What's the point of Homing Beacon?

(TheDuplex) #21

yeah, we need a ironsight during disguised… AND i think the outline radius must be incresed… its hard to spot a moving group to warn your team…

(Smoochy) #22

[QUOTE=zenstar;330270]It is usable in disguise and it doesn’t trigger combat intuition if you’re disguised at the time.
The only issue I have is that it’s tricky to tag someone far away while in disguise because you can’t see your ironsights.

sigh I need to draw a dot in the middle of my monitor some time :D[/QUOTE]

that was an old trick for using sniper rifles as instagib. draw a dot in the middle of your screen. didnt last too long as devs started making unscoped snipers very inaccurate to counter this.

(tokamak) #23

This is also due to the rest of the clutter on the screen.

(Exedore) #24

[QUOTE=Humate;330265]Its not even useful in competitive play.
In fact its banned. :stroggtapir:[/QUOTE]
I know, and that’s along with half of the other Operative abilities. Care to comment on why it gets the banhammer? It’s the only hard counter to disguising other than killing the disguised Operative, and there are some balance options available to us… if that’s the issue.

(Humate) #25

[QUOTE=zenstar;330268]That sounds contradictory. Why would you ban something that isn’t useful?
That’d be like banning blue shorts in the 100m sprints (if it truely is useless: I don’t think it is).[/QUOTE]

Yes, thats correct if you dont read b/w the lines. :wink:

(Humate) #26

Sure :slight_smile:

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.

(zenstar) #27

DISCLAIMER: I am not a comp player. I am a pub player.

[QUOTE=Humate;330468]Sure :slight_smile:

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.
[/QUOTE]
Surely good voice comms will always beat comms hack and homing beacon? Especially when you combine them together? Also: Comms hack is normally pretty risky to pull off unless everyone nearby is dead in which case it’s not as useful.

Doesn’t EMP help break defence by taking out turrets? I mean it can be used both offensively and defensively but how many EMPs are thrown around? I don’t normally encounter many.

[QUOTE=Humate;330468]
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]
It doesn’t make much sense having 2 humans sounding drastically different while moving. Plus I think it’s a good counter since you have to waste time aiming at your team (and get mistaken for a counter-operative) to uncover anyone. It’s a pro balanced with a con that is useful in the right situation.

Not trying to attack you or anything. Just interested in the resoning begind the ideas and providing my input (although, as I say, it’s an outsider’s input since I’m a pub player).

(Kurushi) #28

[QUOTE=Humate;330468]Sure :slight_smile:

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]

Sorry but they’re rubbish reasons.

And… HB is ace, if you know what you’re doing you can point out the biggest threats, rushes etc.

Does it really trigger combat intuition? It seems so, I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing. It’s a challenge anyway :slight_smile:

(zenstar) #29

[QUOTE=Kurushi;330508]Sorry but they’re rubbish reasons.

And… HB is ace, if you know what you’re doing you can point out the biggest threats, rushes etc.

Does it really trigger combat intuition? It seems so, I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing. It’s a challenge anyway :)[/QUOTE]

It doesn’t trigger combat intuition if you’re disguised. If you meet the requirements for combat intuition (you’re not on their radar and you’re aiming at them) then you trigger it. When you’re in disguise you appear as afriendly on their radar (and so don’t meet CI’s requirements).

(tokamak) #30

You’re no asking comp players to reason.

Just saying.

(Humate) #31

Surely good voice comms will always beat comms hack and homing beacon? Especially when you combine them together? Also: Comms hack is normally pretty risky to pull off unless everyone nearby is dead in which case it’s not as useful.

Irrelevant, both in the risk factor and the fact voice comms beats it.
But its ok I read the disclaimer :slight_smile:

Doesn’t EMP help break defence by taking out turrets? I mean it can be used both offensively and defensively but how many EMPs are thrown around? I don’t normally encounter many.

Unlimited nades kinda renders that point moot. Not to mention the amount of time EMP slow down charges and hack boxes.

