31 replies to this topic

[Spleenslitta]

Right now a commander and his entire team usually have no idea what kind of capabilities their teammates mechs have unless they are on Teamspeak with them.
Even then it probably becomes tiresome to keep track of all the weapons and to keep asking them about their loadouts.

But what if we gave the players the ability to choose some symbols that are displayed alongside their name and mechname everytime they drop in a mech?

For example i make a Jenner 7D with 125Kph speed, 3x SL's, 1 ER LL and JJ's.
I choose the symbols that state i got longrange and shortrange weapons.
The speed of my mech and the symbol for the JJ's are added automaticly.
Or maybe all of the weapon symbols automaticly added when the configuration is done in the Mechlab.

Now even if a teammate has never meet me before he instantly knows by taking a brief look at the symbols beside my name what my mech is capable of.


But someone might say: I don't want someone who might be my opponent in the next battle to know my mechs capabilities.
Answer: Well then how about an option in the Mechlab that enables you to display only the info we have currently?
Or maybe you can adjust it so that only your friends know. Or only the commander....your imagination is the limit.

But what if i have a mech with a mix of all weaponranges and JJ's/ECM/who knows what else?
Displaying all those symbols would take up a lot of space.
Answer: A symbol indicating multiranged could be displayed instead of short, medium and longrange symbols.

Furthermore the prebattle chat window could be enlarged so more information about the whole team is better displayed since it no longer has to display the enviroment we are in.
As the strawberry on top of the cake we could get a map where the commander can put up orders before the battle starts.



One thing i would like to be added is for the Commander to get the authority to shift teammembers into different lances.

How would this work? And doesn't this make it possible for someone mischievous to take command and then constantly change the roster?
Answer: He can only shift teammembers about before battlestart.
Even if a mischievous imp shows up he can't do much damage since in comparison to the way things are currently since it's all random now.

But when we drop and start waiting for the battle to start the mechs are already positioned.
Wouldn't it break immersion if the my mech suddenly teleported to another spot to fill the out another lance because my commander made a change in the teamroster?
Answer: What if the mechs are not positioned until 3-5 seconds before the battle starts?
Then it wouldn't break immersion and the commander can shift teammembers about till the lances are better organised to perform his plan.



But wouldn't this make the prebattle phase longer?
Answer:Not necessarilly. We could still get the same amount of time we currently have so the Commander has to work so fast his fingers become a blur.
The faster he works at organising his lances the more time he has to give them their orders while everyone has the map in front of them.

This should make Commanders more capable of drawing up more complex plans while everyones attention is on the prebattle screen.
PuG commanders has most definitivly more to gain from this than the corp commanders since things are horrible for them now.



One thing i would like to be added.
Give the Commander/lance leaders the ambush symbol. Right now they have Attack, Defend, Flank right/left, Move, Hold.
But he has nothing that says: Stay hidden here till i say so or an enemy wanders into the ambushzone.


An important thing to know is that i have no personal stakes in this.
I have only been in command twice over all my years of gaming and that was a different game entirely.
Those two times was more than enough to traumatise me because nobody paid any attention to what i was saying.
I'm just a slightly uncommon grunt light pilot who wants to be given clear orders during battle.

If you want to call me a fool or something similar please do so, but make certain to explain why you believe my suggestions are bad with constructive posts.
Pardon my choice of fattening the answer words in my posts and the occasional long spaces between sections.
I just wanted to make this textwall easier to navigate and read.

Edited by Spleenslitta, 07 March 2014 - 11:08 AM.

[Spleenslitta]

Aw...come on. This is actually important in my plans to rule....ahem....This is important to raise our teammwork in the game.

[SilverStarDragon]

Something along with seeing the map at the start is to show the players which side they are dropping on, that way your elaborate plan doesn't get thrown away because of the 50-50 chance of starting points.

