IMO KillCam killing the Game

[Gandhi]

It doesn't upset me nearly as much as the new bog standard killwhoring sniper class plus cloak (though I'm ready to wait until beta to see how it plays out before I get too upset about it).

But I do hope we have the option to turn them off and block them. They're kind of nice in a deathmatch style shooter, but for a persistent world shooter like PS2 I can't see them adding anything useful. And I've heard Higby say that modern gamers expect these kinds of 'bells and whistles', and I think that's true for a CoD clone because how those bells and whistles work are one of the only things that set them apart from each other. Planetside already has something that sets it apart from all other shooters on the market. Nobody is going to look at the massive scale meaningful pvp in a persistent world and then walk away because there's no kill cams. It just won't happen.

[Tikuto]

Depends how kill-cam works in PlanetSide 2.

Personally it could be something as simply as being able to pan around from your position and the screen fades-out from which then you can find your killer and report through Vivox in-game VOIP before passing-out.

[magnatron]

i have to say i don't like the whole kill cam thing, I've never like it in all the games i played that had it. that said higby did have a point about it being rather boring to just watch the map screen while you waited to spawn.

so im thinking we find a way to meet in the middle and keep everyone happy. why not put cams locations on high point on the bases themselves, upon death you get linked to a cam nearest to your location and you get to watch a birds eye view of the battle. this will give away a small amount of intel but not many specifics like just witch tree that sniper was in. and it would be more entertaining to watch than a map screen and it would actually make some small amount of sense.

with all that said i don't feel the kill cam will "kill" the game. and i cant help but to wonder if it will help identify hackers any easier.

[Hmr85]

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

What about the hit indicators and tracers?

Any time I tried sniping from places other than the zerg front I'd get return fire within a minute. Often much less.

I fear you're worrying about giving away information you'll already be giving away.

Yeah, because everybodys first reaction to getting shot by a sniper is to immediately turn and look to see where the shot came from.

99% of all players I have shot have turn and ran for cover. Every good sniper knows you do not shoot them straight up in the direction they are looking. You also do not shoot them in the middle of a group where multiple people can follow your round back to you. You work the outskirts. Its the most effective way of killing and keeping your position concealed.

With that said I have no issue with hit indicators or tracers. I believe they need to stay in the game for balance issues and such. But kill cams are just a no.

No to kill cams.

[BlazingSun]

I don't think it would break or kill the game, but it would definitely add nothing to it and can only make it worse. Better leave it out.

[Shogun]

the difference between hit indicator/tracer rounds and a killcam is, that the systems of ps1 only showed the direction a shot was coming from. a killcam shows the exact absolute position of the enemy.

a sniper could shoot and go back to cover before everybody turns around. a killcam will espose him no matter how good his cover is.
also you forget the z axis. the hit indicator only showed left right back and front.
standing on a roof or cliff and firing down as a cloaker left a lot of players dying without being able to find out the source of the bullets because they were looking the right direction, but too low.
a killcam gives away too exact locations and counters any skillbased hiding.

[2coolforu]

KillCams should not be in game

If you don't know why/how you were killed then there's two explanations

1) You weren't paying attention, you forfeit the right to bitch about being killed
2) The enemy put a lot of effort/sneaking into making it so that you didn't realize they were there

Adding KillCams just kills off stealth/positioning and a whole bunch of other tactics, getting a full detail of who killed you just leads to 'revenging' where people blindly spam nades/run at the place they saw the KillCam at. I see it in Bf3 and CoD 4 all the time.

Hell I like it 'cos it means people come running at me and I get more kills, but Planetside is a game I like to play tactically rather than fast-paced FPS style. I think KillCams ruin all tactical planning, the best part of the game, and give a massive boost to blind zerging, the worst part of the game.

The oft-cited defense is to counter campers, but that doesn't apply to an open game. In COD or BF3 where the maps can be pretty tight then the justification is valid. However in Planetside just jump in a jet or go around that place. If you die to the same camper 4 times in a row and think you need a KillCam, you don't, you're just a muppet to run into a certain death area four times over. Flank him, you should have a general idea of where he is unless you were tossing off or something.

