10 replies to this topic

[The_Silencer]

Simply little drones to fake radar blips.
Once more this should add some few interesting tactics in the game. I'd say one FRB drone per mecha and if possible destroyable by enemy, or depending on lobby settings, friendly fire as well.

Ain't it cool_

[JackDandy]

Could prove a pretty awesome distraction, especially since the areas won't be that open.

You could lead enemies on wild goose chases, and set up ambushes. It could be pretty damned cool!

[OMF]

sounds a bit campy, you could only really use something like that to take the heat off yourself or to lure someone in, and i get the feeling it will be the latter much more often. it will be like with ghost bitches in blops, everyone will just learn not to use the radar so in effect it will just end up as one gameplay feature killing another and both becoming useless.

[The_Silencer]

oldmanflabby said:

sounds a bit campy, you could only really use something like that to take the heat off yourself or to lure someone in...

Well, not exactly. The idea would be to gain this ability via some, if you want, "expensive" tactical upgrade. How to flesh this concept up in the game_. For example, the FRB drone might simply look in the game as an spherical object plus some few moderate emit light points placed on its surface. It just fakes a radar dot on your intel gear. In case you discover the object then you just gun it down. Otherwise, you got ambushed thanks to this tricky upgrade gear or you just have an extra suspense factor during a, for example, n+1Vs(n+)1 duel.

It would be relatively easy to code an "entity" like this as well as to see how it works in the battlefield. Besides its inherent balancing requirements, you can just playtest if it adds or substracts fun and tactical value into the game. Dunno, this is just an idea..

Edit: By the way, when people in here talk about drones, what comes to my mind is a 3D tube, mostly placed on any of the mecha' shoulders and throwing grenades or drones and/or anything else...

[Flyingdebris]

i don't think it'd break radar use if there was a subtle tell to something being a FRD rather than an actual player.

for instance if its movement patterns and speed were just a little different from how a the average jetpacking robot's radar sig would move.

So with a little experience, a player might look at a radar blip for a few seconds, gauge  its behavior and rule it out as a drone.  However it'd still be useful for times when a player does not have the luxury of studying a dot.  and there is further gameplay potential when players eventually start to move their mechs in ways that seem like that of FRDs to throw off suspicion.

But then again you are sacrificing potentially useful abilities just to mess with someone's radar, which offers little help in a stand up fight, so i doubt everyone would take such a system, thus preserving game balance.

[The_Silencer]

Flyingdebris said:

i don't think it'd break radar use if there was a subtle tell to something being a FRD rather than an actual player.

for instance if its movement patterns and speed were just a little different from how a the average jetpacking robot's radar sig would move.

So with a little experience, a player might look at a radar blip for a few seconds, gauge  its behavior and rule it out as a drone.  However it'd still be useful for times when a player does not have the luxury of studying a dot.  and there is further gameplay potential when players eventually start to move their mechs in ways that seem like that of FRDs to throw off suspicion.

But then again you are sacrificing potentially useful abilities just to mess with someone's radar, which offers little help in a stand up fight, so i doubt everyone would take such a system, thus preserving game balance.

I see your point. Ok, options as follows:

1) These Fake Radar Blip "Drones", as mortal entities in the game, would have no movement at all. So your opponent might think that you're using one of these or that you're trying to ambush him by just staying quiet there..
The geometry of the maps, as we have seen in the gameplay trailer, go with several structures with different heights, tunnels and/or corridors and et cetera.
So this is a very rich scenario from a geometrist standpoint. Sometimes the trick might look as useless and others not.

BUT... =)

1.1) ...the little FRB "drones" could be moved around by first selecting the upgrade/passive whatever via the UI and later by just clicking on the fire control in order to spot a new location for the FRB "drone" to move..

I think that 1+1.1 works pretty well as theory thought.

Additionally, the FRB drones may be destroyed... May be restricted to n uses only. May be a CAM entity ... Ok, ok.. forget about the later, please ;D

Edit: I think that I like much more your FRD achronym though.

[Dem]

I think if they were to be implemented, then they should be some sort of placeable object, similar to the turrets we've seen.  
And if they are placeable, they could be used in two ways I think.  
They could be a single object that you carry around and when you lay it down, it would set out multiple fake blips until it is destroyed.
Or, they could be multiple things you carry around and when you set them down they would create a single blip right there for a set amount of time.

[Ganthir]

It sounds like a fun idea if the drone does move specifically slow for people to notice if it was a drone on the radar so players could instead mimic the drones to try and fake out the enemy.

Know what I mean_

Or maybe instead of a drone that fakes one radar blip, have it fake like 30 blips moving everywhere all over their radar to really make things confusing, but it only lasts for a little bit of time until it runs out of power maybe_

[JackDandy]

Yeah... have it take a little pre-determined path, let it float around. Could be cool, and sure to surprise people who think they've got you.

[The_Silencer]

Ganthir, 30 fake radar blips_. Why not 300_. That sounds more epic, IMO.

Kidding, you know.

The lifetime and mobility for these sound as pretty interesting mechanics to me. I think that, as max.,... no. If you can somehow* move these around then I'd suggest 1 fake radar blip per mecha. If they are static entities who just stay there once you drop them ( so behaving like a mine, so to speak ) then put 2 or 3 as max. per mecha.

No_.

[KellAset]

Kinda ok idea for unlockable item perhaps_ drone can follow you or fly around the map randomly till destroyed or just, well maybe just for some time till it runs out of energy/fuel_

In BF2142 there are 2 kinds of unlockable drones and only team leader can equip them(1 at time), both will follow team leader but one can shoot and other one is only showing enemies in close proximity on mini map.