Please add node spawn timers to frontlines.

For things like ice, tomeliths, interceptor drones, they all have fixed spawn times and veteran players know these times and can call them out, but it's still a pain having to remember all the spawn times and keep an eye on the clock and for new players there's no way for them to know these spawn times unless someone tells them.

So please add a "time to next node spawn:" counter to the duty list that will count down to when they will pop giving everyone an equal chance to know when to prepare.

While that's not a bad idea for the most part, this only reinforces my usual advice of "Keep your map open".

Veteran players figured much of this out by lookimg at their maps, the chat log, and the time when things happened. It's important to note nothing beats having solid focus and awareness, which reliance on a timer won't help build up.

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Originally Posted by ThirdChild_ZKI

While that's not a bad idea for the most part, this only reinforces my usual advice of "Keep your map open".

Veteran players figured much of this out by lookimg at their maps, the chat log, and the time when things happened. It's important to note nothing beats having solid focus and awareness, which reliance on a timer won't help build up.

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Maybe they could have the map open on default for frontlines and stay open while youre in a match. But like you said at the end.....a timer can only do so much. you need focus for this kind of thing.

From what I understand, tomeliths and ice are random so if you add a timer for those you kinda remove the whole point of the modes/maps. The drones and nodes in Secure are on a fixed timer so having a timer visible makes more sense for that mode/map.

While there are set times that ice spawns, it differs sometimes so I'm not sure how it could be implemented. Like sometimes a big ice spawns at a certain time, but sometimes a big ice won't spawn, and instead two ice will spawn later on. Sometimes every single small ice spawns from the get go, so none of the other small ice spawn times will matter. Having a timer would either be inaccurate or take away from that randomness.

The biggest difference I can think of right away is when all the small ice activate at once. I don't know the set times, but I do know a large ice won't spawn all that quickly after all smalls do.

Besides, part of the Shatter experience is the "randomness" of the spawns. A timer, or just knowing the general spawn times can help, but is it the center ice? North? Southwest? Even then, knowing which will activate first guarantees no advantage. If you're closer, you can get to it first, but an enemy team can follow you and attack you to try and stop you from getting there. If you're too far from it, you can opt to take bases and pick off anyone respawning or traveling through the map. There's a check and balance to most situations.

I think Shatter was designed specifically to keep players guessing. There are predictable patterns and by 15:00 you know more or less what the rest of the spawn patterns will be.

This is probably not accurate, but overall it's something like:
All small ices at 19:45 = Big Ices at 14:00, 12:00, 10:00, 08:00

Otherwise always a Big Ice at 19:00

Then Big Ice at 16:00 = Big Ice at 14:00, 12:00, 10:00

Or Big Ice at 15:00 = Two Ices at 10:00

In all circumstances all remaining ices always spawn at 8:00

etc. etc.

I have macros where I'll call out a Big Ice in 30 seconds at 16:30 each game even though one might not spawn until 15:00. It keep players on their toes. I guess I'm not totally opposed to having timers remove any mystery, but it does remove a lot of carry potential from a team leader who has the ability to make good calls.

just go for the 1st big ice that spawn after 1m, then for the rest go murder all the ppl while they hit the ice like dumbf..ks not caring that they are about to die. Also, you want SE to give you a free coffee together with ice's timer? anything else? its really beautiful to see ppl asking for more dumb out current pvp. :saltymorning:

For Secure, i think the drones are timed 4mins after the last one cleared? Can't remember been so long, I don't mind as people always try to steal bases there and stall the timer. What really help is having the minimap shows Ice/Objective Arrows, like how they point in active quests. Freelancing makes me forget which base Im on more than I like to admit :p

The map does show where and when ice activates, it even accounts for height difference. This is why I say to keep your map open. Adjust the size so that it fits in an area of the screen where it won't be in the way, and keep it open as much as possible. You can see just about all you need to know play out there.