ODG6Actual
19 Oct 2010, 15:08
Ok so here's where Im going to continue forward on my recent MOH article about everyone talking about nerfing the sniper rifle (http://www.medalofhonor.com/blog/2010/10/nerf-sniper-rifle). I still believe that other things can and should be done before you go dialing back a rifle.
MAPS
No more spawning on players this 'feature' drives me nuts. You have a solid defense and ONE guy slips through the net, you send out one or two troops to go hunt him down at the objective only to discover that AS they were waiting to take the objective half the team has spawned on him and are now packed into the downed chopper like a bulging can of whoopass... your defense has gone from effective to infiltrated in 5 spawns.
Spawn in the rear with the gear which not only acts like a punishment for catching a bad case of lead poisoning but spawn far enough in the rear that you are out of range of snipers and in an off enemy limits area.
Rear spawn localized with multiple points of entry onto the map. You spawn onto the rear area which is obscured from the visible battle area. You are then presented with a good number of access ways into the main area through trees (natural barriers), over a ridge, around a bend, a cave, a tunnel etc... visible lanes INTO the battle area should be at different angles so that a working sniper on the opposite side doesnt have a chokepoint view of more than any one or two entry points. A good example in my book would like you make a long climb up a ridgeline to come over from above (counter sniper) or just make that enemy sniper have to work a larger field.
PLAYER MECHANICS
IF you are hit by bullets, lets act like it. While a large number of us have never been shot before, you should note that even the most hardened veteran will twist, slow, stop, fall, trip or dive for cover reactively to a bullet hit or near miss. If your friend is sighting you and you shoot them they WILL lose the sight picture as the impact moves the body. This would stop people from being stock still knowing that the first round may not kill them.
Blast area effects increased. So far Ive seen that if you're caught in the blast you're dead.. if your close to the blast you take some damage and if you're on the outside edge you get the ringing and a little blurring. How about we make it so that if you're sighting.. your going to jumble around like a bowl of jello and that shot you were intending ISNT going to happen the way you intended. If you're running you should get some wobble or slow down as any human would be impacted and pushed away from the force of the blast.
HARDWARE
SMOKE grenades are intended to be a good way to cover or mark an area long enough to get men through or for an overflight to target. Right now the smoke dissipates far too quickly. Sure that means you could smoke up the map but honestly, this is realistic and becomes an effective tool rather than a 4th of july smoke bomb.
PERKS
Mortars, Rockets, Cruise Missile and Close Air Support ALL TAKE TIME TO DELIVER! Sure you can call this crap in, give them a 12 digit grid square to nuke but let me give away the secret military tip... a mortar team needs a little time to adjust to your given coords and then send rounds, a rocket strike either from MLRS or Apache's also need the coords relayed and then targetted before the button gets mashed and the rocket reaches destination, a Cruise Missile (I try not to laugh at this one but I cant help it) comes typically from a SHIP offshore and unless your taking a port you will sight that target, your sender will confirm that order (because hey, its a million dollars a shot or something like that) and you'll want time to scoot the area and THEN it goes out and downrange and last Close Air Support even IF on station (flying overhead on standby) will need the coordinates, will have to turn to position and then delivery payload.
The bottom line here is that Im cool with people getting these items, I think you'll think twice about mashing the button on calling it in if you run the risk that your target(s) arent in the same area when the rounds drop. This is why this stuff is used when an enemy is fixed (stuck in one place) or hardened (fortified position).
SCOPES AND SIGHTS
Scopes shouldn't give you magical eyeballs. In game if you bring up your sights and you have any type of zoom the whole world zooms the same as the world through the scope. Now if the whole view WAS the scope... fine but thats not the case here. I find that you can kind of cheat the system because while you're using a nice 12x scope you also have a vista view at the same power around the outside. This is a cheat in my book because you should have to SCAN with a scope for targets outside good normal 1x visual which means that rifle is moving a lot and not jerking to traverse in an instant.
