Alien commander being able to see lifeform health. Why is this not in?
I can't believe I have to *click* every fade or onos to see if they're near death or fully equipped to get back in the fight. It screws with my overall planning if everyone has to relay their current status every time we're pushing or skirmishing.
I'd like to echo the "snap to location" when bind a group to 1,2,3, etc. Also, binding and snapping to the F1-F12 keys would be amazing. It's incredible how quickly you realize you need this missing functionality when it's absent in NS2.
Also - please please please PLEASE list the stupid alien upgrades on the side of my screen. If I'm in the middle of micro'ing something and don't notice the "Celerity Lost" message - there's literally no way to check whether I still have the upgrade for my team without trying to find where I placed the upgrade building 20+ minutes ago. A simple list of upgrades would help so much...it's incredibly easier to keep track of your upgrades as marine commander.
(I've even had clan mates in spectator mode tell me whether or not I still have an upgrade because it saves time...and that's just silly).
I hardly ever COMM, but one thing I notice from COMMs main complaint is giving marines health packs and ammo packs. Sometimes I press need health by accident since its next to my other gears and that annoys the COMM so much. There should be an option for COMMs to add automation for people who request health packs or ammo packs only if that person is actually in need of them, if that person is full of HP and ammo it wouldn't drop anything. The COMM can turn that automation off or on if he chooses. That would help the COMM to focus on other things. Also, to save resource there should be a limit of how many the automation can drop to each player in need again the COMMs can modify that the way if he wants to be stingy with health/ammo packs or not.
IronHorseDeveloper, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributorJoin Date: 2010-05-08Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
<!--quoteo(post=1979311:date=Sep 17 2012, 04:51 PM:name=rantology)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (rantology @ Sep 17 2012, 04:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1979311"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The toggle-able mini-map (the one you use as a ground soldier) needs to be disabled while in commander view. I have mine bound to W and so I can never use that hotkey to toggle advanced tech tab as commander because of this. I know Rehevkor also has this problem, we cant be the only ones :s<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Commander hotkeys are hardcoded for the time being due to a temporary engine limitation. (the same reason you dont have last inv. available)
<!--quoteo(post=2035904:date=Nov 27 2012, 01:09 PM:name=ironhorse)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ironhorse @ Nov 27 2012, 01:09 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2035904"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Commander hotkeys are hardcoded for the time being due to a temporary engine limitation. (the same reason you dont have last inv. available)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This was an old post, and while the minimap still pops up when I push W, I can at least also get the the W tab with it. It used to just pop up the minimap and not switch to the tab at all. So while it's still annoying, it's not impairing anymore at least.
<!--quoteo(post=2035688:date=Nov 27 2012, 11:35 AM:name=Mango)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Mango @ Nov 27 2012, 11:35 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2035688"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I hardly ever COMM, but one thing I notice from COMMs main complaint is giving marines health packs and ammo packs. Sometimes I press need health by accident since its next to my other gears and that annoys the COMM so much. There should be an option for COMMs to add automation for people who request health packs or ammo packs only if that person is actually in need of them, if that person is full of HP and ammo it wouldn't drop anything. The COMM can turn that automation off or on if he chooses. That would help the COMM to focus on other things. Also, to save resource there should be a limit of how many the automation can drop to each player in need again the COMMs can modify that the way if he wants to be stingy with health/ammo packs or not.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Instead of automation, the comm should simply be able to confirm a request by clicking a button and then the marine will get the health/ammo dropped at the location where he requested it (because applying it directly to the marine would be OP).
And also add the buttons for health and ammo drops to the buttons of commands that you can give a marine. My problem as commander is most of the time that I can't get the stuff out in time because I have to fight with the UI. Maybe I miss the click on the medpack/ammo icon next to the marine in the game view and actually selected the marine. Great, now I can't immediately give him the stuff because I need to switch back to that menu tab first to even be able to use the hotkeys. Hotkeys for ammo and medpack really shouldn't be bound to the menu page I am in. Often I find myself to have a Phase Gate selected for placement when pressing S instead of dropping medpacks.
I'd find it very helpful if Alien commander had a UI indicator of the status of upgrade buildings. I have to ask the aliens on the ground what upgrades they're missing after a major marine assault on a hive area. It starts to get annoying for both alien player and alien commander when celerity gets lost for the fourth time due to a jetpack marine ninja'ing himself into the base sniping off the upgrades.
This is needed even more for a person who jumped into commander after the previous one left. They're at a disadvantage since they have no idea where the previous commander hid the upgrades or even built them in the first place.
