Autofire should be removed

If you actually can just put down a mortar, not micro it in any way and have it be useful and gain kills, then I wish I had your opponents
Because in my experience, if you don't pay attention/reposition you mortars
they usually die VERY quickly to pushing inf, or enemy mortars, or LeIGs, or Pack Howies, or rocket arty, or howitzers and god knows what else.

OR they are so far from the front line they aren't being very useful anyway.

Agreed.


Any movement of the mortar whether it be moving to a new location or rotating should reset the scatter. Is that something that can be done?

pretty sure that would be no problem for barrages due to the fact that similar abilities already exist in the game. if the same can be done for the auto attack as well is hard to say; maybe someone with in-depth knowledge of the modding tools could shed more light onto this.

This heavily depends on how effective the auto fire really is.
If the "power value" of auto fire is below a fighting squad, you are better off with the fighting squad.

Costs and popcaps of indirect fire could be adjusted as well to match their usefulness.

The roles of mortars :
to provide support by firing on enemy HMG/strong points
to deal damage to suppressed squad
to provide smoke
...


By adding more micro to HMG/Mortar combo you would simply make brutal force of more infatry a an even "safer"/better option.

You are correct that that is the role of mortars on paper. However, because of how autofire works, what happens in practice is that they become a microless force multiplier effective against all infantry with 0 input from the user and in all circumstances. Right now the mortar does all those things you mentioned on top of automatically punishing any infantry within their range.

If this allows me to get more out of my arty pieces, I'd like to see this.

That's the idea, you get more performance in its intended role but at the cost of not killing infantry with 0 micro input.

Indirect fire and especially mortars should have had a zeroing mechanic on both autofire and the barrage. The first shot would scatter wide with each consecutive shot becoming more and more accurate. Providing line of sight with other (recon) units would reduce the amount of zeroing shots, decreasing the amount of time it takes to zero in and increasing the amount of accurate shots on target.

This would make (autofire) indirect worse against mobile/moving infantry, while making it better against idle (team) weapons, while also providing a better user experience for both sides with higher reliability for the user and better counter play for the receiver. No more RNG with entire barrages completely missing their target or the first shot hitting an HMG for 50% damage.

Obviously not something that can be done for CoH2, but it would be a big improvement with indirect fire if there's ever a CoH3.

That's not a bad idea either, personally I wish autofire was just removed but that's a great idea too.

If this is so easy, you can counter it exactly the same way. Auto-fire range has, most of the time, less range than barrages anyway.

Countering indirect is not a problem, the fact that it does what it does reduces many infantry engagements to "welp, you got hit by an autofiring mortar and lost hundreds of HP in one instant, you lose".

If you actually can just put down a mortar, not micro it in any way and have it be useful and gain kills, then I wish I had your opponents
Because in my experience, if you don't pay attention/reposition you mortars
they usually die VERY quickly to pushing inf, or enemy mortars, or LeIGs, or Pack Howies, or rocket arty, or howitzers and god knows what else.

OR they are so far from the front line they aren't being very useful anyway.

Of course oyu have to reposition it once in a while, especially when there's counterfire, but in the grand scheme of things they really take almost no micro for the amount of killing they do on autofire. Compare the amount of micro required to use even snipers, which are widely considered super cancerous and hard to counter, to the really really minimal effort it takes to use a mortar.

...
You are correct that that is the role of mortars on paper. However, because of how autofire works, what happens in practice is that they become a microless force multiplier effective against all infantry with 0 input from the user and in all circumstances. Right now the mortar does all those things you mentioned on top of automatically punishing any infantry within their range.

They are meant to be used as force multipliers since their cost is similar to mainline infatry. What would be the point of building a mainline a hmg and mortar instead of 3 mainline infantries if the mainline infatry was the superior option in all cases?

They are meant to be used as force multipliers since their cost is similar to mainline infatry. What would be the point of building a mainline a hmg and mortar instead of 3 mainline infantries if the mainline infatry was the superior option in all cases?

