IFF for all squads!!!

[Cheeba 10]

Its so annoying getting tked by accident. Especially for me, after slowly getting into a nice sniping position. Only to be mistaken by an enemy and taken down by those who fail to use their map for friendly locations.

I've noticed on most servers (if not all) that if you aim at a player who isnt a part of your squad. Nothing shows up, no name, nothing. So I can see why players can mistake certain type of classes as enemies (sniper and demo most commonly since they are very similar to the enemy classes).

IFF for all players on the same side is badly needed.

Sorry if this has been brought up before.:o

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Doesn't holding space work for this in multiplayer? I've only tested the demo on AI though. Anything else would be too easy. Blue on blue is a real problem in real life, and is often a result of bad or misinterpreted communications. Do you state where you are and what you are? If not you have only yourself to blaim pluss maybe the confusion of battle.

Edited July 2, 2009 by CarlGustaffa

[thefoolio888 10]

Holding <space> while point at a target shows exactly what/who it is.

Obviously doesn't help if the person pointing at you is trigger happy or a shoot first, ask question later type.

[Cheeba 10]

You shouldnt have to hold space...it should show a name as soon as you aim at them.

I've never had any FF incidents where I was the shooter. I have been killed by FF plenty of times, and I'm not doing anything that would make me look hostile. If anything, I am sniping towards the action or moving to it. Yet ppl just have itchy trigger fingers and dont bother to check their map to see if any friendlies are near by.

Usually I pick sniper class, and usually I have to select a squad with very few people in it...since all the other snipers are taken already. So being part of a small squad hurts my chances of not being shot by FF since only members in that squad can see where the other members are. Everyone else just sees a random sniper...

However most of the time, I get killed while running towards a hotzone...where the idiots dont understand that no enemies spawn outside the redzone, yet they still fire at anything that doesnt have a green symbol affiliated with it.:mad:

[Sir Finkus 10]

You shouldnt have to hold space...it should show a name as soon as you aim at them.

I've never had any FF incidents where I was the shooter. I have been killed by FF plenty of times, and I'm not doing anything that would make me look hostile. If anything, I am sniping towards the action or moving to it. Yet ppl just have itchy trigger fingers and dont bother to check their map to see if any friendlies are near by.

Usually I pick sniper class, and usually I have to select a squad with very few people in it...since all the other snipers are taken already. So being part of a small squad hurts my chances of not being shot by FF since only members in that squad can see where the other members are. Everyone else just sees a random sniper...

However most of the time, I get killed while running towards a hotzone...where the idiots dont understand that no enemies spawn outside the redzone, yet they still fire at anything that doesnt have a green symbol affiliated with it.:mad:

That's no good, then people could just mouse over an area where an enemy is likely to be a lot until your name pops up. I've used this in other fpses. Oddly enough, the text can also hamper you because it sometimes gets in the way of shooting.

[maxter 10]

Aren't tags controlled by the difficulty settings in A2?

[Cheeba 10]

That's no good, then people could just mouse over an area where an enemy is likely to be a lot until your name pops up. I've used this in other fpses. Oddly enough, the text can also hamper you because it sometimes gets in the way of shooting.

Just have a small red 'X' or cancel sign show up as soon as your crosshairs are on a friendly target...something.

The way it is now is for people who know what they're doing and understand proper RoE and identification procedures...not for the majority of noobs that are playing.

[PurpleXVI 10]

Aren't tags controlled by the difficulty settings in A2?

They are, they only appear on the easiest difficulty setting or if you make a custom difficulty.

[no use for a name 0]

This isn't supposed to be another FPS; you need teamwork and communication to know where your squad mates are all the time. If someone shoots you it's because a. they're just kids running around shooting everything or b. they don't have a clue where their teammates are

It's best to find a server where everyone works together and admins so they can weed out the troublemakers

[PurpleXVI 10]

This isn't supposed to be another FPS; you need teamwork and communication to know where your squad mates are all the time. If someone shoots you it's because a. they're just kids running around shooting everything or b. they don't have a clue where their teammates are

It's best to find a server where everyone works together and admins so they can weed out the troublemakers

Games also need to make a few abstractions to make gameplay easier on the players. Unless you want to spend more time maintaining your weapons than using them or other such "realistic" things.

