[Feedback] New Spotting

NewSith · 2013-02-03, 10:09 AM

I should say, that I very much approve the new spotting system. It has good amount of pros against the older system. I guess I should start with cons, since there's really only 2 of them:

Cons:

Snipers Have An advantage
You cannot spot-spam snipers anymore, thus finding them is now hard, which gives them the said advantage. This even more disbalances it, since sniper cloak unspots them.
Not being able to spot several enemies
It makes spotting rather useless, since you usually spot only what you are about to attack yourself.

Pros:

Spotting vehicles works as priority targeting
You spot one vehicle and you see craploads of friendly missiles heading to its direction. This is a huge improvement from being able to mark every single vehicle, that wasn't even close to be able of completing such task. This is what you may call metagame actually.
Night combat evolved
Spot-spamming no longer works at night and that makes night combat harder. It is especially visible with snipers.
Reduced vehicle camping
Since vehicles can still spam projectiles, but they have to waste their ammo instead of shooting on sight.
Spotting devices made useful
Now with so poor infantry spotting, having tools like Scout Radar and Recon Detect Device is worth it.

Tweaks still needed:

Adding spotting sound
Having some short sound like a tick or static for spotting empty space would really help to control the spotting.
Adding spotting stock
From what I understand, as of now, you can only spot once per thirty seconds. It's reasonable when in massive combat, but in smaller engagement, spotting becomes obsolete. I suggest adding 1 more spot to the stock or even 2 more and make it cost certpoints (upgradable in "universal certs")
Making spotting "penetrate" targets
I was trying to spot an enemy Sunderer, but then en enemy medic hopped into my sights and as a result I spotted a medic. Which was a waste, considering the current spot stock.
Making zoomed mode spot radius slightly wider
So I perfectly understand, why you should be precision-spot from the distance, but in zoomed mode al that distance is reduced by FoV factor. Right now it makes spotting people with 4x-plus scope harder than actually sniping them.

EDIT: Clarification, 30 seconds info is uninformed, exagerrated guess. Don't take it too seriously. The spottable silhouettes themselves are rather buggy atm, as a whole.

superseohyun · 2013-02-03, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by NewSith

Night combat evolved
Spot-spamming no longer works at night and that makes night combat harder. It is especially visible with snipers.

god damn VS color at night...

ShadetheDruid · 2013-02-03, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by NewSith

[*]Snipers Have An advantage
You cannot spot-spam snipers anymore, thus finding them is now hard, which gives them the said advantage. This even more disbalances it, since sniper cloak unspots them.

I wouldn't call that a "con", so much as people relying on spamming Q will actually have to make an effort to find people who have worked at being sneaky and hidden.

And I say that as someone who doesn't use Q anyway (I like to be sneaky

). People just need to learn to use non-cheesy methods to find snipers, like following their bullet trails.

NewSith · 2013-02-03, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by ShadetheDruid

I wouldn't call that a "con", so much as people relying on spamming Q will actually have to make an effort to find people who have worked at being sneaky and hidden.

And I say that as someone who doesn't use Q anyway (I like to be sneaky

). People just need to learn to use non-cheesy methods to find snipers, like following their bullet trails.

One or two snipers is okay, but...

It's a con since it's a catch 22 - People play snipers because they are hard to spot because there are many other snipers

Palerion · 2013-02-03, 12:01 PM

The only thing that irritates me about the system is, as you said, you can't spot groups of enemies.

I would like to be able to warn my teammates when 3 galaxies are incoming, too.

Personally I had no problem with the old system, just as long as they made it require more precise aim, I think it would have been fine.

almalino · 2013-02-03, 12:02 PM

30 seconds cooldown after single spotting? Wow!

I play infiltrator and this is welcomed change

Zulthus · 2013-02-03, 12:06 PM

I am extremely happy with this change. Spotting is a crutch and easymode button. You should be on teamspeak or in-game VOIP with your teammates to call out enemies.

NotTheMomma · 2013-02-03, 12:31 PM

Spotting is still unreliable to the point that I consider it broken.