If they lost the auto fire their price could go down so they function as a support weapon instead of an indirect no micro mainline replacement.

If they lost the auto fire their price could go down so they function as a support weapon instead of an indirect no micro mainline replacement.

And then grenadier would have to be buffed because they would no longer have the support of superior support weapons.

And then grenadier would have to be buffed because they would no longer have the support of superior support weapons.

The buff would be that the mortar is cheaper and thus they can field more units more quickly.
It should go without saying that if mortars were to lose their auto fire their barrages would be reworked as well to be a "get out what you put in" kinda unit.

Also correct me if I'm wrong but we're talking about the mortar here, and not going to be touching the glorious mg42 that is the true master of supporting grens.

The buff would be that the mortar is cheaper and thus they can field more units more quickly.
It should go without saying that if mortars were to lose their auto fire their barrages would be reworked as well to be a "get out what you put in" kinda unit.

Also correct me if I'm wrong but we're talking about the mortar here, and not going to be touching the glorious mg42 that is the true master of supporting grens.

Problem is that barrage is only good vs stationary units and thus grenadier will receive the sort end of the stick since they are stationary infatry.

Problem is that barrage is only good vs stationary units and thus grenadier will receive the sort end of the stick since they are stationary infatry.

Until the move slightly and are no longer in the barrage until the enemy player retargets them instead of the mortar doing that itself. There's no way that " the enemy has to micro to dig you out" is worse than " the enemy has a mortar in range but is building barbed wire in their base and that's taking all their attention but you are still forced out of cover and the player doesn't even realize it because the game is playing itself"
Same issue that was with the mortar pit, smaller scale.

And then grenadier would have to be buffed because they would no longer have the support of superior support weapons.

No one builds mortars in 1v1 - 2v2 competitive play, even the “superior” Wher version.
I think mortars should need more micro, but also deal more damage.

My proposal for accomplishing these changes would be by by nerfing autofire damage and range, and by buffing barrage rate of fire

I also think the mortar and LeiG should be switched in OKW and Wher’s loadout
The LeiG is better than the mortar (which would fit Ost’s theme) and the LeiG was used most early war while mortars were used more late war.

No one builds mortars in 1v1 - 2v2 competitive play, even the “superior” Wher version.
I think mortars should need more micro, but also deal more damage.

My proposal for accomplishing these changes would be by by nerfing autofire damage and range, and by buffing barrage rate of fire

I also think the mortar and LeiG should be switched in OKW and Wher’s loadout
The LeiG is better than the mortar (which would fit Ost’s theme) and the LeiG was used most early war while mortars were used more late war.

An interesting notion as even the more potent mortars like the 120 mm are basically RNG cannons which at least might do some health damage and at best obliterate a squad. I think the inclusion of flares for every factions mortars with vet (given that it's increased in Muni cost) would go a long way in increasing their potency as I feel thats often the primary reason players in 2s get them

Until the move slightly and are no longer in the barrage until the enemy player retargets them instead of the mortar doing that itself. There's no way that " the enemy has to micro to dig you out" is worse than " the enemy has a mortar in range but is building barbed wire in their base and that's taking all their attention but you are still forced out of cover and the player doesn't even realize it because the game is playing itself"
Same issue that was with the mortar pit, smaller scale.

I would argue that the nail in the coffin of grenadier was the nerf to mortars. So imo nerfing even more would make Ostheer static play even worse and it would promote blob with brutal force.

No one builds mortars in 1v1 - 2v2 competitive play, even the “superior” Wher version.
I think mortars should need more micro, but also deal more damage.

My proposal for accomplishing these changes would be by by nerfing autofire damage and range, and by buffing barrage rate of fire

I also think the mortar and LeiG should be switched in OKW and Wher’s loadout
The LeiG is better than the mortar (which would fit Ost’s theme) and the LeiG was used most early war while mortars were used more late war.

Think leig and mortar swap would be a good change. Mortar fits the aggressive okw style better.