Mortar Hoppers

[keylocke]

i'm a total mortar fiend, though i think it's currently too OP.
so i thought, there are shells and missiles and hoppers...

so why not mortar hoppers?

you need to keep ammo well stocked in order to do mortar barrages. but the enemies should have limited ammo too. this makes sieges more tactical / logistics heavy, rather than just a waiting game.

[stefanstr]

I love this suggestion!

ATM, I mostly ignore sieges, repairing my base, until the raiders go insane and kill each other. That would make them attack after a while, and before they go nuts. Great idea!

[keylocke]

I love this suggestion!

ATM, I mostly ignore sieges, repairing my base, until the raiders go insane and kill each other. That would make them attack after a while, and before they go nuts. Great idea!

ah, in the early stage of the game (before i get enough mortars), i usually just wait for a few days until the siege raiders fall asleep. then i send everyone to attack and focus fire on the mortar gunners before taking out the mortars. then i start killing the rest of them, one sleeping raider at a time so i don't wake up the others.

it's kinda funny, shooting a raider point blank as they sleep with my minigun, while the others don't even notice. they usually sleep for a long time due to exhaustion.

[Keymaster89]

mortars OP?
i don't think at all that they are... they are UP instead...
i kept manned 6 mortars and after 3 days of shooting, that shit piece of junk that fuck my colonists mind is still unscratched...
IMO after every shoot the precision of the mortar should increase sightly if u give them a fix target... especially if there will be limited ammo.
A moving target will anyway dodge the shot as it takes seconds to the shell to land so...

[keylocke]

* you can man 6 mortars with just one person. just shoot, then run to the next mortar.
* don't aim at moving objects. aim at enemy mortars or the mech ships. if there are multiple mortars, aim at the nearest one the center of the enemy encampment.

next is mostly about luck i guess.. but i usually have around 10 mortars vs 2 enemy mortars.. i tend to get the upper hand.

[Keymaster89]

* you can man 6 mortars with just one person. just shoot, then run to the next mortar.

Wait what? one person? they don't need to be manned to cooldown? 
So i can cycle with 1 man all 6? like shoot, run, shoot, run and go on?

[keylocke]

ah, i was mostly thinking of a single volley.

if you needed a prolonged barrage, then yea, the more peeps the better.
but your initial shot can be manned by just 1 person.

i usually get at least 1 good hit, in the first 10 shots.

[Keymaster89]

i usually get at least 1 good hit, in the first 10 shots.

Not for me. As i already said, i tryied to keep manned 6 mortars for 3 days long shooting, and the ship that was selected as forced target (and is a fair big target) was hit kinda 1-2 times in that time...
it's kinda like playing in a lottery with this mortars... they have an explosion radius of 2-3 space that is resonable, but the accuracy of where the shell land is terrible... kinda more then 15 space radius from where i aimed... the probability for a good shot are less then 1%. and that's because i just suggested that colonists that shoot at the same target multiple time should apply correction to the aiming and shot with more precision. Like a stackable bonus.

Let's say that the radius of where the shot may land starts at 15 spaces.
As long the colonist isn't interruped and the target isn't changed, any time he shoot and miss he gain a correction bonus, so the max radius become 14, 1 less then before, until the radius is 6-7 or so... so he could still miss for the wind and such but insisting on hitting a point for long duration allow u to hit with a fair accuracy at least...

[keylocke]

colonists that shoot at the same target multiple time should apply correction to the aiming and shot with more precision. Like a stackable bonus.

Let's say that the radius of where the shot may land starts at 15 spaces.
As long the colonist isn't interruped and the target isn't changed, any time he shoot and miss he gain a correction bonus, so the max radius become 14, 1 less then before, until the radius is 6-7 or so... so he could still miss for the wind and such but insisting on hitting a point for long duration allow u to hit with a fair accuracy at least...

ah, i see where this is going.. i like this.

but what about the enemy raiders? does the same "aim correction" apply to them?
(though probably not, since they tend to switch targets on a whim)

anyways, i think it's a good idea.
also maybe using different "ammo-types" can also increase accuracy? so rather than having different mortar types like EMP mortar, incendiary mortar, normal mortar.. we can just switch to using different ammo types while using the same mortar?

maybe :

* normal ammo = normal in everything
* guided ammo = lower damage / smaller explosion range, but higher accuracy
* high explosive ammo = higher damage / bigger explosion range, but lower accuracy
* EMP ammo
* incendiary ammo

something like that, would be nice too.. 

[BetaSpectre]

If mortars were or could (Scouts/Satelites) become more accurate then 100% support.

[Keymaster89]

I like satellites.
But the game is about to leave the planet... if u can archieve orbit with a satellite, why u don't do it yourself?

[BetaSpectre]

Sending a Satelite is much easier than sending a man. Food,Constant Energy, Hull Compromise, Life support ECT.

If a solar flare hits a satelite it turns off.
If a Solar Flare hits a space ship you die.

[Jaxxa]

I know you asked about putting it in the base game, but I made a mod that can make turrets need ammo that could be applied to the base mortars.

http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=5183.0
http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=5537.0

[keylocke]

I know you asked about putting it in the base game, but I made a mod that can make turrets need ammo that could be applied to the base mortars.

http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=5183.0
http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=5537.0

woot! +1 on this, does this also work on mortars?

edit : scratch that, it was the cannon things.. thanks a lot for this.

[Jaxxa]

It won't change them out of the box. But it should only need some changes to the xml def. You may also have to add a power requirement even if it is only 1 watt, because that is the system it usses to sit it down. If you know a bit about modding you should be able to set it up with the instructions on the page. Of not let me know and I can help, or just make the mod.