Recon Photos

[DeltaFart]

If the Live camera is an idea that is hardcoded, i think we should go with still photos, but, i think the still photos is kinda (taking a risk saying this) outdated in sense. I mean today there are now soldier portable UAVs with live feeds, and i think a live feed would be more useful than a still shot because with the still shot, a lot can change in the picture than what was viewed with the picture. With a live feed, the squad(s) can request UAV and the commander can relay info to whats in the area and stuff while directly viewing the feed.

Might as well just give those UAVs to a certain kit that would allow only 1 per squad, and have it spawn a little UAV like in FH with the Goliath and have him put around for x amount of time. I dont like it. If you could have it so the soldier didnt get stuck in a position of vulnerability or just plain disappear Id support that, but Im not sure if its all possible with this game.

[snow]

If the Live camera is an idea that is hardcoded, i think we should go with still photos, but, i think the still photos is kinda (taking a risk saying this) outdated in sense. I mean today there are now soldier portable UAVs with live feeds, and i think a live feed would be more useful than a still shot because with the still shot, a lot can change in the picture than what was viewed with the picture. With a live feed, the squad(s) can request UAV and the commander can relay info to whats in the area and stuff while directly viewing the feed.

Well just cuz that tech exists, doesn't mean that every platoon out in the field is using it. Everybody still uses aerial and sat photos of some form. And the very point of the limitations of still photos is one of the aspects of it that helps solve the overpowered issues of the vBF2 commander assets. The purpose of the idea is for it not to be real-time intel.

So a commander can't say, "Tank squad enemy H-AT is behind the tree next to the building on your left. No, your other left..."

All he can say is, "Tank squad, be advised that enemy H-AT was spotted at Village approx. 2 minutes ago. Last sighting was near cluster of buildings on the far left." And you know what? It would take a pretty observant and experienced commander to be able to actually find and relay that H-AT guy in the first place.

And yet, it has a very simple and extremely low-tech counter. If people are smart they know to stay out of sight from above whenever possible. If they use cover correctly, the CO might not even know they were there.

So using cover literally would have a whole new dimension.

[DeltaFart]

Yeah that makes a lot more sense, I honestly would have liked to have this capability while doing my Kashan Commanding stint, having a picture of what the south village looked like, and what north village looked like at the time my team was heading there, would have been a very useful asset

[Viper5]

Would be very cool IMO.

Pre-requisites:
Command Post Deployed
Available once every 30 minutes
Costs 5 tickets
60 second delay between when shot is taken and when it is received (Shot is taken when the ability is used, commander receives 60 seconds later)

Thermal picture (White Hot)
Possible to make out infantry
Vehicles, CO assets clearly visible.

[snow]

I don't get at all why this is the sort of thing that would need to be on a half hour timer. It's not realtime, and there are tons of counters to it, especially on maps with trees and buildings. I totally disagree that it should be thermal or whatever. It should be sort of incomplete info (ie, people can hide from it, and it shouldn't wallhack people/vehicles in cover) that the CO can get on regular basis through the round. There should be some skill/art in interpreting in the intel...being able to see units that are partially concealed as opposed to them glowing white or something like that.

The whole point of the idea is to make all his decisions overall more informed without having a completely gamey and omniscient ability...plus give his something to do actively. I mean one of the reasons most people don't even consider playing commander is because in general, the activity that you do most is just relay info from one of the SLs to the rest of the SLs (tank in c4, etc etc).

Being able to use something like this once or twice a round is frankly so-what to me. It really wouldn't effect gameplay/teamwork/tactics much at all. I personally don't even think that would be worth the devs time.

[Proff3ssorXman]

This would be a great idea, I especially like the idea of maybe a reconnaissance plane flying over and taking photos, maybe a new role for the F16 or something? When there are no enemy jets, the F16 & equivalents turn into reconnaissance or something?

[Psyko]

is it possible to use the vBF2 commander satelite vision, but not pannable. fo instance, every thirty minutes you get to see whats in a certain grid coordinate for 20 seconds without the ability to move it, and the enemy units be hilighted. sounds pretty realistic and plausable to me.

[gclark03]

IIRC, the Commander satellite vision, when it highlights units, does not distinguish between an enemy in the open and an enemy behind a wall or in a building. Unless this 'wallhack' feature can be disabled somehow, there's no practical way to highlight units. One of the counters is that it would take some serious analysis to point out enemy infantry in cover, and clearly highlighting them for the Commander would be injurious to the concept as a whole.

Also, what's with the insane cooldowns? 30 seconds to 2 minutes is fine, but 30 minutes is outlandish. When was the last time you saw a commander do a good job on some public server out there for 30 minutes straight, anyway?

[snow]

I suggested in another thread just returning the 3d scan and UAV from vanilla (but with some nerfs) and no god's eye view, which I would be happy with. That alone would be a huge improvement to the usefulness and playability of the CO. But generally speaking, no one cares about the commander. The devs seem content for him to have the tools of a taxi dispatcher (a map, a radio, some sporadic verbal reports from the field).

It's too bad. An intel-informed commander could honestly do a lot for gameplay and teamwork, especially on pubs.

[markonymous]

Hmm a very good idea.
Commander could place it in his commander screen like a UAV and than maybe 30 seconds later he gets a picture. This way he wouldnt be able to pinpoint infantry but it would be a great tool for locating bunkers and firebases. Or even ammo cashes in Insurgency.
Very good idea indeed.

i suggested exactly that a few months ago but they said it had been suggested several times and that it would ruin gameplay.

[Psyko]

IIRC, the Commander satellite vision, when it highlights units, does not distinguish between an enemy in the open and an enemy behind a wall or in a building. Unless this 'wallhack' feature can be disabled somehow, there's no practical way to highlight units. One of the counters is that it would take some serious analysis to point out enemy infantry in cover, and clearly highlighting them for the Commander would be injurious to the concept as a whole.

Also, what's with the insane cooldowns? 30 seconds to 2 minutes is fine, but 30 minutes is outlandish. When was the last time you saw a commander do a good job on some public server out there for 30 minutes straight, anyway?

That wallhack could be determained as Thermal! Ahh haa! see what i did there

Besides, i think the reason why it ruined vBF2 was the ability for commander to go "Enemy unit spotted!Enemy unit spotted!Enemy unit spotted!Enemy unit spotted!Enemy unit spotted!" and it would come up on the infantry mini map.

because the mini map is gone, and there is a distance shortening dynamic for the commander's commo menu, things are allready signifigantly changed in that respect IMO.

[@bsurd]

i liked the spotter things that were talked about here.

Plz not again this BF2/2142 wallhacking uav shit. then time is over to search a nice covered positon on the map and have fun.

It was so boring on bf2. 1 scan, then the uav and the rest is history. no hide and seek, nothing, only rambo playing.

And the commander ever know witch flag get captured even b4 it turned to white.

But if sniper gets a cam to send commander pics or short vids of the situation would be nice. Then give him a gun with (dont know the right word, like the SF handgun i mean, with very low noise if fired) and he has a great new roll in the game.

And can it be able that the commander share the pics with the SL who is near the showed target? Like this PDA or laptop things witch were used bye modern army´s?