Community Manager
Please remove the auto-spot, target acquired training path, UAV overwatch training path, sweet spot, spot while down feature, add flinch (or suppressions I don’t mind) and investigate strafe readability.
I could be wrong maybe it was a bug but If I am recon I should not be gifted an easier time in performing my namesake. My opponent(s) may be playing very well: using cover, wearing appropriate camouflage and engaging in cohesive cooperation to manage the objective but as recon if they should be caught near the centre of my ADS FOV or if I land a shot on them then they are automatically spotted completely voiding their skilled efforts. The same logic can be expressed when a player incapacitates another player. If you lose a firefight you should not be rewarded with the ability to spot the player that killed you nor should you be able to mark his location, that’s what voice comms and text chat is for (I know this is not specific to recon alone but it is related). I get the feeling that these features were created to fix a problem that doesn’t exist with the idea that if I lose I’ll become angry that the game is hard and stop playing. That is not how mature people engage with games, it’s the opposite as such if you put in simplistic or easy mode game mechanics people will find more reasons to stop playing because your game will no longer be difficult for the right reasons. I can’t speak for others but when I get shot by a sniper in this game especially one with a silencer I am constantly reminded of the fact that they can spot me and alert their team to my presence by accident, I am not thinking about the skill of positioning or aiming for that role.
The whole point of pressing the spot button is to slow the pacing of the game down as you have something extra to do, and while it’s possible to cheat this by binding the spot button onto the ADS or fire button giving players a game mechanic that performs the result for you is not sending the right message. If you want the game to have depth then put assets in place that invite skill through the games ethos, for example by making spotting require holding the spot button for a period of time relative to the distance of the target while aiming at said target; emulating the idea of a soldier IDing an unknown or ambiguous target. You can give it a slightly wider cone of fire if the targets are very far away so that you can spot multiple hostiles that are grouped together without repeating the button holding for each.
Instead of giving the recon a magic UAV that they can summon with the press of button why don’t you allow players to access one that they can pilot via a physical asset and put it on certain maps? Battlefield: Bad Company 2 did this, players have to not only reach the location to use the tool but they have to learn how to fly and aim with it as well as maintain the security of the surrounding location with their team/squad because they can be killed while using the terminal. That is far more interesting and it’s far less individualistic, encouraging cooperation which is what your game is meant to be about.
With regard to strafing, I don’t know if it’s the speed, animation or transitional animation (if there is one) but strafing in this game for me is mostly unreadable such that if a player alternates left or right rapidly then I am unable to predict the direction to lead my shots to which then results in me just moving left or right rapidly to try and outlast my opponents bullets all while spraying and praying. Ironically it works against snipers and if that’s the way it’s supposed to be then I guess I’ve cracked the code and am on my way to being a pro but in my opinion this is pretty alien for a Battlefield game because it’s antithetical to being behind cover or using different postures, motions and gun attachments (crouch running with hand stop) to attack.
If people want to label it a skill issue and call me a noob that’s their choice but why did we not have these features in older games? Am I supposed to be in a state of constant horizontal motion or something and who complained about strafe readability 10- 15 years ago? Find me the posts. And I know Battlefield: Bad Company 2 had auto-spot as a specialization for recons but the sniper rifles took nearly 2 seconds to load each round between shots and you had to exit ADS to do it and as expressed strafe readability was not an issue in those games.
If there’s to be a discussion about visibility that’s fine I’m all ears, I’ll listen but having the game play itself or providing players with “win buttons” is not the answer otherwise what’s the point of Battlefield, who is this for exactly? Tell it to me, make me a believer because quite frankly I ain’t seeing it with this stuff.
