Russ Bullock, on 26 September 2014 - 08:38 AM, said:
Wasn't able to read all the posts so I might be repeating things here.
The latest iteration on the CW design has solo players accepting contracts to jump into planet attacks and defense. The unit and group will just provide extra incentive to achieve things as a unit.
But everyone gets to play
As I said in game you chaps are making leaps and bounds in the right direction and your hands on approach is much appreciated.
My two cents if I may...
tldr;
Git that thurr command wheel dun! pretty please, with reasons 
Undoubtedly you've noticed a lot of the threads knocking around on both sides of the fence pertaining to the issue of large groups meeting smaller ones, by the sounds of it that's only going to amplify with CW.
It's a common misconception that "Solo" players are just that, Solo and with no desire to work as a team.
The reasoning behind this is usually one that consists of blame falling to the guy who just wants to load up and play a coordinated game of mechwarrior, and play it well without any additional hassle.
Joining a group of loads of folk and going on some teamspeak with dozens of people wittering around, group politics stand on your head and do 50 rotations to join up etc. some players just can't be bothered with all this, some just want to focus on the tactical play, most even; there just aren't the tools to encourage tactically coordinated play in a random game.
So it descends into the age old adage of "murderblob" ...*sigh* A surprising amount of groups fall into this poultry level of "tactics" as well.
To me this is screaming, from both sides of the fence,
more tools for teamwork!
I recall being in a game some time ago with a member of staff from PGi whereby I took command and started ordering about the lances individually, made sure they were all aware that I was doing so there were some good moves and lances stuck together as lances. The dear fellow said "that's the first time I've ever seen anyone even try to command"
What is it? teamwork is underpowered?
no OPplznerf?
I think not...
From my view it all comes together from these things:
- All the typing, you're out of the fight and most likely gonna get coreshot if you try to type instructions in chat. (command wheel or Voip obviously solves this
- The lack of pre-assigned commanders, if people actually wind up in one of the the hotseats, they might just maybe decide to have a go, christ half of them probably don't even know the feature exists. Hell even starting with no lances would be an improvement, people might just be encouraged to join the guy who creates one.
- Most lances scatter like dust in the wind, there's not really much reason to stick with your lance, the damage indicators and different colour maybe, but that's about it. maybe more bonuses awarded for lances who work together? cap together, shoot same targets etc.
- Structure, leading on from the previous point, in pugs, there is none. Naturally units organise themselves and do their own thing in that regard but what about the randoms? One method I see working nicely is a detailed command wheel for inter-lance comms only with lance commanders able to communicate with each other using a secondary command wheel. Commanders obviously, can communicate to all Lance commanders
The obvious example for this is BF2(particularly project reality) whereby squadmates could communicate to each other, and the squadleader had an additional commo rose for calling in choppers, air strikes, supplies etc.
In my eyes, by encouraging random lances to work together, the whole team will follow.
Mayhaps it might help to have a marker for those in groups on the scoreboard? Something similar to war thunder which shows who's in what group, least then we can see why "Jack Twist" is running full speed across open ground to get to "Ennis"
Ultimately the problem is the lack of teamwork for some and the absence of any barr being set for a standard of teamwork within solo games and I think this is why we see the swings that we do.
Before anyone states the obvious of course it's not going to be as smooth as rolling with a big group of buddys but ultimately game quality is improved for all.
The real competitive teams will make full use of the tactical toys and enjoy enhancing their coordination more I'm sure.
The small groups have a means by which to quickly and effectively communicate and coordinate with their fellows who are also in groups (biggest gains to be had and are needed here I think).
The solo players might not have lance commanders going for the role and whatnot but hey. I bet you they'll be feeling the benefit when someone actually uses the button to say "Targetting L" or something to that effect and a team of puglords smashes down on that unfortunate soul. Outside of that any additional level of cohesion that works will be most welcome indeed
I'm a long time cat herder and the soloists certainly aren't lacking in claws & enthusiasm they just need a bit of a helping hand to find the jugular
Hope this finds you well, if not i hope others are loud enough to make it so
I'm gonna go back and watch that percentage counter in hope... *awaits a 1% trolling*
Edited by Sadist Cain, 02 October 2014 - 05:51 AM.
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