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LMG deployment system tweaks

Posted: 2008-12-01 23:05
by StuTika
Hello! First post and all.

Anyway, after some thought and a good deal of PR playing, I have decided that the way light machine guns (the ones you get in the Automatic Rifleman kit) are deployed needs to be altered, both for gameplay and realism.

The 'preparation' animation for the undeployed LMG should only be played once, when the weapon is first drawn when the kit is picked up (I think this has already been highlighted).

However, I think there is a better system for the whole LMG/bipod thing. This has been skirted around in various other threads (yes I did search!) but I want to get this set out in concrete - sorry in advance if this annoys anyone.

The way I see it, the whole deployed/undeployed thing is a bit unrealistic. Bear with me here. I think we could manage this with only one mode, thus bypassing the issues with ammo linking that I've read about.

Before anyone shouts GAMEPLAY I need to explain how I think this should work. When a soldier is standing or crouching, the LMG is not particularly accurate and recoils quite a bit (yes the amount of recoil from 5.56 mm weapons in this mod is excessive, but that's a whole new kettle o' fish :D ). In other words, how it is now in undeployed mode. Crouching should offer some benefits in recoil control/accuracy, but I believe this is what already happens.

However, when a player goes prone the LMG should change to being very accurate with very little recoil - how it is now in deployed mode. Now I realise people must be stopped from using the thing in a Terminator-style run-and-gun manner, so how about having a short animation play when the player goes prone, which shows the soldier reaching forward and folding down the bipod, and another when the player goes out of prone to crouch or standing. This, along with the current long sighting-in time, would provide the necessary delay to prevent prone-spamming whenever an enemy pops into sight, as there is plenty of time for the enemy to sight in and take you down.

If the animations aren't possible, how about a short delay after going prone before you can sight in or fire, and having the camera angle tilt left and right and wobble etc. to simulate the soldier 'getting comfortable' on the ground. Well, not comfy but you know what I mean :-) . I KNOW this can be done, because I've seen it happen whilst reloading one of the guns in the game - I forget which one...

This would also get rid of the annoyances of standing up in deployed mode whilst still sighted in and havin to go prone again to sight out, as well as having to switch between two modes in the first place.

And if anyone says that this will make the LMGs devastating - well, they're sort of supposed to be really deadly, and I feel that the delays I outlined will provide a suitable compromise. These kits are, after all limited, so only three of these weapons will ever be active on each team.

Sorry if that was long winded, I wanted to make sure my point was at least understood, even if no one agrees :smile: .

Re: LMG deployment system tweaks

Posted: 2008-12-01 23:07
by DeltaFart
I like it, also gives back a slot to teh ARs

Re: LMG deployment system tweaks

Posted: 2008-12-01 23:12
by Chuc
so how about having a short animation play when the player goes prone
And that's precisely why we can't do it. While the trigger is there, you can still shoot regardless of what animation is playing..

But trust us that the LMGs have gone through significant refinement and behave I believe in a much more realistic fashion.

Re: LMG deployment system tweaks

Posted: 2008-12-01 23:13
by Rudd
Hi mate, welcome to the forums
If the animations aren't possible, how about a short delay after going prone before you can sight in or fire
hardcoded mate, DICE thought it was a great idea to put a delay in for getting out of prone, but not for going prone.

I'd like the system you outline too, but iirc thats pretty much how it was back in the day before the deploy system and it didn't really work that well, I like the deployed mode thing and I'm looking forward to the animation timing tweaks that afaik are coming up.

Re: LMG deployment system tweaks

Posted: 2008-12-01 23:40
by Benvoilio99
StuTika wrote:Hello! First post and all.

Anyway, after some thought and a good deal of PR playing, I have decided that the way light machine guns (the ones you get in the Automatic Rifleman kit) are deployed needs to be altered, both for gameplay and realism.

The 'preparation' animation for the undeployed LMG should only be played once, when the weapon is first drawn when the kit is picked up (I think this has already been highlighted).

However, I think there is a better system for the whole LMG/bipod thing. This has been skirted around in various other threads (yes I did search!) but I want to get this set out in concrete - sorry in advance if this annoys anyone.

The way I see it, the whole deployed/undeployed thing is a bit unrealistic. Bear with me here. I think we could manage this with only one mode, thus bypassing the issues with ammo linking that I've read about.

Before anyone shouts GAMEPLAY I need to explain how I think this should work. When a soldier is standing or crouching, the LMG is not particularly accurate and recoils quite a bit (yes the amount of recoil from 5.56 mm weapons in this mod is excessive, but that's a whole new kettle o' fish :D ). In other words, how it is now in undeployed mode. Crouching should offer some benefits in recoil control/accuracy, but I believe this is what already happens.

However, when a player goes prone the LMG should change to being very accurate with very little recoil - how it is now in deployed mode. Now I realise people must be stopped from using the thing in a Terminator-style run-and-gun manner, so how about having a short animation play when the player goes prone, which shows the soldier reaching forward and folding down the bipod, and another when the player goes out of prone to crouch or standing. This, along with the current long sighting-in time, would provide the necessary delay to prevent prone-spamming whenever an enemy pops into sight, as there is plenty of time for the enemy to sight in and take you down.

If the animations aren't possible, how about a short delay after going prone before you can sight in or fire, and having the camera angle tilt left and right and wobble etc. to simulate the soldier 'getting comfortable' on the ground. Well, not comfy but you know what I mean :-) . I KNOW this can be done, because I've seen it happen whilst reloading one of the guns in the game - I forget which one...

This would also get rid of the annoyances of standing up in deployed mode whilst still sighted in and havin to go prone again to sight out, as well as having to switch between two modes in the first place.

And if anyone says that this will make the LMGs devastating - well, they're sort of supposed to be really deadly, and I feel that the delays I outlined will provide a suitable compromise. These kits are, after all limited, so only three of these weapons will ever be active on each team.

Sorry if that was long winded, I wanted to make sure my point was at least understood, even if no one agrees :smile: .
I like the idea. Did you get this of Armed Assault by any chance? As in Armed Assault if you go prone with the M249 SAW, you have near no recoil aswell, but if you are standing or crouched, you still get some heavy recoil. It's a nice idea, but I don't think the game engine would allow it or something along those lines.

Re: LMG deployment system tweaks

Posted: 2008-12-02 15:57
by StuTika
Actually mate no I didn't I just had a think and came up with it off the top of my head :) .

In, fact I'd never even heard of Armed Assault before I saw it mentioned on here...what is it? Another FPS?

To Chuc: Do you mean trigger as in the one on the gun or a trigger like a cue? To tell the animation to play? I did think that might be problem. Couldn't you do that thing like on a vehicle turret where it looks to the player like its firing but it isn't? And to everyone else it ooks like you're not firing?

Stu.

Re: LMG deployment system tweaks

Posted: 2008-12-02 23:39
by Chuc
Cue. Vehicle restrictions and delays are done entirely by python and are not native to BF2. While it may seem like a potential method, we are happy with what we have now and won't put any more work on one of our only python coders, db.

Re: LMG deployment system tweaks

Posted: 2008-12-03 07:54
by StuTika
Ok fine I'll have to wait and see - it'll be in .85 I presume?

Stu.