Friend or Foe Identification

Real World Friend or Foe Identification

OK, first let me state that the closest I have come to military service is years of playing G.I. Joe in my backyard. With that out of the way, I hope this is not too stupid a question.

I want to hear from all you special forces, navy seals, rangers, etc. on what methods are really used in the filed for Friend or Foe identification. The reason I ask is that I find it very difficult sometimes to determine who is on my team or not, since Camos, by nature, often look similar. Currently I am running UTCOmpass on my server with constant player names and, while it works, it just does not do it for me in the "real" category.

A friend and fellow player, Cuchullain, were talking and we have an idea that would work and I would like to know how realistic it would be. Well here goes:

When a player wants to know the position of the other players on his/her team, they press a button that basically asks for a location check. Then, to simulate a response from all players, ea mic click or some other sound would be heard and simultaneously a dot in the color of your team would appear on the screen. The dot would be on the player if they are visibile or to the side closest to the player if they are out of view. This way you would have some situation awareness without constantly knowing where everyone is, which is unrealistic.

What do you think? Is it doable? Would it be realistic? If not, what could be done to make it realisitc?

Shan

I am running ReportDirection on the server. The problem is that a lot of ppl do not use it. I am currently running UTCompass which shows the name and direction of the players which works but it takes up a lot of screen space when the little compass on the bottom would work fine if there was a mutie to identify other player locations easily.

Shan

One thing I can definately say from experience on my server is other teammates not using RD is definately my problem. They get killed and leave me to defend myself.

Really I am asking for this sort of tool for non-Clan play. I have no doubt that during clan matches and even some public server matches there is good teamwork and, as a result, good situational awareness. What I am looking for is a tool that helps the new and/or experienced players with poor hand/eye coordination.

Here is my personal opinion of how it should be implemented.

First off, the player location code already exists in tools such as UTCompass. The only problem there is that the compass takes up screen space and sometimes obscures enemy players (especially those on the second floor in maps like Kosovo). Also, you are correct that in the default config, UTCompass only shows players for a short time but I have it configured to show them all the time to combat lack of RD use.

OK, so back to how I would implement it. Since UTCOmpass proves the player location data is available, this should be possible (but I know nothing about coding):

1. A key should be bound to a Location Check button
2. When pressed a message saying something like "Location Check. All units, Location check" should play
3. Then, indicators in the form of dots should appear on your display in 3 possible ways:

• On the left for players to your left or rear left
• On the right for players to your right or rear right
• On the screen over or under a player for a player who is in front of you (visible or not)

The indicator should also show up when a ReportDirection message or TeamSay message is received.

Here are a couple of things that would be nice-to-haves:

1. When the dot is on left or right, it could also show the players elevation relative to you using the middle of the screen as same elevation then being higer or lower to display the other players elevation in relation
2. The dot color could progress from green to red to show the players relative distance: Green is close, Orange is medium range, red is long range
3. Radio chatter could be played to simulate the response from players. This would help to interrupt some of your normal hearing so that players would use this feature only when they really need to ident another player

Is there anyone who would set this us?

Shan

That is one of the reasons for my request. I think it is unrealistic to expect newbie players to just jump into INF and use RD, Speechpad and everything else. Inf itself is hard enough to get used to without putting players in the position of having to use additional tools or take the wrath for TKs.

Shan

Crowse,

You hit on the problem in your last post. IF I stay in contact with Report direction, work in a team, etc. then RD, Speechpad and UTCompass fit the bill. I don't know how much play time you've had on the public servers, but the majority of ppl out there do not use RD or the other tools, at least not on the pub servers. Some do...like the GD guys and some of the other clan members.

Let me repeat again that, while I beleive clans would use this mutie, I do not beleive it is as much of a necessity on clan servers as on the public servers where many ppl do not use the additional tools. I have them all running on my server so they can use them but they do not.

And I also want it clear that I am not badmouthing RD, Speechpad, UTCompass or any of the other great and innovative tools put together by you all. You are one of the reasons that I love this community. The fact that I can ask for a mutator and within hours have a reply if not the tool still amazes me. And the existing tools work great if ppl go through the effort to use them. If they do not go to the effort the entire team is punished for that today. I am hoping for a tool that gives me the situational awareness that I beleive is realistic without having to rely on some player I do not know to do his/her part since, in many cases, they don't.

Shan