The Bf5 respawn and skip-revive system is a mess. But here's how to fix it.

In hope of getting a better respawn system in the next Battlefield, this is a repost of a thread I had on the old forums, which seem to be gone now.

The current respawn and skip-revive system in Battlefield 5 is a poorly-designed mess, similar to how it was in Battlefield 1. Part of this is because having a manipulable timer frustrates both those who wish to skip revive and those who wish to wait around to possibly be revived - a Skip command should skip, and anything else should just give the player the maximum window to be revived in. As the system currently is, it isn't doing a good job of handling any of the system's necessary variables.


The way that the revive / skip-revive system should work is this:

1.
When killed on the battlefield, there is a countdown timer period during which a person can be revived (whether that timer is visible or not doesn't matter, and I would probably not have it be visible, but that's an aside and not very important).

2.
If a person does not want to be revived, press the 'X' key after death, and possibility of being revived will be cancelled for that death. The player does not need to hold down the 'X' key, or any other key to skip the revive, as having to hold down a key to fill up or deplete a meter serves no purpose and is a tiring chore and is an example of the game fighting against the player's wishes for their own participation. Any time that a game is doing that, the game design is bad and should be improved.

3.
During the countdown period, the player can press their left mouse button to call out for help if they want to. But, calling out or not calling out has have no influence over how long the timer goes for them to be revived - unless a player skip-revives, the timer goes down at one speed that maximizes the chances for a player to be revived.

4.
Whether skip-revived or not, a player can quickly switch back and forth between the deathcam and overhead map views by pressing the 'E' key. Switching between those screens has no effect on the ability to be revived - only by pressing the 'X' key, or the revive period expiring, will the revive possibility be turned off for that death. However, once the skip revive button is pressed, or after the revive period is expired, the screen automatically changes to the overhead map view, and a player can no longer switch back to the deathcam view. By being able to switch between the deathcam and the overhead spawn map screen without ruining the chance for be revived, this stops players from skip-reviving out of an assumption that they won't be revived and encourages and makes it beneficial for players to not skip-revive even when they want to look at the map screen or the teammate view. This design completely solves the issues of people skip-reviving unnecessarily and frustrating medics, and of people skip-reviving just because they don't know whether someone is going to come around to revive them or not, or because they just want to see the overhead map screen. This is the perfect solution to all the issues with the Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 5 skip-revive system.

5.
In the game's settings, a player can enable an option called 'Require revive approval when at overhead map screen', which, when enabled, instead of instantly respawning the player when they're revived back on the battlefield where they fell, will show a message on the overhead map screen which says "Accept revive?", and allows the player to click 'Yes' or 'No', or, to press 'SPACE' for Yes, and 'X' for No. Without this option enabled, being revived while at the overhead map screen or teammate view will automatically and immediately bring the player's screen back to their soldier's view.



That is the way to do revives and skip revives. It is much more logical and functional, it serves all off the system's variables perfectly and efficiently, it takes the minimal necessary player effort so the system isn't a burden in any way, it doesn't fight against and frustrate the player, and it is inevitably more satisfying for all players whether they are the medic, some other teammate, or the player that's killed. The design that I've described fulfills all potential interests concerning the revive system, whereas the revive / skip-revive system in Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 5 is an inefficient method that creates frustration.