<!--quoteo(post=1955895:date=Aug 2 2012, 04:51 AM:name=Mr.Greedy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Mr.Greedy @ Aug 2 2012, 04:51 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1955895"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->In my opinion the GUI need to give much more information about the battlefield. Currently, It feels not like a RTS-Commander.
1.) Upgrades
Alien-players can see which upgrades are online. Khammanders cant. Why? Sometimes, if a evolutionchamber get sniped by marines, the khammanders dont note that until someone says in voice "khammander,we have lost xxx-upgrade". To search and check all evolutionchambers all 3 minutes on minimap is not a solution :>. Just display all researched evolutions on screen.
Upgrades in research needs a progress bar.
2.) Playerlist
I want a permanent list of all marines or alien-players on my screen (for me on right side) with informations about Playername, HP/Armor, Ammo/Energy, Location, Status( like "in fight" "following order" "respawning" etc. ), Weapon/Lifeform, Equipment/Evolutions, an icon if the player says something in voice(or the playerbar is highlighting), an icon if a player yells for "need ammo/medpack/order".
This list can be sorted. For example : press and hold STRG, choose Player 1,4,5 and press "1". They are now optical separated from other players in the list. And there is now a shortcut on "1" to select all this players and a shortcut-button on screen near those players in list .
The same List for all buildings(some frequently buildings like cysts are combined) with extra informations like "no Energy/Cystlink"(maybe higlighted in red colour) "is upgrading/evolving" etc.. This buildinglist is invisible until u are pressing a specifiec button(because thats to much on screen ).
3.) Minimap
New Colors for minimap is badly needed. I dont know why a cyst, when its fresh builded, glows RED on the minimap. Red indicates danger/damage.
Special buildings need different STRONGER colors. Letz say for example all Whips are deep blue, all Harvesters are White, all evolutionchambers are yellow etc.
The infestation indicates the alien-territory. Currently its yellow on yellow :/ . Yellow for infestation is fine. The minimap backgroundcolor needs a neutral color like grey for both commanders! Marine buildings create a own territorycircle on the minimap in blue.
Buildings with no energy/cystlinks must be marked on minimap. Permanent changing the color between yellow-grey(aliens) or blue-grey(marines) until the territory is retaken(or lost)
Thats it. Sry for my bad english :/ .
Edit:
The Commander can give Medpacks, Ammo, nanoshield by just selecting the equipment and then clicking the marine on playerlist. Supporting marines will work much faster now and the accuracy is 100 %(no more faildrops). Maybe thats OP i dunno . Need to be prove<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The current GUI is still a shame. I dont see any improvements compared to NS1.
I like a 'find my upgrade structures' button, that would be handy.
The one piece of feedback I really care about:
>This monochrome color palette is awful. I know, its cute and themed. But its not how we interact with any interface in real life. The button pad at the gas station has a green confirm and a red cancel button for crying out loud. Can the important alerts please be RED and the less important alerts be yellow, etc?
Some other thoughts:
>This is a big break from RTS convention but I'd swap the minimap and structure menu. Being right handed that makes more sense.
>Queued unit Construction for Macs, drifters, etc. I know this has been mentioned by others elsewhere.
>"Structure Destroyed!" Stuff is getting attacked all the time, I'd like a louder alert when stuff actually dies other than the top right kill ticker.
