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Post by novanleon on Mar 27, 2012 13:22:06 GMT -5
I haven't tried it myself, but is playing without a HUD a viable way to play the game? With the new Rent-A-Server feature on PS3, I've thought about setting up a No HUD server but I'm concerned about viability and balance issues. I can think of the following issues off the top of my head: - Spotting probably won't work with HUD disabled. If the HUD is disabled but the Mini map remains, spotting may still be viable, but I'd prefer to have both of them disabled for a true "No HUD" experience.
- With spotting and the mini-map disabled, the Recon class would seem to be severely gimped, with both the MAV and T-UGS being almost useless. The SOFLAM may be nearly impossible to use as well.
- Using mortars may be impossible without the HUD.
- Setting bombs and capturing flags may get confusing without a HUD.
There are just the ones that come to mind. Does anyone else have experience playing with no HUD, and do they think it's a viable way to play the game, or does it severely hamper the gaming experience?
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Post by didjeridu on Mar 27, 2012 15:42:23 GMT -5
I've only seen a video, so only a few things come to mind. Note that this was with a console command, so maybe there's a better way of going about it.
1. Spotting doesn't work. 2. No menu. I hope you have the button locations memorized. 3. No kill-feed. May lead to overshooting as you must visually confirm death. 4. No icons; no friend or foe recognition beyond uniform, no heal/ammo/revive/repair indicators, etc. 5. No chat. Probably for the best.
I don't think it's worth it. I can understand the want for no hud, but it's too much of a penalty to be viable. If you don't mind HC, why not try that out? I haven't touched it besides one accidental join, but I believe the only HUD elements are the map, kill confirmations, and chat. Someone who plays it should chime in though to correct me.
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Post by novanleon on Mar 27, 2012 16:01:09 GMT -5
My problem with HC is the decreased health which, IMHO, breaks the weapon balance for the game. If I could somehow run HC mode with full health, that would be ideal. I wonder if this is possible?
On console there is a server-side option for No HUD and No Minimap separately. I'm curious if these options are different from the no HUD console command on PC.
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Post by didjeridu on Mar 27, 2012 19:37:56 GMT -5
I agree completely. The only good thing about HC is less hud (and FF, although that does more harm than good with this...playerbase). All less health does is turn the game into a joke. Aim, individual skill, weapons, class, nothing matters. The only thing that determines battles is who sees who first. And that's completely ignoring vehicles, which go from spanking infantry, to complete, unholy violation. At least they fixed sniper rifles so that HC is no longer free kill mode for wookie cubs.
Looking at the server browser, there are options for both hud and minimap. I guess you can just try that out and see how it works for you. While you're in there, set the bullet damage and health to 100% - 100%. That way, there's no way some custom "HC" server can sneak through your normal HC filter. I doubt those kinds of servers would be Ranked, but you never know.
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Post by novanleon on Mar 29, 2012 11:35:28 GMT -5
Here are some of the more interesting server settings: Option | Default | HC | Description | Notes | Friendly Fire | OFF | ON | Allow damage from friendly players? | Realistic, but doesn't necessary add much to the game and adds lot's of opportunities for abuse. | Regenerative Health | ON | OFF | Allow players to automatically regenerate health? | Might be interesting to force players to utilize medic's in order to regain health, but then again, this might just become annoying. | Only Squad Leader Spawn | OFF | ON | Players can only spawn on the squad leader? | Self-explanatory. Might be interesting to try but I imagine this could become irritating. | Show Minimap | ON | ON | Display the minimap? | Hides the minimap. | Show HUD | ON | OFF | Display hip-fire reticules and ammo/health display? | Hides the hip-fire reticule and ammo/health display. The kill feed, teammate names, squadmates and objectives still all display on the screen. The minimap and first-person spotting will still work as well unless it is disabled using the other options. | Use Minimap Spotting | ON | ON | Display spotted enemies on the minimap? | Spotted enemies will display on the minimap. This obviously doesn't matter if the minimap is disabled UNLESS you want players to still be able to pull up the full map to view enemies (I assume). | Use 3D Spotting | ON | OFF | Display spotted enemies in first-person view? | Removes spotting enemy players in the first-person view. | Kill Cam | ON | OFF | Display kill cam after dying? | Self-explanatory. | 3P Vehicle Cam | ON | OFF | Allow third-person view for vehicles? | I don't really have a problem with turning this on, but if you wanted extra realism then you might want to turn this off. | Show Enemy Name Tags | ON | OFF | Display enemy name tags when you aim directly at them? | Would help for enemy identification, but would also allow you to spot some enemies that you normally might not see. |
As you can see, the "Show HUD" server setting is very different from setting UI.DrawEnable = 0 on PC. As far as setting up my own server goes, I'm thinking of using the following settings: Option | Value | Notes | Friendly Fire | OFF | Just too much opportunity for abuse. | Regenerative Health | ON | I think the way BF3 handles regenerative health is actually very reasonable, no need to change it. | Only Squad Leader Spawn | OFF | I don't see a reason to restrict squad spawns to the leader only. | Show Minimap | ? | Normally I would choose to remove the minimap for a more immersive experience, but in my opinion players either need to spot players on the minimap or in first-person view. The question is, which one? | Show HUD | OFF | No hip-fire reticule or ammo/health display for a more immersive experience. If you need a hip-fire indicator, equip a laser sight. | Use Minimap Spotting | ON | Leave this on so players can at least still see spotted enemies on the large map. | Use 3D Spotting | ? | I'm torn between turning this off or leaving it on. Turning if off would be more immersive and realistic, but it would also completely remove the purpose of spotting from the game unless the minimap was enabled. Spotting is a unique Battlefield game element that I actually like, so I'd prefer not to remove it from the game entirely. | Kill Cam | ? | I could go either way with this one. I could leave it on for the fun factor and keep excessive tactical loitering from becoming an issue, or I could turn it off for greater suspense and immersion. | 3P Vehicle Cam | OFF | Turn off third-person view for greater immersion. | Show Enemy Name Tags | OFF | You will be able to identify friendly players by their name tags, so there's no reason to have this. |
The big question is whether to (1) allow minimap and disable spotting, (2) disable minimap and enable spotting, or (3) disable both minimap and spotting.
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Post by Marvel4 on Mar 30, 2012 9:19:04 GMT -5
I think the removed HUD is very annoying (and unrealistic) because there's no way to check how much ammo you have left or what fire mode you are using.
3D spotting is also really stupid and unrealistic. I would turn it off but keep the minimap.
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