Realistic Artillery Management - FOO Rule

[Cross]

Don, over at the Shrapnel site did say todayt that the next release will include changes to the artillery process. Here's a quote:

We have already mentioned a few times that the next upgrade has changes to the shift fire code that make shifting arty from one place to the other that is out of LOS a much more time consuming activity than it is now. Having an observer with eyes on the target hex WILL be more of an advantage than firing blind is.

However....

You're not going to get the shift fire buttons removed from out of LOS targets because *I* suggested this to Andy long before you thought it up and after a good look at the code it was decided this wasn't going to happen for a number of reasons directly related to the code but also because without the ability to shift fire like that with out of LOS targets you could not do a proper walking barrage because as soon as you start to kick up smoke you loose LOS and would loose the ability to shift fire without a much bigger delay than that manoeuvre requires.

Sounds like this will make artillery less 'gamey', and make the proper use of FOOs more important. I can see hills becoming more important in future battles :chin:

It seems to me, that until we've experienced these changes, it doesn't make sense to move forward with another set of optional FOO rules.