Alot of overlap with other people, but here is everything I can think of:
<ul><li>Don't start the game until both sides have someone in the command chair. Then start the game with them remaining in.</li><li>Shift-click to add more units to selection. Ctrl double click to select all on map of type. Double click to select all in current view.</li><li>Double tap on a control group to jump to its location.</li><li>Clear power borders, especially when power is not up. Currently electricity effect is just ok.</li><li>Attempting to build near a cyst should show its current growth extent and countdown to next expansion. New infestation is harder to gauge on when I can place.</li><li>Completely rebindable hotkeys.</li><li>Hotkey to maintain camera focus on a unit.</li><li>Give MACs an aggressive, defensive, guard and passive state. In aggressive they follow anyone that needs welding until done. In defensive they will weld anything nearby, but return to original position when done or target leaves radius. In guard they will follow who you order and weld only them. In passive they do nothing unless ordered.</li><li>Players need alerts when a commander starts research aswell as ends. Keeps them informed.</li><li>Build queues for robotics lab and shade. </li><li>Research queues for everything (although less important).</li><li>Echo queue for the shift. Currently largest reason I don't use it is because I have to maintain my focus for entire duration its in use.</li><li>Egg spawn queue for shift, since you added a cooldown.</li><li>Commander interface needs an egg/IP counter.</li><li>Commander interface needs a 'waiting to spawn' counter next to the above.</li><li>Commander interface structure suggestions need to be scaled back a bit. Suggesting upgrades is nice, but suggesting structure placements just leads to newbies spamming useless things.</li><li>Commander needs to have all chairs/hives listed on GUI, and their current HP.</li><li>Alien commander needs to have clear listing of all their upgrades done, since they do die alot.</li><li>Marine commander needs more notifications that structures are under attack. The alien commander seems clear since marine weapons are noisy and alien structure yell when shot. However as a marine commander you often do not know anything is up. Need a big red shockwave effect on attacked structures please.</li><li>Alien commanders find it hard to find structures or units when covered in infestation and cloaked by a shade. They need a tactical overlay mode, or their own alien vision to see things clearly. I could probably say the same for marine commanders, when particle effects obscure their vision.</li><li>Alien commander still has no health bars. Need to know this at a glance for using bone wall or not.</li><li>Ammo counter on marines to show how much they really need it.</li><li>Fix issue where cannot place RTs/harvesters at end of screen due to camera angle.</li><li>Ability to mark a player as a squad-leader, so other players see him highlighted at all times.</li></ul>
The Commander UI is still really bad.. I keep getting reminded of it every time I remember that I can't jump to the hotkeys or really do anything functionally correct like I can in any other RTS game.
IS there anything coming for it soon? Even just a few bugs fixed would be fantastic.
I was actually tempted to start a mod for this! though i got a little lazy and intimidated by finding all the pieces i wanted to change and how to do it.
Lots of good changes here, i think a good start is some of the basic RTS stuff we are used to:
-shift click to add a unit to a group, ctrl click to remove -double click/tap hotkey to center view on ctrl group -health bars for alien buildings/units. -being able to shift click orders to give multiple orders would be cool, for drifters/arcs/macs etc. -alert icons for marine comm
I feel like there are several issues that arise with the way you can and cannot place things on the map when you are looking at an angle through a transparent wall. -make power nodes easier to click somehow when they have not been built yet. -things being places on ceilings! and things like drifters and arcs getting stuck in ceilings -being unable to place buildings due to looking at the area of the map from the wrong angle -im not sure if it goes with this, but there are some places that are very hard to medpack marines in, ladders for example.
additional ideas: -I am not sure how cool this would be, but maybe commanders should be able to draw(within reason) on the map for other players to see. -as other people mentioned, egg count/spawn timer perhaps -perhaps some kind of small easily viewable progress bars for researches currently underway? -clear viewable way to see which upgrades are done, so the alien (and possibly marine?) commander cant quickly see what they do or dont have
I think the Commander UI needs a complete overhaul. They keep changing it visually.. but functionally.. I don't think it's really improved in a long time. Bugs that have been around since I was first able to run the game in 2011..
There's just inherent problems with the way the game registers actions/clicks, and the stupid angle that you can't adjust. The view is also needlessly complex, and unalterable. It needs to be moddable (maybe it is, but no one has ever done anything significant that I've seen). There needs to be more than 5 control groups, squads need to be easily selectable, marines need more info about themselves, there needs to be an auto-alert option, alerts need to be manageable. In short, its atrocious.
<!--quoteo(post=1978958:date=Sep 17 2012, 11:28 AM:name=Omega_K2)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Omega_K2 @ Sep 17 2012, 11:28 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1978958"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Also for alien: 1) I'd like an option to unbind CRAG/SHADE/SHIFT Hive hotkeys, because of the unresponsiveness of the menu, you may upgrade a hive accidentally when you are trying to do something else<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes this would be nice. I once got serious hate for going shade second by accident.
I second the power borders. Its too damn difficult to tell whats part of which room in some areas of the maps. I've placed a few armories in places that I would have thought had power to find out they were part of another room
ARCs need to be able to target things. Fix the bug, don't just remove the ability to target buildings.
That's retarded, my ARCs are randomly targeting useless things with their precious volleys. Same with Phase Gates, fix the bug.. don't remove the feature.
Comments
I can't believe I have to *click* every fade or onos to see if they're near death or fully equipped to get back in the fight. It screws with my overall planning if everyone has to relay their current status every time we're pushing or skirmishing.
I'd like to echo the "snap to location" when bind a group to 1,2,3, etc. Also, binding and snapping to the F1-F12 keys would be amazing. It's incredible how quickly you realize you need this missing functionality when it's absent in NS2.
