Has anyone else had this happen to them? M-Com station is at 100%. You and your squad are doing their job defending the M-Com. Enemy tickets are under 20! You are near victory. Then the entire attacking team spawns as Recons with mortars and brings the building crashing down around you, resetting their tickets to 75. 
 
Is this fair? Is there a counter to this? Should this be patched? Whatcha think?

" Has anyone else had this happen to them? M-Com station is at 100%. You and your squad are doing their job defending the M-Com. Enemy tickets are under 20! You are near victory. Then the entire attacking team spawns as Recons with mortars and brings the building crashing down around you, resetting their tickets to 75.   Is this fair? Is there a counter to this? Should this be patched? Whatcha think? "

It was definitely a pain in the beta map, but I haven't noticed it be a problem anymore. 
 
Still it feels messed up that the defenders have to proactively go out and stop any potential snipers or tanks that have a shot at the building.

i've never done this before def gonna try it thanks

I also feel the same way. It should definitely be nerfed against buildings or something be made so it's not so cheap.

" It was definitely a pain in the beta map, but I haven't noticed it be a problem anymore.  Still it feels messed up that the defenders have to proactively go out and stop any potential snipers or tanks that have a shot at the building. "

" @Rockanomics said:

" It was definitely a pain in the beta map, but I haven't noticed it be a problem anymore.  Still it feels messed up that the defenders have to proactively go out and stop any potential snipers or tanks that have a shot at the building. "

 Really?  Defenders having to actually....defend?  Turtling is one defense that seems to not be working if you are getting bombarded by mortar strikes.    Preemptively taking them out seems like a good defense if they are killing you. "

"Kind of hard to locate all the recon guys though, given there's no indication of their location when they use the mortar strike, and given how large the maps are. "

I agree, I think the mortar strike overall is OP. In theory it's a cool idea, but in practice it's often too powerful.

I don't think it should be patched.
 
What I think should be patched is the amount of idiots playing as Recon per match and how long they can stay as that class. Honestly I don't care if it pisses off people, it's ridiculous when 70% of an entire team are recon class.
By somehow countering how many of these cheap players there are, that will strike down 2 problems instead of just one. Less Mortar strike spam and less sniper spam. I understand clearly that standing out in the open is bad because of snipers.  
What I do not like is how when I hide behind cover I am not really "behind" cover for a 270* angle or that when I make a dash Im still sniped down just like if I was standing in the open.

I just want to see the cooldown time extended.

never saw them destroy a m-com station itself with the barrage, but the buildings seem to collapse WAY too easy most of the time. so the attackers can just lean back with an apc, a tank or mortarstrikes and just gun down the building from range without getting even close to it...

Mortar strikes are really annoying. It just reminds me of Modern Warfare, and I feel like other people can have killstreaks but I can't. It's not exactly the same thing, but it's how I start to feel after being mortar striked repeatedly.

" @jukezypoo said:

"Kind of hard to locate all the recon guys though, given there's no indication of their location when they use the mortar strike, and given how large the maps are. "

Hey, changing that sounds like a good idea =D "

If the entire team spawns with guns and rushes the building at the same time, is that overpowered? 
 
I think it is a fine tactic, as the mortar strike on its own isn't terribly powerful, but as with anything, the more you have of it, the more powerful it becomes, it is exponential.
 
But I think most bases have at least one crate that can't be collapsed, so if the enemy team can only mortar spam, they will most likely lose.

I kinda wish they didn't add the feature to fully collapse buildings. Less realistic, I know, but it's more functional.

How about this proposal:
 
After 1 squad member uses a mortar strike, the cooldown is applied to the WHOLE squad.  Realistically, this would be the case.  Then you're limiting it to 1 mortar strike per squad per X cooldown.
 
Of course, then you have douchebags wasting your mortar strike charge.  But, really, that's not so bad.

Yeah Mortar should be per-squad. 
 
Also C4'ing the UAV is a sissy move too. Just get down there in the thick of it and bomb the damn thing!!

The only annoying thing about mortar strikes is when one guy sneaks in plants a charge, then the entire enemy team proceed to mortar that area for the next 5 minutes, making diffusing impossible.

Yeah, the multiple mortars are cheap. And actively seeking them out is not a viable tactic. They should just add a red laser to it and call it a night. This way the sniper is trading off his position for the mortar, I think that's fair enough. Plus, the thing only takes like 5 seconds to lock on anyway so it's not too bad for them.

I think it's only going to get worse when more attackers realize that they should be targeting the building instead of the crate.  All of the maps have some crates that you can't kill with Destruction 2.0, though.  So it's not totally broken.

