As for the captured bases to give you increase in attributes, I don't like it either. Seems too artificial, even if it's just a game that's pretty artificial in the first place.

The way I was initially seeing the mortar/artillery idea, was that you'd be given a hugely rare chance of using the artillery fire, maybe each time you raised your points by 3000 or whoknowswhat, making it more like one of those secondary weapons in arcade shooters that allows you to clear the screen of all enemies with awesome power one time.

Knowing it would be rare to obtain it, you'd probably save it for the worst of moments to save your ass from trouble or just spend it out of your hands on the next attack, no big deal. Or, maybe you'd have it only for the time your current soldier survives to put some extra pressure on the matter, you'd be controlling the only artillery fire leading trained soldier out there that time. You'd hate yourself if you died before using it or if you wasted it on empty ground in fear of getting killed, good!

As such, it wouldn't be a balance distorting feature but not very important/well thought out feature either, more like a little bonus if anything to increase one-time events and atmosphere. In addition, if it was indeed off-area, there wouldn't be any need for mortar/artillery graphics either, a specific grenade model and some sounds at max, and just drop a lot those out there, making it quick and easy to implement.

If the mortars are bound to an area and would be frequently usable, it brings more weight to it, but also the balance is easily ruined like previously discussed. It would then probably need something to counter it, maybe an area with a tank supply. Now, of course, if a nation manages to capture both of these areas, the war is pretty much over, which ruins it. If we iterate this thinking even further, every base will have something of enormous power or significance, and no one wants to just run anymore I suppose.

One way to allow more usage for the fire from the skies would be that your soldier would have to spend a significant time to execute the fire leading. You'd have to get close to the area, possibly with a clear line of sight to the target, making you highly exposed to the enemy to stop you doing what you're doing, thus bringing the balance a little out from the mortar side. The soldier would take his time to get the coordinates from the map, take directions and calculate angles, and issue the command. Finding such a peaceful place and time near the enemy would be made difficult to avoid over-using it.

I don't know.. Maybe this sort of approach could be turned into something that stealth tactics would be needed for. You'd have to go out there and infiltrate an enemy base to place a target beacon or something, in which the fire would drop when you call it. Or, you'd go there and place explosives around, and remotely trigger them to explode. But, then you didn't need the mortars really to exist at all to get a lot of explosions in one place. Well.. maybe then you need to capture a base with explosives?

What if every 3000 points or so it gave you 1 round. These rounds "stock up". so at the beginning you have none. Once you get 3000 points you will have 1 round. If you don't fire that round when you get to 6000 points you will have 2. There would be a delay between each firing so you couldnt wait until 9000 points and just call in 3 mortar strikes at once.

Pretty much an elaboration on the above posts.

If getting mortar rounds as a reward from rank points is the way to go, and it doesn't rely on the current soldier's life, it should very likely stock up like you said.

I haven't thought about how this would affect multiplayer, cooperative or PvP, though.

AI enemy I could see doing just fine without the ability to use this kind of strikes, but if wanted, it could be easily added as something they'd use too, rarely.

I like the idea of the point reward ability. Removing the ability when the solider dies is also needed to prevent everyone on a team to save the ability and then use it all at once to clear a wide area to capture multiple bases without the opponent being able to do anything. Maybe giving the option to give up on the mortar salvo on 3000 points in order to get a heavy artillery strike at 6000 (instead of another mortar strike).

I don't really think having to get clear LOS and perform the calling action for X seconds is the way to go. It would make yout the target number #1 for all enemies, functioning more like a decoy than fire support.

The AI should be able to use it as well, if only for the sake of realism and the feel of actually being in a battle in which you aren't the only one doing all the indirect combat related stuff.

Yeah, it adds to the wow factor and makes the AI look like an equal foe using tactics instead of just sending hordes of troops to their deaths.

Yeah, AI can be made to use it as well. 3000 points does indicate that it would be really rare, you'd probably get to use it once, maybe twice when battling in a map like the current map, just a hunch. Hence, I wouldn't call using it as tactics really, it's more like a lucky shot at the attack target before storming there on ground

Yeah, the AI using it is more to add the "wow, they aren't so stupid after all!" feeling than tactics

Yep, I remember looking at those suggestions a while back. Some ideas there were actually just the ones I referred to as having the wrong train of thought, in my opinion.

I am too all for discussing the pros and cons of all suggestions. Mine too, I know for a fact that my ideas aren't automatically any better than anyone else's, and I also intentionally try to look at things from a quite personal viewpoint (which may not be actually that original, just a bit quirky).

Now, if indirect fire is introduced to the game exactly in the way that I wouldn't like it to be (offmap, some points thing as resource), I would probably experiment with it as a precision tool for removing single targets in good cover. A bit like hand grenades have been up to now, just even more deadly and long range (this would allow for hand grenade range to be nerfed substantially, to some degree).

The way I'd start is making each mortar strike a series of, say, three rounds. When the player calls for a strike on some target, like a guy or two in a good cover blocking all advance, the first round drops in, say 5 seconds. The first round hits somewhere about 20-15 meters from the target. The second rounds drops after 5 more seconds, somewhere about 15-10 meters from the target. And after 5 more seconds or so, the last round hits the target as accurately as possible, about 2-6 meters from the target. This should be close enough to kill everyone at the target location nearly every time, but I think it'd be fun if there was sometimes a slight chance to survive.

The reason I'd do it like this is that the indirect fire strike would fulfill a single primary need, taking out a specific target. But, it could also be used as a general pounding of enemies, in attack and in defence, but it wouldn't be hugely powerful in this role.

From the receiving side's perspective (especially the skilled guys in the phenomenally good firing position), the slowly creeping in fire would make things fair and give them a chance to react. Getting instagibbed by invisible offmap artillery is no fun at all, so when they'd see the first round drop they could assume that they've been targeted by indirect fire and will die in 10 or so seconds if they stay in place. When they see the second round drop, they would get another "warning" and a reminder that they really must move right away to stand any chance of not getting killed. If they choose to stay in place, it's basically choosing to die and as such it wouldn't annoy them that much or feel unfair (hopefully).

All in all, a system like this would hopefully keep the gameplay moving and prevent the battles from getting stuck in place for very long periods of time. But manning good defensive positions would still be viable and worth the trouble.

I wasn't after making the mortar/artillery fire something you can't survive. The grenades would work the same way as the hand grenades in what comes to dying due to explosions. So, in trenches, you could significantly increase your odds of surviving the strike by going to the trench and duck or go prone. Most likely a most grenades would hit the higher ground making you unharmed. Sandbag walls would also provide you some cover given the explosions happens on the other side of the wall.

As for the strike to come down in intervals ending up in an accurate strike or drop down one time scattered to a wide area, I can live with both ways.