[LZachariah]

For me, if the KillCam is just some unspoken aspect of the game, it's a huge immersion-killer AND it changes Planetside 2's feeling of "this is truly a war" to "this is a televised sport, OOOOOOh, INSTANT REPLAYY! M-M-M-M-M-MULTIKILL!"

If SOE wants to have a KillCam feature in the game, it is my strong, STRONG suggestion that they MAKE IT AN IMPLANT. If a player wants their KillCam, let them choose to slot an Implant that gives it to them; that means 1. They have to spend XP or Resources on GETTING one, 2. The KillCam takes up a slot wherein some other Implant could have been, and 3. Players do not have a KillCam by default.

Also, this could restore (some) immersion by saying that the character has a data feed that hacks the killing-enemy's helmet/weapon systems upon the point of death to transmit information to the faction that just lost a soldier, etc. It would at LEAST be better than "OOOOh, ButtKniferXtreme just sniped SexL0rd69! Let's watch it again in SLOOOOOW MMMMMO! AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!"

So- KillCam being an Implant: what do people think?

~Zachariah

[Shogun]

i have no problem with a killcam implant!

would like a tier system for implants. so that not every combination is possible.

so tier one could be darklight OR killcam OR advanced targeting for example.
tier 2 being surge OR heal OR super sniper scope

the main problem concerning implants in ps1 was, that there were only a few good ones, and so almost everybody had darklight.

[LZachariah]

I definitely agree with that, Shogun. I actually LOVE Implants, because to me, the coolest aspect of Sci-Fi has always been cybernetics. Higby DID say that the system for Implants has been changed for Planetside 2, but that it's "pretty slick" and that he thinks we're going to like it.

And I'm encouraged to hear that you like my KillCam Implant idea; I think that would be the best way to give the BF and MW players what they want, preserve some immersion, and still not have KillCams unbalance what is otherwise a very organic, real war.

Other people? Thoughts?

~Zachariah

[Gortha]

Originally Posted by Erendil

My thoughts echo that of many ppl who've already posted. We don't know the specifics of its implementation. But I most likely won't like it - I just don't know yet to what extent...

Generally-speaking I'm not a fan of giving ppl free intel like that without having to put some efforts towards achieving it. IMO the location of enemies shouldn't just be handed to you.

If you want to know the location of the person who killed you and you didn't see or pay attention to the hit location indicators when you were getting shot, the sound of the enemy's weapon getting fired, or the tracers whizzing by you, then you should have to go back to the general area where you got killed and look for the guy.

This especially important for anybody who works away from the meat grinder. Whether you're sniping on the edges of the zerg, backhacking and otherwise causing disruption behind enemy lines, or cleaning up your own back yard, you will often run into situations where there are only a handful of players around, and knowing the location of your killer could make the difference in a mission's success or failure. Even in PS2 where the number of players will presumably be in the thousands.

This!

You described several sitations very good, where a Kill-Cam Intel can make a difference.

Kill Cam "feature" only benefits lazy players,
it´s unnecessary help for stupid ones,
does not help players to evolve, get better.
It´s the "arcarde"-way more and more young players know, from simple games, from console games. One of the features which takes away effort from the player, the players brain.

It´s the console-way.
It´s just noobish.

No Offense!

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by LZachariah

Other people? Thoughts?

I could get behind that. I'm imagining the implant detects the angle of the killing bullet when it entered the flesh and upon death, you get a "bullet-eye-view" that starts at the moment of impact and then "rewinds" it's journey back into the barrel of the gun that fired it (in bullet time, naturally. )

[Zhane]

It's mind blowing to me that people are this worked up over something so minor.

It really doesn't matter either way.

[LZachariah]

Yes, exactly, Vancha! The KillCam being an Implant could give SOE tons of room to weave this game-feature back into the lore, and allow it to add immersion. Should we like, submit this to the Devs?

~Zachariah

[LZachariah]

Originally Posted by Zhane

It's mind blowing to me that people are this worked up over something so minor.

It really doesn't matter either way.

Well, if it doesn't matter, and it's very minor, then you certainly won't spend any time involved in this discussion, so go save your valuable time and read some other thread :-) We will continue talking about it.

Bye bye

~Zachariah