I can spot a tiny little, dodging (non-infiltrator) infantry character 120 meters away. But a giant Galaxy slowly flying straight for the base? Nope, not until it's dropping its load right on top of you. Center target, doesn't matter. Happened three times yesterday. And no, these were relatively low-flying, not even close to the flight ceiling.

Same thing with tanks. I can see the entire tank. It's 30-40 meters away. I am pressing Q with the reticule in the center of the tank (sights up). No spot. Even more ridiculously, there's a tank right outside the spawn room. I can see 50-75% of the tank (Edit: I am IN the spawn room. It is like, 6 meters away!). Can I spot it to put it on the minimap so people don't run out of that side of the spawn room? No.

But, on the other hand, I can spot an ESF ground-skimming at full speed over the base without even remotely centering on it.

Broken.

Of course, with enemy vehicles showing on the minimap that aren't even there, because I would be standing inside them if they were, this probably isn't a priority right now, lol.

psijaka · 2013-02-03, 12:52 PM

Are you sure about the 30 second thing, Sith? I'm sure I've successfully spotted sucessive targets faster than that. I thought that a spot cooldown was only going to be activated if people spammed spot when no-one was there.

Overall, I'm hugely in favour of the changes; being able to spam spot was a pretty cheap game mechanic. But a bit more work needed; should be able to spot multiple enemies at once within a small "cone of view", in my opinion.

NotTheMomma · 2013-02-03, 01:08 PM

Yeah, I forgot to mention that 30 second thing isn't what is happening now. I can spot a different infantry player at least as quickly as every few seconds. But, Q several times on something that's not spotting properly, and you get the faint buzzer noise.

NewSith · 2013-02-03, 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by psijaka

Are you sure about the 30 second thing, Sith? I'm sure I've successfully spotted sucessive targets faster than that. I thought that a spot cooldown was only going to be activated if people spammed spot when no-one was there.

I'm not, hence the "From what I understand" expression.

All I know is:

Repeated spotting without a valid target will now put your ability to spot on cooldown.
Spotting an enemy at 30+ meters now has to be more precise.
You now have to be closer to the center of the target to see their nameplate.

But it's just that I spot somebody and after that I can't spot the next target. That must be a bug.

Athan · 2013-02-03, 02:00 PM

I keep suggesting that targets be auto-spotted when you hit them with direct fire (splash doesn't count). No, I don't think this should be voiced, it would get spammy, but they should show up on the minimap and have nameplates active.

It both takes away the cognitive/control load of doing the spotting manually and makes sense because if you hit them you'll have had a hit indication and definitely know they're there even if you were just spraying and praying (which will cost you ammo).

Note we should still have the manual spotting. I've not played enough under Update 2 to have an opinion on the changes, but it did seem decidedly harder to spot at all, even at medium ranges.

Hamma · 2013-02-03, 02:08 PM

I personally like the new changes.

Consumer · 2013-02-04, 04:54 AM

I'm having trouble spotting moving targets. It often seems like I have to lead in front of them to compensate for ~500ms client-server lag as if I were firing a round at them. It might just be me, but it's frustrating to have the reticle directly over an enemy and I end up spamming my Q button until it is locked, the enemy still isn't spotted, and I have even taken the chance to shoot.

There seriously needs to be a wider range of spotting. It's almost ridiculous that the benefit-of-the-doubt radius is so small. I respect that they're discouraging spamming Q to find enemies, but it's reaching the point where it's taking me several seconds to spot enemies that I can clearly see running around my crosshairs.

Stellarthief · 2013-02-04, 05:07 AM

Originally Posted by Zulthus

I am extremely happy with this change. Spotting is a crutch and easymode button. You should be on teamspeak or in-game VOIP with your teammates to call out enemies.

In game VOIP is absolute crap. Can't expect everyone to have voice coms outside the game (thought most do).

The game is about big battles and also randomly joining squads for fun. But I agree with you anyway. Spotting before was too much, I like the new one. Helps me out as LA too when I am zipping into a base.