I'll copy pasta from when this was discussed in another thread;
It's a way of neutralizing precappers on push maps and back cappers on conquest maps. I personally love this change, and I know that many of the devs and testers do as well.
To me- I don't like "sneaky" people back capping flags or pre-capping flags since it seems like a cheap way of taking a point. Imo it's more fun to fight over a flag instead of sneaking behind everyone and taking it without contest. It's definitely a more arcade-ish change, but it fits within the gameplay of FH2 imo (a balance of arcade and realism)
The idea is to give your typical pub player a better idea of what's going on, and give the whole team the same situational awareness. As an example; I was moving up with my squad as Russians on Ihantala from the Bridge to the Highway flag. We saw the bridge flag blinking and the team made a collective effort to stop running forward and fall back to defend. It made us attack and defend as a team rather than being caught in no-man's land.
Imo it's not intrusive (only on the minimap) and serves its purpose (curtailing the effectiveness of back cappers/ pre cappers and promoting teamwork)
I'll also add that I don’t understand the appeal of capping a flag with no resistance. I want to fight over the flag and win it, not just crouch next to my teammates until a timer is up, hop in the car and peace out. It also makes you think twice about attacking (if you’re smart) to wait for teammates and not just jump into a flag by yourself hoping to surprise the enemy. It just never appealed to me to hop in a Jeep and bum rush a flag that no ones defending. I never felt satisfaction from capping it. Especially because 9/10 my SL would have us all hop back into the Jeep and find another flag that no ones defending. It seems like a driving simulator when it plays out that way.
It IS a problem if the defender can instantly see via flashing flag that one of his flags is under attack. Way before it turns white and denies him the possibility to instantly join on that flag and prop it up with defending players. It gives him an unfair advantage.
I don't see the advantage that an attacker has here. He can spawn into the flag and contest it, but he risks;
a) being the only one that spawns there
b) getting spawn killed
If anything, it evens the playing field because now
both the attacker and defender have the same information about the status of the flag and can act accordingly.
In the same way that I can see the enemy's tickets and if they're bleeding or not; both teams get the same information and can act accordingly.
...But in conquest maps it just kills the essence of the game mode.
I'd argue that the essence of conquest is for flags to be
fought over and not for people to take flags without anyone else noticing. Conquest stems from 'vanilla' Battlefield, where the devs have consistently tried to make it clear to players that a flag is falling before it goes neutral. BF2 had giant flag poles sticking up to show you the progress on the flag and BFV has the same thing, accompanied with an indicator on the minimap.
The intention of the change was to encourage players to
fight over flags, and not take them without contest. This change succeeds in doing that, and it's a change that makes the game more fun (imo).