4109080

Spotting only with binoculars in FH2 : is it wise?

December 22nd, 2007 06:58 AM

I know in FH2 one can still spot with binoculars, but I would like to hear what wisdom is behind the changing of the old BF2 spotting system. I did a search and could not find the answer.

In FH2 I have found spotting at long ranges seems a bit buggy. Even if one manually selects the type of target, the position shown on the map can come up far too short. (Try spotting west from the tower on the map with the mosque, for example.) It's also awkward to do at close ranges.

I know in vanilla BF2 the whole team hears "such and such spotted" via radio, and I like how in FH2 only those in voice range hear the caller. But I just think that making people have to use the binocular kit to spot for others reduces the chances of effective teamwork.

Many newcomers to FH2 seem confused and a bit disappointed by this system. I for one thought spotting was a great innovation in BF2. It made teamwork easier and overcome some of the limitations of a limited FOV on a screen, vs real life with peripheral vision and squad hand signals etc.

What do others think? Do the devs stand behind their decision to remove the regular spotting system (without binocs)? Was it done only to make the spotter plane useful?

4109107

Re: Spotting only with binoculars in FH2 : is it wise?

December 22nd, 2007 07:28 AM

I hated how annoying and spammy BF2's spotting system was.

4109112

Re: Spotting only with binoculars in FH2 : is it wise?

December 22nd, 2007 07:32 AM

Yes, the FH2 team have limited the "enemy spotted" radio spam (to voice range) which is great! I agree that is good. But should everyone be able to spot without binoculars, that is the question?

As it is I find myself hearing "enemy spotted" constantly in FH2, but hardly ever seeing anything on the minimap - which is even worse.

4109113

Re: Spotting only with binoculars in FH2 : is it wise?

December 22nd, 2007 07:32 AM

It was done as to remove the constant spotting spam and to remove this bloody arcade feature that lets you track an enemy by just spotting in the general direction of his position. Nothing beats immersion to death like 64 players spotting each other to see where the other guy is hiding.

Plus it was done to upgrade the worth of a squadleader. Without his staying back and spotting things and playing as a spawnpoint, squads would be useless, so why join them at all?

And yes, it upgrades the Spotterplane as well.

Hope this answers your question.

4109119

Re: Spotting only with binoculars in FH2 : is it wise?

December 22nd, 2007 07:35 AM

I fully support the removal of the spotting. In BF2, you would spot anyone you saw, because they'd show up on minimap and you'd know exactly what they were doing after they left your field of vision (if they were waiting behind that corner for you to show up).
Removing the BF2's spotting system gave a boost to teamwork, not the other way around.

4109125

Re: Spotting only with binoculars in FH2 : is it wise?

December 22nd, 2007 07:45 AM

I think at least more kits should have binoculars (or some other means of making enemies appear on the map.) With the limited spotting system it feels like there should be some other way of indicating where the enemy is. Maybe smoke signal grenades (did they have these in ww2?) that are visible to aircraft?

It would be interesting to see how often people spot if EVERYONE had binocs.

How can you say this? A tool was removed that allowed players to help other players. I'm pretty sure that everyone ends up more lost overall. Yes, spamming spot to find people you can't see is bad; but not having any way to tell the guys next to you where the bad guy youre looking at is, is worse.

4109126

Re: Spotting only with binoculars in FH2 : is it wise?

December 22nd, 2007 07:47 AM

If everyone had binoculars, then the point would be pretty much lost. There is no one uber-kit in FH2, every kit has its minuses, deal with it.

There is a way and that is called VOIP. If you don't want to use that, then type if you must. What I meant by better teamwork is that you have to have people dedicated to spotting. Everyone cannot spot, thus you need people to do the spotting for you and you need to have teamwork for that to happen. Following your logic, the shock paddles should make it back to the game, because they allowed players to help other players

4109137

Re: Spotting only with binoculars in FH2 : is it wise?

December 22nd, 2007 07:55 AM

I like what FH2 did with spotting BUT as OP mentioned its not working correctly and often puts your spot in wrong place. I have tried this out many times and if you want to get working spots you need to aim much higher than target you are trying to spot. This is just wierd and reduces effectiveness of this feature. I would like to see that changed so it would spot what I point at without that stupid "bullet-drop-like-thing" as its now in longer distances.

4109143

Re: Spotting only with binoculars in FH2 : is it wise?

December 22nd, 2007 07:57 AM

I only put that forward as something to think about. I'm saying that it would be interesting to see how many people would even bother switching to binocs to spot if everyone had them.

4109147

Re: Spotting only with binoculars in FH2 : is it wise?

December 22nd, 2007 07:58 AM

Yeah, it is sometimes hard to understand where the spotting "crosshairs" are on the binoculars.