new Player Mortars - Firebase Hammer

[razgriz33]

Here's my plan for firebase hammer. what do you guys think?

 

We all know that it is very easy for one guy to blow stuff up in a mortar, but what about keeping the rest of the team alive?

 

I would like to utilise firebase hammer in a way that promotes teamwork:

• Use a slot for "Mortar Gunner" so that he is responsible for firebase hammer
• HE (High Explosive) 8rnd magazines will be on a long reload time, makes them more valuable
• Smoke + Flare magazines will be more plentiful. in this way he can keep AO lit up at night, provide a smoke shield for teams in distress or attacking a heavily guarded objective. Of course if this is abused, like a pilot slot we can kick them out for somebody who isnt a moron to take the role.
• Will be rules displayed to the mortar gunner telling him not to fire directly at radio tower, explosive stash, chopper destroy etc

i would like to do but not sure if possible:

 

• A satellite feed directly top down over AO/Priority/Side for the mortar gunner's slot
• Call in fire mission from squad leaders, executing the strike on/near the marker earns the mortar gunner points.

(Gives squad leaders + Mortar gunner something special to do), could maybe even give the gunner 1 HE mag for the fire mission with a cooldown timer for each squad leader (30 minutes?)

[Dingo]

Nice, definitely needed for night time until nv optics are available for weapons, maybe add it so mortars are only up in base from dusk to dawn available only to a set 1or2 slots like Raz said above, the mission captured being the only daytime ones available ,

[Aciid]

Hey Raz, my friend also said that there should definitely be a restricted static mortar in the base. But actually your specifications are giving it more fuel to fire. I'm vouching for this totally. Lets make it happen.

[Mach2k5]

I would love for there to be a mortar unit. Sounds great to me! BOOM BOOM BOOOMMMM!! Oops flashback to Artillery again!!!!

[Josh]

I very much support this idea. Love the idea, think teamspeak or mic would have to be a must though...

[wok]

Pretty cool ideas, I love how medics, pilots and specialists evolve in I&A, the mortar gunner is a good addition if it's done in a way that promotes teamwork, otherwise it would be just mortars falling everywhere.

 

Something to promote teamwork for gmg gunners would be cool too, I hate when one guy just spam nades on the AO non-stop. They kinda ruin the action for everyone else, they should be only used for support when a higher ranked member request it.

[Aciid]

we are currently brainstorming this in Teamspeak, except a scratch of it pretty soon :3

We'll use raz's post as a template because it has to be restricted , not over-powered and only for supporting the team/objective playing

[kamaradski]

very nice Raz !! Kuddo's well earned

[sm0]

You got my vote for this.

 

The flare rounds are an awesome addition for night missions.

[Cain]

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. 

[kamaradski]

Agree on dedicated spotter(s) that would be GREAT !

 

Mobile mortars not so much though

 

MORE IDEAS:

 

How about NOT to place a ammo crate at the mortars, but let the players bring ammo by hunter and Heli ?? (i would love to keep a motorized supply route open)

 

Nice priority target mission: firebase hammer comes under direct attack by OPFOR, Most likely we only have the actual mortar team present at that location, OPFOR thus captures the mortars and we have to re-occupy the mortar firebase.

[razgriz33]

Wow i had no idea you guys we're so up for this! Ill show you what it looks like as it develops. This is a high priority for me

 

keep posting suggestions etc

How about NOT to place a ammo crate at the mortars, but let the players bring ammo by hunter and Heli ?? (i would love to keep a motorized supply route open)

 

The Mortars are re-armed via a script but perhaps in the future, after the basics are working we could try this.

[Cain]

Wow i had no idea you guys we're so up for this!

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

[razgriz33]

Update: today major progress has been made

 

I worked out that approximately:

• 1 flare = lasts 35 seconds
• approx Main ao time: 30 minutes
• 51 flares lasts 30 minutes
• 7 magazines 30 minutes

(All with generous rounding)

 

• 4 magazines of flare will be given every 15 minutes
• 2 magazines of smoke will be given every 15 minutes

 

With HE shells i decided 5 magazines every 30 minutes

1.6 shells per minute (or more obviously 5 fire missions every 30 minutes)

Waste all your shells at once, you'll be sitting on your ass for a while!

The skill of a mortar gunner will be in prioritising targets, listening to the team, shielding  the team with smoke barrages for revives and covering advances.

the downfall of a mortar gunner will be: spamming the absolute shit out of all the ammo for about 3 minutes with nothing to do for 15 minutes, hindering the team by placing smoke in the wrong place at the wrong time, actually blowing your own team mates up.

 

Will have to make it obvious that the team controls you, you do not control the team (as the mortar gunner)

 

At this time i have to do:

- Squad leader fire mission requests

- Mortar gunner only on mortar is working (but needs to work better)

- Perhaps a new location

[Cain]

Update: today major progress has been made

 

I worked out that approximately:

• 1 flare = lasts 35 seconds
• approx Main ao time: 30 minutes
• 51 flares lasts 30 minutes
• 7 magazines 30 minutes

(All with generous rounding)

 

• 4 magazines of flare will be given every 15 minutes
• 2 magazines of smoke will be given every 15 minutes

 

With HE shells i decided 5 magazines every 30 minutes

1.6 shells per minute (or more obviously 5 fire missions every 30 minutes)

Waste all your shells at once, you'll be sitting on your ass for a while!

