The Worst Attachment Yet - THE FLASHLIGHT

Even in BF3 few people used the flashlight despite its blind feature, because for all it helps in 1v1, it's still a huge, brightly lit target to everyone you aren't aiming at. Really you can only aim at one person at a time; in a game where hundreds of people can be in a battle, that is kind of a disadvantage.

I'd like to see darker nights and flashlights that blind at night (because that is how flashlights work at night) but not during the day. At night your pupil dilate to allow in more ambient light, so when a very bright flashlight hits you, it's even more effective than it is during the day. It can be physically painful and cause you to tear up, worsening the effect.

The only way this would really be a good way to get more than one kill before getting shot to pieces would be if you were working with a squad. Which sounds perfect for PS2. Even with blind I doubt you'd see anywhere near as many flashlights as you'd think.

Back in Counter-Strike: Source I used the flashlight to inform people I'm a friendly when I met another player popping out from behind a corner.
Turning it on for half a second gave the same response from the other player and we didn't friendly fire on each other.

Here we have Doritos, making the light signal a bit obsolete.

As for darker nights- someone needs to figure out how to make night dark for everyone regardless of display settings. Then we could have true darkness.

YUP. Sadly.
The nights are just not dark enough.
But then again if they would be really dark... you would literally shoot
right below the famous "red triangles" since thats how the game roles.

Players are to stupid to see for themself, just hammer "Q" all the time
in the direction they are running and expecting to be filled with enemys.
I did this myself quite a view times and my Soldier saw enemys that I myself would have never noticed.
And I killed them thanks to that.

This feels so lame and wrong but what to do...?
Limiting yourself while knowing others probably wont?
SOE is good no doubt but they still have some things to learn.

This. Blind feature (but only in the dark), darker nights.

I'd like to add two more things:
-considerably longer range. A pocket LED flashlight can illuminate better than the ones in PS2. They should be bright and tight-beam, so they can illuminate areas as distant as 50m.
-dark interiors. I wish there was more dark interior space. That's where flashlights would really come in handy. Maybe make some of the smaller shacks unlit? Maybe have a generator for lights?

Simply making the spotting work at up to 150 meters would help a lot with that "Q" issue.

Or disable it completely from sunset to sunrise.

Dark interiors would be great, and give the flashlight something to do during the day. Although this obviously isn't meant to be a 'scary' game, there is something incredibly tense about clearing a dark building as opposed to a brightly lit building.

Having some control over the lights would be nice, but I'm not sure the best way to do it.

Frankly I'm doubtful that they'd make these kinds of changes to the maps, so I wouldn't get my hopes up. I'd settle for just darker nights and improved flashlights.

flashlights and lights in general are a joke in this game. The day "night" cycle is silly its more like day time then morning then day time then morning and so on... It's never actually night time.

Anyone got a screenie of a flashlight in action in this game?

I'm completely flabbergasted by infiltrators that mount flashlights on their sniper rifles ....

I've got one on my machine gun, I bound it to my mouse wheel so I can blink it at people while I'm shooting them

YES! But then infiltrators would cry on the forums.
SOE can't win no matter what they decide.

It's a Flashlight, it does what flashlight is meant to do.

If you don't want a flashlight don't buy it, but don't come and whine on the forums to ask for it to be something else, like a blinding device, or something that renders pointless a class's main ability like Infiltrator's cloaks... Seriously those ideas are so dumb, I'm waiting for someone to suggest Flashlight should be the new AA, and blind pilots and cause them to instantly crash or cause burn damage to Vanu because of alien DNA or something.. give it a break it's Flashlight nothing more.

Well, if I can't blind ESF or set Vanu on fire with it, can I at least get one with the Bat Symbol on it so I can shine it into the sky and signal to Batman at night time?

So what was darklight vision in Planetside 1? A dumb mechanic or something that added to gameplay..

My main issue with their system is that it uses a rail slot, honestly I think you should get at least two rail items. I can't even use my foregrip and my extended mag together which is just stupid to me. Some times I just do thing b/c of the optics of it, while a flashlight might be useless it can add a visual flare to the gun so if I could use it and still have other actual useful attachments on there I would probably get it. As it is who is going to spend 100 certs on a useless flashlight and then not be able to equip actual useful things like extended mags and foregrips b/c they only allow one rail mount. I honestly don't understand their thinking with that.

I'd be for this tbh... Would be totally awesome. BLOCK WAR.

What about if they Buff flashlights/headlights via "reflective" patches?

Depends on whether or not you were an Infiltrator. It was a special mode you could turn on where at very close range, you could see cloaked Infils, but there was sort of a grey fog on everything over 10 ft. It worked well in PS1 where skilled Infils could do a lot of damage at close range, but I don't think it would really work all that well in PS2, unless they give Infils the Stalker camo back, or shotguns or a close range SMG type gun.

As for all you knuckleheads saying that it's silly to have a flashlight that blinds, please go purchase a military grade LED flashlight, like a Surefire, and shine it in your face. Just because it annoys you doesn't nessacarily make it bad for gameplay.

Floating doritos (3D spotting) have always been the problem here.


How epic and much more cinematic would the battles be if you had to use giant searchlights to illuminate areas instead of taking pot shots at doritos ?

Not mentionning the gameplay elements: Night vision, Flares, Power generators...

^ - Just get any ground vehicle with the headlights on by default. Literally it's the same exact light. Try walking in front of that vehicle and around and inside the vehicle. It doesn't illuminate anything, not even the ground - but yourself, it does illuminate yourself for the enemies.

^- I doubt you've even touched or tried the flashlight - Because it literally does nothing. While it may seem like it's doing something from a spectator's point of view, using it - Gives you no illumination of the ground before you or people in front.

Learn a bit more about the game before you go and assume things.

Been playing here since early August Beta - I doubt you've come close to that, and if you say you had: BS - Almost everyone's been forced to try the Flashlight in Beta, especially during that period that forced you to unlock certain attachments before having others (Flashlight being the first and at one cert.)