When a player is downed, seeing a teammate nearby answers a location question. It does not answer the decision that follows: should I wait for help or return to the deployment screen?
View full image
Battlefield 2042 offers a useful, specific example. EA's Update #3 notes describe an indicator for nearby players who can revive you, plus a separate indication when a player has pinged you with the intention of reviving. The distinction is small visually, but important for coordination: capability and intent are different pieces of information.
Give the waiting player something to act on
A nearby teammate might be fighting, moving away or unable to reach you safely. An intention signal reduces some uncertainty without requiring voice communication. My interpretation is that it gives the downed player a better basis for deciding to wait. The update notes do not establish how much it changed that behavior.
It also creates an expectation. If someone signals a revive and then cannot reach the player, the interface needs to handle the change. Persisting intent indefinitely would eventually make the signal less trustworthy. A designer reviewing this interaction should inspect cancellation, interruption and the conditions under which the cue disappears.
Relevance changes with player state
The same update documents resource indicators above nearby friendly players when you are low on health or ammunition. It also describes scaling player-world icons with distance to reduce clutter. These changes approach hierarchy through context, rather than making every marker equally visible all the time.
There is still a trade-off. A smaller distant marker may obscure less of the scene while becoming harder to read. A contextual resource cue may help during a shortage but appear at a moment when the player is already under pressure. Those costs need to be evaluated in motion, against actual backgrounds.
What I would check in a playtest
Give players a downed-state scenario with and without an incoming revive signal. Observe whether they notice the difference, what they believe it means and whether it changes their decision to wait. Include interrupted revives; otherwise the test only covers the most reassuring version of the interaction.
For marker density, watch target tracking and missed information, not just whether players prefer the cleaner screen. A less crowded HUD can still omit something necessary.
This is an analysis of documented changes to Battlefield 2042, not an audit of every Battlefield title or its current interface. The lesson I take from it is specific: a useful multiplayer HUD communicates what others can do and, where possible, what they intend to do.
Reference
EA: Battlefield 2042 Update #3. The behavior changes above come from these notes; the design interpretation and proposed test are my analysis.