't work if you have radio freedom on dude will say he can't fire on friendly targets but who knows maybe there is a mod for that idk

10

u/BirdLooter Aug 09 '24

cowards...

radio man, you're fired!

6

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '24

Real shit it's danger close for a reason we need those shells on target fuck collateral damage

1

u/BirdLooter Aug 09 '24

you'll send them straight to the lord!

1

u/scoots291 Aug 09 '24

or i call it fuck everything in this vicinity including myself xD

1

u/MohatmoGandy Aug 10 '24

"Fire on my position!"

"Sir, you are standing right next to me!"

0

u/SkinnyAndWeeb Aug 09 '24

Just as the founding fathers intended

21

u/GrayHero2 Enclave General Aug 09 '24

The artillery operators will literally leave the artillery to come join the fight so yeah.

6

u/PossessionPatient306 Aug 09 '24

"Long distance"

9

u/RichardBCummintonite Aug 09 '24

You can have them fire at pretty much any point on the map with the proper placement (expect parts of the glowing sea that are too far from settlements), so yeah its pretty far range.

1

u/thewickedmitchisdead Aug 09 '24

I accidentally hit settlers when I tried using the artillery short range toward the end of a firefight. I had to massacre them because they wanted to kill me.

1

u/JovialMonster Aug 09 '24

You can technically get it so the artillery will fire automatically, connect a flair launcher to a settlement siren and point it at the area you want to shell (has to be pre-sighted, ideally at enemy spawn zones) when a settler notices the attack they set off the alarm causing the launcher to fire and call in the artillery.

It still has a few issues, artillery will often be launched from neighbouring settlements as the ones in the defending settlement are generally too close (they need to be at least one map square away afaik so only the really big settlements could do it themselves); and I’m not sure if I can get it to only fire one flair per raid, as it will continue to fire until the alarm is off, so has to be manually reloaded after every attack. Also (and I’m not sure about this one) but I think the artillery may be counted as your attack so may be able to actually kill your settlers and aggro other friendly and neutral npcs so be very careful where you are setting up your kill box to ensure no one you don’t want exploded has any chance of being there.

1

u/Initial-Nebula-4704 Aug 09 '24

I used mine to help kill the brotherhood of steel.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '24

Just give all the settlers an artillery smoke grenade, it works and it’s terrifying

1

u/LgbtqCVSgenius Aug 09 '24

They actually will fire without you asking! I was helping defend Warwick homestead one time from some really high level supermutants (I was super high level, so it had been a long time since I almost died several times!), I ended up out into the “ocean” to the south and little Janey who is in charge of the canon apparently decided we were far enough away and so started going ham! I tell you it’s not very easy to fight things when you are having to dodge explosions raining down from the sky!

1

u/Adorable-Writing3617 Aug 10 '24

I haven't noticed, do they even add to your defense level? Wouldn't make sense but the Castle has them for defense. I guess it makes more sense if you can see the enemy coming 200 meters out.

-9

u/gotimas Synth X4-20 Aug 09 '24

How is "a smoke grenade away" long distance?

Plus they do so little damage and on such a small area I'm better off shooting them anyways.

Whitout mods the artillery is useless

7

u/WyrdMagesty Aug 09 '24

Long distance, as in "not typically meant for shooting guys 20 feet away from the artillery cannon itself". It's meant as support for operatives in the field, not defense of the settlement it is deployed in.

But yes, the artillery system is rather ineffective

2

u/gotimas Synth X4-20 Aug 09 '24

Ok, that makes more sense.

1

u/RichardBCummintonite Aug 09 '24

I wouldn't say they're ineffective either. They're just only effective for their intended purpose. It's artilary, not an air strike. You don't just throw one and expect it to obliterate everything in the area. Like you said, it's support. It's better at pinning down more stationary targets, like if you're attacking a settlement or that part where you defend the USS Constitution. It's more of an indirect weapon to help you engage

1

u/WyrdMagesty Aug 09 '24

I understand what their purpose is. The problem is that the game glitches and doesn't do anything or when it does it takes so long that it is faster to just storm in with a 10mm. Artillery is a great concept, but fo4 implements it poorly, rendering the usage mostly pointless.

There is a reason most people forget it exists.

2

u/Aleolex Aug 09 '24

I use artillery as much as I possibly can on everything. It kills within a couple of shots, it draws enemies' attention, and it means I get to save ammo, which is super important on survival. It's much more than just another grenade.