Project Reality Forums

When calculating the height field for a Mortar
Is it:
A) The height of the enemy from the mortar.


Or B) The height of the mortar from the enemy


I'm wondering because I'd like to get involved with a Mortar squad in a game, and I don't 100% know everything about mortars. Any extra tips about Mortars would also be greatly appreciated.

Revel in my Word shape skills!

A.) Height of enemy from mortar.


btw, mad Word skillz dude

Darman1138 wrote:A.) Height of enemy from mortar.


btw, mad Word skillz dude

Cool thanks!

I can teach you to be MLG pr0 at Word if you want me to.

Don't bother with the heights unless the target is really far away like >1000 meters or if the height difference is more than + - 50m like if your trying to hit the roof of a hotel or similar.

Mortars deviate quite a lot so even if you adjust with a height difference like +10m you might not see the difference.

Of course a few maps you may end up placing your mortar pit on something higher or lower than everything else then it can be a good idea to just put a standard height difference in.

Btw, some time ago i made video-explanation of mortar rounds trajectory

Lulz nice mortar cam.

How the hell can you follow your round in the air ??!

What was the spread/deviation of mortar rounds 50 square meters?

Could of sworn last time there was a large discussion about the mortars one of the DEV's said the height did almost zip.

Hey, check this out if you want more accurate mortar calculations

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SGT.Ice wrote:Could of sworn last time there was a large discussion about the mortars one of the DEV's said the height did almost zip.

that's largely incorrect, ive tested this personally on height important maps like korengal, and you NEED to account for some height.

KneeHiGh wrote:What was the spread/deviation of mortar rounds 50 square meters?

From your target mark it will deviate about 20 meters that would make an impact area of about 1200 square meters. and a fire for effect area of 3500-4500 square meters depending on ammunition type.

So if your a vehicle your in danger if your closer than about 20-30m from the mark, and if your infantry your in danger if your closer than 40 meters (if air-burst is used)

unconventional mortars (the one used by Taliban and insurgents) is deviating about 30m

all these numbers are my best guess, and the range to your target also effects the deviation a little bit. It gets worse at longer range.

40mm, watch your tone.

A general note to everyone: There's been pretty poor etiquette on this forum recently, and we'll use infractions to ensure a more polite atmosphere if we have to. Swearing, despite what you may believe, is not generally tolerated here. I personally don't want to infract people for every f-word that slips in their posts, but change your tone towards eachother or I will.

Gracler wrote:From your target mark it will deviate about 20 meters that would make an impact area of about 1200 square meters. and a fire for effect area of 3500-4500 square meters depending on ammunition type.

So if your a vehicle your in danger if your closer than about 20-30m from the mark, and if your infantry your in danger if your closer than 40 meters (if air-burst is used)

unconventional mortars (the one used by Taliban and insurgents) is deviating about 30m

all these numbers are my best guess, and the range to your target also effects the deviation a little bit. It gets worse at longer range.

I think you could be right about the deviation/dispersion, I have been doing some tests on this and it looks to be 20m, maybe less.
But aside from the splashdamage radius of the rounds, you also need to factor in that the mortars will mostly not be shooting exactly at the mark due to ranging system used. You can only get range in increments of 50m, so that would mean that the theoretical impact area would be a bit more rectangular in shape.
Ofcourse the rounds will land on one spot (with some dispersion), but without further help there's no way of telling EXACTLY where you are aiming the mortars at.

This inaccuracy comes into play when firing rounds over the heads of friendly troops (when talking about danger for own troops).

40mmrain wrote:that's largely incorrect, ive tested this personally on height important maps like korengal, and you NEED to account for some height.

I guess you are both right, you shouldn't factor height in on most maps. But when talking about extremes, archer fortress/kashan mountain/korengal, then you do have to.

'[TP wrote:Boersma;1893541']
But aside from the splashdamage radius of the rounds, you also need to factor in that the mortars will mostly not be shooting exactly at the mark due to ranging system used. You can only get range in increments of 50m, so that would mean that the theoretical impact area would be a bit more rectangular in shape.
Ofcourse the rounds will land on one spot (with some dispersion), but without further help there's no way of telling EXACTLY where you are aiming the mortars at.

This inaccuracy comes into play when firing rounds over the heads of friendly troops (when talking about danger for own troops).

thats right you can add or subtract about 25m from the marker for the worst cases, although if a mortar-squad-leader stands next to the mortar pit and uses for example a "request mortar marker" on the target area its easier to figure out the correct distance since these are always exact distances. unfortunately there are 100m increment gaps from about 1100m and up i think.. and 1400-1500 doesn't exist.

Gracler wrote:thats right you can add or subtract about 25m from the marker for the worst cases, although if a mortar-squad-leader stands next to the mortar pit and uses for example a "request mortar marker" on the target area its easier to figure out the correct distance since these are always exact distances. unfortunately there are 100m increment gaps from about 1100m and up i think.. and 1400-1500 doesn't exist.

Yeah, thats why I stopped doing logistics only while squad leading mortars, too bad about those 1400 - 1500 not being there

smgunsftw wrote:Hey, check this out if you want more accurate mortar calculations

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Any way he could do a simple app people could use on iOS/Android ?

KaB wrote:Any way he could do a simple app people could use on iOS/Android ?

Personally I would not like to use a tiny smartphone to view large maps on, but of course people also have tablet computers. But since over-wolf does a good job why not use that?. It is a quite discrete program.
but someone might want to try to make an app for "fun"

I'm not using any 3rd party programs (apart from mumble ofc) while playing since I don't think it is necessary at all, and critic's could say that it is unfair to use a program that wasn't intended to be used by the developers, and makes you able to skip the in-game mortar calculator.

Most mortar targets are emplacements where you got time to correct your aim, some are from other squad leaders that tell you to hit a grid-keypads. and these grid keypads you should be able to hit without a problem with no help. Then there are snipers on peaks or towers that can be tricky but even with those maps i don't think they are so accurate that they can tell the difference and the deviation will also "help" you if you don't get it 100% right.


On the other hand an app that helps you to keep track of fire missions would be nice, like if you get multiple fire-missions at the same time or if you want to log where your hitting to make a "pattern" of destruction... i don't know .

An Old-school way of printing the maps and using a transparent overlay and a marker would also suffice though