Following the discussion that was spurred here between Exedore and Humate, I submit the following argument that advocates the inclusion of Homing Beacon in Competitive Play.
[QUOTE=Humate;330468]Comms Hack & the Homing Beacon - these abilities basically remove the need for good voice comms, and in instances where its heavily relied upon, good battlesense.
EMP - Most maps are perceived to be defensively biased. EMP ensures its an even more defensive game than it already is. Considering that the goal of stopwatch is to see who can complete the map in the fastest time, its not a desirable ability ATM.
As for Homing Beacon being a direct counter to disguises - just my opinion, but I personally would have liked to have the two factions sound completely different when they moved. This is how you tell if someone is in disguise in ETQW.[/QUOTE]
The Disclaimers:
1. I have no objections to the basis competitive players present for rejecting EMP Nades. I find this explanation sufficient.
2. I can concede that Comms Hack runs counter to the conventional Competitive Paradigm of eliminating the use of a Radar in game.
3. I consider the basis for rejecting Homing Beacon to be flawed from a logical and opportunity cost perspective, even when you consider the nature of the Competitive Paradigm.
4. I understand conceptually and can at least empathize with the Competitive Paradigm.
The Competitive Paradigm has an emphasis on a) exceptional individual weapon skill b) team coordination c) exceptional individual awareness and d) exceptional communication ability.
Over the years I have been a follower of GameBattles and Halo MLG. Likewise, I have watched enough competitive matches on Brink TV to know that team composition consists of:
- 3 Medics, 1 Soldier, and 1 Engineer
or
-3 Medics and 2 Soldiers
Everyone plays Light bodytype and everyone uses some combination of the following weapons:
- CARB-9
- Kross
- Sea Eagle
- Barnett
The Argument:
As has been elaborated, Homing Beacon has been banned from competitive play for the reasons that it impinges upon aspects of the Competitive Paradigm relating to individual combat awareness and the requirement for in-game voice communications.
While these notions can be comprehended on a conceptual basis, they suffer from a logical shortfall in light of very real and very tangible opportunity costs.
That is, I will concede that Homing Beacon should be banned from competitive play only if it is always active or only if it is active an excessive amount of time or only if it provides players with an undue advantage, thereby defeating the purpose of individual combat awareness and in-game voice communication ability.
Effectively, you would be removing significant aspects of differentiating skill from the competitive environment. In essence, you would be rewarding lesser-skilled players by leveling the playing field. Clearly, this is counter to the Competitive Paradigm.
However, the corollary from the above italicized text is that if the Homing Beacon is NOT always active and is NOT active an excessive proportion of the time and does NOT provide an undue advantage, then there is no basis for it to be banned.
The fact is that Homing Beacon is NOT always active.
Moreover, Homing Beacon imposes a significant opportunity cost that quite simply can’t be discounted, especially not in a 5v5 format where every player is crucial.
The Opportunity Cost Imposed on Homing Beacon:
1. You must play as the Operative Class.
This point is not trivial. The Operative Class is drastically under-represented in Competitive play.
Medics offer the significant advantage of being able to Revive their team-mates as well as the ability to health-buff, immediately regenerate health (via a Self-Buff) and they have more standard pips than the other classes (which can mean more Frag Grenades thrown, for instance).
Soldiers have significantly improved killing efficiency thanks to the increased power of their Frag Grenades, and they have the added benefit of Molotovs for Knockdowns, Flashbangs for team assaults or quick escapes, and Scavenge for pip recovery during downtime.
Engineers offer fewer advantages given that most competitive players can counter predictable static defense like Turrets whereas their stealth mines still retain significant effectiveness. The Engineer’s greatest contribution to his competitive team is his Weapon Buff. Kevlar is only really a worthwhile option once all weapon buffs have been distributed and once turrets and mines have been placed.
When you consider the above Classes, picking Operative imposes rather strict penalties to you and your team’s Combat Lifespan (thanks to Medics) and your Killing Efficiency (thanks to Soldiers and, to a lesser extent, Engineers).
At most, a team could afford to accommodate one Operative in place of either a Medic, a Soldier, or an Engineer, provided that the team already had at least 2 Medics and at least 1 Soldier.
Furthermore, this individual Operative couldn’t be in all places at once. To suggest that an Operative could provide his team with an undue advantage through Homing Beacon is to fail to understand the mechanics of Homing Beacon, which I will now cover.
2. Homing Beacon requires that you have a target in your Iron-Sight Cross-Hairs for a Duration of ~2 Seconds.
The requirement of ~2 seconds of Iron-Sighting dictates that an Operative be in the line of enemy sight (and fire) for the duration of the ability. Furthermore, Homing Beacon only lasts ~4-5 seconds. The ~2 second delay dictates that Voice Communications will be more rapid and more effective than Homing Beacon, anyways. At most, Homing Beacon provides little more advantage than ‘He’s one shot on my X’.
Considering the risks to the Operative, especially in a competitive environment where the utility of Disguises are greatly diminished by the supposedly heightened team awareness, it is unlikely that Operatives would be able to successfully target their opponents with Homing Beacon in the first place.
In the event that they do pull it off, doing so represents one of the few perks available to the Operative Class in competitive play, given that their team’s Combat Lifespan and Killing Efficiency have been diminished by virtue their inclusion on the team.
[B]Failing to account for opportunity costs is a genuine logical failure that crops up again and again when players theoryscape about in-game mechanics.
The actual implementation of the Operative’s Homing Beacon in competitive play would be far less advantageous or game-breaking than is purported, especially considering the fact that a team’s Combat Lifespan and Killing Efficiency would be overall diminished due to the sacrifice that an Operative’s inclusion on the team represents. [/B]