[Suggestion] Mortars and Artillery

This is just an idea that popped into my head. What if engineers had access to mortars and each faction had a vehicle capable of providing artillery support. Not just a tank bombarding the base from a distance, but actual artillery. Both mortars and artillery can be used for offensive and defensive purposes. Only engineers would have access to mortars and it would be placed in the utility slot. What do you guys think?

Do we really want every sundy getting bombed by 3 or 4 people all day long??

No. Adding more explosive spam is not a good idea.

This is different than C4 though.

It could actually help out the weak anti-infantry game outside of infantry combat.

It has the potential to break up zergs and support advances.

Mortars will do minimal damage to vehicles. Artillery will do the same damage as a MBT round.

How is bombing them for 1 mile away over the walls better then having to get close to do it??

They will be bombing them to kill the people spawning. You know there are going to be people spawning at the sundy so it's a good place to shoot

The round will not travel a mile and be effective. Infantry render distance will be its effective range.

I'll be a devil's advocate, only because I see no others stepping up.

Would this be a good reason for incursions behind the standard frontlines?

Then it'll discourage people from hugging the sundies for cover.

Dont you think this vas been suggested many times before? This is already in the pile of ever appearing suggestions.

People dont like dying to indirect fire. People dont like explosive weapons. Spmeone said somwhere that SOE has said they will never add indieevt firing weapons.

It will also be blowing people to pieces who are just trying to spawn and get going.

They already had these in BF. They are terrible, every single good spot of cover becomes worthless because someone is bombing it and you can't even see them to shoot back

AV MANAs already fill this role (and give us longrange snipers a necessary role at the same time).

If there's a specifiic issue with "imping" Artillery and Airstrike mechanics in the game, it's in the fact that Target-Calling accross a Squad and Platoon isn't robust enough. It needs to pinpoint a target over 1 Hex away. FOR THAT, the LightAssault needs to be given a tool-slot that's basically identical to the inf radar dart gun, but instead only paints a single target that it "sticks" to. (& only Medics could remove it). ...hitting a MAX or a Skyguard with it would be only moderate difficulty. Hitting moving infantry players would be very difficult.

this could be good for single player game, not multiplayer. You have to understand, that you are playing against other players who also want to have fun, not to be bombarded from miles away..

So I guess the consensus is no.

Here's the thing though. You can't.

You're always fairly visible when you have to attack infantry, not so much against vehicles. That's why the anti-vehicle turret is hard to deal with sometimes.

That's why there's a lot of anger against Ravens and Vortexes, because they can remain un-rendered, while hitting vehicles.

That issue doesn't exist with infantry. If they render, you can harm them, if not, then you're hitting empty spaces.

This artillery would effectively have a max range of 400m. Add to the fact that it's probably going to be more exposed, and harder to use, its effectiveness goes down.

On top of that, a dark problem, is that the anti-infantry capability of vehicles is abysmal. Vehicles can't hit infantry that well, and infantry can cause serious problems for vehicles.

So if vehicles can't do it. You're reduce to infantry. Infantry using guns, grenades, and c4.

So you can't beat up infantry from safe ranges effectively. An infiltrator, is useless. They're annoying, that's as far as they go.

But now, you would have an effective, anti-infantry, anti-vehicle, balanced platform.

These rounds...would be unguided, unlike the anti-vehicle turret. There would be a level of difficulty, range finding, and leading to hit a target, as opposed to an anti-vehicle turret where you point at a spot for the missle to hit.

And, now you have the ability to knock out infantry, consistently, and effectively. That means now you can suppress the enemy, as opposed to sort of, ambushing them with a c4 fairy, and killing 3 or 4 at a time. While you hope to swarm them with infantry.

Mortars would be especially useful for defenders, because the anti-vehicle turrets do nothing to help the defense of the base against its worst enemy, foot-soldiers.

The anti-infantry turrets in Amp Stations, can't do much, their sight is limited, they're too far to be really dangerous, and none are outside, taking infantry out before they get in.

But now, you can use mortars, to beat up sunderer nests, suppressing the enemy, so you can at least build up a stronger defense, before they can get a better grip on the base.


Or at least that's how I see it.

You can't blow them up from long range from safety of being behind 100 troops and a giant rocks and walls for a reason......It would be super lame

It's tough to blow up Sundies and turrets when they are behind cover...yet people find a way.

Mortars, if they require active spotting from other players and/or more than one person to man a single launcher, would actually be very interesting for the metagame. Remember, each person manning a mortar means there's one less person assaulting the base, and every mortar round makes it more difficult for those who are, due to inaccuracy. A mortar round isn't like a tank shell, which only gets fired when there's a clear, horizontal line of sight.