Also - please please please PLEASE list the stupid alien upgrades on the side of my screen. If I'm in the middle of micro'ing something and don't notice the "Celerity Lost" message - there's literally no way to check whether I still have the upgrade for my team without trying to find where I placed the upgrade building 20+ minutes ago. A simple list of upgrades would help so much...it's incredibly easier to keep track of your upgrades as marine commander.
(I've even had clan mates in spectator mode tell me whether or not I still have an upgrade because it saves time...and that's just silly).
Commander hotkeys are hardcoded for the time being due to a temporary engine limitation. (the same reason you dont have last inv. available)
This was an old post, and while the minimap still pops up when I push W, I can at least also get the the W tab with it. It used to just pop up the minimap and not switch to the tab at all. So while it's still annoying, it's not impairing anymore at least.
Instead of automation, the comm should simply be able to confirm a request by clicking a button and then the marine will get the health/ammo dropped at the location where he requested it (because applying it directly to the marine would be OP).
And also add the buttons for health and ammo drops to the buttons of commands that you can give a marine. My problem as commander is most of the time that I can't get the stuff out in time because I have to fight with the UI. Maybe I miss the click on the medpack/ammo icon next to the marine in the game view and actually selected the marine. Great, now I can't immediately give him the stuff because I need to switch back to that menu tab first to even be able to use the hotkeys. Hotkeys for ammo and medpack really shouldn't be bound to the menu page I am in. Often I find myself to have a Phase Gate selected for placement when pressing S instead of dropping medpacks.
This is needed even more for a person who jumped into commander after the previous one left. They're at a disadvantage since they have no idea where the previous commander hid the upgrades or even built them in the first place.
<!--quoteo(post=1955895:date=Aug 2 2012, 04:51 AM:name=Mr.Greedy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Mr.Greedy @ Aug 2 2012, 04:51 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1955895"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->In my opinion the GUI need to give much more information about the battlefield. Currently, It feels not like a RTS-Commander.
1.) Upgrades
Alien-players can see which upgrades are online. Khammanders cant. Why? Sometimes, if a evolutionchamber get sniped by marines, the khammanders dont note that until someone says in voice "khammander,we have lost xxx-upgrade". To search and check all evolutionchambers all 3 minutes on minimap is not a solution :>. Just display all researched evolutions on screen.
Upgrades in research needs a progress bar.
2.) Playerlist
I want a permanent list of all marines or alien-players on my screen (for me on right side) with informations about Playername, HP/Armor, Ammo/Energy, Location, Status( like "in fight" "following order" "respawning" etc. ), Weapon/Lifeform, Equipment/Evolutions, an icon if the player says something in voice(or the playerbar is highlighting), an icon if a player yells for "need ammo/medpack/order".
This list can be sorted. For example : press and hold STRG, choose Player 1,4,5 and press "1". They are now optical separated from other players in the list. And there is now a shortcut on "1" to select all this players and a shortcut-button on screen near those players in list .
The same List for all buildings(some frequently buildings like cysts are combined) with extra informations like "no Energy/Cystlink"(maybe higlighted in red colour) "is upgrading/evolving" etc.. This buildinglist is invisible until u are pressing a specifiec button(because thats to much on screen ).
3.) Minimap
New Colors for minimap is badly needed. I dont know why a cyst, when its fresh builded, glows RED on the minimap. Red indicates danger/damage.
Special buildings need different STRONGER colors. Letz say for example all Whips are deep blue, all Harvesters are White, all evolutionchambers are yellow etc.
The infestation indicates the alien-territory. Currently its yellow on yellow :/ . Yellow for infestation is fine. The minimap backgroundcolor needs a neutral color like grey for both commanders! Marine buildings create a own territorycircle on the minimap in blue.
Again: Alien-territory = yellow , Marine-Territory = blue, neutral territory = grey.
Buildings with no energy/cystlinks must be marked on minimap. Permanent changing the color between yellow-grey(aliens) or blue-grey(marines) until the territory is retaken(or lost)
Thats it. Sry for my bad english :/ .
Edit:
The Commander can give Medpacks, Ammo, nanoshield by just selecting the equipment and then clicking the marine on playerlist. Supporting marines will work much faster now and the accuracy is 100 %(no more faildrops). Maybe thats OP i dunno . Need to be prove<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The current GUI is still a shame. I dont see any improvements compared to NS1.
The one piece of feedback I really care about:
>This monochrome color palette is awful. I know, its cute and themed. But its not how we interact with any interface in real life. The button pad at the gas station has a green confirm and a red cancel button for crying out loud. Can the important alerts please be RED and the less important alerts be yellow, etc?
