There was a rangefinding feature introduced last year for all ground modes that should be disabled/revamped for ground sim. There are some aspects of the feature that, while harmless in other modes, are a bit out of place and exploitative in sim. It’s basically wallhacks.
Intro
Pressing the rangefinder key when aiming at ground vehicles gives the following cues:
Crew Report Voiceline - You hear a voiceline designating the vehicle and range
Visual Allied Location Request - A progress bar appears on screen to identify allied vehicles
This suggestion focuses on the voiceline cue (demonstrated here https://youtu.be/q2rX4vZKeU8). The crew voiceline mechanic works from scoped, unscoped, or binocular view. It does not require strict LOS and works at any range. It works through bushes, trees, destructible objects, some buildings, and some terrain. The audio cue plays instantly.
These audio cues can be abused to reveal well hidden enemies without taking any risk. Even worse it can reveal completely obscured enemies. This is especially relevant to ground sim where information is limited.
Here’s some example scenarios
You suspect an enemy is hidden in a line of bushes. You spam the rangefinder key on the line of bushes from left to right until rangefinder cues reveal their location.
You suspect a enemy is hidden just below the ridgeline of a hill. You spam the rangefinder key along the ridgeline to reveal their location.
You suspect an enemy is hidden behind a destructible wall or small building. They are completely obscured from your view. You spam the rangefinder key on the cover and reveal their position.
You think you spot an antenna, cupola, or other part of a vehicle peeking out from behind some cover or terrain. You spam the rangefinder key and confirm the enemies location.
You use your rangefinder key on a bush line or some other cover to simply get a range. The crew report voiceline plays. You now confirm the location of an enemy you may have otherwise missed.
Screenshots
Here are some screenshot examples of where the rangefinder audio cue will currently play. Try them out in a test drive!
Suggestion
Completely disable the rangefinder audio cue for enemies in ground sim. Using the rangefinder key when aiming at an enemy will give no audio cues — as if the enemy wasn’t there.
When aiming at a friendly the crew report voiceline should continue to play immediately. The audio cue could just continue using the current voicelines or be modified to indicate a friendly, something like “Friendly! T-34!” This simplification may also help to reduce teamkills.
POLL: Would you like to see this change implemented for Ground Simulator Battles?
Voicelines introduced June 2024 in major update 2.37
Here’s some other options to revamp this mechanic:
Pressing the rangefinder key when aiming at an enemy gives two cues, the audible crew report and visual allied indicator. The visual allied indicator is less forgiving, usually requiring full view of the enemy. Another rework might be the crew report voiceline only plays when the visual allied indicator appears.
Disable the audio cue for both enemies and friendlies entirely. Instead immediately display a friendly tank icon on the minimap when using the rangefinding mechanic while aiming at a friendly.
Disable the audio cue for all views except scoped view. This would require players to point their turret, machine gun, or entire vehicle at an enemy to get the audio cues. This gives enemies the chance to see that they’ve been spotted and generally nerfs the mechanic.
I voted yes, but only partially, i think the mechanic and voice lines should still be there but might need a rework/some changes to be a bit more realistic. Something like the identification for vehicle type and IFF being dependant on how much of the vehicle is seen, if you see 1/4 then nope, there is a vehicle but no information on if it’s friendly or enemy. if you see 3/4 of the vehicle then yes voice lines for both.
An alternative could be forcing vehicle markers of the same type as exist in real life (like ▢ , ▷ ,
◯ , ◇ , etc) for the two sides. Making it a vote thing before match start where your team votes on what marker to have and that marker then being put on all sides of both turret and hull. That is then the only identifier for enemy/friendly OR be part of the visibility amount mechanic for the voice lines.
Some other things i’ve also thought about with the rangefinder/voice line combo is the fact that on lower BR vehicles the crew often say the range before the visual numbers appear on screen giving players that know the language of the country they are playing an advantage as they can know the range before other players that do not know the language. I don’t remember if the same is true for enemy/friendly indicators though. Either way they voice line should not be played before the information appears visually on screen.
There’s a lot of fun ways they could revamp vehicle ident, but for this suggestion I’m focusing on an abusive aspect of the audio cues.
They allow me to find many more tanks than I would have before. Using these voicelines you never have to second guess if you saw a tank. You can instantly confirm it. This means it speeds up the flow of the match because it frees up the time usually spent visually locating and confirming an enemy (or friendly). Kinda favoring light flanking plays.
Check out the screenshots in the post. In each of those examples I’m gaining information about a hidden tank. That’s info I don’t think I should really have. In other modes, I’d be able to see those tanks with third person, but not in ground sim.
It also puts you in odd situations. If I rangefind some cover and happen to reveal a completely obscured enemy, should I react to that information? Should I shoot at them through the cover? From their POV it might seem pretty suspicious. What if they report me because they aren’t familiar with this mechanic? What if the admin reviewing their report isn’t familiar with the mechanic?
