Nobody goes for the Spawn Beacons

So many times this last week I have seen bases taken or battles that go on and on - simply because nobody bothers to take out the enemy spawn beacon.

Seriously - it's a big shimmering blue/red/purple thing in the sky - it's not hard to miss.

They even get planted on a tower roof - yet everyone just sits on the landing platform wondering why they are getting shot in the back.

Maybe they enjoy the pretty colors as they're tripping on LSD, speaking of which cannot wait for Autumn shroom season

The charitable side of me assumes potato settings. Particles at minimum/off = what beacon?

It's that, or far too many people are a disturbing combination of oblivious and apathetic.

It's crazy - I have ended up having to put together an infiltrator loadout specifically to deal with them.

CQC weapons "just in case I get caught on the hop" plus EMP nades and a bandolier.

A lot of the time it can be a suicide run - but it often turns the tide of a battle.

wth? my beacons go down all the time.

I blame all the infiltrators that don't throw EMPs on enemy deployables.

I guess they enjoy the farm too much to care for a lost base. Gotta rake in those certs...

I only recently learned that EMP nades did that. Until then - I used to do it the old fashioned way with my LA.

They have made my job so much easier - no more climbing to the top of towers - just bung an EMP nade up there - job jobbed

There is a rendering bug involved with spawn beacons that presumably not many know about.
Sometimes it just doesnt render the beam for you.

I know this as i play next to my brother when he is playing and can see his screen very easily, there are many times that one of us sees a beacon and the other doesnt.
As most people put them in little hidden places to make shooting the object as hard as possible if the beam doesnt render you've no way of knowing its there other than a lucky spot.

This happens quite often so im not suprised you see many players not noticing them, you probably miss just as many as they do unfortunately.

One wonders if this were fixed whether the spawn beacon would suddenly feel more vulnerable.

If the beacon is right up top the tower how do you get an emp nade up that high?

More often than not within a minute of yelling in chat that there is an enemy spawn beacon on the roof...it gets taken care of by a LA.

'one hell of a shot.
As the EMP pierces through, you just need to get the edge of the explosion to reach in any case.
So maybe a hill, a jump, top of a vehicle.
In the case, an LA can't reach the tower without being picked off, or they're not available.
Or it's raining men, and you want a chance of magnetic bliss.

On a tower like the crown - simply stand on one of the ramps leading to the landing platforms. Make sure you are on the side closest to where the beacon appears to be (they are usually off centre).

The lob an EMP nade towards the thicker of the two banners on the tower.

The explosion will be wide enough to knock the beacon out.

Much faster than LAing it up the tower.

I guess I shouldn't have given up so easy...whenever there was a beacon placed dead centre on the tower roof no matter what I tried I couldn't get an emp blast to hit it. Looking forward to my next tower fight!

Because everyone in Planetside 2 is so focused on killing that only a few literally pay attention to what happens and to the battle flow. No one cares if the base will be captured or not, it's just a KDR padding meatgrinder.

I blame those stupid Infiltrators all the time. They always save their EMP grenades for the next target so they're sure they can kill it with their Armistice / Blitzkrieg / Eridani, but they never use one to help their mates.

Whenever I play infiltrator, I make it my mission to take out ever deployable I see, especially beacons, which people seem to love putting them on the top of towers.

What's a spawn beacon?

It's a device that can be planted outside (it is deployed in much the same way as a motion detector or a medic regen device).

It projects a faction coloured beam up into the sky and allows squad members to drop pod into the area without the need for a Sundy.

Take a look at this video - the beacon is the bright blue beam on top of the bridge (VS one is purple, TR one is Red). If you see one of these - make it a priority to take it out - until you do, the enemy can spawn indefinitely into the area even if you capture the base or take out all of the sundys.

The infiltrators are the worst, they only play for their own benefit without doing anything for their partners and killing you in the most cowardly way possible.

Disgusting

I think I found a description of this behaviour. It's a "diffusion of responsibility".
The more people you have, the more people assumes that others either are responsible for taking action.