Spiral Knights - Why can't we spectate Recons?

Why can't we spectate Recons?

17 replies [Last post]

Sun, 11/08/2015 - 12:47

Abelisk

We can't spectate our Recons in Lockdown. Great.

Why not? It's not like spectators will PM players that there's a Recon around them. Plus, spectators should be encouraged to learn Recon style and practice off of what they observed. Even moreso, players will already know a Recon is around them (Deathmark).

Recon is the most underrated class out of the 3 Lockdown classes. It is poorly understood, and it is not meant for Capping or Damage. Strikers = damage + capping, Guardians = support + capping, Recons = lure + capping. Lure? Yes.

Recons are excellent lurers. They fool players and mislead them into different directions. They deviate their enemies from the correct path. They stall opponents for minutes. Their weakness? MSI and heavy swords. Oh, and guns.

Please OOO. I want to spectate my friends playing as Recon. I can't at the moment because you made it like that. Consider this as a priority, idk. But we really need to be able to spectate Recons. I see no cons of it, so if anybody wants to smack a con or two at me, go ahead.

EDIT: as we have discussed below, a suggestion was brought up about delaying spectator footage by 5 seconds. I don't see harm in that!

Sun, 11/08/2015 - 13:13

Sir-Pandabear

It's because your friend on voice chat could spectate enemy recons and tell you where they are.

Sun, 11/08/2015 - 14:11

Bopp

/telling vs. voice chat

The original poster considered the possibility of cheating, but seemed to be thinking only of /telling, not voice chatting.

Sun, 11/08/2015 - 14:26

Soujely

Delay the time from the spectators point of view

Similar to some other PvP real time strategy game in order to stop people from using outside help why not just set the time back abit through the spectators point of view so you are not watching in real time directly, just delayed enough to stop cheating.

Sorry if my english is bad

Sun, 11/08/2015 - 15:35

Abelisk

I realized that.

Here's an alternative, then.

- Have the spectating stop following the Recon when they're cloaked, but snap back to the Recon when they uncloak. Currently, the spectating does not snap automatically once a Recon removes their cloak, so we shouldn't have to go back and forth between players when a Recon cloaks and uncloaks. I wanna be one with the Recon.

Soujely, that's an excellent idea. Maybe instead of my idea we should go with this one? A problem would be that if a Recon is one spot, they'll be caught. That isn't a major issue though.

Mon, 11/09/2015 - 15:07

Sipsy

Shouldn't this be in the coliseum or suggestion thread?

I think it's fine the way it is now, to be honest. It isn't really affecting too many people apart from the four people that spectate lockdown.

But yeah, Snapping back is a horrible idea, do you know how trippy it would be? Weapon switching, nuff said.

A better idea would be giving the spectator the ability to move the camera themselves, not being locked onto another player.

Mon, 11/09/2015 - 16:02

Kneeanderthal

I'm thinking its more of a

I'm thinking its more of a glitch perhaps, because you would have to be living a pretty sad life if you would spend the time giving away a recon's position.

I know OOO can fix this too, because you can follow recons if they are cloaked if one killes you

Mon, 11/09/2015 - 18:54

Sipsy

@ Kneeanderthal It's not a glitch, it's intended. I agree that youd have a pretty sad life if you spend time giving away a recons position but have you seen the lockdown community? lmao.

Tue, 11/10/2015 - 18:45

Fangel

Hmm.

Again, cheating bit, but perhaps people in your friends list/guild could spectate a you if you were a cloaked recon? Really the only issue I can see would be GvG where other guildmates would try to call out where recons are heading. When I'm in Lockdown I often call out points I either know the enemy is going towards or think the enemy is trying to grab before investigating them myself. Many people would do this sort of thing if they could spot a cloaked recon.

But if you can only spectate a recon if they are on your friends' list/in your guild, then you could learn how to recon from watching those who know you aren't trying to cheat them - or if you are they can just look at their friends list, look for those spectating Lockdown, then remove them or something.

Or perhaps having full inspect enabled would allow spectators to view cloaked recons. That'd likely be a better way to go about it.

Tue, 11/10/2015 - 19:50

Abelisk

Soujely's statement may work wonders. What if spectating was delayed by 5 (?) seconds? That could certainly work for Recons. It would only be fair if the delay happened to all classes, not just Recons of course.

Tue, 11/10/2015 - 21:16

#10

Deleted-Knight

People who need a friend to

People who need a friend to help them track recons won't be able to take down the recon regardless. It's really hard to give a precise location for a recon that is moving. The attacker still has to do most of the prediction. The only help the friend can provide is to ease the need to be paranoid when the recon appears to have left the area. The spectator friend can confirm if the recon did indeed leave or if its just a ruse.

I actually think the no recon spectating is due to ease of coding.
I suspect each Lockdown match consists of three "parties". There is one global party that includes all the knights in the LD game. Then there are two sub-parties which can interact with each other. Spectators only exist in the global party, and are permanently "dead". This means they can cycle through the cameras of their party members, much like in clockworks.
Recons (under cloak) are designed to be non-existent to people who are not in their sub-party. Since the spectators are not part of any sub-parties, cloaked recons are not considered knights. That's why it briefly shows "No One" when a recon goes under cloak. The knight had been removed from the global party and only exists in the sub-party. The knight that was being spectated no longer exist. The "No One" followed by a redirect is simply to catch the error.

Tue, 11/10/2015 - 22:11

#11

Wqkipedia

@Deleted-Knight

Hmm, what about the kill cam you get when a recon kills you? I can usually see what the recon is doing after they kill me even if they are cloaked.

Wed, 11/11/2015 - 13:16

#12

Deleted-Knight

That's a good point Wqksayi. Maybe it is intentional.

Thu, 11/12/2015 - 20:54

#13

Kneeanderthal

@Van-Winkle very very

@Van-Winkle very very true....

Mon, 11/16/2015 - 10:12

#14

Cyphereau

"The last thing we need is more STALKERS! Give a little pop and the waxing of the candle's cries shall smite the earthen below - the suggestion is a POP!" - Cyphereau (11-16-2015)

Sat, 11/21/2015 - 19:31

#15

Blue-Knife

Delays

I really like the idea of delaying the footage, of playing what happened 5 seconds ago. It eliminates all the problems with cheating, and you'd still be able to spectate everyone.

Sun, 11/22/2015 - 11:43

#16

Abelisk

If only OOO would actually make this happen...

Blue-Knife: agreed!

Sun, 11/22/2015 - 15:28

#17

Frozane

er...?

Recons are useful in capping, and deathmark can be avoided. A good recon can sneak by and trick players out of an area by it appearing like nothing is in it, and move around them carefully capping an unprotected base as they fight at another point. Recon is my favorite because of this, striker lowers defense, guardian is about same except providing more to others at a cost to yourself. Recon is the only "fair" one, more health, and your almost invisible. I say leave it, its weird but has good strategic reasons although the 5 second isn't a bad idea.

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Why can't we spectate Recons?