
Smoke Grenades
#1
Posted 12 July 2014 - 03:11 PM
#2
Posted 12 July 2014 - 11:00 PM
Rest assured that this game play mechanic will not be forgotten and rigorously tested. Once a team member with more information than I gets a chance to respond to this thread when time allows, they will.
Thanks for starting a thread on this topic. Conversations such as these only makes a game better with community input.
#3
Posted 12 July 2014 - 11:38 PM
#4
Posted 13 July 2014 - 06:15 AM
I don't really know about the historical usage of smoke grenades during the war but I would like to see a lot more general "smoke" during a battle, from artillery barrages, tank shells (debris,dust), burning vehicles, etc
#7
Posted 14 July 2014 - 06:45 PM
#11
Posted 16 July 2014 - 08:13 AM
#12
Posted 16 July 2014 - 05:10 PM
#14
Posted 17 July 2014 - 10:45 AM
RESOURCES
Smoke, in all its incarnations, is very demanding of the system and client resources. If overdone, lagging is the nasty by-product. For both the clients and servers.
Also, its the most abused item in many servers. One or two knuckleheads can ruin a match with its overuse.
#17
Posted 09 October 2015 - 03:35 PM
Several comments on this thread:
Pyrotechnics were used IRL far more than ever reflected in DH. Flare pistols being a good example. Absent from DH but, very commonly carried by combat leaders on both sides.
We did see misuse/overuse of the SIGNAL (colored) grenades. This is, as one person pointed out, because leaders were killed and respawned so often thus bringing an unrealistic amount of the grenades onto the battlefield. The misuse came IMHO from leaders failing to tie a voice message to the smoke signal. A great opportunity for team play was lost here. Commands like "Attack on my smoke", "Withdraw to my smoke", "Enemy tank location1" marked by smoke; were all things that could have made them more useful. Instead, because of the common "attack, attack, attack" style of RO/DH the signal smoke quickly evolved to "Break through HERE! Or, Enemy breaking through here. Certainly a limited range of instructions compared to voice commands.
The goal in FE is to have far more teamwork and voice communication. This will reduce the need for colored signals while also making them more useful when they are employed.
Regarding the unrealistic shape of the smoke column....this was dictated by the limitations of the engine and a need to get the smoke plume high enough to be seen over trees and houses. I'm sure our artists (using the new engine) can get a better look. I would not mind seeing a map where wind effects were so strong that it made smoke ineffective, dispersing it too fast to be really useful.
On to concealment smoke. A different animal but WIDELY used IRL. Ordering a smoke mission from mortar teams or for a friendly tank to put a couple of smoke rounds on a location is extremely common now as it was in 1944. The new engine will allow these to look "Better" just like everything else.
So, the future...it is possible that you may eventually see flare or smoke cartridge launching pistols come into the game. And a subsequent reduction in the signal smoke grenades being used (for example a platoon leader may only have the pistol and no grenades or vice versa). Whichever pyrotechnic is used, I hope a voice command is issued describing WHAT action it is signalling!

Wilsonam wrote: But, as someone said - perhaps just a touch too anal for a game
WUK: What! Thats impossible! Blasphemie!
#18
Posted 09 October 2015 - 08:26 PM
We need weather effects, for more than being able to smoke a long front with a couple of strategically placed smoke grenades and the upwind side of it. (Just a thought; could volumetric smoke 'drift' just by scaling it along the X/Y axes?) For example, wind should effect mortar rounds. As I recall, a round that lands half a click away has travelled 1.4km through the air, where the wind would be affecting it every second. Pretty much any projectile travelling long distances will see at least some change in trajectory because of wind. Also, as vehicles (and men) travel along a dry road/etc., a cloud of dust would be created that would act (somewhat) like smoke, and would give them away.
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