Attack boats have a few serious issues that can be resolved with minor tweaks.

I love the attack boats. I have got it past lv75 so far! They are a fun vehicle and great tool to use on the two naval maps, but they have some severe weaknesses that are amplified by random teammates in the mortar seat. I play quite aggressively, the attack boat is not a wet AA tank that needs to camp in base. 

They handle great if you know how a jetprop boat works. they are a blast to use and a very welcome 3rd dimension to the BF6 vehicle game play. 

The attack boat is very weak and easily killed, but also very capable when in the right hands. The survival of the vehicle largely depends on the awareness and vigilance of the crew. The driver basically has the anti personnel gun while the backseat has the big gun. This is reversed from most vehicles in the game, like tanks. Some tanks can equip an antipersonnel gun as their second weapon in the driver seat, covering for a lack of second gunner (or gunner awareness). The boat cannot do that. Each seat has a very specific role. If you mortar-man chooses to focus on emptying his shell magazine onto some point across the map, you and the boat are basically doomed. The mortar-man is not paying any attention to surroundings and close by danger for the flimsy boat. He is actively broadcasting your position, occupying and wasting half the weapon systems on the boat, while drawing everyone’s attention.

The boat sits low, its on the water. its the lowest point on the map, so everyone constantly has height advantage over you. Not a big deal, because we get a 3rd person camera. What makes it unbearable is that every time we go from 3rd person camera to zoomed in through the optic, we get a wet optic with blurred vision for over a second. This doesn’t happen when switching from first person view to optics. No other vehicle has this **bleep** that you cant use the optic for a significant amount of time. its not realistic, there are plenty of ways to keep water of a viewing glass in the marine world. The wave models are overdone, sometimes capsizing a boat that’s dead still in the water. We get zero gyro or optic stabilization so any form of aiming or aim guiding is prone to be thrown off by a wave tilting the boat 45 degrees sideways out of nowhere. This experience only gets worse the higher up you try to aim, the swinging and rocking get pronounced. Give the boat some gyro stabilization or at least optic stabilization and keep the water effect away from the optic. Tanks don't get dust effects that blind their optic at all. Boats are weak and low on the map, get almost no cover to hide behind and always stand out against the blue water. Making aiming, especially when aiming up, such a hassle is not fun, or fair compared to other vehicles.

A smart captain equips the air-burst mortar on the backseat, other options don’t compare. Smoke shells are very useless. HEGM shells are dependent on the painting of a 3rd player, which never happens, so its also rather useless. The spotting flare shell has a niche use, but no real value to the survival of the boat compared to the air-burst. Air-burst deletes any incoming helicopters and jets that see you as an easy target. its effective range is very limited, so its really only a self defense tool. But its so rewarding once you get it right, because its a literal lifesaver for the boat. The driver cant aim straight up, only the mortar can, so the mortar does the close air defense best. Jets and helicopters know the boat is weak when they attack from straight overhead because its the drivers blind spot. The mortar air-burst is the only viable counter to this and its crucial for the boats survival. Every naval map has more aircraft than boats, making the loss of a boat more punishing and the chance of aircraft targeting a boat high. 

While playing offensively or defending a flag, there are 3 major threats to the attack boats: 

1. Attack boats. Their torpedoes can 1-2 punch you and the mortar also does a great deal of damage to boats. Its the drivers responsibility to be aware, detect enemy boats early and handle accordingly, while maintaining a firing angle for the mortar to hit the enemy boat. Turning your bow towards an enemy boat is a sin, it only hinders you and your boats capabilities. 
2. Aircraft: helis and jets. They are fast and maneuverable, have an incredibly short TTK vs the attack boat and a lot of opportunity to break line of sight and duck for cover, especially on Tsuru reef. There is usually a very very small window to act defensively and counter incoming aircraft, and the mortar man needs to be on top of this. A good mortar man keeps air-burst shells in the chamber at all times to quickly react to incoming air. He should only switch to HE when a realistic target on the ground is within reach. 
3. Little Rocket Men. The game has no limit on the amount of players that pick engineer and equip a rocket launcher.  On the naval maps virtually all players are engineers. The boat is low and always without cover, the little rocket men are all around on cliffs and rocks hoping to get an easy kill. The drivers gun and the HE mortar together can deal with this pretty well, if they stay aware and none of the above threats interfere while being under fire from a few engineers. This required the mortar-man to pay attention to the surroundings of the boat, keep a stack of HE shells ready and be willing to fight til we sink. 

