Inaccuracy of colonist mortars

[nuschler22]

Is there any trick to using the mortars?  Right now, they border of useless because of their inaccuracy. 

I have six mortars all trying to bombard the enemy, and none have been able to come close in the ten plus minutes (probably two full days) I've been doing it.

[Dave-In-Texas]

I've always assumed it has to do with the shooting skill of the manned colonist..

[Dive]

I usually try to create a battery of 4-5 mortars for a team of fighters with shooting level 10+. Recently I tryed a new tactic - I added a small living module to the mortar arrea, with a bunch of beds and food supplies. So whenever a siege starts I just send my mortat guys into the sctructure and lock them inside, so all they can do is just sleeping, eating and firing mortars. This system works fine for me, siegers usually don't have many people left when they start rushing my colony.

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[nuschler22]

I usually try to create a battery of 4-5 mortars for a team of fighters with shooting level 10+. Recently I tryed a new tactic - I added a small living module to the mortar arrea, with a bunch of beds and food supplyes. So whenever a siege starts I just send my mortat guys into the sctructure and lock them inside, so all they can do is just sleeping, eating and firing mortars. This system works fine for me, siegers usually don't have many people left when they start rushing my colony.

That's a great idea.  How do you get the colonists to go from eating and sleeping to firing the mortars automatically?  Don't they have to be drafted, and then stay to the point of mental break down?

[Dive]

Well you should keep an eye on them. If you don't, a mental break warning will make sure you noticed your colonist is starving But it's better to not wait for this and undraft them sometimes so they can eat some food and have a rest, because when assault starts, you want to have your gunners in a fight-capable shape.
I usually undraft them 2-3 at a time when they get hungry and also I allow them all to sleep once in two nights.

[Cimanyd]

I have six mortars all trying to bombard the enemy, and none have been able to come close in the ten plus minutes (probably two full days) I've been doing it.

What enemy are you talking about? I've had good success with just three explosive mortars against sieges in A7 (haven't tried in A8). Using explosive mortars against a crashed ship part isn't going to work very well, though.

[Goo Poni]

Mortars will always be inaccurate. The reason the enemy mortars are so accurate is because your base is a much bigger target than their couple mortars and sandbags. They can have like 16 tiles of forced deviance IIRC.