#I really don’t understand this flare patch.

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

vast vigil
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With this new patch,

a 5-minute cooldown has been added, and even if you pick up an explosive ammo box, the cooldown does not decrease.

I’m a player who mainly plays competitive matches, and I expect this change to cause significant confusion in the game.

In scrims between high-level clans, players will now have to rotate roles just to fire flares, which will make it difficult to stay properly immersed in the game.

If the developers feel that refilling ammo through redeploying is unfair, then the same logic should also apply to bazookas, mines, and satchels.

Otherwise, please allow explosive ammo boxes to reduce the cooldown.

Alternatively, you could increase the respawn time when redeploying. Right now, redeploying only takes about 20–30 seconds, and even when spawning on a garrison, it only consumes 1 manpower, which is why players redeploy so freely.

By increasing redeploy respawn time, you would improve the balance between anti-tank roles and tanks, and also restore the effectiveness of medics.

To summarize:

  1. Picking up explosive ammo should reduce the flare gun cooldown.
  2. Increase the respawn/redeploy timer (though people probably won’t like that).

++ And please, handle balance-related patches like this with great care.

tawdry trail
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Also a comp player - this will mean adjusting the rules / way games are played. Flare spam was an unusual addition to the meta and we have essentially gamed it to maximise flare coverage.

It’s a horrible role to play in comp.

Obviously yet to play some scrims and see the implications - but it could be that comp switches to a dedicated flare player (like arty) and reduced reliance on flares rather than asking multiple people to rotate through the role to maintain flare coverage as before

grave tapir
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I agree 400%.

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When a weak team faces a strong team, the player's play is the most important factor.

vast vigil
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Yes, with the patch as it is now, the number of flares used will be very limited. However, there will definitely be clans that rotate all 49 players through the role just to fire more flares.

In the end, the more active and coordinated a team is, the more flares they’ll be able to use.

reef pasture
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How about having only supply box on a cooldown and everything else needs to be resupplied from explosive box with no cooldown or having a cooldown on everything but still being able to resupply?

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Nodes would cut all cooldowns in half

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Having cooldown on everything would not disallow players to use their ability but without the team cooperation they can only use it so often.. it the rest of the teammates are able to spam explosive boxes so should players be able to reuse their abilities..

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but hey, they can't even get the flare gun cooldown animation right 😄

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also the fact that flare gun needs to be on a cooldown but satchels are not is crazy

vast vigil
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Exactly. If teammates are investing resources to enable more flares, it doesn’t make sense to block that through the system.

marble crescent
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Just reset it back, it’s honestly a very bad move.

I think that this will kill Spotter & Sniper Roles together in competitive settings.

5min cooldown is just way to much, reduce this to 2min and people will still tend to use Recon in Comp setting

analog gorge
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I didn't even know that flare spamming was an issue in games. I don't even see that many players use flares in pub games.
What I do know is that crashing, lag, performance issues in general are a problem

marble crescent
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I honestly doubt that many clans are gonna adopt sending one of their dogs to the spotter role, shoot a flare and then get back to the squad, Div 1/3 may standardly use that strategy, but lower divisions won’t

tawdry trail
zenith zephyr
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all the convo so far seems to be about recon

but we have 2 more flares from the 2 arty squads? so the cooldown makes sense

marble crescent
analog gorge
tawdry trail
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Works fine

marble crescent
analog gorge
# tawdry trail

it is only in training room/explore mode, in live server it does have a cooldown

tawdry trail
wicked socket
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How about we just remove the flares radar effect then and replace its ability

analog gorge
wicked socket
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Calling flares not a problem is a laugh. Just because no one wanted to talk about it doesn’t mean that flares haven’t been stupidly OP and unbalanced since launch

analog gorge
wicked socket
# analog gorge what makes it soo OP tho, Honestly?

It’s a spotting plane but just better? In a game where you want to think about positioning and blending in having someone with a spam able pocket UAV that constant updates the enemy’s position while one flare is active is such a strange ability that runs counter to everything in the game already

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The reason the spotter plane is a commander ability is because it’s so powerful, so why can one guy with a flare get the same advantage with no cost? Even with a cooldown of 5 minutes it’s way to strong

reef pasture
analog gorge
tawdry trail
analog gorge
tawdry trail
# analog gorge It gives your position away too you know. Every time you shoot a flare you are b...

Flares are OP.

Spotting plane had at least some historical relevance, and can’t spot you indoors.

Spamming a firework shows you where everyone inside the radius is (and updates) - we know it’s OP because comp has developed ways to keep up constant flare coverage.

Being vulnerable as a flare shooter isn’t really a downside - everyone knows where you are and that they have been flared, but the recon guy redeploys straight away so doesn’t need to worry about dying.

wicked socket
# analog gorge It gives your position away too you know. Every time you shoot a flare you are b...

Sure it might give away the recons position but that’s only one persons position while the entire enemy team within that circle is revealed to your team with updates pings on their position every couple of seconds. Flares in game also aren’t used in the backline their spammed onto the enemy point to reveal their positions. I play recon quite a bit and I’ve used a flare in the backline like once because it’s not worth it but I have had requests to spam the flare onto the point by commanders with clan tags

wicked socket
tawdry trail
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I’ve played so many matches now with constant spam flares that it kind of makes no difference, we might as well have a mini-map.

But even as someone who plays comp and benefits (and suffers) from it it still doesn’t make sense to me. It’s a really cheesy mechanic

wicked socket
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If they want flares to stay meaningful they need to make night maps actually dark so they do their proper job of lighting up an area and add a different effect where it decreases artillery spread in its radius or something

analog gorge
reef pasture
abstract lily
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Comp players need to goo at finding the enemies without flares it seems lol 🤣

reef pasture
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And once one team starts doing it the other ones will be at disadvantage so it will become the meta

abstract lily
sand pasture
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Recon is now free to play recon instead of doing the flare dance. The recon vic is now in play since most people have forgotten that it has a camera with a 1000m range, takes 2 minutes to reload, and has 99 reloads, meaning it will not run out of pics in a 90 min match.

vast vigil
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If flare spam is the problem, then we need to address the root causes:

  1. Repeatedly firing a flare, redeploying, and firing again
    Possible solutions:
  • Add a cooldown → this is the current patch approach, but the issue is that explosive ammo boxes don’t reset the cooldown
  • Increase base redeploy time (e.g. from 10s to ~20s) to reduce abuse
    → however, this would affect all roles and likely cause major inconvenience to existing players
    → it could also make the medic role more relevant
  1. Repeatedly reloading quickly using explosive ammo boxes and firing again

This requires other infantry players to invest time and resources to enable more flares
These ammo boxes can be destroyed by artillery, bombing runs, tank shells, bazookas, etc.

Because of that, I believe this is a fair and intended mechanic, not something that should be restricted.

If method #2 is also considered to generate too many flares, then try reducing the explosive ammo resupply count from 5 to 3.

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This screenshot is from one of our clan’s matches, where bizz and akm4 were the flare shooters. For the full 90 minutes, they kept asking for explosive ammo drops so they could keep firing flares.

Other players actually supported them by delivering those supplies, which is why they were able to fire so many flares.

So flare “spam” isn’t just because flares are OP — it’s also the result of teamwork, coordination, and players consistently placing supplies at the right place and time.

It makes me wonder… is it really wrong for players to be rewarded for that level of effort?

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reef pasture
tawdry trail
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Redeploys aren’t toxic. It’s an intended part of the game mechanics

tawdry trail