Although not very many people are using the special grenades (and by not many, I mean I rarely get hit with them), in time I assume we will see them in use a lot more. What I propose is to add an automatic callout for special grenades to spare friendlies from their effects by using something like "Fire in the hole!" when the grenade is thrown. An audible warning like when throwing a Flash Grenade, your avatar says in his or her nifty voice "Flash Bang!", or when a Concussion Grenade is thrown, "Concussion!", or "Subduing Room!". A different callout per grenade type would be better than a universal warning. I'm not particular about what phrase it would be necessarily, but specialty grenades are extremely useful for confusing enemies, but they often result in subduing friendly troops as well.
It worked in AVA, but that was a 8 vs 8 instance where the person closest to the grenade called it out. Planetside 2 has so many people, that it wouldn't really know who exactly called out the grenade. Also red flashing ball means get out of there.
Maybe these special grenades would be more popular if the physics weren't utterly batty at times. Nothing more annoying than having a EMP bouncing off some invisible object and flying back into ones own face.... or friendly squad.
Yes, the "red flashing ball" does mean that a grenade is present, but special grenades do not have the red flashing light on them to warn you so I'd be willing to bet players flash/concussion friendlies as often as they do enemies. Adding a flashing light to them would defeat the purpose by warning the enemy those types of grenades are incoming. It would require the voice actors to make more audio, as well as some coding time per class, but I see it as a team benefit. Not everyone is throwing special grenades at the same time, so I can't see how it would be a problem anymore than everyone calling out the same enemies, "HOSTILE LIGHT ASSUALT TROOPER SPOTTED!".
Would be cool if they just added a new voice that whenever you threw a grenade it would say something like, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" or "FLASH OUT!" Depending on the grenade type, of course. I wouldn't mind the shout giving my position away, because the grenade itself will almost certainly do that anyway.
I have, when in the spawn room of a bio lab, thrown a grenade out, only to find that another player was standing inside me. The grenade went directly behind me and killed 9 friendlies. I apologised profusely. And the way that they are thrown slightly off center took me a few throws to figure out.
I think we should be able to control the distance we throw the grenades other than angle. tap= grenade toss, hold down for 1 second=full throw.
That or the red aura that we normally reserve for frag grenades as a whole finds itself utilized as a green aura visible to friendlies when you chuck your flashbang/what have you. Run into a room. Look down. See a red circle. React as normal (poop self/jump around). Run into a room. Look down. See a green circle. Run away. Turn around. Kill flashed enemy. Yay.
