Higby has spoken: http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/205n66/would_we_freak_out_as_much_over_the_deathminimap/
I think the more important one might be this comment regarding why they're looking into a deathcam (i.e. who's asking for this?): http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/...eak_out_as_much_over_the_deathminimap/cg05rp9
Showing players where they died from does not stop them dying " randomly " in the context that I guess most mean .. Knowing the location of X MBT after it's OHK'd as you left a building doesn't make the actual death any less random ..
You're right of course, like I said in that post it's not a "silver bullet", and we need to do a lot more before the game makes sense to new players from the getgo. We hope this may be enough to make some players think "oh, tanks on that road have a shot on this walkway, i should check for tanks before I walk there" instead of "wtf that was ********!" after a death.
Why is your answer to new players not understanding the dynamics of the game to mitigate the need for situational awareness? I don't mean mitigate in a light sense, I mean completely obliterate the need for people to think about why they died and how to be more aware of their surroundings for future play.
From my own personal experience the biggest issue towards random deaths is vehicles not showing on the mini map .. Most namely Air running Max stealth .. I'm not saying it should be changed in anyway , but if I die to a Lib then I know there is a Lib about , knowing where it was after the fact doesn't change that I already have the information I need to make a sensible judgement call on where to walk or go .. Imo you should be focusing more on tools that help players be proactive rather than reactive .. Since the player needs to die to gather the information .. Closing the barn door after the horse has bolted springs to mind.
Is it a problem of long range engagement distant, or do you have the same "ragequit ratio" in close quarters ? Is it a matter of actually seeing what killed you, or does the problem lie in the feeling of helplessness (killed by a BR100 with a uknown weapon) ? I'm curious, because one should expect to die a lot when joining a new game
ok then. what if we allowed new players a kill cam? make it so it deactivates after BR20. or even have tis system for low BR's only how did the infinite line that was put forth in the roadmap 'fail', leading you to settle on this solution? my main concern here is that the value of knowing an enemy's precise location increases exponentially with situational awareness (and likely, BR) i'm not worried about the BR1-5 set knowing where i am. yes, planet side is HARSH at times, and i feel bad every time i put a round through their skull and they didn't even have a clue. i'm worried about the BR100's who now have everything but a zip code and a street address to send the LOLpod ESF to… because honestly, they probably had a darn good idea by the time the round was leaving their skull.
But that dying is only fun (in the sense you want to do it again) if you can then formulate a plan to not die next time. Making new players figure out how to understand how they died (and the ancillary "Where are the campers?"/"What are the sight lines to my position?" questions) puts a barrier in between them and their plan for the next life. Or to put it in a 'min-max' sort of way, my first 5-10 BRs should actually be spent wandering around and looking at what kills me instead of actually fighting back. That way I can expedite that learning process and get on to the actual game much faster. On the other hand, I can put in a kill-cam (or, kill-map at this point) and show these players the mistake they made. Honestly, a full on 'death cam' showing a shooter's eye view of the kill is the best way I've seen to implement this type of learning tool. Unfortunately, that kills the gameplay for people who find ways to stay hidden. I can't think of any reason that's a bad thing, but they get very upset over it.
Oh, and to be clear, this change will frustrate your existing playerbase far more than you realize. Anyone that stays in a static position for longer than a handful of kills is going to be hunted down REGARDLESS of if the killed enemies ever directly saw where he was. This is frustrating...it's not a tiny map with 16v16 and random spawn points that force position changes constantly; it's an entire continent where people who are able to ambush enemies should absolutely get rewarded for the positioning they worked for. How fun is it going to be for a sniper when he kills me and I tell my squad mates his exact position that he spent 5 minutes circling the enemy lines to get to? He deserved the kill and deserves the vague "guys, there's a sniper somewhere behind us" rather than his EXACT position... You're trying to make new players stay in the game...that's great. Give new characters medkit level 1 and unlock all attachments for the starting infantry weapons so they can play around with the guns to find something they like. Give them better tutorials, a fake mission in the training ground with enemies in various positions they have to spot and kill so they get used to where bad guys could be. Show them how to use the minimap to not relative positions when a blip pops up. Hell, do what's suggested above and give sub BR10s a quadrant that shows the general direction they died from. But don't water it down to a mindless whack a mole for the rest of us.
I like this idea, which has also been presented elsewhere with a similar "softening the blow" entry type deal. If anything you could just have the line constantly and progressively blur as your level progresses ... after all this would promote both team, and personal improvement, rather than leaning on a crutch.
I don't think they'll learn from this. You show them the position of the killer ? Most will rush head on towards him and die again. There's no teaching. Turn each death screen into a mini tutorial. Two tips with each death: -Specific information (about the class/weapon that killed you) -General information (about various tips on tricks and tactics) The game has to explicitely state "This is your first day in the field, recruit. Watch and learn to identify your enemy" As much as anyone would like, a BR1 isn't going to start raking up kills within his first hour of gameplay. You've got to make a deal with new players; they have to acknowledge they probably won't hit anything within their first hour
I would say between BR10-15 but I can live with that idea .. You are helping new players learn by giving them that little bit of extra information but you are not holding their hand or spoon feeding them all the way to BR100.
Let me get this right, the death screen is being added to help new players ? This one of the worst ideas they have had to date....
I have seen a lot of bad things added..... But deathcam or ANYTHING LIKE IT is among the worst if not the worst. I vote no to deathcam or anything like it. let them use their brains.
Very good idea .. Remove the Life review fluff from the death screen and add useful information .. IE: Excuse the random mock up
i like this, but i also liked the little bar chart. so i'm sure there is a way they could be combined. ADDED BENEFIT: this could be a good way to sell new weapons EG: NS-Vandal : versatile light weight scout rifle that can be equally at home in CQB or maing accurate shots at range that said, there needs to be 2 things 1: a warning that the new recruits first few days will be ROUGH and that there are veteran enemy soldiers out there who have seen it all a few times over thanks to rebirthing tech 2: death PREVENTION. showing me who and what killed me is all well and good, but it doesn't help me prevent it from happening again. in stead of showing me where the liberator was, tell me that a sky guard, heavy assault or burster max can shoot it down/scare it off 3: another idea: Battlefield mentors. no army worth its salt would throw a recruit into the fray with no guidance, and the tutorial is woefully inaccurate at informing newbies about the realities of planet side combat (not that it could do better, really) allow players to flag themselves as battlefield mentors. put new players in their squads/platoons. LET US help teach new players the ropes. WE KNOW which doors are murderzones, and are a heck of a lot easier to program. just let the other factions slaughter us there a few times. we'll get it. it's also a lot better than the random zergfits that roam auraxis, because precious few of them actually teach their players anything, and a few even teach their players bad habits all together.
