SOP (Tactics) - Observation and Scanning Terrain

How many times have you experienced your own "virtual death" when playing Ghost Recon and not ever seen where the fatal enemy fire came from? As in real life, seeing the enemy before he sees you, often makes the critical difference in reaction time as to who fires first and with the most accuracy. So, are there real world military observation training techniques that a player can also apply to the Ghost Recon military game simulation? Absolutely, although they don't translate 100% to a computer screen and mouse, they can make a subtle difference for those players that have the patience and discipline to practice them. It should be noted that this article is not for the "run and gun" arcade Quake Recon types, charging all over the maps with Threat Indicators ON. Rather, it's been written as a guide for those players that wish to play the game more as a military simulation on both Co-Op type servers against A/I enemy, as well as LMS (Last Man Standing) games against real people.

General Principles for Observation

The general overriding principles of scanning terrain are first, be stationary in the prone position (on your belly) if possible and second, be concealed and occupying the highest ground that permits the greatest viewing distance. Once in position, you do a quick scan forward, taking in your entire viewing angle looking for anything obvious that you should immediately react to. Pay particular attention to and make a mental note of any "dead ground" in front of you. Dead ground are areas where the terrain is depressed (i.e. gulleys, ravines and wide ditches etc), where the enemy may easily conceal himself, or suddenly appear in front of you as they move forward and rise up out of those depressions. If through your "Quick Scan" everything looks quiet and normal, then you mentally divide your forward viewing angle into three distinct areas consisting of foreground, middle distance and horizon. Once that's done, you begin a detailed and very slow scan of the foreground (greatest threat) area, shifting when complete to the middle distance area and finally, moving your scan to the far horizon. Pretend your eyes on your monitor (using your mouse as well) are like a typewriter carriage in motion, except reversed. Always begin your scan from RIGHT TO LEFT, moving across the designated area (foreground, middle distance, horizon), then as you reach the end of each area, do a "carriage return" and shift your eyes back to the right side of the next area, commencing your detailed RIGHT TO LEFT scan all over again.

Why RIGHT TO LEFT? Quite simply, we are conditioned as children and taught to read with a more normal LEFT TO RIGHT eye movement. Our eye motion and associated muscles get very comfortable moving in this direction and it creates very smooth movements through image transitions with few pauses. Unfortunately, this muscle and mind conditioning also creates an environment where it's easy for the eye to be lazy and miss something when scanning in this more learned mode. However, if you scan RIGHT TO LEFT, you'll find it far more awkward for your eye and mind coordination to get lazy, plus there's a tendency for your eyes to stop and pause more often to focus on what you're seeing. The result is that you might identify things that you'd easily miss when scanning in the more natural and conditioned LEFT TO RIGHT mode. Next time you're outside with real life terrain, test out this phenomenon and I think you'll get a clear idea as to how this works. It also works with your eyes on your computer screen and with your mouse movement in a similar, but less pronounced fashion.

Now that you're scanning the terrain from RIGHT TO LEFT, what are you actually looking for? Basically, real world special forces teams are trained in the "4 S's and M" methodology for observation and scanning terrain to their front. The "memory reminder" acronym stands for Shape, Silhouette, Shadow, Surface and Movement.

Let's examine each one and see how you can apply them to Ghost Recon and perhaps gain a slight visual edge by seeing the enemy first.

SHAPE

When scanning the terrain, look for anything that has a shape that isn't natural as compared to its surroundings. Nature doesn’t make trees and bushes appear in an ordered and regular manner. In other words, their shape usually is irregular and their edge patterns are not something that looks symmetrical. If you see through or check out the edges of foliage, any shape that appears very structured (manmade) and symmetrical is most likely a camouflaged vehicle or an enemy infantryman. The same but reverse principle applies in built-up areas when examining the edges of building corners, roof lines, window and door frames, or horizon pavement lines, where one should not see irregular or non manmade edges. If you do, then it's most likely the shape of a camouflaged vehicle or an enemy infantryman causing the break or unevenness in straight lines, which should be showing a more natural symmetry.

SILHOUETTE

When scanning the terrain, look for anything that has a recognizable man or vehicle silhouette displayed against any smooth background, horizon, window and door frames or building edge line, that isn't natural as compared to its surroundings. In Ghost Recon, you might find that by turning on "Night Vision Goggles" even during some day scenes, you'll sometimes spot the enemy silhouetted against graphics terrain edge lines that you wouldn't otherwise see. The moral is that during normal daylight hours if time permits, it's a good idea to scan once with normal daylight vision and then once more with "Night Vision" turned ON. Conversely, with some nighttime maps, it's also a good idea to first scan with your "Night Vision" turned ON, then once again re-scan the same area with "Night Vision" turned OFF. This may sound counter intuitive, especially at night, but occasionally you'll actually spot some things that you miss with the green glow of the "Night Vision" turned ON all the time with night maps.

