Spotting massed enemy forces... what makes it work better?

MadTommy · Post by **MadTommy** » 2007-06-13 11:08

Spotting massed enemy forces. How do you correctly spot massed enemy forces?

We’ve all been there.. 3 enemy tanks line up on a ridge over looking your positions.. you try a spot them.. but you can only get one to show up as spotted on the mini map… if you try too hard you’ll get blocked for spamming…if you right click then pick tank of the list.. you’ll likely place a dummy tank on the one you already spotted.
(Its even harder with a whole a squad in a city)

On the flip side sometimes it works pretty well.. and you can get them all of them on the mini map for you team to see.

As far as I can tell this has been an issue since BF2 was launched.

So, has anyone worked out a method to the madness? What are the methods that work best for you? Are there any 'rules' that make the system work better?

Playing Kashan Desert recently.. I was at South Village as USMC, I ended up alone there with 5 MEC MBTs, 2 vodniks and and 2 APCs…. trying to spot them all for my incoming armour backup was a nightmare.

One that works very well if you have your squad with you.. is to get your entire squad to spot.. making sure they/you are trying to spot different targets.. that way you can get a tightly packed convoy or squad accurately spotted. Takes some voip..

Any other ideas..

Taffy · Post by **Taffy** » 2007-06-13 11:22

It would be good if you could spot 'groups' of enemies instead of individuals. So that if you see a squad of infantry, you can spot one and any hostiles closeby also show up. But they'd have to be quite close, otherwise it could just be used in a similar way to UAV...

Gyberg · Post by **Gyberg** » 2007-06-13 11:44

Incase the spotting doesn't work I spot as many as I can and then I make myself heard over VOIP, and finally I write a message in team-chat, which could be something like: ***Five tanks, APC, Trucks inbound South Village from SW, distance 500m***. I know it isn't perfect but it is the best I can come up with especially if you are alone and you spotting function is blocked.

KingLorre · Post by **KingLorre** » 2007-06-13 11:50

Like Hostile enemy's on the ground.

i see multiple hostiles incoming...

or someting like that...

daranz · Post by **daranz** » 2007-06-13 11:51

I found that on Basra, stuff near the edge of view range is incredibly hard to spot. On top of that, spotting through binoculars can be a pain, as I never really know where is the middle of my screen (it's probably on one of those lines, but where exactly?)... If I can't spot, I'll usually just right click and spot the thing manually (which usually means that the spot is going to end up way closer than it should). That gets peoples' attentions, though, and I can then type something out in chat (VOIP obviously gets used in squad only, as most commanders are too unreliable, or too busy spamming bunkers to relay spots).

Post by **77SiCaRiO77** » 2007-06-13 13:50

MadTommy wrote:Spotting massed enemy forces. How do you correctly spot massed enemy forces?

We’ve all been there.. 3 enemy tanks line up on a ridge over looking your positions.. you try a spot them.. but you can only get one to show up as spotted on the mini map… if you try too hard you’ll get blocked for spamming…if you right click then pick tank of the list.. you’ll likely place a dummy tank on the one you already spotted.
(Its even harder with a whole a squad in a city)

On the flip side sometimes it works pretty well.. and you can get them all of them on the mini map for you team to see.

As far as I can tell this has been an issue since BF2 was launched.

So, has anyone worked out a method to the madness? What are the methods that work best for you? Are there any 'rules' that make the system work better?

Playing Kashan Desert recently.. I was at South Village as USMC, I ended up alone there with 5 MEC MBTs, 2 vodniks and and 2 APCs…. trying to spot them all for my incoming armour backup was a nightmare.

One that works very well if you have your squad with you.. is to get your entire squad to spot.. making sure they/you are trying to spot different targets.. that way you can get a tightly packed convoy or squad accurately spotted. Takes some voip..

Any other ideas..

i remember you! you spot like 5 tanks in the village , thanks for that , i was able to kill 3 of them , also , your bradley was a perfect expiatory goat of all the airstrike

ArmedDrunk&Angry · Post by **ArmedDrunk&Angry** » 2007-06-13 13:51

If you quick-spot ( ie: just click Q ) you don't get as accurate a picture on the mini-map as if you used the scroll menu and choose what you want.. ie: APC.
Armor will not show if it's empty on the quick click but will show if you manually select it.
My big ***** is that it won't spot through a fence or trees making it impossible to spot on some maps unless you climb up high and expose yourself.
I would love to see a tighter grid on the map if at all possible.

Deadmonkiefart · Post by **Deadmonkiefart** » 2007-06-13 13:53

Taffy wrote:It would be good if you could spot 'groups' of enemies instead of individuals. So that if you see a squad of infantry, you can spot one and any hostiles closeby also show up. But they'd have to be quite close, otherwise it could just be used in a similar way to UAV...

Then people will just spot something to find out if there are any enemies in the area. Ex: You see a blding in the distance. Before you approach it, you spot and find ou there is an enemy sniper. You move along. Or, you see the sniper and spot it, but in addittion, an entire squad shows up on the minimap. This would become more abused than the m4

Zodiaccup · Post by **Zodiaccup** » 2007-06-13 13:55

Deadmonkiefart wrote:Then people will just spot something to find out if there are any enemies in the area. Ex: You see a blding in the distance. Before you approach it, you spot and find ou there is an enemy sniper. You move along. Or, you see the sniper and spot it, but in addittion, an entire squad shows up on the minimap. This would become more abused than the m4

QFT.

Post by **Mongolian_dude** » 2007-06-13 14:03

There is nothing you can do about not being able to spot indevidual hostiles and i doubt its soft coded. However, if you have problems trying to spot sometimes, try spotting above the enemy.

...mongol...

Taffy · Post by **Taffy** » 2007-06-13 14:18

Deadmonkiefart wrote:Then people will just spot something to find out if there are any enemies in the area. Ex: You see a blding in the distance. Before you approach it, you spot and find ou there is an enemy sniper. You move along. Or, you see the sniper and spot it, but in addittion, an entire squad shows up on the minimap. This would become more abused than the m4

Yeah, that's what I meant about it being used like a UAV. BIG problem. Besides, it's probably hardcoded anyway.

MadTommy · Post by **MadTommy** » 2007-06-13 14:29

'[R-MOD wrote:Mongolian_dude']However, if you have problems trying to spot sometimes, try spotting above the enemy.

...mongol...

sounds interesting..

MadTommy · Post by **MadTommy** » 2007-06-13 14:44

77SiCaRiO77 wrote:also , your bradley was a perfect expiatory goat of all the airstrike

.. lol you are not wrong there.. i remember it too.. i had a conversation with the SL and said i'd bring up the AA.. he responded by saying how deadly it was...the 1st plane in my area kills me b4 I even see it... damn lazer guided.. i was a bit gob smacked by that little episode!.. that frogfoot scared the shit out of me.