Originally posted by MANDOBLE
When I fire to kill, I do it very close and the target is usually destroyed with first burst, surprise seeing tracers is irrelevant this way, there is no chance at all of evasion. But having tracers ON and firing even from very long ranges, gives you the chance of force the enemy to break while pursuing a friendly. Also, with tracers on you have less chances of being destroyed by kill shooter. I cant find any advantage of turning off tracers, unless you are a spray'n pray adict, firing systematically at long ranges, and that kind of kills are, IMO, plain crap.
LOL! Another Mandoble gem. Seriously, Mandoble, you think the only possible benefit of turning off tracers is long range spray 'n pray? Amazing.
Reasons for turning off tracers:
(1) Improves aim by forcing the player to use the gunsight rather than "walking" tracers to the target. So one benefit is increased efficiency.
(2) As aiming at long distances becomes more difficult without tracers, turning them off forces players to get in relatively closer before opening fire. This benefits both aim (i.e. efficiency) and lethality.
(3) Turning off tracers improves the chances of jumping others without giving yourself away with tracer fire. Sorry, Mandoble, not everyone is a cherry picking ubershooter like you, so for many this creates tangible improvements to their BnZ abilities.
(4) Turning off tracers creates uncertainty in enemies who are unsure if you are firing at them or have a shooting angle. In situations where you're firing but missing, the enemy often does not know if you're missing ahead or behind him and as such can't adjust tactics accordingly.
Obviously turning on tracers yields benefits as well. As you mentioned, tracers can force a fleeing opponent to break. Tracers also dramatically improve long distance aim (ask Drex, who won't turn them off for that reason alone). But to say that tracers reduce the possibility of killshooter? Ummmkay.
-- Todd/Leviathn