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Design 101 – Bad Company 2 – Spotting

In Design 101 I will discuss specific systems of various games that I am currently playing.

Spotting

I am unsure to what extent this system might be in place in other games.  I know in MW2 you appear on a map when you shoot or a UAV is in the air.  I believe in the first Bad Company, shooting someone would make them appear on friendly units' maps.  In Bad Company 2, aiming at a unit and pressing the back button (or select on PS3, or some key on PC...) will put a red marker over the head of the enemy for everyone on your team and place them on the map for a few seconds.  This leaves the task of reporting enemy positions actively in the hands of your teams.  There is one major problem with this.  The red arrow over the heads of enemies appear even if the person is behind solid, or not so solid object.  It is possible to kill enemies through trees based entirely on this red arrow, which while useful to you, is also useful to the enemy and seems a bit cheap.  This is the only downside I see to the spotting mechanic.

The benefits of putting spotting in the hands of players is the promotion of teamwork, especially because players receive experience for spotting units that are then killed by teammates.  Spotting an enemy and critically wounding him before a squad mate kills him will actually give you more experience than if you were to directly kill the unit yourself.  Almost constantly you have to make the strategic choice of whether to shoot or to spot the nemy.  Shooting will give away your position, but you may be able to kill the enemy, which will take an enemy ticket, get you experience, and possibly save a teammate.  If you give away your position and die, that enemy may continue on unspotted and your teammates may be unaware of is presence.  Spotting an enemy for a teammate in a better position to make the kill is often times a great decision.  Even tanks won't appear on the map unless a friendly unit spots it.  If you are on a terrible team that doesn't spot often a tank or two could rumble right up to the objective without anyone having a clue, other than the person that saw it and didn't spot it.

Spotting is so important, there are a few items that aid in this process.  The Motion Sensor of the Recon unit can be throw and will spot any enemies in a small area automatically.  The recon unit will get exp for any enemies spoted by this device.  The Spotting scope for the Recon unit will automatically spot enemies that the unit looks at through the scope.  Finally, the UAV whil able to call in and direct missles, is also primarily a tool for spotting positions of enemies in hiding.

Spotting brings a sense of unity to the team.  When you spot an enemy and receive experience when he is killed, you know that it likely took both you and your teammate to take down the enemy.  And you will feel thankful when you notice an enemy who has been spotted was attempting to sneak up on you.  Overall the system is well thought out.  It was apparently tweaked from the demo, where p[layers were spamming the spot button, and now there is a cool down delay to prevent this.  The only other addition I would like to see is that the red arrow above enemy heads be line of sight only, rather than a magic icon that appears through walls.

Design 101 – Bad Company 2 – Squads

In Design 101 I will discuss specific systems of various games that I am currently playing.

Squads

While squads can be found in other games, most notably the new Mag, it doesn't change the fact that this is an excellent design.  Up to 4 people can be in a squad and it is highly advised you be in a squad of 4 if possible.  Bonus experience points are awards when doing just about anything with your squad.  Healing, rearming, repairing a vehicle, assisting in a squad members kill, or spotting a squad members kill.  All of it will give you more experience.  If you complete an attack or defend order assigned by a squad member you will get bonus points.  This encourages squads to work as a team, and Modern Warfare 2 is a perfect example of why people need incentives for working together.

BC2 allows players to spawn right next to squad mates that are alive, regardless of where they are on the map.  This completely changes the pace of the game.  a really smart squad will have a recon unit at some sort of flanking position to the enemy base.  From there teammates can respawn and keep attacking.   There seems to be a conflict line held up by defenders in Rush mode.  This is where the defenders have set up defensive positions and the attacks have a difficult time breaching.  When one  single unit is able to get beyond this line and act as a spawn point for squad mates it throws off this defensive line.  It really gives and edge to the attackers and prevents spawn camping found in many other games.

Bets of all, it keeps you in the action and feeling like part of a team.  Depending on how good (and big) your squad is, sometimes you will never be spawning at your base.  The system is well thought out, and playing with a smart squad can make all the difference not only in the battle, but how much you enjoy them game.  Keep in mind that if all your squad mates are dead, stay safe for about 6 seconds and you will have 3 more soldiers ready to blow shit up.