New server update balances gunship, adds option to remove minimap + more

I'll play Sweden, the neutral party and offer up points to each side:

Minimap Pros:

• Minimap Spotting
• Tugs Spotting
• MAV Spotting

Minimap Cons:

• Proximity Scanner - The worst offender.
• Audio Spotting

There are sides to be taken for each. Map Spotting is kind of a staple in BF now. The only reason it's there is to spot enemies for your team. So sometimes you end up getting shot by someone who you had no idea was there. But they knew where YOU were because someone spotted you. I could live without it.

TUGS spotting is nice for snipers, but I don't see it used that often. There are definitely snipers who take advantage of it whey they are camping, but most I see use Radio Beacon and SOFLAM.

MAV spotting. Without spotting a MAV is completely useless. It can be used to zap other sniper equipment with an EMP but 95% of all snipers don't know that. Most recons stopping deploying mavs when they could no longer be used to air surf up to to the top of tall buildings.

Proximity Scanner. I loath this tool. It's the most ridiculous, COD-like, handicap I've ever seen in a game. It's the primary reason I hate the minimap. You go to C4 a tank who is facing the other direction and all of a sudden he whips around a nails you. Fucking ridiculous. It's almost as stupid as the heart beat sensors from CoD. Actually no, it's more stupid.

Audio Spotting. Another terrible idea to add a crutch for players to this game. A huge source of frustration for me. It used to be that in FPS games you would have to guestimate where you heard a sound coming from, not have a map do all the work for you. Thanks DICE.

Other things that would be effected are the use of Mortar. You'd have to use it like real mortar. Relying on team input on where to blast. Not just at some triangle on the map. More likely to have consequences since you'd have to be careful where you put fire. You don't just not see enemies anymore. You don't see your team.
Mobile Artillery. Same reasons as Mortar.
Not sure how the large map is effected with the removal of the minimap.

 

A good tanker and helo pilot dont need a map to dominate .Communication and a good pair of eyes do better than tech dots on a map

 

I'd say we should start a poll. Take it out or leave it in for the time being, but set a poll up and put a msg in the server that prompts community members to come to the forums and cast their vote.

Also, keep in mind that if it's taken out and we all come to find that it was better with it, it can be returned.

 

Kowl, I'd never advocate something because it allows anyone to dominate. That would make it unbalanced.

If anything, those of us in TS will have MORE of an advantage over pubs because of the stripping of a situational awareness tool such as the minimap. When I say BF3 has a broken leg, I mean in the teamwork area. Right now, the minimaps functionality allows a lot of possibilities for teamwork, both intentional and non, that otherwise wouldn't exist.

On top of that, most of the vehicle perks are useless now, and we'd just dump more into that pile. Ghost I understand the C4ing frustration with prox scanner, but remember that guy had to give up reactive armor to run it unless he has a gunner with it on. Either way, The developers have commonly referred to their balancing philosophies in terms of "rock paper scissors", and I think that "game" will become even more simple with the exclusion of this feature.

Also, Dunce rapes us with a Tank, and he runs Prox. We're going to have to ban him if he's forced to run reactive armor instead. He'll be completely unstoppable.

I like the poll idea as well.

 

Posted this before I saw all this: http://nononsensegamers.com/forums/threads/hardcore-mini-map.638/