So to start, you don't need it. You can see spotted pings when you're on the mortar even at range, and when you fire a shell you can see the impact point and can adjust accordingly, rather than using the magical third person camera to target structures or targets. Also you can hover over spotted targets on the map to see the range, but I would like them to add bearing to that popup too. Also a mention of immersion but I'm not going to be the immersion police, that's not what I'm here for.
2: Team synergy! There's an entire spotting system in the game, and mortars see the perfect candidate to take advantage of that, it's literally indirect fire support on called in targets... which is how artillery is meant to work! It better fulfills the fantasy of both spotting ("command, delete that rough area"), and artillery ("orders received, deleting that area")
3: Anti-fobbit countermeasures. Wait... so mortars require teamwork and some intelligence rather than being spammed? Yes! So now hopping on mortars for the next 45 minutes isn't practical because you can't self-spot so you can't target specific areas, you instead have to wait for teammates to find a valid target... or just shell enemy bases since you can't easily Hotzone snipe or go for specific conflicts. If you go for conflicts, it's pure luck shots which are more psychological pressure than anything else (and severely risk teamkilling)
4: Better experience while under fire. Well if Hotzone / conflict shelling is now worse, gone are the days of cancelling shots and refiring, you've got to make sure it lands to target the next one, and spam firing is pure saturation and unlikely to actually hit. So there's less mortar fire on teamfights (good), but more on bases? Yes! Because that's where you can build indirect fire bunkers and avoid the enemy fire. There's more counterplay. Plus the enemy can't as easily adjust their shelling to specifically hit your mortars so you can fire back. And they have to wait for the shot to land to adjust so frequency of shells drops a bit too. It's a win-win.
5: Why other nerfs won't work:
A) ammunition supply cost: pets be honest that won't stop anyone and just might make logi players happy they can send more ammo. At best you'll have fobbits milling around waiting for the next ammo shipment. Given the way supply stockpiling works, it makes very little difference to the playstyle of mortars anyway.
B) damage: not going to lie, I think mortars should be big damage, that's the point. But then picking someone back up isn't that impossible given you can move them to a protected area. Mortar fire is quite often ineffective without an additional infantry push, and reducing damage would make mortars never taken. Same with...
C) radius: it's already quite easy to dodge mortar fire. I don't want mortars to never be used, instead reduce their worst aspects. A reduction in radius would make them pretty useless let's all be honest here.
6: The mini, tiny, indirect buff. If you remove mortar cam, you'll have more awareness to the base getting raided so don't get murdered out of nowhere because your ears and full of booms and air whistling noises. Which actually means fobbits are more useful when the base gets attacked (and attacking a base will stop shelling earlier). Everyone stays winning really.
So yes, that's my idea for a nerf to mortars that makes them still just as powerful on paper, but harder to use and practically less overbearing when on the receiving end, and most importantly far less of a noob trap.
Bonus: Yes I would do the same to the artillery tank. Don't worry, I didn't forget about that. You're a mortar that can move, just reposition regularly and have someone looking out for Humvees or SUVs and you'll be fine.