There is also natural distortion and your eyes need to adjust to the change in the scope IF you're going to sight anything through it when you first bring it up. I recommend a brief (like 1 or 2 second) adjustment period (sight picture clears up etc) to compensate and simulate for this effect. People dont pull up sights and fire the round immediately IF they're intent on using the scope for anything but a picatinny rail decoration.
Movement equals sight picture wavering. If you run, you're not sighting anything beyond the general pointing of your barrel, you wont be using the scope and IF you do that things going to be jumping around like you lit the cat on fire. Any number of factors can impact scope usefulness... heavy breathing, unsupported firing position, running, walking, equipment physics. While its a game and you cant account as much for the weight you're toting, the fast you move, the more useless your scope becomes. When you see people walking with weapons up they are also fixated on the end of the weapon and walk slowly to target and improve movement based firing accuracy.
MISC
Repeat after me, I do not have a crosshair tattooed to my retina. Ok, so lets all agree that if the weapon has a scope, iron sights or hell, a barrel then you have the tools you need to point the weapon where the flashy end needs to be. It is NOT hardcore to turn this off... its stupid to have it on. I cant even think of any good reason why it should be there. Since its ALWAYS in the middle of your playable area (screen) then shouldnt you already know about where the hell that is?
Whats with the HIT cue? If I hit a target, it screams and falls or limps or even just stops shooting briefly while it regroups (see the getting hit effect above) so why do I need an X to tell me that Ive landed a round? One excellent part of the excitement factor is... 'damn, did I drop him or is he still kickin?'. Here again I find that IF you wonder then you'll take more time to get solid shots OR at least confirm your kills before you move onto another target or dart out from cover. Believe me, for those who feel they NEED something to indicate if the target is down, once they get smoked by the merely wounded target a few times, they'll change how they work.
Anti-tank Weapons
Anti-tank weapons are called that because they are primarily for armored or heavy vehicles, NOT PERSONNEL. Now I realize that on the battlefield RPGs get some pretty creative usage but lets address some physics that if added would dissolve the NOOB TOOB debate.
- AT weapons have a substantial back blast, they are fired from an open ended tube for a very good reason in that if you fired one without it, the resulting force would pull the whole thing right out of your arms if not take you for a ride in reverse you may not live to share later.
- Overpressure is a killer... just like a concussion grenade can be more deadly in an enclosed space the pressure wave of AT weapons fired in an enclosed space can neatly take you out of the game. Maybe you're not dead but the ability to hear is a key component of combat effectiveness. The update, fire it inside take damage or you get killed (by the way, your buddies in the room playing poker they're toast too, welcome to Teamkill-ville)
- Backblast area NOT clear, if you're sure you're out in the open and fire one and an unfortunate friend spawns or rounds the corner then fire up the bar-b-que because he's toasted like marshmallows at a campfire. Im older and would have to look up the backblast but I believe conservatively you're looking at 15 to 25 feet back there to be safe.
- Minimum distance to detonate, you betcha... weapons engineers are pretty smart people, they try to make deadly weapons that are deadly to the people on the business end and fairly safe for the operator and close friends. That in mind, most anti-tank weapons fire a rocket that arms after firing which means that its a big fire breathing spear for 30 meters and THEN it becomes the explosive device that it was intended to be. They are not designed to be fired 20 feet in front of you at the ground in some last ditch 'screw you' move to turn it into a grenade. RPGs detonate on contact (when they work because frankly they're a little bit on the hit/miss side) when the pointy end hits its subject so you can go a bit more wild west with these things BUT if realistic splash damage radius is setup, it should result in you, the enemy and your innocent friends onto the big cattle car ride into the hereafter.
ok.. so those are some of the things that were brewing in my skull over the last 24 hours after putting out my article on nerfing the sniper rifle (http://www.medalofhonor.com/blog/2010/10/nerf-sniper-rifle) so I might add to this but I sure would love your feedback (and by feedback I mean calm, respectful points and facts mixed with opinions based on careful consideration, not mouth diarrhea or you'll just get deleted and whats the point of that).
