This comes from http://www.runestorm.za.net/pl/forum/fo ... .php?35967 ] Indirect fire weapons like mortars and howitzers[/link] but got quite big and specific, so instead started it as a different thread.

Teamplay weapon doesnt sound bad, may be some G5 sized mortar, and a target marker (different item/weapon).

You can still use this alone, but you would have to place first a mark, and then go a safe place to shot, or just shoot without aim help, just by seeing on projectile camera where it hits.

Target marker:
- Primary: Set mark at looking point
- Secondary: zoom
- Use sigths: zoom
- special: remove target
- special2: switch if 2 targets per player where allowed, or remove target too
- reload: nothing yet

This might be also useful in teamplay games to allow, like on FP9A5 when targeting, some sprite that all teammates can see, not just only to help aim some weapons.

Mortar (undeployed):
- secondary or use sights: deploy

Mortar (deployed):
- primary: fire
- secondary: switch ammo type ?
- special: go to previous marker on team list of markers (entering list mode)
- special2: go to next marker on team list of markers (entering list mode)
- fire mode: normal, tracking (you see what rocket sees like with g5)

Tracking rocket:
- primary: toggle if leave the marker on point of impact
- secondary: exit camera mode

List mode:
like on weapon change, when entering this mode you can move with special 1 and 2 or mouse wheel forward or backwards (may be you can use numbers to go directly to a player name) to select from a list of teammates a marker, primary selects marker and goes into auto aim mode, secondary aborts leaving current aim unchanged.

List would contain 2 or 3 values for each teammate:
- aim at the teammate
- aim at the mark the player left
- optionally aim at the secondary mark the player left

On non teamplay game modes you would have only your own marks, otherwise you have your own and your teammates marks

Weapon doesnt have tracking mode, if you aim at a player, you aim at the place the player was at the time of accepting in the menu, if player moves doesnt follow automatically.

Aiming with this weapon would be slow, like with deployed minigun, as intended to aim at long distances, still rotation should be fast enough to be faster than take and re-deploy. Vertical aim (shot angle) would be normally slow as required to balance aiming speed.

Since markers are not something solid the opposite team can shot to destroy, some limitation would have to be added so you cant use this on onslaugh to place a marker on a node and start spamming rockets from a safe place, like restricting distances, very visible projectile trail like on g5, uniform error to make impact around marker instead of accurately on the marker, markers drifting randomly with time (still useful to mark location to teammates that go there, but after some time wouldnt be useful to aim with precission without direct sight requiring someone to "renew" it), ... or a combination of those

May be it would be possible to have this weapon shoot ammo of different types like the grenades, or even use the grenades as ammo, so you could have explosive normal projectile, incendiary grenade or toxin grenade.

PS: how to make links here? cant get it to work

Cool.

But i still think for a mortar in the 21st century, it would be a bit cooler. As i said before, a UAV drone (not that large in size) could be sent up using the special key, and would then give you a birds eye view of the field (like alt fire for SPMA), letting you unleash hell.

I think the possibility of a drone and team work should be available, though going solo should leave the user much more vulnerable and generally worse off than with a human helper.

Maybe you have to manually set the drone out to the area you wish to strike, or near it, and use the camera mounted on it as an extra set of eyes, but using it would effectively blind you.

Yeah, but i'm quite sure the tech of the far flung 21 or 22nd century would allow you to be just as good with or without teammates helping. Remember many of BW players play offline against bots, and bots don't like fallowing complex orders.

just order the bot to attack, wait for it to tell its under attack, and shoot at the bot Not sure if that will earn you more frags than tk tho, depends on how fast the bot dies and if other bots try to get the first bot's weapons of walk there, on timing and luck

I'd rather have a drone to send up (like the SPMA drone), cause that seems totally plausible in 2150.