Insurgent Fire Support Is Lackluster

The posts by @Pakislav got me thinking about how boring the insurgent fire support menagerie really is. I'd like to just break it down here:

Both Security and Insurgents have their own versions of basic explosive and smoke arty. So that's all cool.

Next, comes Security. Security's "special" fire support theme, represented by two fire support options, is map control. This is accomplished by the two helicopter supports which hunt individual exposed targets, in essence forcing everyone into cover and locking down the map for the duration of the helicopter's presence. The A10 strafe which arrives very quickly, also plays into this as it allows for two speedy retaliations on relatively small areas.

Now on to Insurgents... their fire support really doesn't have a "theme" or "strength". It's honestly just a bunch of ways to make things explode. The bombers seem to be counterparts to the strafe, but they're not nearly as effective imo. The rocket barrage is just another arty really. The ied drone is cool, especially now with the whole window thing, but it always gets shot down too easily, rendering it rather useless. If the IED thing really needs to stay, I like @Pakislav's idea of the support calling in a bunch of suicide bomber bots much better than this weird drone thing (even though the entering windows thing is kind of cool).

Given that the Insurgents have free gas masks, I feel like their fire support should make greater use of this than it currently does. Whereas security can lock down the map for a period of time, Insurgents should be able to flush out positions with their unique fire support. The gas from the attacks should diffuse into buildings, making sure that taking cover without a gas mask still wouldn't save the victims from the attack. The current "chemical mortar" seems to be some sort of pulmonary (choking) agent (maybe phosgene or something like that). I'd suggest adding another gas attack of a blistering agent, such as a nitrogen or sulfur mustard gas. This would cause damage to those in contact with it regardless of whether they had a mask on or not (kind of like the incendiary shells in doi) and could be used as area denial. Another possibility could be a nerve agent like sarin/tabun gas which would render players in the gas severely crippled (severe stagger, highly -reduced aim, increased sway, etc) which would allow insurgents in gas masks to more effectively carry out an attack.

I believe that sacrificing the current drone supports in favor of more chemical-based attacks would be ideal. The whole drone thing is kind of weird anyway, and including more unique fire support would give the insurgent forces a clear differentiation from the security forces rather than just trying to create counterparts. Right now, when I play insurgent commander, there's just so many ways to make things blow up that I usually just yolo one of them because it doesn't really matter what I choose. As security, I plan out the fire support more based on the situation. It'd be cool if the same kind of thought went into insurgent fire support.

100% agree on gas diffusing into buildings. That's the entire point of gas and it's completely useless without it.
As for adding more types of gas - it would repeat the problem of 'too much the same' of explosives.

When it comes to drones, maybe the two types could be combined into one drone that drops an IED or two while flying by, or maybe just make it a swarm of IED drones to not let the neat feature of them flying into buildings go to waste. Or just make the drones do targeted grenade drops like IRL instead of a silly carpet bomb run, so that each one drops a nade on someone. At any rate, I feel like at least one drone should go. And the rockets also don't feel necessary. It feels like the insurgents have more firepower than the security and they've got one more support type than them too.

And then adding a squad of bots (with normal load-outs rather than IEDs I feel like.) that go to designated area along with the gas change would really complete the insurgents repertoire. Like I said in the dedicated thread, it mirrors choppers which are controlled by AI as well, marries COOP and PvP in a small way by giving the PvP playerbase a taste of the awesome AI NWI made and plays really well into the theme of insurgents as a faction. What better way to support them than call in reinforcements of local fighters, while security remains defined by big guns?

More fire support makes sense in a realistic way, as suicide bombers have mostly been used by hiding amongst civilians, which we don't have here.

(on top of giving the game an unnecessary extremist feel imho, I wanna feel like there is no good or bad side, just some neutral war where no sides gets painted too extreme)

last edited by Pacalis

Gas needs to go in buildings.

Local militia call-in would be really neat.

The IED drones could be made useful by coming in a pair. One is easy-ish to shoot down. Two are a serious threat.