Identifying enemy squad beacons, mines, etc

[funki]

First of all will squad beacons show up with the 3d icon as belonging to my team? I destroyed one the other day only to find out later that it may have belonged to my team, although a different squad. Actually this has happened a few times and I'm still not sure.

Also motion mines...they were identified as friendly but started chasing after me when i jumped in a vehicle. Is this a bug? Does friendly fire being on effect this?

I've read through a ton of this forum and there is some great info here, but not much about deployable ground objects. Hopefully some others out there are as curious as I am.

[hobiecatter]

First of all will squad beacons show up with the 3d icon as belonging to my team? I destroyed one the other day only to find out later that it may have belonged to my team, although a different squad. Actually this has happened a few times and I'm still not sure.

No. the only squad beacon that shows up on your 3d map is the one for the squad that you are currently on. When you walk up to a beacon and look at it, they all look the same. Unfortunately, there isn't even a way to tell if it is a friendly or enemy beacon unless you camp and watch who spawns.

[funki]

Ok i'm not going crazy then. Would be nice if they added the ability to see same team/different squad beacons...you can see everything else that's friendly AFAIK.

[hobiecatter]

yes, that is one issue that many agree needs to be fixed.

[kein]

No. the only squad beacon that shows up on your 3d map is the one for the squad that you are currently on. When you walk up to a beacon and look at it, they all look the same. Unfortunately, there isn't even a way to tell if it is a friendly or enemy beacon unless you camp and watch who spawns.

Thats not true, even the enemy beacon 3d icons show on your map. Trust me on this, they are very easy to spot. Im always squad leader and it is certianly not mine, its not anyone on the teams when i see enemy poddrops from out of nowhere directly on the beacon.

[Iwantcable]

Sometimes enemy squad beacons/explosives have a warning above them, or they have nothing. It just seems random.

[bbawls15]

sometimes if you shoot at it it might say team vehicle damage or something of that sort

[Herr Starr]

I've never got team vehicle damage from shooting squad beacons. I pretty much shoot them on sight now unless I'm totally sure they are friendly. I figure it's better to disable a friendly beacon by mistake than to leave an enemy squad a way in.

I have never seen a squad beacon from another squad (friend or enemy) show up on the minimap.

You do get an icon in your HUD showing beacons (friend or enemy) that are within 60 or 70 metres of you, even when terrain is blocking your LOS to them.

Those are my observations.

I feel that tweaks should be:

1. You should be able to tell the difference between friendly and enemy beacons (as you do with sentry turrets)
2. Enemy beacons should not show up on your map or HUD until they are less than 15 metres away and within LOS. They could be shown to squad members via netbat though.
3. Oh and fix the glitch where the squad leaders can all of a sudden no longer deploy a beacon even after they have died and respawned. Frustrating!!!!!!

Other than that, the squad beacon is a great concept!!!!

[trappedinabox]

How can u tell if an explosive (APM;RDX) is friendly or not? I get blown up by the ones with the red skull and ones without. Help plz?

[funki]

I've never got team vehicle damage from shooting squad beacons. I pretty much shoot them on sight now unless I'm totally sure they are friendly. I figure it's better to disable a friendly beacon by mistake than to leave an enemy squad a way in.

I have never seen a squad beacon from another squad (friend or enemy) show up on the minimap.

You do get an icon in your HUD showing beacons (friend or enemy) that are within 60 or 70 metres of you, even when terrain is blocking your LOS to them.

Those are my observations.

I feel that tweaks should be:

1. You should be able to tell the difference between friendly and enemy beacons (as you do with sentry turrets)
2. Enemy beacons should not show up on your map or HUD until they are less than 15 metres away and within LOS. They could be shown to squad members via netbat though.
3. Oh and fix the glitch where the squad leaders can all of a sudden no longer deploy a beacon even after they have died and respawned. Frustrating!!!!!!

Other than that, the squad beacon is a great concept!!!!

I agree. Lately I've noticed more anomalies with motion mines. Ones with the friendly 3d icon chasing me and ones that had no 3d icon did not chase me for some reason. I thought I read something about FF could be turned off and on for just mines? That could certainly be a factor, but I'm not sure if it's working correctly though.

Also, when several mines are layed very close together they share the same 3d map icon. This gets confusing if the enemy lays down more mines beside your friendly ones. This really isn't that big of a problem, I just thought it was an interesting observation, and will probably leave a few people scratching their heads when they get killed by what they thought were their own mines. :D

[ColonelPanic]

No. the only squad beacon that shows up on your 3d map is the one for the squad that you are currently on. When you walk up to a beacon and look at it, they all look the same. Unfortunately, there isn't even a way to tell if it is a friendly or enemy beacon unless you camp and watch who spawns.

You can shoot it and if you get that "team vehicle damage" warning it's not your teams. I think that gives a warning for squad beacons. Maybe not, though.

[BandoIruka]

I agree totally. I've gotten so paranoid with all the sentry gun spam around, I find myself getting team vehicle damage from it all the time. A friendly sentry gun icon just simply doesn't display itself fast enough. Likewise with the explosives everywhere. At lease defusing friendly explosives don't penalise you.

It would be nice if they had red, yellow or green warning icons to distinguish between friendly and enemy item drops (apms, rdx, motion & emp mines, sentries, beacons, etc)
Also make the friendly icons show through walls. And enemy ones appear only when within close proximity to them (10 - 15 metres)