Spotting

[Envenom]

I saw a previous thread about this but it's old beans. We have new information thanks to E3, so new thread.

I've been watching the E3 demo and haven't seen anyone spot yet. Perhaps I've just missed it. Has anyone seen this feature used yet? Does anyone know how this function works? Is it 3D spotting like in the BF series or is just a mini map icon?

Can anyone confirm this? Does anyone have any information about this?

Thanks!

[Top Sgt]

yes you can spot. marg just said so on livestream. I dunno what button it is yet however

[Xyntech]

Q to spot.

I hope if they keep it, they make it an Infiltrator specific ability. Would be pretty cool then.

[MacXXcaM]

As long as it's no BF3 style 3D spotting I'm okay with it.

[SoNaR]

Think I remember them saying it was "Q" to spot, over the live stream... Guess the people playing the demo just didn't realize there was a spot function. :P

It's to bad too, would have liked to see how it worked. :/

[Envenom]

3D + minimap?

[Bags]

The vehicles were all on minimap, but spotting put a tiny, faded triangle over their head. Even at night I had trouble seeing it on things, unlike BF3 where it's a huge glowing beacon even during the day.

[Pella]

Soon as your spotted in PS2 your going to be lit up by 300 players.

BF3 was bad enough on a 32 player map.

Will see how Beta goes.

[Bags]

Soon as your spotted in PS2 your going to be lit up by 300 players.

BF3 was bad enough on a 32 player map.

Will see how Beta goes.

Whoa, squads can have 300 players now? Because last we heard, Spotting was squad based or a small AOE around yourself if you certed it as recon.

[megamold]

Soon as your spotted in PS2 your going to be lit up by 300 players.

BF3 was bad enough on a 32 player map.

Will see how Beta goes.

they said spotting is something that is for your squad only, so only a max of 10 people will see a spot

[Pella]

Whoa, squads can have 300 players now? Because last we heard, Spotting was squad based or a small AOE around yourself if you certed it as recon.

Fair comment. i missed that.

[Xyntech]

Whoa, squads can have 300 players now? Because last we heard, Spotting was squad based or a small AOE around yourself if you certed it as recon.

Cool. Missed that. Good to know.

Sounds like spotting will be pretty decent.

[Logri]

Nice, I heard them talk about spotting as wel during the stream, and I was curious as to what spotting actually is... now I know, interesting idea, I like it.

[Soothsayer]

It was also said that as an infiltrator you can spec into the spotting cert tree and open it up to a wider amount of people than your squad (like people in your immediate vicinity.)

[Turdicus]

Even with the beacon above players it was extremely difficult to hit them at night. In the day 3 stream a sniper kept shooting under a beacon where he thought the player would be because it was impossible to see the player himself. Needless to say there was much missing

[Praetor]

Whoa, squads can have 300 players now? Because last we heard, Spotting was squad based or a small AOE around yourself if you certed it as recon.

This is a big sigh of relief for me. Is this definite?

[ThermalReaper]

This is hard to ask but can someone post stills of the parts with spotting?

And unless it's not a "FRESH MEAT HERE" sign on spotting, I'm fine.

[Chinchy]

All I can say is I'm happy no one played the very whored around "Immersion breaking" card because IMO its the future and I would expect a tagging mechanic for your hud lol. Oh also a cloakers grenade that would show the the enemies standing near it in wire-frame through walls would be Cool.

[Knightwyvern]

Mag did say today that they are thinking of making the Infil's spotting ability more powerful than the other classes to reinforce it as a scouting/recon class. I love this idea, I hope it makes it in.

[Haro]

This is kinda the same, kinda different, but I hope the laser designator from PS1 comes back in one form or another. Lase and area or building that you want tanks or aircraft to pound. Squad leader perk? Infiltrator device? I don't know, but I thought it was underused in the last game, and it'd be a cool feature in this game.

[Envenom]

You know, coming from a Battlefield background I've always liked open 3D spotting. But after reading some of the comments and thinking about it more I really like the idea that only Infils can spot. It really re-enforces the 'scout' role and gives them a better more defined purpose.

Damnit PS! You're slowly rubbing off on me. :cry:

[Knightwyvern]

This is kinda the same, kinda different, but I hope the laser designator from PS1 comes back in one form or another. Lase and area or building that you want tanks or aircraft to pound. Squad leader perk? Infiltrator device? I don't know, but I thought it was underused in the last game, and it'd be a cool feature in this game.

I agree; I'd love to see a bunch of utility items and abilities like this. It helps break up the monotony of just shooting all the time.

[wasdie]

Apparently it's not the same as spotting in BF3. It's more localize or squad based.

[Zulthus]

Damnit PS! You're slowly rubbing off on me. :cry:

Good... good...

http://www.spudlicious.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Emperor-Palpatine.jpg





No to doritos, please. Minimap is fine.

