Friendly Fire; the blessing and the curse.

[Vampire cat]

So, I'm talking about friendly fire in FPSs and it's Pro's and Con's. I think we all know what it means, but to make it simple for everyone; friendly fire in a video game allows you to do damage to your team mates with your weapons. Thats basically it. Usually, mines and claymores will not be under the friendly fire rule, and go from there.

What do you guys think of friendly fire in video games?

On one side; you have to deal with the guys that will empty several clips in your face just cause they cant hurt you by doing it. MOST people (not all tho, I'm sure XD), after my experience, are more careful to see if their target is a friend or foe before shooting at him, making for slightly more calm and controlled gaming.

In my opinion tho, the best part; when someone is TRULY being an asshole, there is nothing stopping you from releaving your anger and annoyance on him by way of shotgun, helicopter or whatever you chose. People need to be careful how frequently or easily they do this cause-

-On the other side; there is the issue with random TKing. I'm not talking about the moments where a friendly sniper will execute the perfect headshot, on what turned out to be you, cause he didn't mean to shoot a friendly. Shit happens. I'm talking about everyones horror. The guy bunnyhopping about our spawn, shooting every friendly he sees in the face. These lifeless creatures are what ruins FF... If it wern't for the "disconnect" button we'd all be insane after dealing with these people.

People taking airplanes or choppers in BF games, and then bombing their own airfield... People shooting friendlies with tank, grenade launching them, AT missile them, endless possibilities for the eager TKer.

After going trough all the Pro's and Con's I can think of and having my brain have a crack at them for a while, I'm just not sure. Is Friendly Fire a good or a bad thing, all in all? Is that little strain of realism worth all the harm it can do?

 

[Allan53]

I HATE friendly fire. Drives me nuts. Quite frequently in that style of game, it's difficult to tell at a glance what team someone is on, and by the time you work it out/the indicator comes up, they've blown all your limbs off, particularly with AI players.

Plus, I don't understand the fixation with "realism" in games. I play games for fun and escapism. You want realism? Go play a game where your character wanders around and lives his boring little life. It's real enough, but is it fun? Not so much (although those weird people who play The Sims would likely disagree).

 

[fix-the-spade]

I like FF, the TK twat is an irrelevance to me since most BF servers I play on use a punish system for swift automated bans.

It's also great fun to round a corner with a tank, see one friendly surrounded by bad guys and gun them all down. Sorry mate, it's for the greater good!

PS, the real reason I like it, especially in BF games, is that it reduces spamming, you can't just wang explosives all the time when there's a significant chances a friendly will be in the way. I like that, it prevents a lot of stalemates.

It's also very good for rooting out stupids from servers...

 

[wooty]

I think FF is fine, as long as the team is good at playing and not just full of fools who will pop off rounds at everything that moves just in case it turns out to be an enemy.

FF is a good thing, keeps you on your toes in most circumstances, if I get accidentally TK'ed, thats fine as long as the person says sorry. Though I once got TK'ed in a Halo 3 match and then got an earful of abuse from the killer because I apparantly "blocked his shot and stole his kill". I then spent the entire match trying to keep away from him as he went about on noble prebubescant crusade for vengeance, that is when FF is bad.

 

[mb16]

i like it in BFBC as it adds more realism and tactics rather than shoot it if it dies yay you, if not reload. but i also like it if you kill X number of people in X amount of time on your team you get kicked

I dont know how many times i have killed someone on BC with the M95(the big sniper) as they were too far for the friendly marker to pop up. luckily most were understanding or don't know where i was. Although it was annoying when someone got out of your tank as you were moving so you ran them over

I have "friends" how will complain about FF even in free for all

 

[Audio]

It made L4D (on expert mode) better for me. If your friend is swamped, you want to help out but at the same time you know shooting him will make things worse.
I dont care for realism but i do appreciate consideration. You should be thinking about where you are in relation to others (line of fire) and common sense with grenades.

