In case folks lurking here don't reddit, I saw this today. I used to think smoke was viable... but... what shockingly inconsistent result from High to Low settings. I normally play on high settings so Iv never actually seen how bad it was. I really think that a tactical tool like this has to be consistent between graphic settings. In the same way I see Decoys on infiltrator as a waste of time - and worthless because I can't know exactly what my enemy is going to see. The decoy dot changes for every players mini map, and since you can't reliably predict the outcome it kinda ruins that grenades tactical advantage. Based on your personal experience do you still find smoke useful? What would you change about it?
Wow, I didn't know it was that bad. I always considered smoke useless, but not because of its inconsistency on different graphical setting, or .ini exploits making it invisible. I never liked smoke just because it doesn't do that much in the game of minimap markers, nameplates and doritos, bright tracers and muzzle flashes and faction specific voices.
Wow... that's... really stupid... But at the same time, I understand it. Certain computers could not handle the sheer amount of smoke particles that were being thrown around on High, and so they tuned it down for Low and Medium. I still have lower FPS when Smoke related things are on screen on High than i do with no Smoke. Same goes for other games like Gmod and such. It's a Particle issue, and I doubt they will even attempt to fix it, since stuff like IR/NV exists to completely neuter Smoke. Hell, if it's that useless, just remove Smoke entirely!
Interesting. Maybe have smoke make a longer lasting "aoe" which removes all spots within its range, and makes people undetectable on the map by motion spotters / radar darts while concealed within them. As an infiltrator - as long as I know "oh hey theres smoke here" then its perfectly fine to EXPECT my radar wont be functioning 100% accurately in that area. Having that "tell" of when to expect inconsistency makes for tactical gameplay and counters. Even some slight foggy visual ambiguity would be nice. Even if DBG can't make smoke opaque for lower settings, and more like a fog its not a total waste. Even if a revamped smoke grenade was not entirely concealing your body, as long as the smoke lasted long enough so you could make an ambush/ flank that would be better. Id really like to see LAs have something tactical like our EMP's. This might be a solution for teamwork, and improve your level of concealment. If you think about it - well placed smoke could cover the signature of a Max Crash to reduce the warning / reaction time of enemies. It could also allow Squad leaders to move their units with less casualties. It would be amazing if smoke was something people actually used for real advantage. Sneaking up on tanks ect. There would be drawbacks though, HS-NV for example not being able to spot inside the smoke. I'm not sure how that would work.
I want a gas grenade like the one from MAG on consoles. Great for dispersing large groups of enemies but that's not a fix for the issue you're showing here.
Yeah, we've discussed this possibility. The best part is that it should be relatively easy to implement, since all the modifiers are already in the game - sensor shield protects from radar detection and cloak removes and protects against spotting. Just assign these qualities to anyone inside the smoke cloud.
And for lower settings, the smoke would be just an ugly sphere-ish, opaque gray thing. I know it would look terrible, but hey - if you play on low, YOU AGREE to see the game in the most basic shape. If the smoke on low was just a solid gray wall (with that no-radar and no-spotting features) it would work just as fine. It's absolutely unacceptable for such a tactical tool to be countered by low settings.
I used to do scripting for combat stuff in Second Life and the way I got past people turning particles off but allowing smoke grenades to provide a screening of movement was that I essentially (in terms of equivalence) made something like a big block or sphere like a spawn door that had smoke textures on it. I'm sure with their arters (artists lol) they could come up w/ a scaling smoke texture that can be applied to the inside polygons of a sphere or box that has an animated texture. The outside of the sphere or box would be able to be seen through, creating the illusion of depth while also simmulating a sprite. You would have these only around the core of the smoke grenade and use particles for the rest. Either way it would provide a visual mask at distance. The other thing you can do it make it like an inverse flash bang. When you walk into the 'smoke cloud's area of effect, it would make your screen get darker. It would also take a few seconds to come back after you move out of its area of effect.
