Visual Combat

[Traak]

Seeing, as we do, so very, very very many people abusing radar, and its basic mechanics, how about making the new game have a revolutionary new paradigm:

You actually have to see, or hear, an enemy to know that he is there. I know this is how real combat works, and how almost every other shooter game ever created works, but in spite of all that, it might actually work in Planetside 2.

Or, because of that, it might be obvious that it works in Planetside 2.

By having the ground-breaking technology of actually having to physically see your opponents, instead of using an implant, or plane radar that is nowhere near you, or your vast list of cheats to be able to easily and lazily pinpoint enemies, I suggest a new, revolutionary breakthrough.

Visual Combat. Yes, yes, I know that the fact that almost every other shooter game from the past, present, or future uses this model, and that some of them are vastly more successful than PS1 could ever dream about, but that won't prevent it from working in PS2!

By making it so that positional data for people you aren't in direct line of sight of is not sent to you, it would also reduce the network bandwidth needed to play the game.

In a courtyard assault, for example, when the base is teeming with enemies, you don't need to have the occasionally-refreshed position of every single one of possibly 600 players sent to your computer. What you need is the exact positions of the ones you can actually see.

If you want to know who or what is behind that barrier, then, as CRAZY as this may sound to corner-campers, you WILL ACTUALLY HAVE TO GO LOOK!

I know, this is an amazing concept, one that may be worthy of introducing to the armed forces of the world, if they don't already practice it.

it will drastically reduce the network traffic of the game, and make the refresh times for the soldiers you can see be much lower.

When you are using grenades to search for enemies around corners or behind barriers, you don't need the positional data of the person you are trying to attack. You just need to have the grenade register damage on the person. This does not require you, or anyone else in the game, to be sent his positional data.

It is only when they are visible that you need their positional data.

By eliminating soldiers of any type showing up on radar, and reserving radar for vehicles ONLY, network utilization drops, and gameplay quality increases, because the combat will be far more even. You don't know what or who is lurking around that corner. You don't know if there is one person or two hundred. Stealth, not just for cloakers, but for ANYBODY rises.

Why should we have to slither around crouch-walking like a tortoise because some jackass has a radar cheat, or some regular player, few as those are, has Audio Amp? Or a mosquito overhead? or an Interlink? This bogs the pace of combat down and makes it so people have to spend time slowly creeping up on an enemy instead of being able to charge in and actually do some SHOOTING.

Radar is fine. If you are in a radar-equipped vehicle. But, it should show vehicles only, not soldiers of any type. And only if the vehicle is not blocked from the radar's line of sight, you know, like real radar. A tank behind 500 trees in a forest should not show up on your radar. You should see, surprise of surprises, a FOREST. If you are at an altitude that the only cover the tank has is visual (because tree leaves cover, visually, but do not block radar) then it would show up on the radar. But only YOUR radar, not your radar and every single other player in the entire area.

This isn't fighting blind. It is fighting actually having to use your eyes and ears. on the main screen, not just staring at some radar screen using whatever implants, augmentations, or just plain cheats are out there.

Also, by not sending positional data to players unless they are actually LOOKING at a target, it slams the door shut for inevitable attempts to produce cheats that capitalize on that. You can't find the position of a player using cheats when the data is just NOT BEING SENT to your computer.

You can listen for doors, you can listen for soldier sounds, and you can LOOK. Look for fires coming from that direction, look for other soldiers dying in that area, but actually LOOK and LISTEN.

Our video cards do this all the time. They analyze what is visible from our perspective, and paint it on the screen, discarding all else, on the fly, at 120 frames per second or so. We can do the same or a similar thing with positional data as we do with visual, but with obviously far less computing power necessary. Sony can send positional data as we need it, not inundate us with it and have our computer use what it can. And cheaters make hacks that use more than they should.

But, the main point isn't cheats using the positional data. It's gameplay. Gameplay where you actually see your opponents or hear them, and have to rely on that to kill them is far better for far more people than the game as it exists now. The game now mainly rewards cheaters, and to a far lesser extent, cowards and campers. Far down the list, there are some small rewards for others.

[wildcat140679]

Didn't planetside already have a similar system? with the exception of the interlink facility, motion sensors and vehicles, enemies only showed up on map if you could actually see them. Audio implant was for personal use and didn't aid allies.

[DviddLeff]

I don't want enemy infantry appear on radar unless they have been spotted by friendly troops, in a system similar to that in recent BF games.

Enemy vehicles I am happy with, especially when you will probably be able to hear them anyway.