Flares.

I am asking about flares.. Does anyone else share this thought? on big maps the lack of flares makes itself felt..

[watusimoto]

What is a flare?

mm, a flare would be when you click a spot on the map and it leaves a flare for all players to see.
That's what I mean.

What would be the advantages of a flare? How much energy would it cost? What would it look like? etc. It's an interesting idea, but you need to elaborate in your thoughts.

[bobdaduck]

What would be the advantages of a flare? How much energy would it cost? What would it look like? etc. It's an interesting idea, but you need to elaborate in your thoughts.

He's talking about a way of communicating with players visually, much like pings in league or starcraft. Just something that lights up a spot on the minimap so your team knows what you're saying.

Bob is correct. I was thinking more Age of empires 2, but yeah that's the gist of it.

[kaen]

I think this would be a really good idea for large games or maps. I always have trouble figuring out where my teammates are grouping up or planning to attack.

Maybe you could shoot it in a direction. It would go over walls and glow?

[watusimoto]

I'd be willing to give it a go if we could figure a way to do it without overly complicating the controls. Remember that we have keyboard players and joystick players, who generally already have all their buttons mapped.

Possibly overload the drop item button so you drop a flare if you are not carrying anything?

[Quartz]

I'd be willing to give it a go if we could figure a way to do it without overly complicating the controls. Remember that we have keyboard players and joystick players, who generally already have all their buttons mapped.

Possibly overload the drop item button so you drop a flare if you are not carrying anything?

That's a brilliant idea, I had the same concern.

[watusimoto]

Added it to the list for 020:

https://code.google.com/p/bitfighter/issues/detail?id=285

Beacons. It never really got rolling but I think most people were receptive of the idea. Check it out for reference: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=360&p=3129

I like the idea. "Flares" actually sounds a bit cooler than "beacons."

Great idea wat with the drop button also acting as a flare drop. If the player was carrying an item, however, could they also hold the drop button for a few seconds to place a flare? I feel like the most frequent times I'd want to use a flare would be to signal for help when I have the flag. It'd be awfully inconvenient to have to drop and pick up the flag just to send out a flare.

Anyone have ideas on how a flare/beacon might function? How would it operate?

I looked. I will say that it's not always just teammates you want to flare to, sometimes enemies (or at least someone on the other team) too.

it could work as a chat msg command.. but it'd have to drop where you are.

e.g.
/dropflare

Ten seconds is reasonable, it really depends on if the player will see the map.

[bobdaduck]

When you hit C to go into the minimap, you press B (which would normally drop an item) but in minimap mode, it instead lets you click on the map somewhere to place a flare.

[Quartz]

When you hit C to go into the minimap, you press B (which would normally drop an item) but in minimap mode, it instead lets you click on the map somewhere to place a flare.

I'm all for utilizing the commander map. I like it.

Totally

[watusimoto]

Ok, case updated.