Dear DICE, I have a solution for how to make mortars fun and balanced.

As the community has been very vocal about, the Mortars are neither fun nor effective unless there is an irrationally sized group of players standing so close to each other they are at an arms length away from each other (and even then they tend to miss).

I propose a change to how they function that will require players to do the work for making the mortar accurate and not relying on a large number of factors based around spread and randomness, a change that's more akin to sniping at longer ranges and requires skill rather than relying on these random aspects.

• So the change I am proposing is as follows:
• A new way of using the mortar that requires the player to zero the mortar manually
• The Mechanic will at its core will be to "unlock the zero-point" from the mini-map point of aim, and allowing the crosshairs of the mortar aim to be moved to a desired point, then having the player "lock in" the aim to that new spot.
• The new mechanic will still require the players to account for elevation and distance variations when they move their aim, to which they may have to re-zero the point of aim to the new impact zone after moving the aim, or they can choose to do a "hold-over" to just compensate for the shift in point of impact compared to point of aim if they possess the skills to do so accurately.
• This opens up for more accurate use of the mortars (which can still be counteracted via using the GPDIS grenade-intercepting gadget)
• This change should be relatively simple to implement, requiring 4 parts:

1. UI design to keep the actual point of impact stationary while keybind is pressed and function is toggled on/off for the mini-map.
2. Moving the crosshairs on the mini-map without moving the actual point of impact, in the same general manner as holding the keybind for free-look in vehicles, then pressing again in the new location to lock the point of aim relative to point of impact placement on the mini-map (or what the player believes to be that point).
3. Mortar movement animations temporarily disabled while the movement of the crosshairs on the mini-map is being executed in "unlocked"-mode to not display animations disconnected from what is happening.
4. Vast reduction of the spread of the mortar, as the spread is now a player-skill and effort issue and less necessary as a balancing measure.

This change will allow for lower splash range of mortars, requiring more accurate placement of aim on the part of the players, and requiring less damage in the impact area needed to be effective enough with for players to get a kill when shots can be placed more accurately more reliably. This will make the mortar feel considerably better to use without being worse for the targets of the mortar, by letting players feel like it is rewarding to use as they get better at using it, like learning a gun to master its skill requirements to be effective with.

Additionally this also opens up for the chance to have mortar-based challenges for future weekly challenges as well as seasonal or class challenges and assignments. This would also open up for it to be a relevant item for use in RedSec and changing up the gameplay-loop of RedSec BR, as both an attack-weapon as well as area-denial tool for such competitive modes, and making for unique ways to promote RedSec via gameplay never seen before in other competitors' BR variants.

Because nothing says "battlefield moment" in a RedSec match quite like winning by finding a mortar and using such a core fundamental function to battlefield to secure a win. And is definitely a "free" way to add content to RedSec BR without having to create completely new content from scratch, but instead introducing a tide-changer like a mortar to RedSec.