RECON 0007.05.01
The Threat Sensor
Report : Rocky
Updated 29 Nov. 2001

Arrows

As you can see there are two arrows on the outside of the ring. The solid arrow, show on the right in our example, is the North indicator. The solid arrow will always point North to assist in taking bearings.

The second arrow is an outline only, and indicates the direction of the next waypoint, if set. This is very useful for quickly making your way to the next waypoint without the need to refer to the map overlay. If no waypoints have been set this arrow does not appear.

Segments

The outermost ring lights up to indicate the direction of gunshots and other combat sounds. This is shown by the red outer segment indicating there has been some disturbance off to the North of the current position.

The inner segments show the direction of the enemy, located at greater then 40 metres from the current position. In our example this is shown by the yellow segment detailing an enemy positions to the East and North, with the threat in the South diminishing.

Both of these segments are subject to time-based fade, which means the depth of colour will indicate how recent the threat is.

Finally we have the centre segment. This lights up red when an enemy comes within 40 metres, but does not give an indication of direction.

Pre-Alpha Version

The following details are with reference to the Pre-Alpha version of Ghost Recon and are now largely out of date, but kept on record here for reference purposes.

At Ghost Recon's current stage (pre-alpha) it includes a Threat Sensor which serves to aid the player in a few ways. Is it a replacement for the HBS used and abused in Rogue Spear? Does it pinpoint the enemy precisely? Does it have any other functions?

John Sonedecker of RSE explains -

"It does not pinpoint and center on the threat. It is a compass as well and freely rotates based on North. If you look at the device it is divided into many sections. The device also points to North and acts as a compass. The entire device rotates like a compass, always having the arrow point North. The indicators rotate as well.

Each section has a cone that it shoots out to detect things. It has no concept of range or # of threats in that area. There could be 10 bad guys or 1, it doesn't know or care. Also the threat may be 10 meters or 300 meters away and it could be on one edge of that cone or the other. Obviously at 300 meters that could be a discrepancy of more than 30 meters and depending on the terrain that could be quite a bit.

Again, I think some are looking at it with the HBS in mind and the two are not really similar. Remember, the HBS was extremely precise to the exact location of the person shown on a top down map that is easily viewed and understood. This device is just a rotating ring of very general directions.

Gary Stelmack RSE continues

"Two things to keep in mind. The ring does not rotate towards an enemy. It is essentially fixed to your heading. The needle in the center rotates to always show North, just like a compass.

The arcs swing like the compass. Think of it this way, you can tell if there is a threat from 0-45 degrees out there somewhere. If you move, it will still register a threat from 0 to 45 degrees. Those measurements are based off of North, not relative to your heading.

What if the target is moving too? Picture this scenario: You are moving through the woods, and an enemy contact is 10 meters to your left, but the woods are too thick to see him. A second enemy contact is 40 meters to your right. The one on your left is moving parallel to you, but the one on the right is stationary. As you move forward, the threat on your right will pass from one indicator block to another, but the one on your left will stay in the same indicator block. Therefore, it looks like the one on the left is farther away, when in fact, it is not.

It is nowhere near as precise as the HBS, as John has mentioned. You still have to find them and figure out where they are."

The Threat Sensor seems to be a progression from the RS HBS, but like the HBS - it is not realistic - it does not exist in the real world. Do Ghost Recon gamers want an unrealistic gamers "aid", when realism was the benchmark that set the Rainbow Six series apart from the crowd?