Z Fire

[Felix Nephthys]

Is Z fire this much of an issue? I was under the impression that Z fire had been fixed with the latest patch, eliminating a "cheat" that was in there. Since the computer player NEVER uses Z fire then any fault would lay with human players and their use of Z fire. I don't think this issue can ever be resolved with the use of yet ANOTHER slider or button to somehow adjust the effectiveness of Z fire, there are ALREADY sliders and buttons to adjust how direct gunfire affects other units. There will simply be NO magic combination of slider adjustments and button settings that will give EVERY player the game experience that is most satisfactory to them.

There seems to be two sides of the Z fire issue involved, those who feel it is TOO effective, and those who feel that it isn't effective ENOUGH. For those who feel it's too effective, it seems to me that they would be on the receiving end of Z fire during their games against another human who uses Z fire, perhaps excessively (whatever that means to another player). In my definition of excessive use of Z fire it means a player who uses it to "plow the road" as it were in front of their troops, simply firing ahead with their units at locations to their front indiscriminately, hoping that they will be able to suppress anything that MIGHT be there. Of course, this uses up ammo at a HUGE rate meaning you will either be out of ammo in a short time and unable to fight, or you bring ammo vehicles right along with your front line units which is the act of the Dalai Lama of idiotic tacticians. On the other hand, you COULD be fighting against another player who uses it effectively, only firing at units who have fired at them but have not been fully spotted and this may subsequently break up what you thought would be the perfect ambush. I can see how this would definitely piss you off but this is how it works in real life, deal with it.

Now, for those players who feel it isn't effective enough, you may hate that Z fire was modified in the last patch to eliminate the cheat. You may use Z fire to "plow the road" as I mentioned above. This may be because you either don't quite understand the use of dedicated indirect fire units, or you aren't patient enough to wait for them to fire. My advice is to either learn how to use your indirect fire effectively, or develop some patience (it's a virtue as you may have heard). If you can't do any of the above then I don't know what to say to you, perhaps this just isn't your game and maybe you should play something that is more to your liking. For my part, I feel that Z fire is fine as it is and is even better since the latest patch.