More mortar shell types

[Ticker175 5]

I don’t see why we only have access to HE and flare mortars. I understand the removal of mine shells and the heat seeking shells but why the laser guided and smoke. I think these would be very useful and would improve teamwork between a mortar team and infantry in the AO

 

it would also give the mortar gunner something else to do because 90% of the time the mortar gunner role entails waiting for call ins and trying to convince people to call u in, so if they had a bigger selection of rounds they would get used more

[Fitz 1239]

All those other rounds would require a call-in anyway.

We don't want people spamming smoke shells all over the place, most are in fact not helping.

Laser-guided rounds could be ok, but they are unlikely to be much more effective than the standard ones considering the way these fire support requests work at the moment.

[Ticker175 5]

29 minutes ago, Fitz said:

All those other rounds would require a call-in anyway.

We don't want people spamming smoke shells all over the place, most are in fact not helping.

Laser-guided rounds could be ok, but they are unlikely to be much more effective than the standard ones considering the way these fire support requests work at the moment

My main argument for trying to get these rounds added is so mortars are more likely to be called in as they would be suited to more tasks not so they don’t have to be called in

I’ve used smoke mortars on the server and they are extremely underpowered the amount of smoke they create is pathetic. So I don’t think that people spamming smoke all over the place will be much of an issue.
I think the laser guided rounds would be great because they are HEAT and will be able to damage enemy’s tanks. They are also laser guided so infantry will be able to call in mortars on an area and guide the mortars towards the intended target even if they are moving away from their original position

[YeomanMaple 9]

On 2/28/2021 at 9:09 AM, Ticker175 said:

I think the laser guided rounds would be great because they are HEAT and will be able to damage enemy’s tanks. They are also laser guided so infantry will be able to call in mortars on an area and guide the mortars towards the intended target even if they are moving away from their original position

The HEAT part of that statement is untrue, unfortunately. Laser-Guided (And Guided) are just HE shells with extra sauce, being the guided element.
I'm sure the extra shell types would be nice, I don't know if they'll be monumental in changing how Mortar Gunner plays but there'll be some more fun to be had.
(From my brief testing in the editor, you're limited to 8 Laser guided shells. This seems to be the case for all the shells that aren't HE (Smoke, Flares etc.).)

Mortar gunner works best with a dedicated spotter, no need to wait for some muppet to piss their pants and finally call for support when they're overwhelmed. Unfortunately, finding such a spotter can be hard, as most players want to get their own kills. Calling in CAS (and other means of support) perhaps acts more of an ace in the hole when they're up against a superior enemy (i.e an MBT or APC). JTAC seems to fit the role perfectly for this, especially if they're observing from a safe distance. (However, in my experience, when a JTAC is on, mortar gunner is empty )

Mortar gunner is in a peculiar place. The role is capable of so much but is limited by the coordination needed to properly use it to its full potential. A lone mortar gunner calling for fire requests seems to be the norm for the role at the moment. Throwing more tools for the mortar gunner to use isn't gonna solve the human issue. Perhaps if we increase its visible presence in the side channel, more people will use it. I'm thinking of something like a kill report/announcement in the side channel after a large multi-kill. If players see that mortar gunner is effective, they'll be more likely to call in fire missions (hopefully).

This isn't a problem of a lack of killing potential, but rather the inability to harness it effectively.