The skill of a mortar gunner will be in prioritising targets, listening to the team, shielding  the team with smoke barrages for revives and covering advances.

the downfall of a mortar gunner will be: spamming the absolute shit out of all the ammo for about 3 minutes with nothing to do for 15 minutes, hindering the team by placing smoke in the wrong place at the wrong time, actually blowing your own team mates up.

 

Will have to make it obvious that the team controls you, you do not control the team (as the mortar gunner)

 

At this time i have to do:

- Squad leader fire mission requests

- Mortar gunner only on mortar is working (but needs to work better)

- Perhaps a new location

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!

[noms]

How about NOT to place a ammo crate at the mortars, but let the players bring ammo by hunter and Heli ?? (i would love to keep a motorized supply route open)

 

This is actually a very good idea. Have it so only a certain amount of ammunition is available at a specific point in the base every [x] amount of time, and then have a Hunter transport it up. Promoting supply chain and convoy ops is always a good thing. Roaming enemy patrols could also intercept the supply routes from time to time for added immersion.

[Mach2k5]

Raz,

 

I took a snippet of info for the radio chatter you may require for Fire missions from Arrsepedia:

 

""Hello 2 this is 21 fire mission battery (No of guns etc if you are going to adjust first) over"

"2 fire mission battery out" - Everything else that follows is read back by the CP exactly as it's sent from the OP - 

"21, Grid 123 456, Altitude 50, direction 2100 mils Troops in Open At My Command Adjust fire over" 

You could request things such as "Time of Flight" "Report Splash" etc at this point

The CP would report "Ready" when the Guns were layed and loaded on the information we had sent

"21, Fire over"

The CP will report "Shot" when the Guns had fired and "Splash" 5 seconds before fall of shot was due so you could pop your head up and be ready to adjust the fire if required, once you were happy with the rounds you would send for number of guns with an order for "Fire for Effect" on that particular target.

Once the number of rounds specified had been fired you would either call for a "Repeat" which would give you the same fire mission on the same date with the same number of guns again, or send the CP the "End of Mission" order followed with a "BDA", "Troops blown to bits good shooting" etc.


That's pretty much the basic fire mission from my hazy memory and I'm sure there are a some bits that people will fill in when they read it, but there are so many variations including fire plans, smoke, Illume FAC stuff etc etc and I don't even know if the still use the same fire orders but at least it might help with the basic idea."

 

If this is of any help.

 

 

Mach2k5/Greeneyes 23

[Hoax]

Sounds like a great idea Raz, could really improve the team work aspect of the mission.  Are the smoke shells more effective at creating screens than the smoke grenades?

 

 

 

Once the number of rounds specified had been fired you would either call for a "Repeat" which would give you the same fire mission on the same date with the same number of guns again

 

I was once told this is the reason that we use "say again" instead of "repeat" on the radio in the civvie world.

[wok]

About the spotters, each squad (or fireteam) should have one, that way the gunner may have multiple request at the same time and he will have to give them different priorities making the task a little more interesting. And now that rarek is introducing custom radio channels, maybe we could have a custom channel just for spotters talking with the mortar gunner (or team).

[edward]

I Like your supply chain Idea. Read my post in the patrol thread, it could bring about some fun situations to play through. and then unless you get those rounds to the fire base no steel rain for you. possibly a good idea to throw the fire base on a cop out away from the airfeild also. they normally dont put IDF assets near strips anyways due to the possiblility of bad things happenin

[razgriz33]

Well guys im plagued by one small problem, well two if you include that i have little time during the week.

 

With the help of Noms and Danne, a new location for the firebase has been selected.

 

The supply chain idea s a good idea for a side mission, if successful mortar gunner gets extra ammo for half an hour, if unsuccessful (truck blown up) he gets a little less

Also perhaps a priority target could be: "We're seeing enemy movements on their way to to firebase, hurry there and defend it now!"

 

All good ideas

 

@Mach i also have Edward working with me regarding immersive radio. i will PM you both when i get to that stage.

@hoax i'm a big believer in casual but not careless game play. After all a lot of our pilots were not on TS the first time they flew and proved to be excellent assets to the community

[razgriz33]

This is ready to test...

 

Advanced features will come with time.

 

Testing will commence (with the permission of Rarek) on Friday

[Cain]

This is ready to test...

 

Advanced features will come with time.

 

Testing will commence (with the permission of Rarek) on Friday

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

[PVT_Ben]

Is it possible to add a dedicated chat channel to mortar support? From playing today, the side channel gets way too cluttered with mortar chat and makes things confusing for everyone. Also allowing only 2 people to use the mortars through dedicated mortar user slots would be much better. At the moment there are about 5 people firing mortars at a time, making the infantry almost entirely useless.

[wok]

Is it possible to add a dedicated chat channel to mortar support? From playing today, the side channel gets way too cluttered with mortar chat and makes things confusing for everyone. Also allowing only 2 people to use the mortars through dedicated mortar user slots would be much better. At the moment there are about 5 people firing mortars at a time, making the infantry almost entirely useless.

 

I think the custom radio channels are there, but not yet implemented because they are buggy and don't work very well.

 

I though this mortar role was going to be a little boring, but today we had 4 mortars (fats***, liabilities, gral ben and me, and I think bigAI was on the field giving us targets) and it was really cool, we annihilated the enemy.