26 replies to this topic

[Jman5]

Target Friendly option is a common feature in Sci-fi simulators and would be a welcome addition to MWO. What I hope to do here is list reasons why it would be a useful feature and worth spending time developing.

1. Target Friendly allows you to know the exact state of your allies in the battlefield. the Percent number is vague and often misleading. If I'm 100% healthy, but I'm red cored on my cockpit, I'm nearly at death's door. However, my number doesn't show that. More common you find your allies with a high percentage but red cored on your CT or side torsos. It also lets me know if they even have any weapons left.

2. Knowing what your team has equipped is important in a team-based game. Why is it that I know more about what my enemy has equipped than what my own teammates have? Are they long range, are they short range? Knowing that you have a bunch of LRM boats would be helpful to know before the fighting breaks out. It would help you formulate a plan at the start.

3. It takes no extra space on the HUD. One argument against this feature is that it would add uncessary clutter on the screen. However as you can see with the screenshot, it would replace the enemy target portion of the UI. So players would have two hotkeys: R to target enemy and maybe E for friendly target. When they hit E, the enemy they had targeted would be deselected and it would target a friendly instead. Not too hard and no loss of HUD space.

Alright that's all I can think of. I see zero downside to adding this feature and several upsides. Remember, this is a team based game where information is paramount. We should be able to know the state of our team without having to jump through hoops or be forced to guesstimate some vague percent.


(Just pretend the text is green as well. My MS paint skills weren't up to the task.)

Edited by Jman5, 25 November 2013 - 03:30 PM.

[Sandpit]

yea it would be nice

[Joseph Mallan]

Target friendly is not a necessity if we could just have the info by putting our ret over him/her. here is no other good reason to be able to have target lock on friendlies.

[Don Ino]

This feature was always available in old MW's, and can provide invaluable info about your team that you'd otherwise be unbeknownst to.

Joseph Mallan, on 25 November 2013 - 11:28 AM, said:

(t)here is no other good reason to be able to have target lock on friendlies.

You couldn't be more wrong. Being able to see the condition of friendly's allows the drop commander (in 12mans), or solo players in PUG matches, to see how each member of his team is doing without having to ask. It would also allow you to see which components a mate has left, and how useful they are and at what range, at that point in the match. You wouldn't start a push with your cored mates in the front would you? I didn't think so. And this feature would allow the DC (or other PUG'z) to make tactically sound decisions regarding formation quickly and without having to waste time by asking which mates are healthy and which are not.

And to further Jman's point, this feature would be extremely easy to introduce. Like every other MechWarrior, you can only have one target. So targeting a friendly would replace the targeting info of your current target, with that of a friendly. It seems to simple to cause a fuss.

[Gereinath Hunter]

"Target Object Under Reticule" was how you used to target friendly units in previous interations of Mechwarrior, though there were also options for "target nearest friendly" "target next friendly" as well as the same options for enemies. The tactical use of being able to get the status/info of your teammates on the fly is pretty huge; even over voice it takes longer to get that sort of information than it does to just press Q and repeatedly cycle through teammates.

This could also make way for the introduction of things like IFF Jammers. One of the major missing components of MWO is the sort of sensors/targeting/information warfrare of the genre. The most prominent thing we have are the dynamics between ECM and BAP, and (if you really want to stretch it) powering down your mech. I get the feeling PGI are more interested in keeping MWO dumbed down for new players than exploring those mechanics in any meaningful depth, but basic targetting functions for selecting friendlies would be a good step in the right direction.

-Grey

[Thor Grimm]

Team targeting would be very useful, as would the ability to target that team members target. Target my target could easily be incorperated into modules or as a function of the command module.

[990Dreams]

I agree as long as your cannot lock missiles on them (that would just be annoying)

[Jman5]

DavidHurricane, on 25 November 2013 - 03:02 PM, said:

I agree as long as your cannot lock missiles on them (that would just be annoying)

You know I thought about this and really the risk is no different than what we have already. You can slam a friendly with an AC/20 or a Large Laser. You can swipe them with a cloud of SRM 6s.

In fact, you could argue that a lock-on mechanic would be beneficial because it would allow you to duel your buddies without having to find 24 people to drop with.

