Tactical use of... Smoke

Grognard · 2012-02-02, 11:14 AM

The last time this was brought up was about half a year ago... so I think its a good subject for review...

I really hope tactical smoke is in, for many purposes...

1. Diversions.
2. Marking targets.
3. Vehicle obscurement.
4. Sniper countermeasures.
5. Concealment for advance to contact, and break from contact.

Those are just off the top of my head. I think I read that smoke is in, but there seems to be few people talking about it, even as a side reference, if at all. I know there was, previously, some concerns about poly count/lag, and it was addressed then, so Im convinced Forgelight can handle it. Insights?

Furthermore, what else do we know now, any confirmations? Is it in, and do we know some of the uses, and delivery systems planned?

Edit: The order in which I listed them was driving me crazy...

Gogita · 2012-02-02, 11:20 AM

The biggest problem is if people spam it, don't want it

Tikuto · 2012-02-02, 11:21 AM

Originally Posted by Grognard

4. Vehicle obscurement.

but there seems to be few people talking about it

Galaxy defence.

Lonehunter · 2012-02-02, 11:28 AM

I'd love to see smoke nades in the game, only 1 per person is a must though.

Smoke should hide names/healthbars though, even with Enhanced Targeting.

Oryon22 · 2012-02-02, 11:30 AM

Wouldn't the smoke kill people's FPS? Thats a hell of a tactical advantage.

Grognard · 2012-02-02, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by Oryon22

Wouldn't the smoke kill people's FPS? Thats a hell of a tactical advantage.

LOL, I got a good laugh out of the "tactical advantage" part

Seriously though, I hope its not a problem, if it is, then its not a good thing.

Lonehunter · 2012-02-02, 11:37 AM

If Forgelight can handle volumetric clouds, rays of light, a day night cycle, and smoke from wrecked vehicles, I think it can handle smoke grenades.

Plus with almost every mention of how awesome the graphics are they mention how everything is scale-able, so I'm sure there will be a low end smoke grenade graphic, it certainly won't be something you can toggle off

Gandhi · 2012-02-02, 11:38 AM

6. Magic tricks

Or am I the only one who immediately thought about making a character named CrissAngel who runs around in an infil suit dropping smoke grenades?

Graywolves · 2012-02-02, 11:48 AM

Using smoke will be cool.

I almost hope it's possible to get an implant or thermal scope so a couple people that are close enough can look into it.

Imagine if you could throw smoke INSIDE the base and activate your thermal imaging implant and shoot at people.

acosmo · 2012-02-02, 11:57 AM

i believe it's been said that there will be vehicle smoke launchers. (as an ungrade

Seagoon · 2012-02-02, 11:58 AM

Smoke is a vital tactical tool and has a hundred uses, the game will seriously be missing somthing if its not included atleast as a handheld or launchable grenade.

And if the game can handle volumetric clouds im sure the comparitivly small ammounts of smoke at ground level wont make much difference.

But on top of the grenade types, having smoke launchers on vehicles to defend themselves or cover infantry as they disimbark would be awesome. If smoke is too OP then some simple upgrades either a scope or an implant or somthing that would alow you to see through smoke would help ballance this out.

As for smoke indoors, well having the view range drop to one or two feet infront of you can be fun and changes the gameplay in an interesting way.
But you could have vents that suck the smoke away very quickly or somthing as an excuse for them not working inside if that does not work out well.

Coreldan · 2012-02-02, 12:04 PM

Smoke is always something I find almost mandatory in a game like this, however it does have the problem of having hundreds of players on the field with smokes? Sounds nasty if they all spam it

Other thing is that it kills FPS for many.

I think one way to handily limit them could be only offering it through certain vehicles and the underslung launchers. The launchers probably have some downsides to them alone, and not everyone will use weapons that can/is worth it to equip with a nade launcher.

But I can't really agree with giving like one smoke per player. Many games give it to the squad leader-person and support, but that would require that PS2 will give extra loadout to the person who happens to be the squad leader, sounds inconvenient.

Graywolves · 2012-02-02, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by Coreldan

Smoke is always something I find almost mandatory in a game like this, however it does have the problem of having hundreds of players on the field with smokes? Sounds nasty if they all spam it

Other thing is that it kills FPS for many.

I think one way to handily limit them could be only offering it through certain vehicles and the underslung launchers. The launchers probably have some downsides to them alone, and not everyone will use weapons that can/is worth it to equip with a nade launcher.

But I can't really agree with giving like one smoke per player. Many games give it to the squad leader-person and support, but that would require that PS2 will give extra loadout to the person who happens to be the squad leader, sounds inconvenient.

Yeah, if smoke was implemented toward infantry use, I'd think it would have to be somewhere in the leadership tree, not particularly close to the bottom either.

Death2All · 2012-02-02, 12:20 PM

So long as it's not spamable as all hell and you can't lag other people's games up then it would be a nifty addition.

Tool · 2012-02-02, 12:26 PM

I hope there's forms of smoke grenades for infantry so long as they act like they should. Last long enough and pump out enough smoke to make them useful. To help prevent spammable situations if performance becomes an issue, smoke grenades could cost resources to acquire; so they're more of a tactical asset.