Melee should feel smoother yes.
About the arty pick up issue.. please test more in more ways and we will look into it if you can reliablity recreate it.
Was able to recreate on Rheinbund, Prussia and Russia, only happened on average 2/5 times trying on each faction. Me and 2 of my NCO's were able to recreate it.
UK and FRA seemed to be fine. Although it may be a thing.
Hmmm i haven't had that issue so far while trying to recreate it with cannons on pruss, Ru, Fr, or RB. Was it one or both kinds of arty? Was the server laggy?
There was an issue, in the past patches, where the game didn't quite keep up with the various arty processes. meaning, when picking up ammo, loading the cannon, etc,. you had to hold the action key down for a little longer before it would finish even if the bar was full or if it was off the screen. this was especially the case in laggy servers and/or when you were receiving the arty officer buffs. sometimes you would pick up the ammo before the bar popped up.
so basically, what i am saying is, are you able to recreate it after holding down the action key a few seconds more while being an arty commander? i just want to make sure it isn't lag related.