The Lightning can arc its fire over a wall if he knows what he's doing. Factors include an observer to call adjustments, distance from tube to target, vehicle emplacement, arc of fire (angle), etc. Obviously if you're a dildo and you park right outside the wall like most of the n00bs who spam a tower, then you're not going to make that shot, not even firing at the highest arc.
I see the Lightning as a heavy scout vehicle, a light tank that works well with heavy armor as support, and as a mobile mortar (which ironically is what most mortar teams today are... a tube mounted in the troop bay of an APC, sticking out of the top "sunroof" hatch). But a man-portable mortar system would be great for those light-infantry assaults.
To keep it from being a spam weapon, the blast radius would be relatively small, or at least progressively lower from epicenter to end-radius. It should occupy two rifle slots in the armor (like MechCommander Two weapons). It should be at least four cert points, or lumped in with heavy assault. And reinforced armor would obviously be a prerequisite if you have to fill two rifle slots. Ammo cases should also be relatively large, so you can't cram a million rounds into armor, but each ammo crate should contain at least ten rounds. The weapon should be a single-shot, "bolt-action" style weapon with a long reload time (time to clear the tube, remove a mortar cartridge, pick up a new one, adjust fire, and drop a new round in). You can even include a "heat dissipation" cycle, also like Mechwarrior, where the weapon has to cool down after x-amount of rounds. Otherwise dropping a round into an overheated weapon could result in an ammo cook-off, which for big-bore weapons is not pretty.
I'm fairly sure that these 'adjustments' would keep the weapon from being an "uber-|33t" weapon. A mortar is not just another infantry weapon. It's designed to support infantry forces, and it's designed to be a heavy-hitter (versus standard infantry weapons). People complain about not having enough weapons, or too much air or too much armor, blah-blah/yada-yada. Well here you go. Here's a valid, logical weapon.
PS: please stop saying "clips", people. It's called MAGAZINE. A clip is a freaking piece of wire that holds money and papers in place. Only retarded wanna-be ghetto-gangstas say "clip", and I highly doubt anyone here is an OG Thug.
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