[990Dreams]

Jman5, on 25 November 2013 - 03:17 PM, said:

In fact, you could argue that a lock-on mechanic would be beneficial because it would allow you to duel your buddies without having to find 24 people to drop with.

That is intentionally TKing. Accidentally AC/20ing and/or someone stepping in front of your shot is okay, but intentional TKs are bannable offenses.

[Jarl Dane]

I agree!!!!!!!!!!!!

Target Friendly Option!!

Also if it allows people to duel each other on their team, thats cool too. scraaap you whoever gets all hurt over that possibility. The only reason it happens is because PGI hasn't given us a private match.

Therefore it is PGI's fault, not the players.

Edited by Mech The Dane, 25 November 2013 - 03:25 PM.

[Antasius]

If a targeted 'lock on' to a friendly disabled your ability to fire - I would call that a great way to lessen friendly fire deaths. accidental, or otherwise.

[Henry Morgan]

Joseph Mallan, on 25 November 2013 - 11:28 AM, said:

Target friendly is not a necessity if we could just have the info by putting our ret over him/her. here is no other good reason to be able to have target lock on friendlies.

I like the idea of the data, just not the target lock portion of it. As others stated, it will be open to TK abuse. And, now it's more targets to cycle through on the battlefield.

If they could do something like the present Tab key and the scoreboard layout, that might be better. Except make it for just the players team, with the appropriate data located under each of the players. Single key activation, no TK, and not going to interfere with enemy targeting.

[Jman5]

Henry Morgan, on 25 November 2013 - 03:26 PM, said:

I like the idea of the data, just not the target lock portion of it. As others stated, it will be open to TK abuse. And, now it's more targets to cycle through on the battlefield.

If they could do something like the present Tab key and the scoreboard layout, that might be better. Except make it for just the players team, with the appropriate data located under each of the players. Single key activation, no TK, and not going to interfere with enemy targeting.

I don't feel too strongly about lock-on or not lock-on ability. development time is my main concern here. If the devs have to jump through hoops to disable lock-on then I say leave it on. Again the other weapons can TK just as well. I don't know why people think Streaks and LRMs would create some sort of TKing paradise.

As far as cycling issues, that would be a problem if there was only one hotkey to cycle through both enemy and ally alike. My proposal was to create a second hotkey. So R is target enemy and E is target friendlies. No mistakes or tedious cycling.

[Motroid]

I think that might be just what they fear: Lances performing their own "Trial of whatever" ruining everybody elses game.

[DrDre]

I agree that targeting friendlies would be a useful addition.. I want to know what my mates are carrying and where their damage is.

[Drunk Canuck]

I am pretty sure MW3 had Target Friendly, don't see why we shouldn't now.

[Gereinath Hunter]

Motroid, on 25 November 2013 - 03:44 PM, said:

I think that might be just what they fear: Lances performing their own "Trial of whatever" ruining everybody elses game.

If this were the case they could just as easily make training mode something you could enter with a group. Which is another feature that would be exceptionally useful, especially for we who lead units.

-Grey

[XtremWarrior]

I made a topic with a poll about that not so long ago.
(http://mwomercs.com/...60#entry2882960)

If you're scared about targeting a friend in the heat of battle, then do what every Mechwarrior games did:
just put a different key for friends or foes targeting. Then you're sure to only target enemies with "r", and only friends with "t" (for exemple).
I also think those informations are really crucials for better team management, mutual protection on the field, etc.

[Daniel Travieso]

Agreed, would be useful for teamwork.

Should not enable missile lock tho.

[Jman5]

XtremWarrior, on 26 November 2013 - 12:02 AM, said:

I made a topic with a poll about that not so long ago.
(http://mwomercs.com/...60#entry2882960)

If you're scared about targeting a friend in the heat of battle, then do what every Mechwarrior games did:
just put a different key for friends or foes targeting. Then you're sure to only target enemies with "r", and only friends with "t" (for exemple).
I also think those informations are really crucials for better team management, mutual protection on the field, etc.

Yeah, It certainly isn't an original idea. We just need to keep the pressure up this time because it's a feature that's worth doing and it should be a manageable project on their end.