Haven't Seen This Said
DiscoZombie
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18951Members
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18951Members
<div class="IPBDescription">not in so many words, anyway</div> I was playin' a random single player game of Age of Empires 2, and since i'm a newb at it, I put 1 computer player on my team while the rest of the computer players were free-for-all. It got me thinking, 2 teammates in an RTS game don't have much of an actual game advantage, ignorning max unit count anyway... they each start with a couple buildings, a couple worker type units, that's it. The real advantage is that 2 brains are better than one. Yeah, it's obvious, and yeah, parts of it have been said before, but I've never really seen it spelled out plainly in these forums... to put it in one sentence: one commander cannot possibly do the thinking of an entire team of aliens. I've read that said before, but playing an RTS really put it in perspective for me. Especially because I suck at most real-time strategy games =P the aliens can have some people on defense, some on offense, and any individual player can look at the minimap to see where he or she is needed, to put up structures, to defend structures, to attack, etc. It would be like teammates in an RTS deciding one person will be on D and the other on O, or one will head north and the other west... much less to think about per person. The marines know, like, nothing individually -- the one com has to manage everything -- keeping on top of D and O at the same time, as well as things an RTS player doesn't have to deal with, like getting his units to listen to him. Feh. This post sounded more original when it was in my head, but I guess there's no harm in sharing what was on my mind.
Comments
However, it is indeed an interesting and thought provoking proposition... maybe one for the playtesters to experiment with in a future release? I certainly would like to see it at least attempted, if nothing more than to hear, "Ok, we tried it, and it doesn't work". It may turn out to be a worthwhile idea.
If there was to be dual or multi-comm'ing, I suggest that it would only be permitted if the Primary Comm gave "permission" to a certain player to have the option to hop in any extra CCs out there. Not sure how codeable that is though... <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
Remember the little phrase 'Too many chiefs, not enough indians.'
bingo, I have been thinking this for a while, but haven't said anything. I think the implementation of a sergeant position would be great. We all know at least a little about the military. Usually the officers are sitting back and directing, but the sergeants are leading through the thick of it. Before anyone says "you don't need to implement code to do this, you can just tell people to follow you," I'd like to point out that it could might be a little more interesting than that. I don't know how you'd implement it, but it would be useful to be able to have 1 guy besides the comm pull up his macromap and give waypoints and drop health and ammo.
edit: Hmmm, as I'm thinking, maybe I don't agree, though I think some sort of implementation of a field segreant position could have it's uses, especially on larger pub games.
I think it's a good idea.
THink about America's Army (a kick **** game). Both sides have the overall commander, and there are two squads and each has its own leader. Having two comms could mean two individual squads each with different objectives, like for example, one squad for securing RT's, the other for destroying the enemies. Sure this can be done now if only for cooperation, but we all know it wouldn't happen. Bah.
The commander should ALWAYS be in charge of building, research, dropping equipment and giving waypoints. These are basic commander functions. If this was all the commander had to concentrate on, I would comm a lot more <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
As it is, the commander also has to concentrate on supplying his squads (medpacks and ammo), doing scanner sweeps, and watching over outposts that are under attack; these are all time consuming and, (dare i say it) annoying.
Imo, the marines should have some way of performing at least one of these tasks themselves; either they get a different coloured waypoint to buildings under attack automatically (yes, I can see problems already), they get some way to auto-heal/ammo themselves (perhaps a commander tickbox which automatically gives ammo or health to those who request it [useful for clan mode where the comm can trust the team not to abuse it]).
That or a marine-mounted scanner sweep. I'm in favour of this one, as it wouldn't remove the usefulness of commander scanner sweeps. A marine-portable scanner (maybe used as a "weapon" that can recharge itself over time) would only really be useful for finding cloaked aliens, which is EXACTLY when you don't have time to ask the commander to scan for you <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Methinks a 5 res "Scanner gun" could work out, but alas, methinks tis too radical of a change to be considered <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
I don't know where I was going with this [/ramble]
Wrong and wrong.
O-1 through O-3 officers (2nd LT, 1st LT, Captain in Marines) are in what are deemed <i>leadership</i> positions where they are out <i>leading</i> the men. Every so often you'll find O-4 out there, but usually Majors are the entry-level <i>Command</i> position, and it then goes to Lt. Col, Col, Brig. Gen, Maj. Gen, Lt. Gen, and General. There are exceptions to these generalizations, mostly found in the flight MOSs, as you'll have an O-4, -5, or -6 in the lead of a squadron or air group that will fly with his men (and knowing aviators, every chance he gets <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->) more than most mid-range command officers go in the field with theirs.
Sergeants are there to help smooth the communication and interaction between commissioned officers and enlisted men. Sergeants are usually closer to "career" marines than other enlisted men, but there are five distinct sergeant ranks (including sergeants major) with distinct duties when it comes to squad, platoon, company, regiment, brigade, battalion and corps specifics, so just lumping them together is inaccurate in itself.
Sorry bout the level of detail, but there's always a level of accuracy that should be maintained.
There you can see marines with switching comms most times, the team comunicates, everybody knows were everyone else is, discusses what to do, you hear sentenses like "someone go comm to build here", "should we build here or go there?" instead of complaints, you drop yourself a welder or whatever, rarely someone comms longer than 25 minutes because its one person less fighting, when marines have less than 15 resources you most times see the command chair empty.
I'm not saying that it wouldn't work, but you'd almost need a clan-type environment to pull it off.