11 replies to this topic

[Mech of War]

Hello, Piranha Games! I hope you're reading this:

Looks like mechwarriors need a 'quick message' system between allies. I mean something like a bunch of hotkeys for USER-PREDEFINED COMMANDS/PHRASES.

It would be cool for teammates or at least a lance-mates to have an opportunity to communicate using a some kind of a 'hotkey system' that have a user defined commands or at least a dev's pre-defined phrases like "roger","nope","SOS","attack my target", "suppressive fire" and so on...

For example, check out the games like World of Tanks which have a solid 'quick commands' background that help players to understand and support each others' actions. Such system would be really helpful for collaboration of teams at random battles and future Community Warefare.

Players, what do you think of it?

Edited by Mech of War, 01 October 2013 - 07:08 PM.

[Scratchspider]

I second this idea. I play War Thunder in addition to MWO and I gotta say their quick command system is excellent. It's only 10 commands, but it sure beats typing when you're in the middle of some intense combat and is surprisingly useful.

[Elder Thorn]

we allready asked for this in closed beta.
Forget it!

[WM Wraith]

The lack of some type of communication (voice would be best, keystroke menu driven like many other games which are team based - quick keys for quick commands which are repeated over and over, but critical to success or failure in a match) is the make or break factor I think for this game to push past its current state.

Even with CW and other new additions coming in future weeks and months, communications of some type other than how I am right now typing this out on my keyboard seem to be the one element that is crucial to getting past the PUG state we are currently in.

I do know some players work around this with Team Speak, but the mass of most play PUG matches. I think we can admit the sensibility a simple menu driven keystroke based communication and command element would bring to battles. Just today I have read about mechs shooting their team in the back to tell them they are being flanked or hit from behind. I have seen matches where communication could not occur in a fight to take the time to type out a sentence (since you would be standing still and an easy target), where one or two keystroke commands or key bindings to simply say to the team "left flank" would have made the difference before an entire team was wiped out.

I can recommend some games that have examples of this if the Dev team needs a point in the right direction.

Please, if any mod or dev is reading this thread, look in to this. If it is not on the development table...it should be.

Scratchspider, on 01 October 2013 - 07:21 PM, said:

I second this idea. I play War Thunder in addition to MWO and I gotta say their quick command system is excellent. It's only 10 commands, but it sure beats typing when you're in the middle of some intense combat and is surprisingly useful.

You can't type in battle - due to the restrictions of the key input setup of the game you would be standing still, an easy target, and might as well be shutdown. Because of this, little to no communication takes place once a battle has been engaged in PUG matches.

Elder Thorn, on 01 October 2013 - 08:46 PM, said:

we allready asked for this in closed beta.
Forget it!

Does not mean it should not be asked for again.

[Elder Thorn]

CyBerWraith, on 01 October 2013 - 08:50 PM, said:

Does not mean it should not be asked for again.

completly true and i wasn't saying that it shouldn't be asked again. I just don't think it will happen and i don't mean that i don't want to be proven wrong...

[SirSlaughter]

That's not a patch feedback. It should be moved to suggestions.

Besides it's a good idea

Edited by SirSlaughter, 02 October 2013 - 12:52 AM.

[POWR]

They mentioned it as an upcoming feature in one of their many posts. When? Who knows.

[Nevimir]

We need something like this and a way to ping on the map grids.

[Blackfang]

This kind of thing is already in development, the devs have stated they're aware a quick command feature would be a massive boon to the game.

[DOMDOM]

You woud think for a team based game where the focus is quite literally on team tactics and strategy that they would have priortized communications. It's really unforgiveable and the contributing factor to me giving this a 3 on Metacritic and not recommending it to any of my friends. We aren't talking about breaking new ground here. Ingame VOIP has been around forever. I think they are afraid of incurring the associated costs in hardware/bandwidth. I don't know PGI's financials but if they aren't pulling enough cash to implement a VOIP solution they should just close their doors and sell the IP.

[Scratchspider]

CyBerWraith, on 01 October 2013 - 08:50 PM, said:

You can't type in battle - due to the restrictions of the key input setup of the game you would be standing still, an easy target, and might as well be shutdown. Because of this, little to no communication takes place once a battle has been engaged in PUG matches.

I never said you can. I said the quick command system beats typing in battle.
Well, you can type in battle but you're stuck moving in the same direction til you hit enter, unless you turn throttle decay on but who does that? Point is, if we can't have VOIP, at the very least we should have some quick commands.

Blackfang, on 02 October 2013 - 03:49 AM, said:

This kind of thing is already in development, the devs have stated they're aware a quick command feature would be a massive boon to the game.

Do you remember when they said this? One would think PGI would have released this by the end of beta, but I guess I can't really be surprised.

[LastPaladin]

At very minimum, it would be nice to have a hotkey that sends a message "XXX requests help in map grid D3". A lot of other stuff you could probably find a moment to type out, but when you turn a corner and meet 4 enemy mechs, you are pretty screwed without voicechat.