Some other thoughts:
>This is a big break from RTS convention but I'd swap the minimap and structure menu. Being right handed that makes more sense.
>Queued unit Construction for Macs, drifters, etc. I know this has been mentioned by others elsewhere.
>"Structure Destroyed!" Stuff is getting attacked all the time, I'd like a louder alert when stuff actually dies other than the top right kill ticker.
<ul><li>Don't start the game until both sides have someone in the command chair. Then start the game with them remaining in.</li><li>Shift-click to add more units to selection. Ctrl double click to select all on map of type. Double click to select all in current view.</li><li>Double tap on a control group to jump to its location.</li><li>Clear power borders, especially when power is not up. Currently electricity effect is just ok.</li><li>Attempting to build near a cyst should show its current growth extent and countdown to next expansion. New infestation is harder to gauge on when I can place.</li><li>Completely rebindable hotkeys.</li><li>Hotkey to maintain camera focus on a unit.</li><li>Give MACs an aggressive, defensive, guard and passive state. In aggressive they follow anyone that needs welding until done. In defensive they will weld anything nearby, but return to original position when done or target leaves radius. In guard they will follow who you order and weld only them. In passive they do nothing unless ordered.</li><li>Players need alerts when a commander starts research aswell as ends. Keeps them informed.</li><li>Build queues for robotics lab and shade. </li><li>Research queues for everything (although less important).</li><li>Echo queue for the shift. Currently largest reason I don't use it is because I have to maintain my focus for entire duration its in use.</li><li>Egg spawn queue for shift, since you added a cooldown.</li><li>Commander interface needs an egg/IP counter.</li><li>Commander interface needs a 'waiting to spawn' counter next to the above.</li><li>Commander interface structure suggestions need to be scaled back a bit. Suggesting upgrades is nice, but suggesting structure placements just leads to newbies spamming useless things.</li><li>Commander needs to have all chairs/hives listed on GUI, and their current HP.</li><li>Alien commander needs to have clear listing of all their upgrades done, since they do die alot.</li><li>Marine commander needs more notifications that structures are under attack. The alien commander seems clear since marine weapons are noisy and alien structure yell when shot. However as a marine commander you often do not know anything is up. Need a big red shockwave effect on attacked structures please.</li><li>Alien commanders find it hard to find structures or units when covered in infestation and cloaked by a shade. They need a tactical overlay mode, or their own alien vision to see things clearly. I could probably say the same for marine commanders, when particle effects obscure their vision.</li><li>Alien commander still has no health bars. Need to know this at a glance for using bone wall or not.</li><li>Ammo counter on marines to show how much they really need it.</li><li>Fix issue where cannot place RTs/harvesters at end of screen due to camera angle.</li><li>Ability to mark a player as a squad-leader, so other players see him highlighted at all times.</li></ul>
Hopefully thats all of them haha.
IS there anything coming for it soon? Even just a few bugs fixed would be fantastic.
Lots of good changes here, i think a good start is some of the basic RTS stuff we are used to:
-shift click to add a unit to a group, ctrl click to remove
-double click/tap hotkey to center view on ctrl group
-health bars for alien buildings/units.
-being able to shift click orders to give multiple orders would be cool, for drifters/arcs/macs etc.
-alert icons for marine comm
I feel like there are several issues that arise with the way you can and cannot place things on the map when you are looking at an angle through a transparent wall.
-make power nodes easier to click somehow when they have not been built yet.
-things being places on ceilings! and things like drifters and arcs getting stuck in ceilings
-being unable to place buildings due to looking at the area of the map from the wrong angle
-im not sure if it goes with this, but there are some places that are very hard to medpack marines in, ladders for example.
additional ideas:
-I am not sure how cool this would be, but maybe commanders should be able to draw(within reason) on the map for other players to see.
-as other people mentioned, egg count/spawn timer perhaps
-perhaps some kind of small easily viewable progress bars for researches currently underway?
-clear viewable way to see which upgrades are done, so the alien (and possibly marine?) commander cant quickly see what they do or dont have
1) I'd like an option to unbind CRAG/SHADE/SHIFT Hive hotkeys, because of the unresponsiveness of the menu, you may upgrade a hive accidentally when you are trying to do something else<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes this would be nice. I once got serious hate for going shade second by accident.
That's retarded, my ARCs are randomly targeting useless things with their precious volleys.
Same with Phase Gates, fix the bug.. don't remove the feature.