Gameplay: Marking targets

[wildcat140679]

PS1 was great fun when you where able to communicate with your fellow team mates or with the gunner/pilot to coordinate attacks through voice chat. But as soon as you didn’t have access to this or had a stranger in your squad/vehicle you lost the way to properly communicate. Chat wasn’t really an option, it takes too long and during battle people tend to miss messages send.

Most MMO’s what support large scale raids having something similar, allowing to mark targets with an icon/symbol. Through the use of these marked targets, the need for communication through chat or voice is not needed. That is, if everyone clear on what needs to be done, but that’s a different story

I’m hoping that PS2 will offer an option to quickly mark a location or target for a brief moment with a simple button press (or through quick chat, “Target marked!”) for other to notice in there HUD. An arrow indication in what direction to turn to face the marked target and targeting brackets, blinking aura or something else to have the designated target stand out from others ones in view.

Mostly in vehicles with a driver and gunner setup I really wished we had something to tell my gunner there ware a bigger threat or a more important target to shoot at quickly.
HUD assistance target marking, to aid in overall game play and basically communicate with your fellow team mates. As a driver might see things the gunners doesn’t and vice versa, even with voice communication it was tricky to quickly explain.

I’m pretty sure people will fear this might get abused and everyone is marking targets like crazy and there for it needs to have Limitations.
-Spam control, Allowed to mark only 2 targets per "x" minutes (the 2nd to make corrections)
-Marked target duration is very short, long enough to turn and face your target and a few seconds more.
-Marked target will only be reported to those who are able to obtain a line of sight (able to turn to see the target)
-Marked targets, will be lost if it can no longer obtain a line of sight, (target moves behind cover, goes indoors) (no through wall tracking!)
-Can only be used with in a squad (/ platoons) and in vehicles (multi-user vehicles)
-Display 1 most recent marked target (color) at the time
--Optional, different colors to indicate who marked the target. Squad leader, squad member, platoon leader, vehicles (pilot/gunner) giving the option to display multiple marked targets
-Requires training (certifications) to Mark targets


Rough sketch of the idea floating around in my brain...

[Draep]

With the restrictions you laid out, the margin for abuse is very small and this type of communication will make leaderships very worthwhile. If implemented, I hope commanders will have this ability from within vehicles.

[XPquant]

Sounds like that would be a nifty recon tree skill.

[Brusi]

This would definitely encourage teamwork and better communication for vehicles, but perhaps usable in other situations as well... lots of potential.

There are plenty of examples from other games, but one is the recon skill from Brink which marked a specific tagged enemy player or deployable with a red outline...

Maybe something a little more subtle than bright red outline that allows wallhack though. Displays via the minimap, or only on the vehicle gunners HUD when in first person mode.

[Haro]

I always liked the idea of the Laser designator from PS1, as useless as it was. Something that's available to everyone, but not automatic. It could also be an interesting class direction for a recon/scout type class where you can spec into a forward controller roll, with larger but far superior devices that allow you to designate targets for longer and seen by more people from farther away. I think having it available on certain vehicles would also be very interesting.

[FIREk]

The spam control restrictions, necessary for a BFBC2 "spotting" system, would make this system not very worthwhile, I think. I would much prefer this:
1) Mark vehicles and MAXes as many times as you want (it's not like they can be hiding behind bushes or anything),
2) If the target is not a vehicle or MAX, you mark a spot on the ground, preferably a horizontal circle on the ground, so that the target(s) are not obscured.

It's un-exploitable and all realistic like. It's possible to single out a specific vehicle or big target (like a MAX) in combat, but with squishy targets, you're more likely to go "Tangos on the hill, 2 o'clock" or "Shooter on the left balcony, third floor".

[Atuday]

When in vehicle combat with friends I would end up saying things like "Tank at 12 o'clock" to let the gunner know of the tank right in front of us. I think a simple voice emote system where you could voice emote that directly to the others in you vehicle with 1 button press would speed up combat and also make it far more flexible. The flip side of this is that if there is no target in front of you then the button does nothing so therefore no spamming.

[FIREk]

As fun and realistic as voice macros are, they would go to waste without visual markings accompanying them, methinks.

[Traak]

Coding in the ability to mark a target also opens the door to hacks that can turn enemies into huge spiky balls visible from space, a la other shooter games. I wonder how the devs would mitigate that.

[FIREk]

Originally Posted by Traak

Coding in the ability to mark a target also opens the door to hacks that can turn enemies into huge spiky balls visible from space, a la other shooter games. I wonder how the devs would mitigate that.

It doesn't, so they wouldn't have to.
After seeing some videos of APB cheats, I know how much information modern cheats can display on their overlays. They wouldn't need to use any in-game systems to mark targets - they would just display brackets around them, and lines from you to the brackets or something...

These aren't the dark ages where people created replacement models with huge spikes that could be seen protruding out of walls (Quake 1) or with extremely contrasting colors (used by early aimbots, for instance).