Bad side is a stray shot by mistake turns into a little fight. "He shot me so i'll shoot him back" and this repeats till one or both are dead... childish but funny to watch x)

 

[Berserker119]

I like it, because it's a way to vent frustration. I know I should be killing the enemy, but if I'm the only one, maybe a kick in the ass will jump start my team.

 

[tombman888]

one time (cant remember what game) i was cooking a grenade, bout to throw it over a wall, then i get sniped, drop the nade, and it kills 3 of my teammates, im then swiftly kicked for team killing.

 

[likalaruku]

I dun like it. If I wanted that kind of realism, I'd enlist. Plus I tend to shoot my own allies on the ground that they moved & I had an itchy finger.

 

[Mordreich]

Friendly fire is only good if everyone on your team is within striking distance of where you're sitting.

 

[dark_taint92]

I find it funny when the admins switch friendly fire on in TF2. It's just both teams killing themselves and not each other. (ps this is done on the escapist servers and is only iniated after a majority vote) When it's just a random game and your trying to play properly though it can get annoying.

 

[ethaninja]

If the team mate is being a moron, and seems to be making everything worse, he sometimes deserves to get a bullet in the head to save the enemy the trouble. But they can also make usefull cannon fodder.

Now if someones just running around team killing for no reason, that gives me mega shits.

 

[Jonluw]

In one way, I really like the realism of it. I had an awesome time playing G.R.A.W. 2, a game in which team killing was actually rarer than you might think.
Though it was annoying when people would run in front of me the very second I pull the trigger to take out some enemy while I was sniping, causing me to involuntarily team kill by means of bullet in the foot.
Then these people would spawn, come to my sniping spot, and shoot me in the back of the head! Insanely annoying.
I think this might just be the reason why I only have a 4 star reputation on xbox live.

It comes down to who the game in question is marketed at, if you ask me.
Team based games, that require a bit of strategy, and appeal to a more sophisticated audience might just be able to handle it; but in a game like CoD...

 

[Antiparticle]

Friendly fire seems like it could be an interesting idea until you try actually playing any FF enabled game on Xbox LIVE. Ye gods, what a disaster. I'm so very very glad that my favorite game on LIVE, Team Fortress 2, doesn't have friendly fire. The douchebags would totally ruin it.

 

[DigitalSushi]

If FF is switched off it turns the server or game into a mad dash for objectives, since the only penalty is you dying, not a team based objective being compromised.

FF servers are the ones more likely to have suicide rocket men.

 

[bjj hero]

I like FF as it cuts down on grenade spamming, it cut out the amount of Martydom on COD4 Hardcore TDM. It stops people throwing grenades into firefights.

I just wish that MW2 had the 3 TKs and you're kicked rules like the WaW HCTDM did. That is the only thing WaW got right in my opinion.

 

[squidbuddy99]

It's an excuse for whiny n00bs to shoot guys who annoy them and say 'oops'. This is why TF2 is my favorite online game.

 

[Yer man o'er yonder]

I find it funny when the admins switch friendly fire on in TF2. It's just both teams killing themselves and not each other. (ps this is done on the escapist servers and is only iniated after a majority vote) When it's just a random game and your trying to play properly though it can get annoying.

Now wouldn't that be the perfect time to go spy. No need to worry about spy checkers if they end up killing their own team...
[sub][sub]I've never played TF2 with friendly fire[/sub][/sub]

 

[dark_taint92]

I find it funny when the admins switch friendly fire on in TF2. It's just both teams killing themselves and not each other. (ps this is done on the escapist servers and is only iniated after a majority vote) When it's just a random game and your trying to play properly though it can get annoying.

Now wouldn't that be the perfect time to go spy. No need to worry about spy checkers if they end up killing their own team...
[sub][sub]I've never played TF2 with friendly fire[/sub][/sub]

Yeah thats what i love about friendly fire you cannot tell who the spy is > i love doing it
and if you want a friendly community to play with shameless plug [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/The-Escapist-Team-Fortress-2-Group-PC]

 

[Savagezion]

I think the best way to implement friendly fire is the "reflect rule" on MW2. You shoot your ally, you take the damage for it.