Yar, personally, I'm starting to lean towards that mortar's a bit too much for the game currently. Legions is still very much a LT product, so a classic style mortar might not be the weapon to release into Legions current state. I've witnessed mighty, stoic Finns break down ingame and resort to cursing in their native tongue and tossing the enemy flag back at the enemy; If the Finns are breaking down, something's gone awry!
I'm not a big fan of reverting Sent to Cluster, I like to believe a middleground can be found that would work for both sides of the mortar issue. In another thread I discussed a modified mortar weapon, here's an update on that suggestion (updated to address criticism from Armageddon). Also, don't take my suggestion as being very original, I'm sure I've seen detonated mortar projectiles in these forums before.
New Mortar
Would have a similar rate of fire and range as it does now, but the AoE of a non-detonated projectile would be similar in size to a grenade blast, but with higher damage. There would also be a detonation mode, that's activated similarly to the current cluster. After the projectile hits a solid object (be it player or terrain), the player can then detonate the projectile. The detonation is not immediate, it takes a few seconds for it to explode. During this detonation phase, the mortar projectile will blink a darker shade of green rapidly indicating that its about to explode. The explosion itself will be similar to the current mortar blast.
This would make the mortar more of a skill based weapon, well timed/placed non-detonated mortar hits can still be effective, but require a lot more skill to use (less of a fire and forget aspect). Spamming huge projectile blasts would no longer be possible as the player would need to wait for the mortar to hit something then activate it, even then the players within its radius would have some time to respond to it. The mortar would still be effective at clearing defenders (and killing sleeping defenders), but it would be based more on players avoiding the projectile than dying from a high flying mortar.
While MA mortar kills would become rather scarce, this mechanic would open up a new gameplay element: defenders body blocking mortar projectiles in an attempt to lessen damage against their HoF or protecting assets. I also like the idea of the mortar projectile being detonated early by a player firing at the detonating projectile, this would give cappers a way to respond to a HoF trying to set a 'mortar mine' at the flagstand. Or trick shots that involve a player using mortar hitting a player midair, then another player on his team hitting the activated projectile, detonating the mortar blasting and killing the enemy in midair with it (and perhaps a friend or two). Hohohohoho!