[Spleenslitta]

SilverStarDragon, on 08 March 2014 - 04:04 PM, said:

Something along with seeing the map at the start is to show the players which side they are dropping on, that way your elaborate plan doesn't get thrown away because of the 50-50 chance of starting points.

I guess you mean such a prebattle map should show where you spawn instead of just a map of the area the way it is now.
Of course that's logical. I thought it was so obvious that i didn't include it in my textwall.
Sorry. I had a lot on my mind.

Edited by Spleenslitta, 09 March 2014 - 02:28 AM.

[Asmudius Heng]

These are all good suggestions that have been brought up many times before actually ... hopefully PGI will decide some of these things are actually priority espeically pre battle chat and map planning

[Spleenslitta]

Asmudius Heng, on 09 March 2014 - 02:47 AM, said:

These are all good suggestions that have been brought up many times before actually ... hopefully PGI will decide some of these things are actually priority espeically pre battle chat and map planning

It has been brought up before? I'm hoping to see those symbols or something equalent to it most of all.
It would make the jobs of our commanders so much easier.

[Asmudius Heng]

Spleenslitta, on 09 March 2014 - 05:13 AM, said:

It has been brought up before? I'm hoping to see those symbols or something equalent to it most of all.
It would make the jobs of our commanders so much easier.

On and off since closed beta, not as big a topic as many others but one i am keen on ... anything thst helps pugs communicate and work together is essential IMO

[oldradagast]

SilverStarDragon, on 08 March 2014 - 04:04 PM, said:

Something along with seeing the map at the start is to show the players which side they are dropping on, that way your elaborate plan doesn't get thrown away because of the 50-50 chance of starting points.

This is mandatory. I have no idea what good it is to "discuss tactics" when you don't even know which side of the map you'll be on... hence the only tactics are "stick together" and stuff like that.

Also, people should be able to at least provide some info on their mech to team members. I don't need a whole weapon list, but even if it just gives the "role" the mech plays, or something... Brawler, scout, missile boat, sniper, etc. Anything would help vs. the total lack of info we have now.

[Sephlock]

There should be an audible warning when you move someone out of a premade.

Like the sound of a crying baby.

[Spleenslitta]

oldradagast, on 10 March 2014 - 12:45 PM, said:

This is mandatory. I have no idea what good it is to "discuss tactics" when you don't even know which side of the map you'll be on... hence the only tactics are "stick together" and stuff like that.

Also, people should be able to at least provide some info on their mech to team members. I don't need a whole weapon list, but even if it just gives the "role" the mech plays, or something... Brawler, scout, missile boat, sniper, etc. Anything would help vs. the total lack of info we have now.

Exactly. You said so much of what i meant to say in just a few sentences. We only need a symbol for 3-4 weaponranges
Short- SL,SPL, MG, Flamer, MPL.
Medium- 270 meter range weapons.
Intermideate- Everything beyond 270 up to 675 meter range.
Long- Everything beyond 675 meters.
A sepperate symbol for LRM's since they are kinda special.

Then either symbols for speed or numbers. Either way works. JJ and ECM symbols. Anything else?

Maybe a simple marker pen tool for the commander in prebattle chat so he can show the planned travelroute to a destination to take maximum advantage of cover and such.
We ain't asking for much with such simple things are we?

Maybe a ruler that can show how far it is from point A to point B for the sake of weaponranges.

Edited by Spleenslitta, 10 March 2014 - 03:42 PM.

[Deathlike]

Being able to see your teammates loadout has been a suggestion posted since... forever.

It shouldn't be this magically complicated thing.. yet, here we are.

[Bobzilla]

Friendly targeting would give you any info you need on a teamate for coordination. Their loadout, and damage by location as the percentage is not helpful at all.

It would not add any advantage if in the next round they became the enemy as it's just targeting data that can be seen anyways.

And it goes without saying that it's targeting for info only and won't allow missle locks.

