Suppressive fire is psychological warfare. Fear of getting hit by a bullet and being injured or killed. Because of that fear, “suppressive fire” is possible.
That fear is non-existing in games or at least not equal to the level in real live. Life has very little value in a game. You die, re-spawn and try a gain, to some it have more value than another, but in general you die re-spawn and try again and leave it by that.
I had a similar idea scribbled down, but you seem to have beaten me to it
As I read through the post I wondered if this these additional hit effects would fit in PS2, for there are more at home in combat simulation games like ArmaII
Those additional hit effects like vision distortion (concussion, vision blur, bloody vision) , reduced accuracy, reduced mobility are great way's to up the stakes and the value of not getting hit by enemy fire, but are they suited for a fast past MMOFPS?
Nevertheless I believe the intensity should be based on your health level. If armor absorbs most of the damage like in planetside, than the first few hits will not matter much nor have much of an big impact, but as your armor gets stripped away and damage seeps through you will take health damage, those hits that cause health damage should randomly cause bullet hit effects, vision blur, movement reduction, reduced accuracy and so on. The duration of those effects should only be brief or stay if health levels drop to low. Mimicking a wounded state with increased handicaps on top of low health and damaged armor.
Your idea on how to implement it and effect having it spread out along nearby troops I don't really like. I'm pretty sure it will get the desired result, but at the cost of fun factor of the game and add more frustration to it, realism fans might like it, but I don't believe the have a large player base of those who played Planetside.
As much as I like realism and would not mind to see additional effects/handicaps of being hit/injured by hostile fire, the more I think about it, the more I believe it should not be in PS2.