What's up with the SOFLAM?
Posted: 2008-10-14 05:57
Right now, I see the SOFLAM as being FAR inferior to the binoculars, and I think that's just plain wrong, and should be corrected.
Reasons:
The biggest fault the SOFLAM has is the long delay from its standard zoom to its secondary zoom. I've timed it and it's over half a second. That's a long time when you're constantly scanning horizons as SL for your squad and you have to deal with that long delay between zooms. Not to mention that once you are fully zoomed, you have to switch out and re-draw the SOFLAM just to start another scan.
Binoculars have a HUGE zoom and also have no visual boundary. I think I read somewhere that the boundary would be adjusted, but that doesn't mean you still don't get the benefits of a quick, efficient, way of scanning terrain.
The range finder on the SOFLAM really doesn't add up to much when you consider that knowing exactly how far away something is really doesn't give a huge advantage over guess-timations and the fact that you can already use move markers to quickly find ranges.
In .75 the SOFLAM was clearly better because it gave you the low-zoom quick scan, but also the quick, high zoom scan ability. Now, that long wait between zooms combined with long .8 draw times nerfs the SOFLAM severely.
So is this delay really necessary?
Is it realistic? The sniper scope zooms in much faster than this, and its not even an electronic device (which should be faster)
If we could just get rid of this zoom delay, the SOFLAM would once again be a better, more versatile optic over the binoculars, which IMO, is the way it should be.
Reasons:
The biggest fault the SOFLAM has is the long delay from its standard zoom to its secondary zoom. I've timed it and it's over half a second. That's a long time when you're constantly scanning horizons as SL for your squad and you have to deal with that long delay between zooms. Not to mention that once you are fully zoomed, you have to switch out and re-draw the SOFLAM just to start another scan.
Binoculars have a HUGE zoom and also have no visual boundary. I think I read somewhere that the boundary would be adjusted, but that doesn't mean you still don't get the benefits of a quick, efficient, way of scanning terrain.
The range finder on the SOFLAM really doesn't add up to much when you consider that knowing exactly how far away something is really doesn't give a huge advantage over guess-timations and the fact that you can already use move markers to quickly find ranges.
In .75 the SOFLAM was clearly better because it gave you the low-zoom quick scan, but also the quick, high zoom scan ability. Now, that long wait between zooms combined with long .8 draw times nerfs the SOFLAM severely.
So is this delay really necessary?
Is it realistic? The sniper scope zooms in much faster than this, and its not even an electronic device (which should be faster)
If we could just get rid of this zoom delay, the SOFLAM would once again be a better, more versatile optic over the binoculars, which IMO, is the way it should be.