Cain

There's a reason it's called a firebase and not just a mortar. I would estimate 4 mortars would be the maximum limit, as in the firebase there's two little mini-pits and one larger pit, a mortar in the smaller ones, and two in the larger one. Also, as Raz has said, the number of HE rounds fired will be limited. Also, I believe the mortars you witnessed were not what's going to be intended, as if I'm not mistaken there were no other round types. Its just that the mortars were re-enabled, I think. The way those mortars are reloaded are just that the gunner has to get out after firing 16 rounds, and assemble another mortar using fresh kit. This isn't whats going to happen, as it'd mean practically endless amounts of ammo. Again, as Raz said, the mortar slots will most likely be closely monitored by admins to ensure no TKing or flat out area saturation of AOs. Experienced mortar gunners will not want to waste their ammo, and since the targets being given by the team/spotters are going to be priority targets most likely, there's no real reason for any gunner to start spamming their rounds, as they don't actually know where the enemies are. Firing on accurately marked targets will give them /more/ score than area saturation. And since the server restarts every couple of hours, the buildings do sort of respawn. I can't count the times I've gone into Agia with a hunter-full of satchels to blow up the entire town, and then to come back a few hours later in the day and find them back to normal. And it's not really fair to force people to use teamspeak or a microphone to be a certain class. In the TRU, perhaps, but not in the more casual servers such as the EU one I frequent. It may not be easy, but keeping an eye on the chatlog is a must, a majority of the players in the server will not be on mic. I've been both a frequent mortar gunner and pilot on the server, and nobody has found any real fault with just communicating via text. Yes it might be slower, but it still gives the info. And frankly, if you do start running into a fire mission, which is most likely marked on the map and communicated via chat, it's your own fault you're not seeing the messages. And it's probable that someone on mic will see these and warn you. This doesn't just apply to mortars, mind you. Friendly fire when assaulting urban AOs, captured Ifrits, set charges, etc. A lot of these are communicated via chat, and you should really be paying more attention if you find yourself dying a lot due to these. I'm sorry, I get a little peeved sometimes when people say that teamspeak/voice comms is a must in certain situations that don't really need it.

I guess it would be sorta detrimental for the choppers to have a long respawn, I do see your point. I've crashed a couple of times from either my own idiocy or just randomness (I swear to god I never hit that tree), and I've wanted to get back flying ASAP to prove I'm not incompetent xD I still do like the idea of the black hawk down mission, d'you think it could be something pursued further?

Hi! Yes, some of you may know me from either the EU server, or via this forum, where I have posted a few times on other suggestions. However! I'd like to collect an idea or two from the plethora that float around my head, and put it down here. (Please note I have no idea of the capabilities of the editor and stuff at the moment, so please forgive me if I suggest something ridiculous) Helicopters! On Stratis, the MH-9s (And the KA-60 when we get it) are our lifeblood, without them we would be stranded at base laying around whilst the AO is left untouched, with some smart people taking the hunters and quads for transport. So make it so. Make the chopper respawn longer than almost instantaneous, it makes the pilots be more cautious and pick safer, more appropriate LZs, and for the pilots to have to coordinate not only with each other but with other ground forces in choosing and scanning LZs for enemies. But also, to negate the long respawns, introduce a side mission like the 'Destroy enemy chopper' one, except it's capture the enemy chopper, and ta-daa, we get a free chopper. Provided whilst taking the AO you don't shoot it to pieces. Or, you could replace the 'destroy enemy chopper' side mission completely with the one I've described, and make it harder, so it's more of a high-risk, high-reward side mission, as you get a precious helicopter as a result. Another thing, it'd be cool if there was a priority mission that the enemy lands directly on the airbase, on the southern tip say, and so the pilots cannot take off or even access their helicopters, and can't even land at base due to the weight of fire that's coming in from the invading forces. The team would have to coordinate their ground forces well to repel the attack. Of course, with the respawn so close, it'd certainly be easy enough to clear out the base so the helis can resume their duties. Or! There could be a mortar team close to the base which takes out any parked choppers/targets the chopper spawn, whilst the invasion of the base is being carried out, making it a real interesting firefight. Another side mission idea! This could happen if a pilot dies and is about to respawn, but you could have a sort of 'Black Hawk Down' priority mission, or 'Littlebird Down' rather, where a pilot spawns somewhere on Stratis, with a burning wreck near him, and is surrounded by enemies closing in on him, and its of the utmost important to get a QRF out there ASAP to rescue him. Of course, to prevent the pilot from immediately respawning when he dies and thus ending the priority mission, you could prevent the pilot from respawning, just leave him critically injured? I don't know how it'd work, but it'd definitely show just how precious pilots are, and also lets the pilots work on their marksmanship! Haha. That's it for now, I'll probably end up spewing another one of these suggestion thingies soonish. Cain out!

Boy oh boy, is it open to all to attend?

Jeez that game looks freakin' amazing.

This sounds great! As long as the team/spotter doesn't start calling out too many fire missions, then I think decent mortar gunners will do just fine. However, there must be warnings for the team when spotters call in fire missions danger close, when the mortars were still enabled, my spotter called in a danger close fire mission, and I ended up killing three teammates because they wouldn't listen/read the warnings in chat and markers on the map, and they walked right into the target zone. Communication with the mortar/s is key, although I don't think they should have a requirement for TS to be a gunner. It's just as easy to use the chat in-game when being a mortar gunner, as the main things you need to call out is when fire missions are on the way, their ETA, how many rounds you're firing if unspecified by the caller, spread if unspecified, etc. Although they are important things, they don't need to be immediately called out, the gunner can easily type such information out whilst the rounds are en-route or whilst he's preparing for a fire mission. That's just my opinion/ideas. I'm liking what's been done so far though!

In terms of forcing immersion, you could have a timer set whilst you are critically injured, say 30 seconds, until players are able to respawn. It'd give a chance for medics to come around, or a medevac chopper to pick you up.

Because calling in fire missions of HE goodness on enemy troops is not only incredibly satisfying, but freakin' awesome.

300m is a bit far, I've ended up flying within 50m of other choppers, especially when landing at LZs. I think it'd also be a bit hard to hit another chopper during the day, and at night they really should have their collision lights on. Maybe if it's a 50 m radius around your chopper then it may be useful, but otherwise, the pilots should be good enough to see and avoid any close helicopters.

It'd be really cool to have a medevac chopper, one that serves as a sort of 'heal here!' point, or maybe it can sort of be an analogue to medics, where, if you drag/carry a player who's either critically injured or just plain injured, they can be put into the chopper, which stabilizes them, and flies back to the medevac center at the airbase, where there will be a dedicated team waiting? I'm not too sure how exactly they'd get healed, maybe instantly when the medevac chopper lands at the medevac site, but it'd be cool, especially if the pilot is adequate and the medics on the server aren't doing too well. Just a thought

It'd be cool if there was a separate squad/team for mortars, so that you could have some static mortars at firebase hammer, but also some transportable ones that you could bring out closer to AOs for more accurate fire. Also, a slot could be for a 'spotter', because as much as commanders and squad leaders can call in fire support, a dedicated spotter who's out in the field with a binos and his map out reporting on targets and adjusting fire would be fantastic. When the mortars were still up before an update took them down, I was with a friend at firebase hammer, and another guy was out in the field spotting for us, marking targets on the map and giving us spread and direction details, and all that jazz. It was really fun, and practically the whole server loved us for it since it made their jobs a little bit easier.