Having seen the way AoS is now with teamwork I wondered what could be done about it while still adding fun new ways to influence the battlefield. What came to mind? Something like the image below:
http://worldwar2vault.com/images/artillery/artillery.jpg
Artillery Battery: A teamwork required weapon
Short Intro:
A weapon that requires a minimum of two people to run it. A spotter and an operator/ reloader. The idea is designed to attract builders, sappers, and kill-mongers together and have them work together.
Deploying the battery:
Before it can be usedThe artillery battery would have to be constructed, either through the use of normal blocks in a specified location made to transform the blocks in the battery or the use of a deployed box that requires a large amount of blocks to make the battery. Once built, the battery is almost ready to fire.
Ammo,targeting, and reloading:
Now for ammo, the battery would consume 10 blocks from a player's inventory to have one round and the battery would have to be reloaded after every shot. This is where a third person can come in to be collecting blocks to use as ammo while the operator and spotter are working on finding the next target. Now for targeting you use a spotter. The spotter would enter the battery like he would a capture tent and find his grenades (or his weapon) replaced with a targeting item. When zoomed in with the targeting item, A targeting dot appears where the spotter is looking and the operator can see what the spotter sees. Once a target is painted with the spotter's targeting item, the operator can fire a shell anywhere around the painted area, giving the operator some say in where to land the shell.. The shell would explode in a larger, deeper area than a grenade (say, double the size for this example). Afterward, it takes somewhere from 15-60 seconds to reload the battery for firing again. (To prevent it from being too OP)
Possible Advantages:
-This weapon would require at least two people to work together, extending to three if a dedicated ammo bringer was involved and four if the spotter had no weapon and had an escort that used a gun as needed.
-Teams could attack each others defenses with something that takes a while to set up but can be worth the wait if used properly.
-Kill mongers, builders, and sappers could come together as a team while doing what they still like: building, killing, and sneaking around to sap the enemy buildings.
-If it was a prefabricated structure that was generated by a box that consumed blocks, Modders could make some new toys to play with.
Possible Disadvantages:
-If the battery doesn't have a limit as to where it can be built, It could be used to grief one's own team or become OP for wrecking the other team in some modes (Zombies or Babel anyone?)
-It may attract griefers that want to build in front of the mortar or bother the spotter.
-A bad spotter or operator can ruin proper use of the battery.
-If your team isn't using it's battery and the enemy is using theirs... Things could get ugly fairly quickly.
Be sure to comment and question as I'm certainly not perfect.
EDIT:
Additional suggestions as brought up by other AoS players in a convenient location for AoS developers.
Ammunition/ damage variable by ChaosTLW:
"Make the reload time depending on how much blocks you put in? For example, if you put a single block as ammo, it would reload extremely fast, but do minimal damage, and if you put 30 blocks it takes a loooong time to reload, but has a really high damage."
Size limit
Turn Limit by Commodore:
"there are also SOME griefers griefing together on some servers. How about a turning limit? The artilliery battery could then only shoot in the direction of the enemy. And it couldnt be really used by the other team."
Damaged artillery deals less damage and making artillery based squads by jesusskid:
Self-explanatory