" I don't think it should be patched.  What I think should be patched is the amount of idiots playing as Recon per match and how long they can stay as that class. Honestly I don't care if it pisses off people, it's ridiculous when 70% of an entire team are recon class. By somehow countering how many of these cheap players there are, that will strike down 2 problems instead of just one. Less Mortar strike spam and less sniper spam. I understand clearly that standing out in the open is bad because of snipers.   What I do not like is how when I hide behind cover I am not really "behind" cover for a 270* angle or that when I make a dash Im still sniped down just like if I was standing in the open. "

" @emkeighcameron: Yeah I know that sounds off topic but that is one solution to the problem and I justified a reason for my suggestion which works in hand with the problem at hand. "

I rather have teammates who hide in a corner and snipe than teammates who steal my tank when I get out to repair it. Seriously this is the single most annoying thing in BFBC2

" I rather have teammates who hide in a corner and snipe than teammates who steal my tank when I get out to repair it. Seriously this is the single most annoying thing in BFBC2 "

" @nethanel said:

" I rather have teammates who hide in a corner and snipe than teammates who steal my tank when I get out to repair it. Seriously this is the single most annoying thing in BFBC2 "

Naaaaah worse is if some retard grabs the tank and just rushes full speed into the middle of the enemy camp (without waiting for anyone else on the team) into anti tank crossfire and gets destroyed in 0.5 seconds... OR you are repairing some idiots tank when he is under fire and he chickens, starts moving back and you get a tank shell or a sniper shot in your face. OR you get into a heli and a wannabe pilot frags all 4-5 of your asses by crashing it 5 meters from he spawn. "

"I just want to see the cooldown time extended. "

I've never encountered anyone doing the 'Recon Barrage' technique. Maybe I'm lucky. But it does sound frustrating.

 I'm amazed by some of the responses.  Man up, seek 'em out, and kill them!  If anything the cooldown should be longer.  Don't take it away or make them show up on your map.  
 
Like said above, there's no difference between this and a good squad of medics/assault/engineers coming in and taking a point.  In fact, that happens to me way more than a mortared objective.  But, you know what? That's the game!  BF is different in that way and that's what makes it great.  Teamwork!  

" @Spoonman671 said:

"I just want to see the cooldown time extended. "

Thats pretty much all that is needed imo.  You cant nerf a mortar strike.  BC2 is one of the more realistic games that I have ever played (waits to be assaulted by comments from that), and nerfing something that is highly destructive in real life is stupid. "

A universal countdown is stupid, people would just use so other people cant. 
A per squad cooldown is less stupid but it would discourage teamwork

I dont know why they didn't put the mortar  strike into a commander package like in BF2.  You had effective yet BALANCED artillery in that game.  I do like the idea of having mortar strikes switched to squad or team timers rather than individual timers - I don't think DICE anticipated the popularity of the recon class. 

" A universal countdown is stupid, people would just use so other people cant. A per squad cooldown is less stupid but it would discourage teamwork "

havent noticed it really..

This is why in the previous games only 1 person could call in mortar strikes - and that was the commander or the guy manning the artillery turret in BC1.
 
Anyway, leveling buildings is a legit (and welcomed) way to taking out terminals. In the past there were issues whereby it was impossible to breach and clear a terminal cause everyone was just turtling on that last console. At least now you have the chance to actually do something about it.

The problem with the mortars as far a I can tell come from the lack of risk involved.  Other options for blowing up M-coms/buildings have a good balance of Risk and Reward.
 

• Engineers must be closer to the M-Com and leave a trail of smoke leading back to their position
  
• C4 must be used right ON the M-Com
• Grenades must be thrown/shot pretty near the M-Com
• Tanks & helicopters while powerful are incredibly visible and each have their counters already

Really cheap way to to get 75 tickets back .... oh well

I would argue that yes - having an entire team switch to recon in order to bombard an m-com with mortars, as their tickets wind down, in order to progress is a cheap abuse of the mechanic, and not at all what DICE had originally envisioned. I think that if they had intended this to be a common place mechanic they would have just given every class the ability to call mortar strikes.   That's just my opinion though.

I think...you must not have played Battlefield 2. 
 
At least it's not a Commander constantly teamkilling you with artillery strikes. 
 
Also, I haven't run into this problem once in my time with the game.  Maybe I'm doing something right?

What me and my squad usually do is to go on the offensive with 20 tickets left when defending. 1 medic, with an assault class, and 2 specialists with smgs and you should be able to rid the area of snipers.

its only op when both sites are in buildings 
 
but yes when it happens its dumb and unbalanced

I just witnessed this first hand again, me and 2 full squads tried to hold down the last crate before we'd move across the map on Port Valdez and suddenly the building starts creeking when we noticed like 7 mortar strikes worth of explosives came down. Same case, these guys were on last 10 tickets etc.
 
Cheap bastards can go die in a house fire.
 
I say again, the structure of which the sniper classes must be organised and controlled. Seriously I really do think that Recon should be limited to 4 sniper riflemen and the rest of the team can go recon if they want, they should only be able to use what they already have for weapons and not be able to use mortar strikes, or just control the amount of recon players all together.
 
I mean, honestly, controlling recon player amount, how many times do you actually see a sniper get off his arse and actually act like a recon player, not a sniper?