DICE Team
RE: Visibility
You folks at DICE really need to ditch and / or supplement the floating icons and nameplates already, they do such a poor job as the main friendly / enemy identifier, proven more than ever with all the specialists on both sides looking exactly the same. Plus they obscure too much of the surroundings when they do pop, making the situation harder to read around the surrounding targets. And furthermore, they can also get "lost" in certain sky, area, and lighting conditions, making them impossible to see at times.
Lighting on the chars and distance of the visible icons isn't going to help the core problems much at all.
An optional solution that's already occasionally seen in game is to outline and highlight friendly targets. Other multiplayer games have done this, and it's less distracting and makes it immediately apparent who is friend and foe, as the foe has no outlines during the match. The version of this that already exists in 2042 (and I believe also seen in BFV and BF1) outlines the enemy who killed you in red on the kill cam. Do this in blue & green at all time for teammates & squadmates (respectively), as well as friendly vehicles. Then you won't even need the dumb floating icons that don't really help that much, often hurt more than help when there's a bunch of them on screen at once blocking visibility of your surroundings. Outlines can be thin and just serve to subtly highlight what's already there, and make you immediately aware of friendly targets vs threats in an instant, and without cluttering up the screen more than it already is with all the other HUD junk.
It's more immersive as well. The floating icons and nameplates above players feels so incredibly antiquated and video gamey at this point. Have options to display friendly outlines, as well as options for thickness / brightness / color / distance the outlines are visible or fade out, options to enable / disable friendly outlines / icons / nameplates and please everyone who prefers the old method. An option to only show friendly nameplates when aiming at them directly would be useful as well. Then the visibility issue may be practically solved with a feature that's already semi-coded into the game for enemies on the kill cam. I would also suggest an option to display your squadmates' outlines at all times, across the whole map, so you are always are of their position, even through walls, structures, foliage, etc (ala L4D). This would go a long way to avoiding situations where you get split up and or lose sight of them, keeping immediate teamwork easier to accomplish. Teammates would only need to be visible when in your field of view and nearby. Friendly vehicles should be highlighted as well, and all could be faded with to help discern distances. You could even justify at as some future year 2042 AR tech, could have it make more sense than the dumb floating icons at any rate.
It's hard to believe this something like this hasn't happened already, and the simple outlines are stuck in the kill cam, where they're essentially wasted. Have something right in front of you that could make a massive difference!
