Some Marine additions
Stoneburg
Join Date: 2002-11-11 Member: 8174Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Increasing and rewarding teamwork</div>These aren't very complex or original, but I think they would fit into the game and enchance the team work aspect.
1. New equipment: <b>Medikit</b>
The commander should be able to drop a Medikit, which would replace the welder in the Marine inventory. Obviously it would be used to heal Marines, but it should preferably have some limitations (to prevent immortal marines), for example:
- Healing being regenerative instead of instant (basically working like a welder instead of a medipak)
- Healing costing "ammunition"
2. New equipment: <b>Scanner</b>
This would also be droppable by the commander, and also replace the welder in the inventory. It would provide the user with a limited "scan" function, revealing cloaked objects as well as alien objects on other sides of walls. It should require energy/ammunition and have a "cooldown" time to prevent over-use/spamming.
3. New role: <b>Sergeant</b>
The commander should be able to appoint a limited number of Sergeants (for example, one for every 5 marines on the team). The Sergeant should have the ability of setting waypoints for the Marines assigned to his team (as well as invite or kick people from the team). As an incitament for teamwork (and to reflect the increase in morale from having a leader), Marines who are part of the squad and in the vicinity of the Sergeant would get a small reduction in damage taken from alien attacks (for example 5-10% damage reduction).
I think these changes would both server to promote and reward teamwork, and make the Commander role a bit easier. Instead of constantly having to drop meds and ping ahead, he can somewhat delegate that role (that's what leadership is about!). With the creation of Sergeants also comes a hierarchy that makes it easier to organise and handle the soldiers. You could now tell one of the Sergeants to capture point X, equip them properly, and leave the tactical decision makings into the hands of another player. Also letting more people feel apart of the team.
1. New equipment: <b>Medikit</b>
The commander should be able to drop a Medikit, which would replace the welder in the Marine inventory. Obviously it would be used to heal Marines, but it should preferably have some limitations (to prevent immortal marines), for example:
- Healing being regenerative instead of instant (basically working like a welder instead of a medipak)
- Healing costing "ammunition"
2. New equipment: <b>Scanner</b>
This would also be droppable by the commander, and also replace the welder in the inventory. It would provide the user with a limited "scan" function, revealing cloaked objects as well as alien objects on other sides of walls. It should require energy/ammunition and have a "cooldown" time to prevent over-use/spamming.
3. New role: <b>Sergeant</b>
The commander should be able to appoint a limited number of Sergeants (for example, one for every 5 marines on the team). The Sergeant should have the ability of setting waypoints for the Marines assigned to his team (as well as invite or kick people from the team). As an incitament for teamwork (and to reflect the increase in morale from having a leader), Marines who are part of the squad and in the vicinity of the Sergeant would get a small reduction in damage taken from alien attacks (for example 5-10% damage reduction).
I think these changes would both server to promote and reward teamwork, and make the Commander role a bit easier. Instead of constantly having to drop meds and ping ahead, he can somewhat delegate that role (that's what leadership is about!). With the creation of Sergeants also comes a hierarchy that makes it easier to organise and handle the soldiers. You could now tell one of the Sergeants to capture point X, equip them properly, and leave the tactical decision makings into the hands of another player. Also letting more people feel apart of the team.
Comments
Yes, exactly. (I frankly didn't understand his question so thanks for clarifying it).
The scanning also makes the Marines a bit more independent, but again, as Com you will probably still want to ping areas where Marines aren't available.
Well then you certainly won't like the direction NS2 is going with commandermode. Commanders will be even more focused on those 'spells' in NS2.
I don't know what you have against medpacks, they are what make commanding fun.
I don't know what you have against medpacks, they are what make commanding fun.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
To each his own I guess, but I think the "fun" part of being a Com is coming up with strategies, organising the team, countering the aliens, designing bases, motivating players... pretty much everything BUT spamming meds on some Rambo in a hive.
Medding is a decision here and there. A quick decision if its worth risking 6 res on a chance to hold the positional advantage and such. Of course comms like me go trigger happy and spam everything, but I'd rather have the medding system just improved, not crucially moved away from the comm.
The same goes for sergeants. Field comms work only if the team communicates effectively. Even in clan environment its sometimes a pain to get a field comm working, no matter that the communication has much better chances of working. Comm is the mastermind while the marines use teamwork and smart positioning and such to excecute the orders. More teamwork and creativity for the marines is good, but comm needs to be the brains of the game. At least I'd hate to be the comm if a marine starts making important decisions without knowing the situation inside out.
The medding and scanning doesn't go away with my suggestion, it just introduces another way of accomplishing a simmilar thing. Which I think is a good thing (I like diversity).
Well yeh, its nice if experienced players can guide other players, but most often it just doesn't work if two players are giving direct orders. People tend to have different ideas of how the game is played. I'd promote group play by improved voice communication, hud and such, but still the comm should have the supreme decisive power. So a group can coordinate their moves via voice communication, but still the direct orders are given by the comm alone.