MAPS
No more spawning on players this 'feature' drives me nuts. You have a solid defense and ONE guy slips through the net, you send out one or two troops to go hunt him down at the objective only to discover that AS they were waiting to take the objective half the team has spawned on him and are now packed into the downed chopper like a bulging can of whoopass... your defense has gone from effective to infiltrated in 5 spawns.
Spawn in the rear with the gear which not only acts like a punishment for catching a bad case of lead poisoning but spawn far enough in the rear that you are out of range of snipers and in an off enemy limits area.
Rear spawn localized with multiple points of entry onto the map. You spawn onto the rear area which is obscured from the visible battle area. You are then presented with a good number of access ways into the main area through trees (natural barriers), over a ridge, around a bend, a cave, a tunnel etc... visible lanes INTO the battle area should be at different angles so that a working sniper on the opposite side doesnt have a chokepoint view of more than any one or two entry points. A good example in my book would like you make a long climb up a ridgeline to come over from above (counter sniper) or just make that enemy sniper have to work a larger field.
PLAYER MECHANICS
IF you are hit by bullets, lets act like it. While a large number of us have never been shot before, you should note that even the most hardened veteran will twist, slow, stop, fall, trip or dive for cover reactively to a bullet hit or near miss. If your friend is sighting you and you shoot them they WILL lose the sight picture as the impact moves the body. This would stop people from being stock still knowing that the first round may not kill them.
Blast area effects increased. So far Ive seen that if you're caught in the blast you're dead.. if your close to the blast you take some damage and if you're on the outside edge you get the ringing and a little blurring. How about we make it so that if you're sighting.. your going to jumble around like a bowl of jello and that shot you were intending ISNT going to happen the way you intended. If you're running you should get some wobble or slow down as any human would be impacted and pushed away from the force of the blast.
HARDWARE
SMOKE grenades are intended to be a good way to cover or mark an area long enough to get men through or for an overflight to target. Right now the smoke dissipates far too quickly. Sure that means you could smoke up the map but honestly, this is realistic and becomes an effective tool rather than a 4th of july smoke bomb.
PERKS
Mortars, Rockets, Cruise Missile and Close Air Support ALL TAKE TIME TO DELIVER! Sure you can call this crap in, give them a 12 digit grid square to nuke but let me give away the secret military tip... a mortar team needs a little time to adjust to your given coords and then send rounds, a rocket strike either from MLRS or Apache's also need the coords relayed and then targetted before the button gets mashed and the rocket reaches destination, a Cruise Missile (I try not to laugh at this one but I cant help it) comes typically from a SHIP offshore and unless your taking a port you will sight that target, your sender will confirm that order (because hey, its a million dollars a shot or something like that) and you'll want time to scoot the area and THEN it goes out and downrange and last Close Air Support even IF on station (flying overhead on standby) will need the coordinates, will have to turn to position and then delivery payload.
The bottom line here is that Im cool with people getting these items, I think you'll think twice about mashing the button on calling it in if you run the risk that your target(s) arent in the same area when the rounds drop. This is why this stuff is used when an enemy is fixed (stuck in one place) or hardened (fortified position).
SCOPES AND SIGHTS
Scopes shouldn't give you magical eyeballs. In game if you bring up your sights and you have any type of zoom the whole world zooms the same as the world through the scope. Now if the whole view WAS the scope... fine but thats not the case here. I find that you can kind of cheat the system because while you're using a nice 12x scope you also have a vista view at the same power around the outside. This is a cheat in my book because you should have to SCAN with a scope for targets outside good normal 1x visual which means that rifle is moving a lot and not jerking to traverse in an instant.