[GoldDragon]

On the note of the Laze Pointer - I too would love to see that come back in some way. Would be a neat SL/Scout device that missiles could lock onto. Have a scout designate the target and a heavy squad light it up with guided rockets.

In terms of spotting mechanics, I'd say it was pretty quickly covered here, lol. Didn't take much to narrow my concerns. But as they were;

-To easy to spam the spot button and ID enemies without actually seeing them
-Spot makes people die even faster than the already reduced TTK
-Spot shouldn't be able to be used at a way for snipers to guarantee headshots
-Spot should be limited to a localized area/number of people
-Spotting should not become a gamebreaker, just a tactical device

For the most part, all of those things were covered so... Beta plz :D

[Gonefshn]

Spotting is very similar to Killcam in many ways. We saw how they removed the killcam and added the killstream basically just because of the feedback of this community.

As it stood in the E3 Demo they said it was Q to spot (same as BF3) and I only really noticed dots on the map but it might also 3D spot.

Either way. They changed kill cams and in Beta people will be very outspoken about spotting. Rest assured they will listen and if 3D spotting is a huge issue they aren't going to make it work that way. Unlike BF3 they want to promote tactics and make sure it's not too easy for you to be "found out" so to speak. Thus removing killcam.

I trust the devs on this, don't freak out if it starts off as 3D when beta launches.

[Bags]

Spotting is very similar to Killcam in many ways.

Not really, killcam is about giving info to you for dying.

[Stardouser]

Whoa, squads can have 300 players now? Because last we heard, Spotting was squad based or a small AOE around yourself if you certed it as recon.

Not believing it til I see it. Til then it's faction wide.

And Killcam gives you free info after death, 3D spotting gives you free info above and beyond 2d spotting before death.

[colorpilot]

I hate spotting with a passion, i really think it detracts a lot from the game, but that's just me. I could bare it if it was a class specific(infiltrator) thing as already mentioned.

just my 2 cents ^^:doh:

[Bags]

Not believing it til I see it. Til then it's faction wide.

Sense is often lost on the senseless.

[Synapse]

Mag did say today that they are thinking of making the Infil's spotting ability more powerful than the other classes to reinforce it as a scouting/recon class. I love this idea, I hope it makes it in.

Quoting for emphasis. SOE please take this idea seriously.

[Graywolves]

I didn't see it used at all. If it is a tiny triangle that's pretty good. Definitely needed something a lot smaller than that google maps marker.


The main purpose of spotting, IMO, should be to grab attention to an aircraft of a high value target. Sure there are other uses for it but I think that is when it should be most effective, especially at night.

Focus Firing MAXes could be useful too. We'll see.

[goneglockin]

Spotting, as anything other than a fixed map marker that indicates where you WERE, is completely UNACCEPTABLE.

The notion of being able to move your mouse randomly around the screen while pressing Q, which occasionally causes some poor bastard to receive a triangle over his head that not only says SHOOT HERE, but follows him around- is the stupidest most misguided thing to ever come out of modern shooters.

I first noticed it in BFBC2 because of all the god damn foilage. People were nearly invisible. It will not be necessary in that form in this game, and it was an especially poor choice on the part of DICE for ever making people think it was something that ought to be in games.

There are already too many ways to get radar in FPS games as it is, and literally putting a floating marker over someone's head; excusing the average console gamer from even having to THINK about how positional data on a minimap translates into a location on his field of view- is the ultimate in LAZINESS and STUPIDITY.

[NoKitty]

I'm gonna take a swing at balancing this just for kicks:

all players can hit Q to put a target on the 2d map for their squad/platoon

all players can hit Q to put an enemy vehicle on 2d map for whole faction

infils who spec recon can hit Q and give 2d positions to whole faction

recon infils can hit Q and give the 3d marker to enemies, but only visible to squad/platoon, and only lasting a few seconds

recon infils have scanner nades that give live 3d (wireframe/profile/outline) positioning to any enemy with direct line of sight to the nade, and it only last for a limited period unlike the recon's scanners in battlefield BC2

[DayOne]

How about some sort of device that infils can cert into that allows them to place a HuD icon for their squad/platoon that basically mean "enemies here".

Now, this does NOT mean that there actually ARE enemies there. The infil could place this marker ANYWHERE but you have to trust in them that they are placing it over enemies.

[meiam]

How about just having a 0.5 sec CD on putting the marker on people, so spamming the button does virtually nothing.

Spotting should exist, it's there to make sure scout actually matters, otherwise you have a scout go in and say "there's a bunch of people here" no s**t, right next to the respawn, who would have know?

Heck if in beta it really turn out to be broken, just have it be an actual weapon that you need to have out to spot