I go trooper and shoot people and do what Gwynzer tells me to do /fs

Also Gwynzer means that in small battles that you shouldn't end the game by capping a CP by sneaking around the side of the map where a small number of people can't all guard.

Exactly. To bring up an example from a chat I had with Ty on the issue:

Not so long ago I was holed up on that Imperial CP hill on Bestine 32. You know, the one the Rebels have to take after securing the little fort in the city itself. I was HWS, and our team was pinned by a single sniper in the city. He was down there somewhere, popping off shots at whoever got out of cover, and our team was pretty much pinned down. The second you got out of cover, you got shot. I set up a shield, but still couldn't tell where the shots were coming from (I know the beam is visible, but you have to be kinda off to the side to see it clearly, and trying to make it out through a shield makes it twice as hard). I think that in the end I and some others actually saw where in the expanse of buildings below us the sniper was, but still failed to take him down. He got on the forums afterwards and bragged - rightfully - about how much disruption he had caused in our team.

Let's say it was me in the sniper's situation, onll with a PMG:

I take up position somewhere in the city. I see the targets up on the hill, measure the distance with my pistol, and fire off a salvo to get a feel for how I have to aim to hit target. In doing so, I immediately give away my exact map position as the enemy sees the bolts travel from me to them. The bolts also give them a chance to evade and take cover - the PMG doesn't have the "instantly shoot people the second they get out from under the shield" ability of the disruptor. I can adjust my position, but then I have to -once more- find out how high to aim to hit the target I'm shooting at (let me remind you, for comparison, that there is no wind or bullet drop in FS - all a sniper has to do is put his crosshairs on you and fire). Bottom line is, provided I stick with 'sniping' with the PMG (that is, not bombarding but just trying to aim for players I can actually see), I may do some damage while being continuously pelted with fire, though I won't score nearly as many kills as I would with a sniper rifle. Heck, if I just bombard the CP area, I'll score far less kills than I would with a sniper rifle.

I return to the forums and receive not honours for single-handedly keeping the enemy team suppressed, but bitching for (quote) sitting back without helping my team, cowardly using a skilless noob weapon (unquote).

My point is, the PMG may be a lot of things, but skilless is the last thing it is. Even when you're bombarding a target you can't see, you have to keep checking the minimap for targets and friendlies. Compare the procedure in my scenario above with lying down somewhere comfortably, holding shift, putting the crosshairs on the enemy's head, and hitting fire.

EDIT: As a side note, FPS games have a lot of artillery weapons other than mortars - FS itself has the Mortar Freerunner, for one, which has an even longer range, and more blast power, than the PMG, and is easier to use, what with the fact that it keeps track of how long the shots travel for you. Yet I've never been referred to as cowardly when bombarding someone with the Mortar Freerunner, nor, for that matter, with any other artillery piece in any other FPS game. Funny, that.

If I was to point to the #1 unfair thing with the PMG, I'd say it's the shield. Mortar infantry can climb up to some elevated position like the tower on Bestine, place a shield, and fire shots in an arc over it without ever having to get out of cover. With this in mind, if I was to design the FS classes from the ground up, I'd probably have had the DEMP and PMG trade classes. This would give mortar infantry nearly infinite ammo from the generator, but make them far more vulnerable.

I could get into details here on what I agree and disagree with, but I'm fine with limiting the mortar squad to firing at people away from Control Points (shielded defensive positions, snipers, advancing infantry and so on.

Noob weapons tend to be anything that makes a pretty bang. Thats why FS prevents nade spamming, far too many are happy to sit near ammo and continually throw out nades cause its more powerful and requires less skill than actually aiming at someone with a weapon. That is perhaps HWS biggest let down, both the rocket launcher and the mortar are the weapons with the most available bang. So people choose those in order to create lots of bangs and damage without having to really gain any skill with the weapon.

I get recognised for being a git. Does that count?

Bite my shiny metal Tie Fighter!