Jump to content

The Meta of Ifrit Smoke


Recommended Posts

The meta of a video game often refers to the most effective tactics available to win or secure an advantage. In Arma 3, on Asylum's domination server, this is the meta. Ifrit smoke was probably a hotly debated topic at some point, and though I am sure it has died down, I have just recently returned to the game and noticed that the meta of domination is almost completely tied around abusing these mechanics.

Here is one thread made in April of 2020 based around an extreme abuse of this bug, where players would do something similar to this:

For those who still don't understand, the bug has largely to do with the player's view and position relative to the smoke canister. When the player can no longer see the smoke canister, the smoke almost completely disappears, allowing the player inside of the smoke to have a clear view around them. There are multiple weird mechanics/bugs surrounding the use of Ifrit smokes and player positioning, which is why in a lot of the recent Asylum montages, and generally littered throughout the domination events, there is a lot of Ifrit smoke shenanigans.

Now, a year later in April of 2021, this bug is still plaguing the meta of cartel fights and, to an even larger extent, domination events. For an example of this I will use a montage I viewed recently, as it was another pretty good indicator that exceptional players play like this. Obviously, no hate or praise to the player, this was just the most recent example. Pretty much every good player is aware of this (these) bug(s) and the ones who abuse them most effectively are absolute monsters on the domination server.

The video begins playing a timestamp specifically chosen for the purpose of this thread, 0:24. This is actually a different bug not showcased in the thread from April 2020, but it is a bug used in conjunction with the aforementioned bug. This "FOV" bug involves zooming out, thus increasing your FOV, and effectively reducing the smoke cloud to about 20% of what it regularly is. I am not sure exactly how or why this bug works, but it is repeatable by standing on top of or in front of the smoke canister and double tapping the numpad minus key. Something about the increased FOV and, most importantly, the location of the player makes the smoke cloud very small, fitting only on a small portion of your screen instead of covering the entire screen. The combination of these two things makes some players extremely strong in the midst of an otherwise chaotic firefight.

Also showcased in this fight at our beloved OG Arms, is the abuse of the first-person tilde key. If all else fails, at least you have built-in esp. You zoom into your scope and press tilde, then swing your shit around like you're spinbotting. If anyone runs in front of your crosshair, whether they are in the smoke or somewhere outside of it, you get a big red name spotting them for you. The first to tilde and find the other is the winner.

Later in the video, which resumes playing at the timestamp of 1:37, our star player of the thread, Bherky, runs headlong into the smoke cloud of multiple Ifrit smoke canisters. As he rounds the corner, you can see that he turns his camera to a ~45 degree angle to the building, continuously running along the wall of the construction building. Due to the smoke canisters being placed mostly on the wall and/or a few meters behind him and away from the wall, he can null almost the entire smoke cloud by angling his camera in such a way. As he runs down the wall, you'll notice more and more smoke dissipating, despite the smoke still very much being there. Pausing at 1:43 is evidence that the smoke cloud has not even begun to dissipate. The reason I am bringing this up is because it is the modern use of the April 2020 bug. He faces the wall to limit his view of the smoke canisters, thus making the smoke disappear.

All of this pretty much sums up the meta of rebel fighting at the moment. If you want to win domination, you will fight like this. If you want to lose, you'll pull a .50 cal and sit on a hill somewhere. If you want further proof that these bugs exist, I have recreated them in editor, I just don't feel like uploading a YouTube video for something multiple people have already uploaded inadvertently for me. If these videos are ever taken down for any reason, let me know and I will create a few. Obviously, I don't cover general FPS things, because clicking on heads and good movement is something you just have to develop overtime.

TL;DR:

In conclusion, I would like to propose the removal of Ifrit smoke on the domination server due to the generally bugginess of the mechanic and to shake up the meta. I couldn't care less about cartel fights on Asylum server #1, as they are nonexistent and pale in comparison to the scale of domination. This may seem like an extremely drastic change, but shaking up the meta is all the fun in competitive multiplayer games. Adapting and changing your playstyle to the new 'way to play' keeps the skill ceiling high and also keeps people from reaching that ceiling and sitting on top. Many games do this by adding new characters, new mechanics, removal of something, etc. Arma 3 does this by finding a new way to abuse an old system.

An alternative, and perhaps a more realistic short-term approach would be to remove the blurriness in the smoke, it's doing nothing but straining the shit out of people's eyes and makes the idea of playing inside of the smoke, which seems to be an overwhelming trend in how to play, an initially counter-intuitive and somewhat intimidating playstyle. If you're going to limit player's view in the smoke, it needs to be in a much more aggressive manner or not at all.

As a side note and a bit of a disclaimer, if nothing comes from this feedback/suggestion, this was also a post to help people understand the game. Not everyone has the time to sit down and watch other people play Arma 3 all day, but maybe they do have time to read a moderately-long thread on how to generally do things. I am by no means and I'm not claiming to have ever been exceptionally skilled at this game, nor do I claim to be some kind of fragging messiah. There are plenty of players who already know about these things, and probably even more. I just figured I would share some knowledge based upon what I have observed (at least what I consider to be) some exceptionally knowledgeable players doing.

I had a lot of fun making this, and if I got anything blatantly wrong, please tell me. I appreciate your time and constructive feedback!

Thanks for reading, friends!

Link to comment
4 hours ago, Vanilla Coke said:

An alternative, and perhaps a more realistic short-term approach would be to remove the blurriness in the smoke, it's doing nothing but straining the shit out of people's eyes and makes the idea of playing inside of the smoke, which seems to be an overwhelming trend in how to play, an initially counter-intuitive and somewhat intimidating playstyle. If you're going to limit player's view in the smoke, it needs to be in a much more aggressive manner or not at all.

I agree that removing smokes is unrealistic, that's why I provided this alternative approach which some of you may have missed. I obviously see the issues with not having Ifrit smoke, just didn't think I would have to mention them, since there are some pretty obvious deal-breakers. Thanks for the replies 🙂 

1 hour ago, salty.connor said:

@Bherkyur famous

big fan @Bherky

Link to comment
2 minutes ago, Vanilla Coke said:

I agree that removing smokes is unrealistic, that's why I provided this alternative approach which some of you may have missed. I obviously see the issues with not having Ifrit smoke, just didn't think I would have to mention them, since there are some pretty obvious deal-breakers. Thanks for the replies 🙂 

big fan @Bherky

sir, go play olympus there is no smoke bluriness there and the meta is still the same, jump out of ifrit and go boom boom on head

Link to comment
2 hours ago, Joshhh said:

So your suggestion to fix smoke exploiting is to remove the fix that was added for smoke exploiting? 

I'm not suggesting to 'fix' smoke exploiting, as the only true fix for it would be to remove smokes from Ifrits completely or make Ifrit smokes truly unplayable. Obviously, both of these are extremely unpopular opinions, and I agree that neither would bring fun or familiar gameplay.

What I am actually arguing is that the smoke exploit isn't fixable in the traditional sense. Despite the intended purpose of the 'fix,' all it really does is strain the eyes; therefore, the 'fix' didn't work, or at least it didn't work for it's intended purpose. There are still players abusing smoke mechanics and, most importantly, there is now an unavoidable mechanic which is counter-intuitive to the current meta, without actually changing the meta all that much. Arma 3 being a third-person shooter game requires us to treat smokes unlike other traditional FPS games, and the fix isn't some simple "hinder vision."

Link to comment
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...