[Spleenslitta]

Bobzilla, on 11 March 2014 - 06:08 AM, said:

Friendly targeting would give you any info you need on a teamate for coordination. Their loadout, and damage by location as the percentage is not helpful at all.

It would not add any advantage if in the next round they became the enemy as it's just targeting data that can be seen anyways.

And it goes without saying that it's targeting for info only and won't allow missle locks.

Well this is true but if you have to cycle through all your teammates with friendly targeting in order to familiarise yourself with their loadouts it would take unecessary time.
Instead you could just pop up the map and have all that info beside your teammates names through symbols and the map itself readily available.

That's much easier and faster.

A thing to keep in mind here is that a commander becomes more efficient when he has access to absolutly all of his info in one place.

Furthermore if you target an ally to gain information on him then you get a blue targeting square that shows he is over there and he is so far away.
But it doesn't show his precise location like it does on the map.

Having to target an ally with friendly targeting, then pop up the map if he is further away than the HUD map shows in order to get in his precise location takes too much time.

[Gladewolf]

The ambush symbol and information portions are great ideas. As far as leaders...there are far too many bad ones for me to submit to uncontrolled anything. Quite frankly, I'd rather die alone than follow a crappy plan, but I will take orders if it seems like an honest attempt at leadership is being made.

[Odins Fist]

Yeah we have all seen the Erwin Rommel take command and start moving people out of their premade lances and then the whole team suffering as the arguments begin and people asked to be moved back with their friends.

All of us have probably seen this take an even darker turn when 3 or more team members turn their weapons on the player that took command and did not move people back to their original lances..

The ability to refuse being moved would be a good thing.

[Spleenslitta]

Gladewolf, on 11 March 2014 - 09:25 AM, said:

The ambush symbol and information portions are great ideas. As far as leaders...there are far too many bad ones for me to submit to uncontrolled anything. Quite frankly, I'd rather die alone than follow a crappy plan, but I will take orders if it seems like an honest attempt at leadership is being made.

Leaders come in all flavors i know.

Could you give some feedback on this post Bobzilla made? I think you can probably add a lot more to why friendly targeting isn't efficient enough.

Bobzilla, on 11 March 2014 - 06:08 AM, said:

Friendly targeting would give you any info you need on a teamate for coordination. Their loadout, and damage by location as the percentage is not helpful at all.

It would not add any advantage if in the next round they became the enemy as it's just targeting data that can be seen anyways.

And it goes without saying that it's targeting for info only and won't allow missle locks.

[Gladewolf]

Spleenslitta, on 11 March 2014 - 09:35 AM, said:

Leaders come in all flavors i know.
Could you give some feedback on this post Bobzilla made? I think you can probably add a lot more to why friendly targeting isn't efficient enough.

I think you and Oldradagast already hit that one on the head, every nuance of a friendly mech is just information overload and needing to click on each friendly is a pain in the @$$. As a refinement, the game already has symbols for weapons types, so just stick them next to my name with max range per category and omit them where no weapon exists...that way you can easily include nonobvious defensives like AMS easily. Additionally, name color coding can easily augment damage information. Say I'm missing a leg, or have a hole in my armor in a critical torso(one with engine slots)....turn my name yellow. In this manner, I can maintain lock on enemy mechs while letting that friendly LRM stalker know that leading the charge is a bad plan, and move to assist my randomly named pal JoBob, because I know he's seriously damaged.

[Bobzilla]

Spleenslitta, on 11 March 2014 - 08:59 AM, said:

Well this is true but if you have to cycle through all your teammates with friendly targeting in order to familiarise yourself with their loadouts it would take unecessary time.
Instead you could just pop up the map and have all that info beside your teammates names through symbols and the map itself readily available.

That's much easier and faster.

A thing to keep in mind here is that a commander becomes more efficient when he has access to absolutly all of his info in one place.

Furthermore if you target an ally to gain information on him then you get a blue targeting square that shows he is over there and he is so far away.
But it doesn't show his precise location like it does on the map.

