Yes, lets turn an already powerful weapon into something that even tells you exactly where your aiming, removing all the skill that stops it from raping everything. [/sarcasm]
Hence why I suggested incorporating a moderate aiming assist function with a rework of the weapon itself to make it less useful as a direct attack weapon.
I already rape everything. It doesn't seem that dangerous of an idea for ME. In any case, you may be surprised to learn that mortars are meant for fighting infantry in fortified positions, exactly like you encounter in District402. Making the mortar slightly inaccurate while the player is moving, and then decreasing this inaccuracy to normal over about a second once the player is both crouched and still, and you'll have a decent use for the gun. The only other thing you might go for is a higher damage radius, a base damage of about 80-90, and a bonus damage to buildings of 30-60. (All us pro grenadiers just finish people off with the pistol anyway, and newbie grenadiers have no hope of killing infantry in the first place.)
lol :p Its hard to believe that everyone here says the mortar is an anti-infantry weapon. I can only count 2 times were a grenadier killed me with a mortar in game, and any grenadier knows never to use mortars against infantry (most of there infantry kills come from pistols). The mortar is slow, awkward, hard to aim (depending on skill level) and good player will often kill the grenadier long before the mortar is shot. They are really only useful against turrets, structures, and heavily fortified positions (where enemy troops are located).
So if you're already trolling here think a bit about what we can do to make scout more usable for team.
That mortar debate becomes farce. Its about to nerf/ not-nerfing the anti-infantry power of the mortar. Not to make it easier to kill people with it. -.- Tal_shiar, dont you know that you actually have to crouch to use the mortar now? I play very often as grenadier just for the fun of it because i like the class. My kill count = Mines > Mortar > Pistol If you played maps with many obstacles and walls like crossroads you either have no grenadiers in the other team or they are really unskilled if they dont get infantry kills with the mortar. Remember: A direct mortar hit kills a soldier without healthupgrade
And also remember that using dig-in or being near your engineer squad leader will help you survive the unlikley chance you get directly hit by a slow moving shell.. Compared to the lazer cannon ar's its slow
I an aware that you have to crouch.:p Now lets say for the sake of my argument, you (with morter in hand) go against an engineer or rifleman. The chances of you winning just by using a morter are highly unlikely, let alone the fact that the opponent is constantly moving, and will be able to duck from being hit since its a slow moving projectile, and you need a "direct" hit to completely kill him. Now in a more obstical related map, the grenadier can become a bit more useful, since they are able to shoot over them. But if you are behind a wall, its kind of hard to see what you are hitting. So i see no reason to nerf its anti-infantry ability.
For the mortar... Why not just make it so you can't carry the mortar while it's loaded? In other words, when you crouch, you always have to go through the loading animation before you can fire (if you've loaded it before and then stood up, the loadedness just sort of... goes away. It'd be assumed you unload it automatically when you're not prone, anyway, even if it's not shown.) This makes a logical sense in that it takes time to set it up, and would serve an important gameplay purpose in keeping people from using it as an anti-infantry tool or a replacement RPG. The RPG is supposed to be what you use when you're on the move or in a hurry... the mortar is supposed to be used for indirect fire. Additionally... what do people think about reducing the amount of mortar ammo you can carry? I think it's fair for the mortar to require support from an engineer or an armory to lay down heavy damage to an area; limiting its ammo a bit more would also discourage spamming, which a lot of people have brought up. One reason people use the mortar as a substitute RPG is because it carries more ammo. Why should it? If anything, it should have less. It's meant to be used from a 'safe' position, where you have or can get an ammo supply... the RPG is more supposed to be for guerrilla warfare, ducking from alley to alley, etc.
That wouldn't change much, except for the double-tapping paper apcs. (It would take 3 seconds to reload the RPG instead of 1 second to switch to the mortar.) The mortar isn't a weapon for 'heavy firepower'. It has a 120 damage shot every 4 seconds (30/s). The BE RPG does 105 every 3 seconds (35/s), and the NF RPG does 80 every 3 seconds (~27/s). For the most part, it's actually worse against vehicles than the RPG. Even so, look at the RPG. With minimal splash and a slow and ungainly projectile, they rely mostly on their damage, which is less than spectacular. Against vehicles, it really only comes down to plain armor being the most awful thing in the game. Because of the slow fire rate, vehicles with real armor can easily roll away or turn a stronger side after you've made a couple hits, negating all your effort. Against infantry, just give up. The RPG is worthless against them. In comparison, SMGs and rifles do damage in the hundreds per second, and with the accuracy upgrade, the rifles can use nearly all of it too! Ammo is basically the only thing the mortar has on the RPG now. Which is quite a bit actually, since the RPG has only 5 shots, base. You need 4 of them to kill a turret, 2 to kill a plain-armored vehicle, 4-6 to blow up a medium tank, more for a heavy tank (and that's assuming you hit every time on the same). In comparison with the pistol, the mortar has... creative uses. Other infantry have SMGs and rifles, which make your pistol weep and cry. What the mortar does is allow you to land a 120-damage hit before they can use those weapons. Essentially, the mortar allows you to fight differently, which is the only way to win for the grenadier since the comparatively powerful pistol (150 damage/s) is still going to lose in a straight-up fight. That's absolutely worth backing to a safe location, setting up your mortar (even if it takes 5 minutes), and waiting for the infantry to come to you. Otherwise, you're useless.
I think i like the mortar so much because i have a favor for exotic weapons in fps. Every other infantry weapon is just about pointing at something and it dies. Thats, at least for me, boring after a while. Im all up for more interesting weapons for the infantry, weapons that let you play the game in a different way. And the mortar IS a fearsome weapon in the hands of an expert.
I forgot to mention that the mowtar is actually an anti inf/building weapon while the RPG is just anti tank.. And inf if your skilled like me :D Alot of changes in 2.0 were focused around this idea.. The mowtar was far better in 1.7 agianst inf but with the new models for them the mines and mowtar became slower and then later after more bitching it was also nerfed.. The RPG became more powerful agianst tanks but less towards buildings(lol hsm's apc gren rush) I like mootants idea about the little aim assist for the mowtar.. It might make the weapon seem more polished.. I also remember seeing an updated crosshair for the mowtar.. That would also be a nice addition.
The reload idea is actually very good. Don't know about the other one though, it would depend on whether the mortar got a range boost, at the moment it's more like a grenade launcher than a mortar, and gets used as such. If you boosted the range so that it worked more like light artillery then I'd support limiting the ammo, as you could then stay near a base and provide arty support.
i dont like the reload idea.. dont fergott its practically the rpg whit a rpg round on mortar mode.. the ammo is fine too. i run out of ammo pretty quickly, and then im useless for everyone. but im for the boosted range and the deploying. primary attack = like now secondary attack = you deploy it for better range and damage.
Er I'd keep the damage as is, you already have the ability to fire at long range, I wouldn't make it more damaging to boot, if anything I'd reduce it if it proves to be too powerful. If you're concerned about the realism of having to reload a mortar before use, I should point out that mortars actually work by dropping a shell into a tube then getting out of the way so that it doesn't hit you in the face on the way back out, the charge is in the shell itself and the impact of it hitting the bottom of the tube is what sets it off.
Yeah realism is ruled out in the emp universe.. But to build on that ammoz idea what if the mowtar and RPG shared the same ammoz?
