Higby wants to talk about spotting

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mhigby/status/289473901296250880

Discuss


I, for one, believe we should get more of the second picture and less of the first.

3D spotting is good, but the current form gives away:
-Real time location
-Health
-Passengers
-Outfit
-Class

It wouldn't hurt if Doritos were an Inflitrator/LA using Binoculars or special Scopes

And it's shockingly permissive; spamming Q in a general direction can give away targets you would not have seen otherwise:



Moreover, night combat usually turns into shooting at triangles from a distance.

spotting sucks

3derp spotting

im guilty of using it to shoot people i cant even see (through bushes/behind hills etc etc) but id rather it was never thought up and never existed in any game

Spotting only sucks if you're VS, because your night camo starts to fail. The alternative is everyone has glowy spots all over them so there's no hiding in the dark, and I'm all for that until REAL night can be done where everyone is blind, not just the NC and TR towards the VS.

Otherwise, without fail the red Dorito disappears when someone goes around a corner. It's only good if I have a LoS, even if someone else spots the traitor.

I approve of how spotting is now; it adds to the teamplay.
But I approve of an anti-spotting armor in the came section as nanoweave, flak, etc except for Infiltrators.

QSpotting is slightly too easy.

I would love a MARK TARGET spotting to complement q-spotting. Great for vehicles.

I think there should be searchlights as certs, and searchlights should Auto-Spot.

There should be anti-spotting armor for infantry that also protects against proximity and scout radar.

I'm not sure if it does this currently, but you should not be able to see doritos through smoke.

Actually the best would be to take spotting out of the game at all.

Spotting only takes away:

* tactical approach
* surprise
* and especially concealment since the game does not offer that much for infantry


Take it out. I see no benefit to good gameplay with the current option to spam actually spotting and detetcting almost everything what is moving on the map. This is way too simple.

The camo would have actually a point they sell in their shops.

I don't mind spotting for the most part, it's cerainly better then BF3 where the doritos would stay for many seconds even when the enemy went out of LOS.
The only think I would change is that spotting is dependent on what kind of scope one is looking trough, from the hip, iron sights or 1x scopes would only allow for spotting at limited distances while you'd need a sniper scope to spot at extreme ranges.

Personally I'd like to add a way to quickly mark Priority targets for squad mates, subject to the same rules as normal spotting but with a different icon to make it stand out from the 5 other doritos.

In my opinion spotting should be removed for infantry. Keep it for vehicles but I think stealth / camo should matter in the game.

I replied on Twitter suggesting auto-spotting if you fire a weapon 'near' an enemy. Obviously you'd probably want this without the audio component, but guarantee the minimap side of things instead. Perhaps have some sort of smart/rate-limited audio report too. For example if you're firing towards a whole bunch of enemies it should NOT spam "Engineer spotted, MAX spotted, Heavy spotted", but instead just "Multiple enemies spotted", and that only once every 30+ seconds.

The need to actually fire would mean risking more directly giving away your own position to spam it, not to mention wasting ammo if no source of replenishment nearby. And of course you no longer have to multi-chord keys in order to keep moving/sprinting/strafing/jumping, and do a spot at the same time.

I'm not quite sure how I'd feel about the removal of the overhead markers, but I can see it working so long as the minimap clearly shows all spotted for ~15s (at the position they were last spotted, not updating with movements) for all friendlies within reasonable range of them.

Spotting is a necessary evil in my book. You can make it hazy, as in like the minimap shows a ghost of where the person was, but it can be crucial for teamwork to be able to spot targets especially sunderers and make its location known without typing or trying to describe the location over comms.

In Battlefield i was adept at sniping people just by using the spot indicator as a guide. Given the latency problems and draw distance factors its not really as viable in PS2. The thing i would change is make the spotting information be shared with squad/platoon members only or people in close proximity to each other, just not everybody in the area.

It would be nice if squad leaders and/or infilrators in squads could 'designate' priority targets, and that target stay spotted as long as the target is being watched by the designator. That would help pick out tanks or aircraft in squads among a mass of them, making squads more effective in concentrating their fire.

I feel like removing spotting is only a plus for pure twitch players but it's a great way to help your team and pointing out where the enemy is without the need for a microphone or writing a bunch.

I don't think that spotting as it is now is bad. But I would like one thing changed - currently 'q' "spots" enemies as well as friendlies. I want one key for spot enemies, and a sperate key for spot friendlies.

It happens all the time when I'm spamming 'q' trying to spot enemies, and then a friendly Engineer walks in front of me and I yell "I NEED AMMO!!!". No, I don't need ammo actually. As an Engineer, I wonder how many times I hear that in error.

How did they do it in Planetside 1 ? I cant remember this but engineers actually had motion sensors.

Anyway, if they would remove the spotting feature they could sell more camo in their shops and it would have a purpose.

If they remove spotting then it gives lone-wolfers an advantage.

My suggestion:

Spotting works as it does now against targets within 30m. Outside of 30m, only vehicles get spotted. Infantry spotting is possible beyond 30m only by other infantry, and only when using some form of vision magnification.

Maybe even change the base value according to ambient light level.

I also would love to see a new utility object added: binoculars. Binoculars have NV and variable zoom, allow for spotting at much greater distances while you continue to look through the binocs and keep the spotted target zeroed.

Utility for LA or Infiltrator, or maybe even a generic.

Why ? Just use your scopes and scan the area with your team, this brings in more exciting gameplay. Lonewolfs should not be such a big problem. And if they want to make money out of it, sell binocs with range meter. But not night googles or thermal view so they get spottet again too easy.

Spotting should require a 'lockon' style, where you have to keep your cursor near the target while the button is pressed down for x amount of time (say 2 seconds? the length of the audio).

Alternatively, or in conjunction, remove the red triangle above the head of the target and let people work out where the reported target is from the minimap. The minimap would need to be seriously improved though, as right now now it is very difficult to get much information from it - adjustable zoom and more UI sizes would be helpful.

in planetside 1 you had the advanced targeting implant which showed you the health of the people you were looking at - it never 3d spotted enemys for teammates

With everything that still needs to be corrected or implemented right now..... the developers want to discuss spotting ? ! ? !

Wow.... their really in their our Bizarro World.