NorCalRoach

I was CO'ing tonight (4/25) on mastuur- great round by the way, Clawhammer brought up a good point that I never even paid attention to while CO'ing. He mentioned that I was spam spotting. I quickly looked at the text field and indeed saw five or six rows of "enemy units on the move." I'm the kinda SL that prefers a CO that spots stuff for my squad if we cant get a UAV. I frankly tune the annoying sounds out automatically so its not a big deal to me, but it dawned on me that YOU might be annoyed by this. If so should I or other CO's stop spotting these guys out?

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Santa

Generally the spots arent true, and spotting each one gets redundant. I think if no UAV is available, just spot 2 or 3 of them so that the friendly squad knows which direction the enemy is coming in from, and vaguely how they are moving.

ScratchMonkey

I generally don't need info about every individual troop (unless they're doing something interesting) but I like to know about all the vehicles coming my way.

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Rock

hmmm, its a tricky one this. I know when im Co i try to spot as much as i can for squads, because if im SL i would like to know whats happening close around me, but i have also noticed some people as you say spam spotting, i think 3-4 spots is ample enough if there all in one area but anything after that does get a bit annoying. enemy infantry spotted enemy infantry spotted etc

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Thierry

Spotting the same squad 6 times claiming to say a CO wants to spot them all is just annoying, spot on or two of them and the team will know where they are. Spot armor and sniper more instead.

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BF2 Name: Thez(NL)
BF2142 Names:
Thierry(NL) (Sniper)
Dikkiedik(NL) (Assault)
Kittekat(NL) (Engineer)
Dimi(NL) (Support)

dawolf

Usually I am trying to spot the suspected SLs after scans (red dots that hang back) and advise the SL in the area that i am doing this. I am also trying to spot as many targets after a scan as i can.
Problem is, enemies that are critically wounded show up on the scan and when the CO "spots" them it gives a red question mark which is of no help to the troops.

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BHack

The trick in this situation is usually to just try and spot the unusual troop movement: squad's flanking, a lone sniper somewhere, etc.

Spotting incoming troops coming from their closest flag to our closest flag is generally useless, a voip message to the relevant SL would be enough.

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kornkobcom

It is helpful if you only spot some of the guys and then only if their position or posture is unique--- spotting one of many guys streaming at the known chokepoint of the moment is far less useful than spotting the lone jeep making it's way around the edge of the map or the specops guy who has camped out on a building to pick off a few guys.

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Kornkob

I want to move to Theory. Everything works in Theory.

Shiner

I've never thought of CO spam spotting as a bad thing.

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jepzilla

Spam spotting makes it difficult to listen to the surrounding environment and has gotten me killed on more than one occasion because I couldn't hear the guy sneaking up on me.

Sound effects do more than just increase the immersion!

Lucky Shot

I CO spam also. When I am SL, I am no threatened by 1 blinking red light, but if 3-6 of them start blinking, then I set my zone in that direction. Any information that you can give me to stunt an attack well before the flag, give it to me.

Lucky Shot

xTYBALTx

Err on the side of spotting more.

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SassyOne

I think spotting is crucial. Not random spotting, but helping a defensive squad under attack or giving intel to an offensive squad while the UAV is down or deployed elsewhere. Those little red dots don't just show the position of the enemy and the strength of the opposing force, they show movement, direction facing and armor/vehicles employed. This information gives a devastating advantage over a squad without such intel.

I am willing to risk that a couple of people die during the round because they couldn't hear someone behind them (I seriously doubt that this happens often and with a majority of players) if it saves a squad from being wiped, or helps us take back a flag we needed.

Spotting just one or two guys may be misleading to the SL who may assume that is all the enemy in the area.

When choosing whether or not to spot, I consider the usefulness of the information before I consider the annoyance of the voice-over message. I mean, the spam spotting of one CO is negligible compared to the combined spams of ammo packs and med kits being dropped, ground troops spotting random targets on the map, thanks, sorry, need help, etc. You just have to tune it out and filter through for what is pertinent to you.

Wow. Sorry for the long read! Can you tell too much time on my hands right now?

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SuperDudeBT

I prefer to know where each and every person is. So, for me, keep on spotting.

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B. Clawhammer

This is a pretty good conversation. Everyone seems to have some valid points on whether or not spotting is good or bad. Of course having a CO spot enemy infantry is vital intelligence, say a squad/lone wolf trying to flank really hard in one direction or another where no squads are there to intercept them. But if it's a squad of 6 moving out in that general direction, I don't need 6 "enemy inf. spotted" messages ringing in my ear. In my opinion (and this is probably why I suck at CO) that's what the radar is for. I'd rather have the CO say it once then communicate via VOIP the intel needed to engage. Vehicles on the other hand is a good thing to spot because they can get across a map fairly quickly and SL's need to know their position/direction they're heading. IMO spot everything that looks suspicious ie lone wolves and vehicles, and whole squads moving away from the action. Anything else should be ID'd via radar. Check your mini map, and it works just fine.

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