There is also natural distortion and your eyes need to adjust to the change in the scope IF you're going to sight anything through it when you first bring it up. I recommend a brief (like 1 or 2 second) adjustment period (sight picture clears up etc) to compensate and simulate for this effect. People dont pull up sights and fire the round immediately IF they're intent on using the scope for anything but a picatinny rail decoration.
Movement equals sight picture wavering. If you run, you're not sighting anything beyond the general pointing of your barrel, you wont be using the scope and IF you do that things going to be jumping around like you lit the cat on fire. Any number of factors can impact scope usefulness... heavy breathing, unsupported firing position, running, walking, equipment physics. While its a game and you cant account as much for the weight you're toting, the fast you move, the more useless your scope becomes. When you see people walking with weapons up they are also fixated on the end of the weapon and walk slowly to target and improve movement based firing accuracy.
MISC
Repeat after me, I do not have a crosshair tattooed to my retina. Ok, so lets all agree that if the weapon has a scope, iron sights or hell, a barrel then you have the tools you need to point the weapon where the flashy end needs to be. It is NOT hardcore to turn this off... its stupid to have it on. I cant even think of any good reason why it should be there. Since its ALWAYS in the middle of your playable area (screen) then shouldnt you already know about where the hell that is?
Whats with the HIT cue? If I hit a target, it screams and falls or limps or even just stops shooting briefly while it regroups (see the getting hit effect above) so why do I need an X to tell me that Ive landed a round? One excellent part of the excitement factor is... 'damn, did I drop him or is he still kickin?'. Here again I find that IF you wonder then you'll take more time to get solid shots OR at least confirm your kills before you move onto another target or dart out from cover. Believe me, for those who feel they NEED something to indicate if the target is down, once they get smoked by the merely wounded target a few times, they'll change how they work.
Anti-tank Weapons
Anti-tank weapons are called that because they are primarily for armored or heavy vehicles, NOT PERSONNEL. Now I realize that on the battlefield RPGs get some pretty creative usage but lets address some physics that if added would dissolve the NOOB TOOB debate.
- AT weapons have a substantial back blast, they are fired from an open ended tube for a very good reason in that if you fired one without it, the resulting force would pull the whole thing right out of your arms if not take you for a ride in reverse you may not live to share later.
- Overpressure is a killer... just like a concussion grenade can be more deadly in an enclosed space the pressure wave of AT weapons fired in an enclosed space can neatly take you out of the game. Maybe you're not dead but the ability to hear is a key component of combat effectiveness. The update, fire it inside take damage or you get killed (by the way, your buddies in the room playing poker they're toast too, welcome to Teamkill-ville)
- Backblast area NOT clear, if you're sure you're out in the open and fire one and an unfortunate friend spawns or rounds the corner then fire up the bar-b-que because he's toasted like marshmallows at a campfire. Im older and would have to look up the backblast but I believe conservatively you're looking at 15 to 25 feet back there to be safe.
- Minimum distance to detonate, you betcha... weapons engineers are pretty smart people, they try to make deadly weapons that are deadly to the people on the business end and fairly safe for the operator and close friends. That in mind, most anti-tank weapons fire a rocket that arms after firing which means that its a big fire breathing spear for 30 meters and THEN it becomes the explosive device that it was intended to be. They are not designed to be fired 20 feet in front of you at the ground in some last ditch 'screw you' move to turn it into a grenade. RPGs detonate on contact (when they work because frankly they're a little bit on the hit/miss side) when the pointy end hits its subject so you can go a bit more wild west with these things BUT if realistic splash damage radius is setup, it should result in you, the enemy and your innocent friends onto the big cattle car ride into the hereafter.
ok.. so those are some of the things that were brewing in my skull over the last 24 hours after putting out my article on nerfing the sniper rifle (http://www.medalofhonor.com/blog/2010/10/nerf-sniper-rifle) so I might add to this but I sure would love your feedback (and by feedback I mean calm, respectful points and facts mixed with opinions based on careful consideration, not mouth diarrhea or you'll just get deleted and whats the point of that).