Squad Spawn Beacons!

[Malorn]

I had asked Higby in the AMAA which seems forever ago about Squad Spawn beacons. Here's the question and Higby's response (in bold).

Do Squad Leaders get a spawn beacon similar to BF2142 that the squad leader can put down/pick up that allows a specific location to be the spawn point for the squad instead of spawning on the squad leader? This was a rather cool feature of BF2142 and allowed the squad leader freedom to move out and attack and not hide in a corner protecting the squad spawn.

Right now you can squad spawn on the squad leader, or if he's speced for it on any member of the squad. We don't have a beacon although it's been discussed.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comment...dustry/c4409a9


, Higby answers one of the questions about where people can spawn in drop pods. The entire answer was quite interesting to me, but the bolded parts stood out in particular.

We want to create a sort of "Exclusion zone" around bases. And the idea if its tied into the territory control system and the influence system then the more influence you have on an area the larger the SOI (Exclusion Zone) that
a) Galaxies can't deploy in
b) Can't place squad spawn beacons in
So you can't squad spawn within that area and you can't place a deployable spawn point there.

So it seems that the squad beacon discussion they were having resulted in the addition of squad spawn beacons into the game. They were one of the features I really liked about BF2142, and I think they are a feature that can help speed up the game and put less necessity on AMS/Deployed Galaxies, though still have the same restrictions.

For those who didn't play BF2142, you could spawn on a squad leader, and the squad leader could optionally carry a beacon that they could throw down and you would spawn on that beacon instead of spawning on the squad leader. This was later given as optional equipment for Recons in BF3.

On the surface this seems like a great idea as a flexible spawn without the heavyweight Galaxy. Squad spawn beacons would also cost a lot less resources than a Galaxy, so they provide a spawn tool for a resource-starved empire.

The downside is the hide-and-seek aspect of hunting down a squad beacon, but like the Battlefield games they could easily make them emit some form of audible sound when you are near them, or show up on certain types of radar, etc.

Lots of options for dealing with them, but I think they are a great tool for keeping up the pace of the game and as a squad-level replacement for AMS / Galaxy. You get the AMS-style spawn but don't get an entire empire spawning out of it like you could with a Galaxy. Seems like it provides a much needed light-spawn source. It worked well in BF2142, and I think it could work very well here too.

Glad to see it's in!