During the Game Night 13 and some forum search some Ideas about cover/supression fire came into my mind. I didnt wont to start a new thread, although this post might be a summary of other post combined with some new thoughts.
The absence of the hit indicator during the game night inspired me to some thoughts about the cover fire. Why does cover fire at the moment not work?
1. The penalty (death) is not a real penalty, as you respawn 10-20 seconds later.
2. It is more easy to pop up and "laser kill" the enemy, rather than staying down and waiting for support.
3. Once you hit or kill the enemy, you know it instantly. So now more shooting is necessary.
The first point can't be changed (and should never be). Only a minor group of players would get, why the spawn team increased, the other wouldnt understand and leave. Even if you get it, a long respawn time would be the death to gameplay, so no way.
But regarding to the second and third reason several minor changes can be done, which would not affect gameplay much. The changes are (Some points have bee brought up by other people in other posts before, so its not all my ideas):
1. Removing hit indicator (Server settings, so possible today): Without hit indicator, you dont know if you hit the enemy and if you have done any damage. So it becomes more difficult in general to hit and to adjust your shots. This change affects the suppressor AND the suppressed guys! (This is also for tank warfare, so shooting beyond fog range and pixel shooting would be more difficult, it leads to better tank warfare)
Of course the hit indicator serves a purpose and there is a reason, why there is a hit indicator. The hit indicator allows you to know if you hit the target, or if you have to adjust your sights. As this is a game, you need a feedback, if you hit the enemy or if you need to adjust your sights. In real life your eyes have a higher resolution, then a computer monitor has, so at the distance it is still possible to see the effect you did to a target. And I am sure this is only one aspect of the hit indicator.
2. Removing or setting a delay of maybe 10 to 20 seconds in the kill messages. In the current gameplay, you know instantly, that you killed your opponent. So there is no more need for supression or other things. But if you have no idea, if he is dead and if you still want to move closer, you need suppression fire.
I am against the total removing of kill messages, as this is still a shooter, where you want to know, who you killed and if you get killed, you want to know who killed you and with which weapon. But if possible, you still can set a delay, before the kill messages come up. ofcourse this is still disturbing somehow, as it is difficult to find out, which kill someone did at what time, so it is still a bad idea.
3. Increasing the effective area of the suppresion effect. In the current situation the effect comes up, when the bullets travel or hit in an area about maybe 2 m around you (I dont know the current number). This area need to be increased a little bit to 3 or 4 m. So suppresion is more effective.
4. Atleast maybe some changes in the effect, like increasing deviation or whatever.
Just some thoughts. I hope, you get my point.