What's the Difference Between Shaken and Suppressed?

[Frederick V]

I also want to know what your screen looks like when it's suppressed v.s. shaken.

[jackie]

Suppressed

[PhunkyJazzLord]

I'm writing from recent memory, so these may not be 100% accurate, but should be mostly spot on.

Shaken: close explosion (artillery) rocks your characters vision. Lasts a few seconds. Apparent while aiming or not. Makes long and medium range aiming extremely difficult. Seeing enemies is appreciably more difficult. It also has some effect on mobility, if I remember correctly. Your character needs to be virtually within the kill zone of a bombardment in order to experience shaking.

Suppression: a close bullet makes your character flinch a single time. Most apparent while aiming. If you were aiming at a target, your sight is thrown off in a random direction and you have to re-aim. There is some visual effect while not aiming, but it's doesn't significantly hamper it. Suppression could could cost you a kill depending on your skill level and situation, but in my opinion, it is not worth wasting bullets (machine gunner or not) to cause suppression in the absence of making kills. Suppression is mostly a token, beneficial side effect, especially against skilled players.

Both are useful for the opposing team, and can potentially save a few lives during a match, but overall these effects are not game makers/breakers. They do add an element of immersion to the game that I appreciate though.