Having to target an ally with friendly targeting, then pop up the map if he is further away than the HUD map shows in order to get in his precise location takes too much time.

I was thinking more from a non commander perspective. Idealy you would have a friendly targeting system along with the enemy targeting system so you could see a friendly and enemy without having to break a lock.

I'd rather see info in my hud than put a map up so i can't see the battle going on.

As for seeing where the friendly is on the map, distance and direction would show so you'd kinda have a good idea, better with a good map knowledge and we have the ability to look on the map now if you need a pinpoint.

I don't think it would take anymore time to cycle through targets than it would to open a map and then look at each one as you wouldn't have to wait for data aquisition.

ECM could block this ability. Maybe a commander consol can counter the ecm effects to see friendlies.

I agree idealy all this info would be much better suited on a map for commander use, friendly targeting seem like it would be easy to put in and very useful to everyone.

[Spleenslitta]

Gladewolf, on 11 March 2014 - 10:13 AM, said:

I think you and Oldradagast already hit that one on the head, every nuance of a friendly mech is just information overload and needing to click on each friendly is a pain in the @$$. As a refinement, the game already has symbols for weapons types, so just stick them next to my name with max range per category and omit them where no weapon exists...that way you can easily include nonobvious defensives like AMS easily. Additionally, name color coding can easily augment damage information. Say I'm missing a leg, or have a hole in my armor in a critical torso(one with engine slots)....turn my name yellow. In this manner, I can maintain lock on enemy mechs while letting that friendly LRM stalker know that leading the charge is a bad plan, and move to assist my randomly named pal JoBob, because I know he's seriously damaged.

Name color coding. Why didn't i think of that earlier? So simple....but so easy to read for a stressed out commander.

Bobzilla, on 11 March 2014 - 10:33 AM, said:

I was thinking more from a non commander perspective. Idealy you would have a friendly targeting system along with the enemy targeting system so you could see a friendly and enemy without having to break a lock.

I'd rather see info in my hud than put a map up so i can't see the battle going on.

As for seeing where the friendly is on the map, distance and direction would show so you'd kinda have a good idea, better with a good map knowledge and we have the ability to look on the map now if you need a pinpoint.

I don't think it would take anymore time to cycle through targets than it would to open a map and then look at each one as you wouldn't have to wait for data aquisition.

ECM could block this ability. Maybe a commander consol can counter the ecm effects to see friendlies.

I agree idealy all this info would be much better suited on a map for commander use, friendly targeting seem like it would be easy to put in and very useful to everyone.

I see. That is something that is good to have. Thank you for your constructive comment Bobzilla.
The ECM idea is a good one indeed and some ideas for the Commander consol to top it off.

Hat's off to both of you guys.

[oldradagast]

Name color-coding is a good idea - to be able to tell at a glance the status of allies would be great! If there's any risk of too many colors - or to get around red/green color blindness - there could also be an icon of sorts in front of the friendly's name that sums up their status. Maybe use colors, size, percentage filled, etc - just something easy to see and which would still work for color-blind folks.

The icons for letting team mates know your weapons and general build is also a good idea. Again, it would get the key points across fast - "I'm an LRM boat" or "I'm a brawler" without getting into too much detail.

I'd also like to see the Tab screen hold a list of the enemy mech's once they've been identified - so, once I know that "evilbob" or whatever on the Red team is in a Jager, that info will be stored and I can tab to see if he's still alive or not since I really don't care about his name - my concern is "is that Jager still out there?" The Command Console could then gather that info from the WHOLE team and display it to the commander, giving it another useful function (aside from the more basic ones proposed, such as an extra module slot, etc.)

Finally, I like the ambush icon idea, and drawing lines on the map could work, provided the lines fade with time to prevent trolls from cluttering up the map with dirty images.

Edited by oldradagast, 11 March 2014 - 10:48 AM.