Let's just say you have a 32-man team split into two 16-man groups, though. In most conditions in Arma 2, you can hardly see who the hell you're looking at without the IFF blobs on. Everyone's just some uniform shade of gray at a distance, and this isn't a game that lets you get closer for a better look, especially if you're dealing with bots who sometimes have some amazing eagle-eyed attacks going on.

Additionally, they already pop up as identified to amazing detail(even right down to their gear, missile soldier, officer, etc.) on the map, but you need to waste valuable time hauling that up. Just a "this is not an enemy for shooting at"-marker would be fine and really not ruin immersion, it would be assumed that there's a constant level of low-grade chatter going on so everyone has some idea of where their buddies are.

I mean, I really appreciate the concept. But fact is, we're not there personally, so there are senses and stuff that we are not privy to, no matter how well the game is designed. I almost NEVER get lost in person, but I can get lost in a videogame, just something about it screws with my spatial perception. Which is something I need to have polished and top notch to, for instance, keep track of 16 unmarked buddies running around in the middle of the goddamn night.

Most of the people playing this game are not trained military professionals, the game should not require that we be just to avoid friendly fire.

[Cheeba 10]

This isn't supposed to be another FPS; you need teamwork and communication to know where your squad mates are all the time. If someone shoots you it's because a. they're just kids running around shooting everything or b. they don't have a clue where their teammates are

It's best to find a server where everyone works together and admins so they can weed out the troublemakers

Well, that usually doesnt work in servers with +25people...since they only co-ordinate within their own squads. Just one little sign that lets the shooter know they are aiming at a friendly wont make this game another generic FPS...it'll help reduce FF. Which is all I want.

Like I said previously, the majority of people playing have no right to be in an actual army...and thus, dont take the necessary steps to ensure their target is not friendly. A small notification alerting the person that the are about to kill a friendly is easily within the acceptable terms of keeping this a mil-sim. Since blue-on-blue rarely happens IRL...adding this feature will help maintain the sense of realism of military units NOT killing their own soldiers. I see the "SoAndSo loses 10 points for friendly fire" alert WAY to much in coop games.

Even calling out your position doesnt help much, since the maps are SOOO big, you cant give an exact location other that coordinates that are not very relevant to anyone but yourself.

Edited July 2, 2009 by Cheeba

[PurpleXVI 10]

Like I said above, the majority of people playing have no right to be in an actual army...

See, that's the main thing, here. You could easily make a game that REQUIRES military-like precision and training to be any fun or playable, or winnable. But that makes it so much easier for one idiot WITHOUT any brains to ruin it for everyone. Slacken up a bit on the need for attention to detail and you're much less likely to get your experience ruined by the guy who only knows how to play CounterStrike.

[frederf 0]

Doesn't holding command mode only work if you're the leader of a group of 2 or more?

[EDcase 87]

Cheeba: As said before, it depends on the difficulty settings of the server if friendly tags is enabled or not.

I understand the frustration of playing with trigger happy noobs if tags are off but you'll just have to find a server that has them enabled.

[frederf 0]

I rather enjoy playing ArmA in an environment where IFF and other battlefield tasks are up to individual SA, communication, and skill instead of floating WoW-style names. There still hasn't been a satisfactory "is this Bill or Frank?" close range tag thing solution for telling us clones apart. SPON Tag was the closest to date.

[Cheeba 10]

Cheeba: As said before, it depends on the difficulty settings of the server if friendly tags is enabled or not.

I understand the frustration of playing with trigger happy noobs if tags are off but you'll just have to find a server that has them enabled.

Recruit only...so, ya that kinda sucks.:(

[-=seany=- 5]

Player tags would ruin this game. Take some time, get to know what the uniform differences are. It took me a while with OFP, Arma1 and I'm sure in Arma2 also. Map is also a great help, if you can see some one, you will be able to see them on the map and their IFF colour.

[Cheeba 10]

Player tags would ruin this game. Take some time, get to know what the uniform differences are. It took me a while with OFP, Arma1 and I'm sure in Arma2 also. Map is also a great help, if you can see some one, you will be able to see them on the map and their IFF colour.

If everyone did that, then there wouldnt be a problem...but the majority of people dont which ends up with me dead and alot of time wasted getting to a good sniping position.

[IncipitOmega 10]

Its so annoying getting tked by accident. Especially for me, after slowly getting into a nice sniping position. Only to be mistaken by an enemy and taken down by those who fail to use their map for friendly locations.