It doesn’t make much sense having 2 humans sounding drastically different while moving

Not about realism. Its about gameplay. The current system at the moment, is that if you run within a certain radius of the enemy you show up on radar. An audio system basically does the same thing, except its based on the players awareness.

(Humate) #32

[QUOTE=Kurushi;330508]Sorry but they’re rubbish reasons.

[/QUOTE]

good luck qualifying that statement champ :wink:

(iezza) #33

You must be ironsightign, you can homing beacon while hacking, did it on reactor, market while leaning( u can do that with hack aswell)

(Kurushi) #34

[QUOTE=Humate;330530]Irrelevant, both in the risk factor and the fact voice comms beats it.
But its ok I read the disclaimer :slight_smile:

Unlimited nades kinda renders that point moot. Not to mention the amount of time EMP slow down charges and hack boxes.

Not about realism. Its about gameplay. The current system at the moment, is that if you run within a certain radius of the enemy you show up on radar. An audio system basically does the same thing, except its based on the players awareness.[/QUOTE]

So voice comms completely covers what comms hack does? Lies :slight_smile:

If we’re talking ESL rules where Engie’s can’t remove hack boxes and you’re only allowed 1 turret then yeah, they’ve suddenly messed with the game balance - The EMP suddenly sticks out like a sore thumb, that’s what happens when you start messing with balance with verbal rule sets

(dommafia) #35

[QUOTE=tokamak;330514]You’re no asking comp players to reason.

Just saying.[/QUOTE]

Stop with your anti comp mentality… I’m still baffled as to how having a COMP mode/rules/restrictions (or whatever you want to call it) affects you in anyway. It is not going to be part of pub, and you don’t play comp… so yeah, I’m baffled.

ETQW and ET had some really good COMP streams/shoutcasts that were a ton of fun to watch. Forgive us for not being all about easily forgettable pub play. And I have nothing against pub play since I play myself mostly pub now, but why do pubbers take jabs at comp ? lol.

Just like all the whining on these boards from a loud minority, which you know to ignore. But you seem to only listen to the few idiot comp players that want a total conversion of the game. Most sane comp players, yes most, dont want such extremes at all.

(Humate) #36

No, if a player sees two medics walk into the objective room, and he decides not to tell his team-mates either via voice or text chat then his team does not deserve to know. As it stands atm, if a player sees another player the game immediately tries to “emulate what good clan players do”. The reason they have this is because SD cannot afford to create a game, where the typical pub player requires to use voice comms to have fun. In other words its a pub feature. But thats ok, Neil was not asking about pub play. :slight_smile:

And I’m not talking ESL rules. But I certainly agree theres the potential to completely mess up the game.

(tokamak) #37

Nothing wrong with that, but it’s rare to see comp rules that actually make sense. I’ve seen ETQWpro utterly trash the elegant mechanics of ETQW.

Here the reason to ban the homing beacon is that the rule-maker thinks is irrelevant. That’s one hell of a bogus reason to ban it.

(dommafia) #38

[QUOTE=tokamak;330589]
Here the reason to ban the homing beacon is that the rule-maker thinks is irrelevant. That’s one hell of a bogus reason to ban it.[/QUOTE]

Agreed if that’s true, source?

(riptide) #39

Well in my opinion it’s because it’s no different than wall hack. However I disagree with a lot of the bans. Especially the operatives because it takes away the perks of a relatively weaker(in competition) class. Perhaps because of this they should allow all operative abilities. Then go from there.

That being said I am opposed to radar and all abilities that affect it, as well as silent footsteps, in competitive play. Radar and the like are not reliable enough whereas sound is.

(tokamak) #40

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.

Oh wait I read the other way around. The homing beacon replaces voice communication. Even if that were true (as if a combination of both wouldn’t be better), that’s still a bogus argument. Voice communication is only added for convenience. One could make the same argument for removing voice chat as it removes the need for fast typing.

They utterly forget that it’s an ability, with a cost. You basically gimp the covert’s combat effectiveness to make him a better scout. Denying teams that actually consider that worth it (and I doubt it will be many, just look at the friggin thread title for that matter) an interesting strategy.