SHADOW

When scanning the terrain, look for the casting of any man or vehicle shadows, beside or near trees and bushes or building edge lines. Note that this won't happen unless you've turned ON the shadows option under Display Options within the Ghost Recon setup. Turning this option ON can be a heavy graphics drain on your frame rate, therefore the observation benefit in Ghost Recon for scanning may not warrant wasting the additional computing power needed.

SURFACE

When scanning the terrain, look for any surface or graphics texture that appears unnatural as compared to its normal graphically rendered surroundings. In real life, this would include the glinting or reflection from the sun off of items such as vehicle windshields, binoculars and any other shiny surfaces that haven't been properly camouflaged or dulled down. In Ghost Recon, these type of graphics features aren't rendered or simulated. Therefore, surface in the Ghost Recon context is more about the color and texture you notice when looking through or directly at foliage (day or night vision), or though windows and doors with "Night Vision" ON.

MOVEMENT

Last but not least, we have the scanning of terrain for movement. This is perhaps the single biggest action that reveals the position of the enemy. In short, unnecessary movement KILLS, so keep this in mind for your own movement actions. It's difficult to spot movement while your eyes (and mouse) are actually moving as well, so develop a good habit of pausing for a minimum of at least three seconds during your RIGHT TO LEFT scanning technique. Simply stare at the center of your viewing point (screen) and take in a mental snapshot of the image, while all of the time sensing for any movement that isn't the result of the natural swaying of trees and bushes. Often, you'll pick up fleeting movement out of the corner of your eye as any enemy in motion appears and disappears into "dead ground" or behind obstacles. You should then ensure you take up a safe fire position with your weapon's reticule tight and focused on the area (wide view) where you sensed the motion. Be patient and wait him out, as often the enemy has simply paused to perform his own scan and once complete, he'll start moving again.

The RODS and CONES Affair

Before the general use of light intensification devices and Night Vision Goggles, special forces units were trained to take advantage of the innate physiology of their eyes to be able to see before being seeing at night. Are you ready for a lesson in "Rods and Cone's and how to use them to your advantage at night for real life and also within Ghost Recon?

Some background then. Light is actually waves of excited electronic particles and those waves come in different wavelengths. When those light waves hit a surface, each different type of surface absorbs some of the wavelengths of light and the others are reflected back at us. Our eyes have sensors called rods and cones. Rods sense brightness, cones sense color. We have three different types of cones, each sensitive to a different type of light- one red, one blue, one green. Rods are sensitive enough to respond to a single photon, the basic unit of light, but together they create only one coarse, gray image, which is just adequate for seeing in poor light. Fine detail and color come from the cones, but they need a lot more light and work best in broad daylight. Inside the human eye, there are eighteen times more rods than cones. Here's an interesting article by Joshua Walrath, titled The Human Eye (and Visual Cortex), that tells you more about rods and cones then you'll ever want to know.

In Joshua's article, he notes the fact that rods are also much more sensitive than cones, primarily due to microscopic examination of the retina which shows that there is a much greater concentration of rods on the outer edges. Next time your outside, try his simple experiment that you can do yourself on any starry night. Look at the stars out of your peripheral vision and pick out a faint star from your periphery and then look at it directly. It should disappear, and when you again turn and look at it from the periphery, it will pop back into view. Is it magic? Far from it, rather it's a simple technique of using the rods in your eyes as a highly effective tool when scanning ground to your front looking for the "4 S's and M".

Does the real life outside "rods" scanning system work with your Ghost Recon game? No, but there's an interesting trick of the graphics rendering that accomplishes something similar. Often when you are sitting staring at the terrain and scene on your monitor, particularly with "Night Vision Goggles" turned ON, you might think you can just make out some feint object directly in the middle of your screen. It seems to be almost there, but not quite. If you take your mouse and move it slightly to the left or right of the area you are trying to view, you might suddenly make out the shape or silhouette of a vehicle or man that wasn't viewable when looking directly at them. In effect, your moving your mouse like you would your head in real life at night, thereby using the "rods" in your eyes through peripheral vision to enhance the low light detail. It could be termed "gaming the game", but on the other hand it's remarkably like the real life imagery one picks up when prowling through terrain at night without the benefit of modern enhanced night vision devices.

In summary, ignoring those cheating players who use auto aim, wire frame graphics, acid skins and screen brightener hacks, the true better scoring players in Ghost Recon are most often the people with the lowest lag who get their shot off first. They tend to see the enemy first and react with their mouse quicker. They seem to have eyes in the back of their heads and always appear to be one brief mouse click firing ahead of you, just after you've spotted them a little too late. Practice some of these techniques off-line to get used to being more patient and scanning the ground around you more effectively. Once you get comfortable using these techniques and they become second nature, then go on-line with some low ping rate servers and try some LMS (Last Man Standing) games against real people.

All other system and playing factors being equal, I think you'll be surprised at how much better you do then before you developed better observation and scanning skills.