{Footstep sounds + hit markers + hit sounds} give away too much information

[Str8Control]

The game is great, or could be great, but it currently takes players by the hand too much and it spoon feeds a lot of information.

- Footstep sounds
- Hit markers (including numbers)
- Hit sounds

Player sounds, notably the footstep sounds or Impact hammer noises when opponents are running with it, give away too much information and that has a big negative impact on gameplay, flanking opportunities and psychological warfare (the art of war). That makes it too easy to abuse of certain weapons and fire modes such as triple rockets, flak primary, flak shell, shock combo, etc. Without seeing the opponent, players can know that an opponents is located in a tight area easy to spam with explosive projectiles, etc. Players can move around the map and stand nearby any respawn point, ready for an easy respawn kill. It makes it easy to get a free shot on an opponent who is about to come out from behind a wall. It makes it a lot more difficult for a solo player to get rid of multiple remaining opponents on the opposite team, because they can track him so easily.

Also along the same lines, the game shouldn't notify the player when a projectile hits a target that cannot be seen. A local sound (ex: bing!) shouldn't play either and damage shouldn't be displayed in the bottom right corner.

Those features that I listed above essentially act as a legit wallhack in disguise. In no case a competitive multiplayer FPS game should give away the position of a player unless it has been earned by either moving the camera and spotting opponents, by making mental predictions of where players are going or by using in-game tools (ex: a weapon that makes someone bleed or players can use a mini-pistol that can mark an opponent on radar when hit, etc.).

Before someone says ''well everyone can hear footstep sounds, must be fair''. Would we play a game like UT if everyone had wallhacks? No, because such mechanic would make the fights really ugly. Well, the same thing applies to footstep sounds, hit sounds or hit markers. They make fights uglier and less psychological than they should be. It's just less obvious, because we do not explicitly see our opponents through walls, but they essentially fill the same role. And those who are used to it can easily follow opponents behind walls. We've seen pro players on other games in the past such as CS 1.6 almost perfectly track and shoot their opponents through walls just by listening to the footsteps. UT may be a very different shooter game, but the logic still applies.

I'm also well aware that footstep sounds, hit sounds or hit markers have been part of our FPS games for almost 2 decades now, but it's worth considering that maybe it was a human mistake afterall. And maybe UT shouldn't have those.
Or it would be worth creating a mutator for competitive play that doesn't feature any of those things for those who really want to earn their kills.

[nubizZz]

Also the team radar encourages a lot of poaching. Makes more sense to wait for a target to be occupied, and poach, while maintaining position than to ever aggress. Not to mention it takes all the teamwork out of teamwork, as the hud tells you when and where your teammate is being attacked, with no input required from said teammate.

This combined with the above, slow weapon switches, and the constantly increasing weapon efficacy, puts way too much priority on position, and makes the game feel cover based. I see so many more people in this iteration using ambush tactics and hiding in corners and such, and it's purely a product of the game rules.

[Zaydar]

Also the team radar encourages a lot of poaching. Makes more sense to wait for a target to be occupied, and poach, while maintaining position than to ever aggress. Not to mention it takes all the teamwork out of teamwork, as the hud tells you when and where your teammate is being attacked, with no input required from said teammate.

This combined with the above, slow weapon switches, and the constantly increasing weapon efficacy, puts way too much priority on position, and makes the game feel cover based. I see so many more people in this iteration using ambush tactics and hiding in corners and such, and it's purely a product of the game rules.

I completely agree with this, the does feel extremely cover based most of the time.

[Zaydar]

Also the team radar encourages a lot of poaching. Makes more sense to wait for a target to be occupied, and poach, while maintaining position than to ever aggress. Not to mention it takes all the teamwork out of teamwork, as the hud tells you when and where your teammate is being attacked, with no input required from said teammate.

This combined with the above, slow weapon switches, and the constantly increasing weapon efficacy, puts way too much priority on position, and makes the game feel cover based. I see so many more people in this iteration using ambush tactics and hiding in corners and such, and it's purely a product of the game rules.

And do you think that hit scan weapons are a problem?

[nubizZz]

And do you think that hit scan weapons are a problem?

Huge. I post about it all the time. Used to have a relevant quote of one of the Devs in my sig before the forum switch. I mostly get ignored. I've come to the conclusion that Epic is making Rox and Flak easier and easier to use so as to match the efficacy and lack of counter play of the Sniper rifle, and am going to post the question until people start making the discussion, what is an acceptable way to give the Sniper rifle counter play, or simply make it harder to use?

In an early build, they made it projectile, and it was not well received, and thus rolled back. I want to see it projectile again.

If they can make sniper less dominant, then they can roll rox, flak, pulse, and maybe even shock back a bit to be easier to avoid their damages. Pulse has too much velocity, Rox triples need to go, rox and flak projectiles are too big, Flak's DPS is too high (both effective and potential, lowering projectile collisions will reduce effective, while less RoF will put potential in a better place), and mini alt is lol. Everything is so easy to do damage with, it's making the game very defensive, and/or armor-centric. It's not fun to watch, and only a bit more fun to play.

If, however, they did "nerf" all the current OP projectiles to something like what they were in the past, sniper, even at it's new "all time low" damage, would absolutely dominate this game. Again. Just like 2k4. No one seems to want to keep it in check though.