The boat seat is open to anyone in the team and that’s a major cause of problems because the capabilities and role of the mortar are a lot more complex than the LMG/HMG on a tanks 2nd seat. The mortar cannot fire in the direction the boat is heading, the driver needs to be aware and accommodate a firing angle for the mortar. Driver and gunner need to work together to accomplish some meaningful effect in the match. However, most players that hop into the 2nd seat on the attack boat either disregard the fact that they are in a vehicle with a limited lifespan and just use it as a fixed artillery emplacement to shell some flag across the map, broadcasting our position, occupying the self defense against incoming air and being blissfully unaware of whatever goes on around the boat, or its people that want a taxi/spawn point wherever the boat is at on the map at the moment. They don't care at all about the boat, they just want a passenger seat like in a tank to spawn on or hitch a ride on. On the rare occasion that a decent mortar man joins the boat that is actually concerned about the longevity of the boat, they can still be a major hinder. For example often they start shelling an enemy boat while i am aim guiding torpedoes towards that boat, causing huge fountains obscuring the enemy boat and blinding my aim guiding. They miss all their shells, and i miss the torpedoes as a result of those fountains they create. But at least they were aware of incoming danger or notice me launching torps and made an effort to take action, i can respect that even if its a major hinder.

 The boat has no passenger seats and the mortar seat is quite crucial for the boats safety, having a random player hop in at their convenience is a hinder as they usually bail whenever things get dicey and the firepower of the mortar is very needed to take out incoming close range threats. The seat should not be open to the whole team, but limited to the squad like the littlebird. There are no passenger seats on the attack boat, the one seat next to the driver has a crucial role in the preservation of the boat. The attack boat has a spawn ramp, we can make a spawn point anywhere on the map if we wish to do so for the whole team. The mortar seat should not double this function as spawn point for the whole team. Leave it up to the captain to decide when and where its a good opportunity to become a spawn point for the team and when its not. 

So what type of people jump into the 2nd seat on my attack boat? 50% of the time i get someone who immediately starts emptying the mortar to a flag on the other side of the map, regardless whats around the boat or on the targeted flag he is aiming at. The flag just being in enemy hands is enough for them to empty all shells into that direction, without even knowing if there is an actual enemy. If there was an enemy, its long gone by the time the shell will reach its destination. These players should spawn as support and bring their own little mortar. They get the boat killed every single time. You can't prevent them from getting in, you cant get them out. They hijack half the boats capabilities and set of fireworks for the whole map to notice and trace to its origin point. Communication is not possible other than via team chat. Team chat can be hidden or disabled and console players have no way of replying to it because they lack a keyboard. voice chat is for squads only.... its almost guaranteed that you have no communication with the guy that hijacks half your boat with how things are now. The other 50% of the people that spawn in the attack boat mortar seat are just passengers looking for a spawn point close to where they want to be, or for a ride in the direction you are heading. They have no interest in the attack boat and its capabilities, only want to use it to get somewhere for their own agenda. This mostly happens when playing aggressively on the enemy half of the map, because there are usually not many spawn options on the far half of the map. The role of the mortar-man is too complex for this type of passenger to just hop in and pick it up. its not as simple as an LMG/HMG gunner position in a tank or heli, its not point and shoot at any and all infantry. A mortar-man needs to have some feeling of the velocity, trajectory and timing of the shells he sends, needs to select the right shell for the job and needs to make a good consideration in which targets to take out first as they pose the bigger threat to the boat. This is all especially true when we are on the enemy half of the map.  

Unfortunately oftentimes i am way more effective driving the boat solo and double manning the mortar by switching seats when need arises for it, for example when i see a littlebird or jet trying to sneak up on me for what they think is an easy kill. This is a sad scenario, it shouldn’t be a hinder to have a 2nd player in the 2nd seat. The reality is that it is a hinder most of the time and captains are better off sailing solo. Even when sailing solo and i bait a littlebird to come get me so i can blast him with the air-burst, the moment i want to switch seat to the mortar a random teammates takes the seat and blocks me from defending the boat. He has no clue whats coming and we both die 2 seconds after he spawns in the seat. Or worse, i do manage to switch into the mortar and someone spawns and takes over the driver seat, usually instantly pointing the bow towards incoming danger and taking away the firing angle of the mortar on the back. 

