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I haven't suggested these changes yet at sourceforge but I've been thinking about them and would like other opinions...

masquerade flag -- as it is right now the masquerade flag only works well when you are playing capture the flag with lots of players. Any other time, at least for me, a player has time to watch the radar which of course gives away the masquerade. I would propose that the masquerade flag mask the team color on radar and out the window except when the player is firing. While the player is firing, the tank color should show the player's true team color on both the radar and out the window for a short period of time after each shot (example, for 2 tenths of a second, adjustable on the server end). In this way, the masquerade would be effective on radar but still reveal the tank's true colors to the shart-eyed opponent.

seer flag -- the seer flag should also negate the masquerade flag effects.

Comments are welcome.

i think the masquerade flag should be reversed to be a more popular and effective flag . instead of appearing as a teammate on the main display , it should appear as a teammates' color on the radar . this will make using the flag more interesting . or possibly make the masquerade flag choose randomly when you pick it up , either a display-masquerade or a radar-masquerade flag . that way the enemy can never know for sure .


also , i agree that to balance things , the seer flag should be able to negate the masquerade flag . the seer flag should also negate invisible bullets(IB) and render them visible on radar , because the seer flag is another flag that isn't as potent or popular as it should be .

RC Cola, good point about the Seer flag and the invisible bullets, I forgot about that one.

As to the masquerade flag, I am attempting to tailor the flag so that a masqueraded tank has no identifyable team affiliation when it is passive (i.e. not attacking). Even a right-click would only tell you that the tank is carrying the masquerade flag, but it would not tell you if the tank was on your team or not. That would make for an interesting situation -- a player could hide in plain sight from all tanks except Rogues...I can just imagine the convoluted strategies that would develop ...

I agree that if the radar was masked and the view out the window was accurate, that would make the flag more effective in a free for all game, but it would also make the flag much less effective in a large capture-the-flag game.

Maybe what we really need is a server side option to select what is affected by the flag.

Perhaps masquerade could work as it does now in the HUD, and your suggestion could be added for radar, but its radar effect would be negated if the person moves too close to an enemy tank . Firing should also negate the effect for more than one second. In this way, the person with the flag would be discouraged from both approaching too close to his prey and firing too soon.

The moment he becomes visible for what he really is on radar, some sort of spark or highlight should momentarily be applied to his color to make it that much more noticeable.

Keep in mind that this could strengthen accusations of teamkilling, and other teammates watching from afar - people who haven't unmasked the flag holder - would be a bit confused. For this reason I think that right clicking should always display the true identity.

Good idea on the proximity. Wonder if this would be easy to code...

Should be very easy to code. Just a simple distance check.