I never play Cov Ops, but I’ve seen hundreds running around stealing pants and I’ve got a doubt.
The smoke bomb seems tremendously useful. There are at lots of spots and situations where a can-o-smoke would be wonderful. However I almost never see one of the CovOps that’s hopping around searching for pants using it.
Is there any good reason to not use it? The Cov ops will probably have time to reload his satchel in the long time till he gets into a good position among the opponents.
It does use a full powerbar. On maps like fueldump I try not to use smoke to cover the entrances unless its necessary since I won’t be able to blow the gates as quickly.
I think some players don’t use smoke since it only benefits you personally a small amount, but can be a huge help to your team as a whole. I don’t think people really think about this when they play. You can try asking for smoke from your team and that might help. Still, I think smoke requires a level of tactics and thinking that isn’t very common on pub servers. Of course, you can always help your team out by being a covert who uses all the tools at his disposal.
RK
A sudden thought. What does aiming artillery to a smoke cloud?
(damn I need ET here at work, 2Mb connection and I can’t use it)
IMHO, the best use of smoke grenades is that it prevents binoculars from going through (at leat i hope) thus preventing artillery on a tactically higly valuable location.
Is this true? - Has some1 tryed it out? (I never play as a Field ops)
I always try to cancel enemy a/s strikes by sitting on the canister :moo:
I dunno about A/S, but I always call my arty’s on the same spot - if somebody’s shooting at me or not, if there’s smoke there or not.
So to answer your question ( and yes, I thought it was lame when I first realised ), no, smoke does NOT block artillery. ( dunno about A/S - I rarely use those )
Then if smoke does not prevent artillry then it’s use is not as valuable as i thought 
They should add this feature.
I think smoke is preventing artilery strike. And ive saw Covert Ops who uses smoke bombs often, so i dont think its such a rarity.
If you could stop both A/S and artillery with a smoke canister it’d definately help to stop the spam for example in Battery (or is it possible already? Someone please try this).
In game mechanics terms, both the airstrike and arty use a simple hitscan test straight up and see if they hit a sky texture. Because smoke is not a solid object it doesn’t block these tests, so both field ops support fire work fine through covert ops smoke.
While it doesn’t do anything against support fire, smoke does a good job cutting down player’s sight. Putting smoke in or just beyond critical chokepoints can allow your team to get through the area without having to fend off everyone that’s covering the area. You can also use smoke to divide a wide area into two zones. This cuts back on the usefulness of long range weapons like the MG42 and sniper rifles since they can’t reliably engage targets through the smoke. Finally, smoke can be a godsend to engies trying to build constructables in exposed areas. Try tossing some smoke at the build crates for the bridge on fueldump. Your engies will still have to dodge arty strikes, but its much easier than dodging arty strikes, MG42s, panzers, and MP40s at the same time. =)
RK
smoke will prevent a field op from calling arty but it won’t stop it if its been call before the smoke was.
I am not sure about AS. As I don’t use AS as much as ARTY.
Personnaly when i play Covert Ops i use Smoke grenades a lot, mostly in wide outdoor areas where MG42s and snipers tend to “cut” players down when they head for the front.