Power node under attack notifcation

Xarius

<div class="IPBDescription">For the love of god implement one already</div>The amount of games marine lose due to the lack of one is HUGE, it's about time UWE fixes it. They really have no excuse for leaving it in the current state for so long, it's something we've been asking for since beta. It's all over the 'google moderator' too, with reason, yet somehow UWE continues neglecting it.

xen32

I'm pretty sure there is a huge message on the screen saying X ROOM POWER NODE UNDER ATTACK.

ZeCruiser

For the players there is. Sometimes. As comm I've so far almost never been notified. I think there was such a time during the beta, but then the notification stopped appearing. It really is disappointing to lose a game that was going so well to just two gorges with bilebomb. Or two skulks rushing the powernode, also popular.

Cat-Poker

As far as I know, there is a bug that sometimes makes it so that the UI does not inform the comm that the power in the starting Marine base is under attack.

Omar - The Wire

<!--quoteo(post=2050343:date=Dec 23 2012, 11:52 AM:name=Cat-Poker)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Cat-Poker @ Dec 23 2012, 11:52 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2050343"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->As far as I know, there is a bug that sometimes makes it so that the UI does not inform the comm that the power in the starting Marine base is under attack.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's not just the power, it's..... everything. Can have entire bases wiped out and not realize it during a heavy push. Part of that is comms fault, admittedly, but there is some issue when there is more than one alert going on they don't show them.

Stardog

Agree to an extent, but it would be too easy for 5 marines to phase there. If they had someone defending it, it wouldn't be an issue.

If there's an obs, it's on the map for all to see. If they don't react then it's their fault.

elodea

<!--quoteo(post=2050343:date=Dec 24 2012, 06:52 AM:name=Cat-Poker)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Cat-Poker @ Dec 24 2012, 06:52 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2050343"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->As far as I know, there is a bug that sometimes makes it so that the UI does not inform the comm that the power in the starting Marine base is under attack.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I think there is actually just a long internal cooldown delay between notifications, possibly to preserve the aesthetic integrity of the banners by preventing alert spammage. Like, if a banner event recently happened (e.g. infantry portal under attack, or random power node down on other side of map) within the last 10 seconds or something, then all damage done to another powernode won't trigger an alert.

Champlo0

After the big update that is supposed to be early next year we'll see how they're going to handle commander alerts. There really needs to be different levels of alerts.

Mestaritonttu

I've observed times when there has been no alert whatsoever EVEN WITH zero alerts mapwide. Also just now in a game I commed, I noticed a 4 second delay before the "structure is under attack" popped. And on top of that, even if the alert does come, IT'S TOO DAMN SMALL. The increase in difficulty just because things are hard to see from the interface is ridiculous.

In hopes of big, bright red flashes.

sharnrock

I think part of the reason was, they were getting complaints that there were too many notifications and it became annoying as comm.

Maybe an alert queue on the side with a series of alerts all together and all the room names. Just a list basically. Then you could click the notifications to get rid of them if they don't time out due to the thing being destroyed.

SquishpokePOOPFACE

<!--quoteo(post=2050412:date=Dec 23 2012, 03:50 PM:name=sharnrock)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (sharnrock @ Dec 23 2012, 03:50 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2050412"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Maybe an alert queue on the side with a series of alerts all together and all the room names. Just a list basically. Then you could click the notifications to get rid of them if they don't time out due to the thing being destroyed.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I like this idea! A grocery list, pretty much.

Mavick

This needs to be fixed ASAP. I hadn't really noticed it before, but there definitely seems to be an issue now with teamwide alerts on the marine spawn.

NousWanderer

I've seen so many competent, winning marine teams lose in a matter of seconds due to power node ambushes. The node dynamic is the single most dramatic table-turner in the game (which is why I think CCs should offer redundant power for everything except extractors and lights, and why power node armor should be dropped to 75% of the current total everywhere else).

Alerts of this kind need to not only be immediate, but they need to be organized, consistent and obvious as well. I suggest an alerts queue off to the side. Banner alerts will slide over to the queue in chronological order (new alerts will push the others down) after flashing across the screen. If at all possible, users should be given some kind of alert editor in multiplayer options so as to customize which alerts show up in the queue, whether these alerts flash, whether they're assigned a particular color, etc.

Namm

Good ideas. Here's my take: Split it into important alerts (such as Marine requesting Medpack, Power Node under attack) and not so important alerts (notices, for instance Marine reaching waypoint, structure built, MAC produced) and keep the 5 or 10 most recent alerts and notices in a history. Make it possible for the comm to cycle through the alerts with the spacebar and the notices with ALT + space. With CTRL + space the alert/notice history expands into columns with clickable icons (or selectable with space + 0-9 and ALT + space + 0-9). An alert/notice is either pushed out of the history or disappear when focused on.

I'm not completely sure how it works rights now, but if a Marine is requesting Medpacks and doesn't receive one, can he just spam the comm with new alerts? There should be a cool-down period.