I've noticed on most servers (if not all) that if you aim at a player who isnt a part of your squad. Nothing shows up, no name, nothing. So I can see why players can mistake certain type of classes as enemies (sniper and demo most commonly since they are very similar to the enemy classes).

IFF for all players on the same side is badly needed.

Sorry if this has been brought up before.:o

In real life no name pops out once u look at someone,be it hostile or friendly...get used to taking frendly fire until players learn to recognize friendly from foe.

It should stay as it is.

[kremator 1065]

I hear what you are all saying - but this is covered with the difficulty level that has been set by the server admin. On veteran you are expected to be just that - experienced, and learn to look, identify THEN shoot without IFF autopopping.

[dindiface 10]

That's no good, then people could just mouse over an area where an enemy is likely to be a lot until your name pops up. I've used this in other fpses. Oddly enough, the text can also hamper you because it sometimes gets in the way of shooting.

Which you can also do with holding space. Not sure if it is a bug or a feature, but holding space would show people behind cover, hills, vehicles 1+kms away.

I would in fact eliminate the feature, and depending on the distance+partial coverage of the person delay X seconds for the identification.

E.g. "scanning" would show nothing if you are 100& covered by trees/vehicle.

If it was only 10% of the person showing it would take 5 seconds to ID from 100mts, and would take 0.5 seconds to ID with 50% showing at 50 meters....

Just an idea ... I think the "scanning" makes it suck certain times...

[Cheeba 10]

In real life no name pops out once u look at someone,be it hostile or friendly...get used to taking frendly fire until players learn to recognize friendly from foe.

It should stay as it is.

In real life, grass doesnt turn invisible past a few 100m. IRL, an endless supply of soldiers cant keep streaming out of an APC. IRL, aircraft dont disappear after they get past your location. IRL, you dont have binoculars built into your skull...etc, etc.

This game is still awesome and no game has yet captured the essence of war such as this one, dont get me wrong. Its just, alot of things are far from realistic...so whats one more? Also most of you missed this post of mine...

Just have a small red 'X' or cancel sign show up as soon as your crosshairs are on a friendly target...something.

The way it is now is for people who know what they're doing and understand proper RoE and identification procedures.

...just because, this ISNT the military, and ANYONE can play. However, I've noticed (at least in my situation) that its not happening much anymore. I made it through several hours in COOP without anyone TKing me. However, it was still happening to others frequently.

[An-225 0]

"So what's one more..."

One more, is one step further away from what the game strives for. There are unrealistic parts of this game, yes - does that mean we should remove accurate ballistics too? No. The game should strive to include more realistic things, but certainly not remove them.

The grass turning invisible at 100m distance is only there because of performance requirements. Its not a concession to realism, its a concession to your CPU and GPU.

I don't understand most of your other comments about realism...you can't have an endless supply of soldiers coming out an APC...and if you could, that would be the fault of the mission maker. The zoom is due to the high resolution you see at in real life. Objects disappear at a distance to take a load off your CPU and GPU.

The story in your opening post sounds a lot like intentional team killing. I see absolutely no need for IFF.

[PurpleXVI 10]

How about just having it a server option WITHOUT needing to set the difficulty to "recruit"? If you're only playing with people you know and people who are highly capable and you want MAXIMUM REALISM then you can switch it off. But if it's a public server where random goons can join and be idiots about it, then you can switch it on.

Because, like, sometimes it'd be nice to have the function without also having to fight recruit-level AI only. Just two options for the server admin. Option #1: Friendly IFF tags, Option #2: Hostile IFF tags. Either can be off or on as the admin pleases. How about that?

No option should be forced, BUT, the people who want to play with it off lose nothing by the option EXISTING, and the people who want to play with it ON gain more fun. It's win-win for everyone.

[acadiancrusader 0]

Cheeba, BI has done everything that is needed with this 'issue'. they implemented two things for the user... the difficulty and the ability to mod the engine. if there's something you feel is missing with the vanilla game, then perhaps an addon/mod is what you are looking for. learn to mod or find somebody who could build what you are looking for.

with so many new players to this franchise, we are seeing more and more people who simply do not know what this game is about... it's not some polished closed ended game, it's a sandbox pseudo-simulator.

it's up to the user to be creative and assertive if they want a specific gameplay/look. it's up to the community to create the content. it's BI's job to make the game stable. and they do a pretty damn good job at it. their track record with OFP and ArmA1 patches is proof.