Suppression increases team-play by giving players reason enough to work together to achieve fire superiority on the battlefield.
"fire superiority"? what is that? Sounds like an arbitrary term you just throw out. it's not needed in this mod. You can cap the flags and kill enemies without any "superiority"... more blurry screens will not change this, only making it less enjoyable and more ugly.
You have a theory here - "Suppression increases team-play" - but Im yet to hear one concrete example on how this would be achieved. Actual game-result please. Not just loose military terms that you see fit the discussion.
I only care about this, because I first all of want to see if there is substantial material behind all these suggestions, and also because more teamplay in FH2 wouldnt hurt.
@LHeureux: I dont know what level of matureness you want to hold this
theory discussion at. If you think I care about kills, or want things in a certain way because how
I play in the mod Im developing, then we have nothing more to say. Im looking at how players actually play, and how I can change things to make them play more like I want to.
I can give you an example btw: I had a round of Vossenack where I was in a Panther. I played exactly as I like the mod to be played, I was careful, took it easy, and provided cover for my infantry teammates as they rushed the flags. My Panther was positioned right between the two back allied flags, so I could keep an eye on both the "frontline" (where allies vehicles come from their mainbase) and also both flags. Now this was classical teamplay, I even had a guy repairing me when I got damaged.
Suppression, had no effect here at all. No one of my enemies there would give a rats ass if their screen would be blurry - dying doesnt matter in this game - they would happily sacrifice a bunch of "tickets" to kill me there. What made it possible for me to hold out so long there was tactical play by me and my teammates. When I was hosing the control points with the MG while the tank was reloading, destroying the vision for the guys in that CP would have turned that experience from something cool and stressful, in to something ugly and annoying. - it isn't
needed.
K/D ratio has nothing to do with this discussion, we're talking about the design of this one feature and how/if it can increase teamplay with the limited means we have, modding battlefield 2.
To add: what we are actually talking about here, is
player motivation. My point is that trying to "force" teamplay by destroying the looks of the game without actually changing mechanics, is not motivating enough. Players don't have a clear choice they can take to
not get suppressed.
As I said earlier: if staying near your squad, would make you less suppressed, perhaps that would motivate me to do that. Like in L4D, you are motivated to stay near your friends, because not doing so will mostly result in you getting dragged away by a Smoker (as I know very well...)
If in Fh2, the furhter away from the squad you die, the longer spawn time you get. or the closer to the squad you are, the more chance you get of being able to spawn with a (limited) kit. Or if you get points for suppressing enemies (+1 points per second of every suppressed enemy, i.e. when the shader is activated due to your firing) or if you get flag capture assist points for suppressing 100m away with an MG. Or if you could disable SL spawn by suppressing him, or if getting killed while under suppression would give you longer spawntime, or if while under suppression, it took longer time for the sight to "close" (get your aim)...
I can go on.... these are all more or less motivating features that a player could look on the screen and see actual effect of his behaviour. Lying in an MG and shoot at a farm, without any feedback if anyone is actually getting suppressed, is kind of crap, isnt it? In Brothers in Arms, they added a "clock" above enemy heads, telling you how long they were suppressed for. They added this feedback because if you didn't know that, it would be unrewarding to suppress, and more fun to just "run for it".
If you leave your squad in FH2 and go "soloing" and you die, and your spawntime would suddenly be 45seconds, but when you die near your squad, you get 15seconds, that would be a clear choice for the player (a bit like leaving the group in L4D) with a clear effect. Anyone would be able to look at the screen and rethink his playstyle, especially if the HUD told you "+30seconds penalty for leaving the group"
(when I was trapped by the Smoker so many times in L4D, I always looked at my guy in 3P and thought "damn it, next time Im not going away alone" and I did stop that after playing the game more)
If we can't give proper motivation and real feedback, it's pointless -
moddy - to just add blur and hope players will care.
- No feedback for guy suppressing that his enemies are suppressed (just shoot and "hope")
- No feedback for teammates of suppressing firing guy, that his enemies are suppressed (just charge and "hope")
- No clear choice how to not get suppressed (like being near your squad would make you less suppressed for ex)
- No actual mechanic changed while being suppressed (only "smoke and mirrors")
Something positive: I believe that with proper feedback and reward, we would actually see more people using suppressive fire,
even without a real suppression mechanic, just lying in the grass and shoot for example a Bren gun down at the AT positions in Lebisey, if you got a feedback icon of suppressed enemies, and also points for doing so.. heey... I would do that!
Players arent more complicated than that. It would be like a little mini-game for him (keep enough bullets in the air to make the clock not reach zero. plus you get points for doing so!) and at the same time be of help for your friends
VoIP could be used to communicate when the suppression was about to run out.
The Brothers in Arms suppression feedback