Smoke grenades

[FIREk]

How can client-side particle effects cause lag, or any server-side stress for that matter? :O

Smoke would be awesome. For some unknowable reason they tent to be taxing on hardware (rather than complex 3D models with bump mapping, lit from many sources, and a brazillion postprocessing effects), but volumetric fog will be in the game anyway.

I'm a big fan of any mechanics that can give a tactical advantage, in proper hands. I remember firing blindly into enemy smoke while playing airsoft, not knowing whether they're moving closer through the fog, or using it as a diversion to flank us. Good stuff, if you know how to use it.

[Soothsayer]

Oh right, someone mentioned smoke grenades somewhere and now we can't talk about them anymore...

[Bags]

Originally Posted by FIREk

How can client-side particle effects cause lag, or any server-side stress for that matter? :O

Smoke would be awesome. For some unknowable reason they tent to be taxing on hardware (rather than complex 3D models with bump mapping, lit from many sources, and a brazillion postprocessing effects), but volumetric fog will be in the game anyway.

I'm a big fan of any mechanics that can give a tactical advantage, in proper hands. I remember firing blindly into enemy smoke while playing airsoft, not knowing whether they're moving closer through the fog, or using it as a diversion to flank us. Good stuff, if you know how to use it.

I think the lag issue comes when everyone and their mom throws one simply to be a douche.

[Valdae]

I like the idea of smoke grenades, but I think they should be a 'command rank' privilege. This way they wont get spammed to oblivion.

[Lithious]

Im all for smoke grenades IF the forgelight engine can handle it and it doesn't causes lag.

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by Valdae

I like the idea of smoke grenades, but I think they should be a 'command rank' privilege. This way they wont get spammed to oblivion.

I don't see how this could have anything to do with commanding.

But yeah in the other thread I supported this. Not sure why there is another thread all of a sudden. People must be bored without any information.

[Valdae]

Originally Posted by Sirisian

I don't see how this could have anything to do with commanding.

Its not that hard...

Something that creates a big smokescreen temporarily changes the face of the battlefield, particularly in urban areas. Granting smoke grenades to people who have a low command rank means that they will nearly always get used tactically, and most importantly, make sure they are not spammed by everybody.

A battlefield spammed by people throwing smoke grenades would be ridiculous. We dont see this so much in other games as most people opt for other alternatives such as flashbangs, poison gas, etc..

[FIREk]

Originally Posted by Bags

I think the lag issue comes when everyone and their mom throws one simply to be a douche.

Just to clarify... You mean lag as in network lag (high ping, packetloss), or "computer lag", the colloquial term for low framerate, stuttering, freezing etc that occurs client-side?

[Soothsayer]

Originally Posted by Valdae

Its not that hard...

Something that creates a big smokescreen temporarily changes the face of the battlefield, particularly in urban areas. Granting smoke grenades to people who have a low command rank means that they will nearly always get used tactically, and most importantly, make sure they are not spammed by everybody.

A battlefield spammed by people throwing smoke grenades would be ridiculous. We dont see this so much in other games as most people opt for other alternatives such as flashbangs, poison gas, etc..

Just have to limit who gets one... if you give a couple to every person, every spawn, then you're asking for trouble. If you offer it as an option to a certain class instead of something else, you won't get smoke nade spam.

Limiting by CR or SL skill tree is not the first idea I would have had. I would probably would be more likely to put it with engy.

[Death2All]

The main issue stemming from smoke grenades is performance issues (i.e. framerate lag) and spammability. Having to render a bunch of effects for smoke could prove tiring on some systems and given the scope of PS (1000v1000v1000) fights, there could potentially be a lot of smoke grenades purposely being spammed at once.

Some people have brought up limiting smoke grenades to people with a certain command level, but that doesn't rule out the possibility that there are a lot of assholes out there who wouldn't specifically spec them self in command just so they could spam smoke grenades.

Remember when people used to lay thousands of boomers on a continent and then blow them all up with a jammer and crash the server? Of course, this eventually got nerfed and they put a limit to the number of boomers you could have laid down at one time.

It is lame to turn down an idea because it could potentially be exploited/ruined by others, but at the same time you can't turn a blind eye to that possibility.

[Lonehunter]

I just imagined a team of cloakers on smoke duty, coordinating a massive spam of smoke clouds.

[Lunarchild]

Actually, I think Planetside should have some sort of equipment or grenade slotting for this. If you can only have one of the following, I doubt many would use it:

• 3 HE grenades
• 5 jammers
• 2 plasma grenades
• 1 smoke grenade (or more with a cooldown that is longer then the effect)
• health applicator
• repair applicator
• command tool
• REK

[Valdae]

Originally Posted by Soothsayer

Limiting by CR or SL skill tree is not the first idea I would have had. I would probably would be more likely to put it with engy.

We're on the right lines, but I feel engy is a more defense orientated class, and the smoke grenade is an offensive 'weapon'. Either way the idea is the same, make it so only certain classes can have a smoke grenade, and give it a decent effect radius.

[Soothsayer]

Originally Posted by Valdae

We're on the right lines, but I feel engy is a more defense orientated class, and the smoke grenade is an offensive 'weapon'. Either way the idea is the same, make it so only certain classes can have a smoke grenade, and give it a decent effect radius.

Agreed, I just didn't think that linking it to SL skilltree would work since everybody could have the SL skill trained regardless of class. Theoretically anybody would have access to it regardless of the class they were playing.

[headcrab13]

Smoke grenades make more sense for a slow, tactical shooter like Rainbow Six. I'd prefer not to see them in PS2, as they would detract from the faster pace that the devs are going for.

-HC13