Marine Squad System
PimpToad
Join Date: 2012-11-02 Member: 166005Members
Join Date: 2012-11-02 Member: 166005Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Yet another random idea...</div>So I've been trying to get a feel for playing marine commander and it struck me odd how difficult it is to organize your players. I'm a big fan of ordering all-in pushes into a Hive, but sometimes I want to keep 1-2 players to head elsewhere while the main assault force pushes out. Or perhaps have my marines push out early game in different directions with even numbers. Now what usually happens is an unorganized mess where all the players head in one direction, especially when the commander tells people to phase through.
It's pretty frustrating trying to accomplish this and I feel that it can be solved with a squad system of some sort. My idea so far is to either have the commander manually assign the squads via a drop down menu from the scoreboard or have the players pick a squad from a menu that will appear right after the round starts/joining marines. It should be mandatory for a marine to belong in a squad as to make issuing orders a more streamlined experience.
I would rather issue Squad A an attack order to a RT than having to manually pronounce player names. Should make organizing marines an easier experience for the commander. Not sure if aliens should have a similar feature, but marines definitely should.
It's pretty frustrating trying to accomplish this and I feel that it can be solved with a squad system of some sort. My idea so far is to either have the commander manually assign the squads via a drop down menu from the scoreboard or have the players pick a squad from a menu that will appear right after the round starts/joining marines. It should be mandatory for a marine to belong in a squad as to make issuing orders a more streamlined experience.
I would rather issue Squad A an attack order to a RT than having to manually pronounce player names. Should make organizing marines an easier experience for the commander. Not sure if aliens should have a similar feature, but marines definitely should.
Comments
I tried commanding the other day for a few games. In a pub environment, the only real coordination I was able to pull off was just mass all-ins on hives.
I'd like to even take this one step further. Allow the commander to issue (or even type in custom) squad orders that are constantly displayed on the marine's HUD. For example, at the top, it could read:
Squad Orders: Defend the ARC train leaving from East Wing
or
Squad Orders: Attack Bar Extractor
That way when a new player joins and is auto-placed(required) to join a squad they can instantly see what they need to do, if they want to be a team player.
If marines belong into a team that dedicated to one task then its easier to realize no one else will fill their shoes if they are gone.
Of course there will be marines who will think that limits their fredom how they want to play. So not every commander has to apply a squad system. I think competitive players would welcome a marine squad system. Then again why not have the same on the alien team. :D
Squad Orders: Defend the ARC train leaving from East Wing
or
Squad Orders: Attack Bar Extractor
That way when a new player joins and is auto-placed(required) to join a squad they can instantly see what they need to do, if they want to be a team player.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah being able to assign custom orders would be a blessing and allow commanders with no mics to be more effective.
<!--quoteo(post=2054770:date=Jan 2 2013, 11:57 AM:name=nikodimus86)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (nikodimus86 @ Jan 2 2013, 11:57 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2054770"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Of course there will be marines who will think that limits their fredom how they want to play. So not every commander has to apply a squad system. I think competitive players would welcome a marine squad system. Then again why not have the same on the alien team. :D<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well I say mandatory to join, but that does not mean individual squad members have to follow your orders at all. They are always free to do their own thing, but it would be ill advised to do so as they won't be as helpful to the team. This system is also more for pub players than competitive players as comp players are already organized.
As for the alien team having the same...I'm conflicted. I think in terms of design philosophy, aliens are supposed to be more autonomous than their marine counterparts. I'm not against implementing a similar design for aliens, but it should be marines for now and we'll take it from there. It also helps that aliens take less coordination to play than marines.
Needless to say I like the idea.
Dont think the suggestion is random or new though and I believe at some point during Beta something along these lines was tried and for some (good?) reason rejected but hey.
An improved GUI where you can organize squads and every player in the team can see them listed on the screen edge or something would be great. The current spectator view shows this already and that code can probably be used for this.
- The comm would have the view of the full list of players organized by squads and also the players not in squads. A drag and drop system that allows comms to re arrange those squads and issue orders selecting each squad to go with it etc etc.
- Team members would only see their own squad members listed on screen. To see the rest of squads they could press "tab" as usual, only difference being that the player list in the tab screen will now show their team own organized by squads.
- Tweak to the map and minimap to go with the above, so each squad is highlighted slightly differently to be able to recognize at a glance where each squad member is. Players not assigned to a squad would be left as is. Can be colour coded or marker shape coded, i.e. a squad member map will show his/her own squad members always in green and other squads coded in other colours etc.
- Ability for the comm to assign and re assign squads at any time by the usual drag & drop box on screen (or on minimap) and then hitting CTRL + X, like for any RTS game out there. Any such squad re arrangement would have to trigger an update of the above team member lists (wether on screen or at the Tab window). Since squad members can and probably will be changing squad quite often according to the Comm´s needs the actual squad number they are in would have to be clearly highlighted in their screen, specifically blinking or similar when changed.
- Voice chat highlight could then be drawn from the new squad player list "a la" mumble etc.
Again, I believe all this or similar have already been considered by devs, and discarded for some reason.
it was dynamic because people rarely stuck together. E.g. one dies, he heads off into a diffrent direction etc.
Squads work in games like BF, Planetside because there is Squadspawn, squadtalk, spawnpoint selection, medics for revival etc.
it was dynamic because people rarely stuck together. E.g. one dies, he heads off into a diffrent direction etc.
Squads work in games like BF, Planetside because there is Squadspawn, squadtalk, spawnpoint selection, medics for revival etc.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes, the dynamics of the actual play are key and will make squads change constantly. But that is why I think that it can be easily managed by the comm drag&drop box to select and reselect teams as often as he/she think appropriate. As long as the proper GUI highlights and squad player names list are implemented it shouldnt be too difficult for the comm and players to follow.