The reverse is also true. When i spawn in the mortar seat of a teammates boat, i immediately check the specialty shells they have equipped. Unfortunately its 95% of the time either default smokes or HEGM rounds with no one painting vehicles, thus being limited to using HE rounds. I rarely get to fire any rounds though because the drivers  think they are either in a tank and always point to their bow to the incoming threat or the center of the map, severely disabling the firing angle and opportunity of the mortar, or they sit on the edge of the map near home base and only shoot an AA missile every 30 seconds without actually ever taking down an enemy jet. Both situations usually end up in me just redeploying and taking the death because the driver wont accommodate the mortar with angle and targets and they act like they are all alone on the boat, ignoring the big guns on the back. 

The attackboat would be a lot more enjoyable and effective if only the squad can spawn on it, not the entire team. It is not a transport, it has no passenger seat but it can deploy the spawn ramp when there is time and safe opportunity for it. Other than the time when the captain decides there is opportunity to be a spawn point for the team, teammates have no business spawning on it because they are just hindrance to the driver of the vehicle. The mortar round should be simplified, people don't know what HEGM or AB or ILL means when they select the rounds, let alone what its purpose and effects are. Smoke is useless on the water, HEGM is useless as it relies on 3rd party for painting and the mortar-man shouldn’t shell vehicles on the other side of the map. Spotting flare is very niche and badly described in the game, people don’t know what it is. I suggest to remove all specialty shells except for air-burst. This will get the player base more used to it, how it works and when to use it. By simplifying the ammo types spawning on boat is more streamlined and less confusing and it also defines the role of the mortar-man a little better: focus on the close range problems first, especially aircraft directly above the boat are the mortar's responsibility. Perhaps removal of the high arc, long distance shelling mode would shape the role better. 

A few small issues that could be better: 

• a capsized boat can be righted by pressing left or right while in the driver seat, but the game won't show a prompt for it. That’s an oversight that should be added.
• a capsized boat doesn’t allow a mortar-man to switch seat to the driver seat if the captain bails after capsizing. He cant right the  boat from the mortar seat and cant switch seat, but has to get out of the  boat and reenter to enter the driver seat. This is unnecessary complicated. 
• the camera in 3rd person view is exceptionally frantic when obstructed by anything on the map. it randomly swaps to any unexpected position on a 360 sphere and completely disorients and messes with aiming. Either let the camera clip into the map and let the driver adjust the camera himself from that position, this prevents the disorienting flipping around of the camera, or just zoom the 3rd person camera closer to boat and eventually force it into 1st person view if there is really no room for a 3rd person camera. That allows the driver to maintain his aim and orientation. The current implementation is just bad and needs fixing.
• random 180 degree camera swaps when switching seats. if i switch seat i expect to either be looking in the direction i was looking at in my previous seat, or i am expecting to look into the direction of where the barrel is aiming at before i swap into that seat. What i don't expect is a random view into the complete opposite direction for no reason at all than sloppy game design.
• torpedoes that collide with each other. The game allows to launch 2 torpedoes near simultaneously, and both are traveling to the same point where the driver aims. The result will be that they collide with each other just before they reach this point and explode without doing any damage to the target. Too often i have guided 2 torps for ~500m just to see them explode 3m before they reach the enemy boat. Delay the launch speed of the 2nd torpedo or remove the torpedoes colliding with and exploding another torpedo. The problem is the aim guiding of 2 torpedoes, they cant be controlled independently and they will always try to converge on the point of aiming, resulting in collision among themselves. I even got blown up several times by launching two torpedoes that just collide and explode right under my own boat directly after launching them... This needs work.

TLDR:

The boat optic should be clean and usable and stabilized or the waves shouldn't rock the boat so violently. Being low on the map, thinly armored and easily spotted on the open water is hard enough, not being able to see or aim is unnecessary and unbalanced compared to any other vehicle. 

Don’t allow the whole team to spawn in the mortar seat. Let the captain deploy the spawn ramp when he sees opportunity to be a spawn point for the team. Random teammates in the mortar seat are a hinder and get a boat killed more often than not. 

Streamline the mortar mans role. Remove the useless mortar specialty shells and define the role to be more focused on the close range threats to the boat.