10 replies to this topic

[CoffiNail]

Alright, now this may sound weird. Possibly, but what about formation markers, also in that regard formations. Hopefully, and you are all smart gents -who are being praised as demi-gods- and may very well have thought of something like this, as well you have a lot of wonderful delicious tactical things in store for the lot of us.

Formations. I played only so much SP in MW4:V so I cannot say for that, but say MW2, we all played that to death, well a good majority. It had Echelon Left/right, V, Wedge, etc. What about allowing Commanders the ability to assign formations. Also another little money grab as more formations/custom formation slots could be bought. Now all good and done to hear the commander either by VoIP or outer comms call out a formation, but also a text approach, but what about markers, on your mini map, little dot. on the field, depending on your sensors ability you can see a glowing orb as well. Letting you know where you need to be and a sort of guide for when your formation is moving in a direction.

Not a programmer, so I cannot even guess to how feasible this is, but I always loved the idea of formations in MW2 single player. Sadly you only ever had two star mates instead of the four as per usual Clan formation.
Inner Sphere would have a different set of formations to a degree, maybe even a box like formation, four pooints in a square sort of thing. Depending on how complicated it could be for path finding and such even have it 'path' around the various buildings and things depending on the modules, or such of the Commander.

Maybe even attribute it closer to something like the RTS grouping. if it could be brought to a more complex fashion as to form-up two points of four that make up the lance. Commander can group Lance 3 and 4 together and 2 and himself, 1 and instead of always needing to select individual mechs to direct on the tactical map, he just has two.

Thoughts? Do you like formations? What about the ability to know where you should be in the unit formation? A lot of games have done the sort of 'guide' in defend the convoy sort of missions.

Thanks for the time to read, TL;DR? Last paragraph is a decent summary.

Have fun, go play MWLL, MW4:Mercs, Mektek has it free! Works on almost every PC OS. Go play MechCommander 1 & 2 on Game Ranger or other systems. Mech2.org has MW2 Dos, works on every OS i think too, hell i have Win 7 64 bit, works for me no problems, set up matches and connect to their generous server! Google MECHVM if you have MW2 discs kicking around. Most importantly...

GO GET YOUR MECH ON! BEFORE WE ALL GET OUR MECH ON, LINE!

Edited by CoffiNail, 24 January 2012 - 08:28 PM.

[Kaemon]

TTP in this thread, 4 posts.

[Treffies]

Personally I don't have a problem with the lance leader picking a formation

what does TTP stand for? Ten Ton Parent? To The Point? Time That Pause?

[Kyone Akashi]

Sounds neat. Formations are both useful as well as a sign of discipline - though I am biased, given that I greatly enjoyed even stuff like line combat in multiplayer FPS (some HL2 mod set in the civil war era, complete with bayonet charges and rifles that took 15 secs to reload after every single shot).

[Nik Van Rhijn]

Given the "commander" has the "battle grid" I can see why he won't be able to set formations on it, although the lance commander should be able to overide that depending on terrain, enemy sightings etc. It overides any problems with lack of VoIP in PUGs as well..
Good idea, could also have a "spacing" command in there as well ie tight, normal and loose - last would be ideal for a scout lance.

[Marvin Martian]

The way the game's been described, I don't know that you'd have much use for formations. In an urban setting, you wouldn't have the space. I know that the devs have said they totally didn't get away from open maps, just tried to focus more on creating maps that focus on making line of sight a prized commodity

That being said, I think the idea is kind of cool, but I think the people that would use it would probably be so hardcore/disciplined that they might not have troubles keeping formation with their lance mates.

I may be completely off base. I'm a little biased because I don't think they'd fit in my play style (even though I used them a lot in MW2 as well).

Edited by Marvin Martian, 25 January 2012 - 02:55 AM.

[Treffies]

well maybe not like "wedge" formations, etc. But the commander could pick which side of the city you spawn if your lance gets a whole edge to enter the map from. That could potentially be a big part of the strategy for battles.

[Morashtak]

Overlapping field of fire discipline will be more important than formation discipline. Commanders will need to be aware of the capabilities of each of the 'Mechs and ensure that each unit and lance have adequate support as well as be able to support each other.

While sending out recon is important having a safe haven to come back to (hopefully drawing in unwary opponents) will be needed as well. NARC beacon units will need to be aware of how far away their LRM support is and not use their beacon too soon. Goes for the other unit types as well.

If a formation helps enforce this type of discipline than all the better.

[Durruty]

It may be hard to take formation. But make marks on the map is essential to coordinate a patrol of real players.

Score the player to find and mark targets although they can not attack.

[Axxon]

Yea, the dumber and commonplace a player is, the more difficult is for them to set up / maintain a formation.

But formations and <line of fire> issues are closely related. IE if you choose a right formation to the actual situation, there will be no friendly fire issues. Formations are a must have. Any enhancements, like loosen-tighten are also good to have.

Also, custom made formations being possible to create - are a benefit. For example, a button, that is telling the NAV-system: FREEZE current formation, that AS WE ARE LOCATED in 2D SPACE NOW, make it the pattern of our formation.

Despite it might be a complete anomaly, no wedge, no V, or not any echelons..

It is only up to the pilots to hold it. Skill..

Well, there should be an EMPTY CIRCLE in the NAV-display, where YOU supposed to be standing, RIGHT NOW. I mean. Its constantly being uptaded, as the head of the lance moves.

Also. draw a tiny arrow, from the empty circle, to show, TO WHERE SHOULD YOU BE FACING.


From here it is only 1 step to create multi-seat cockpits, each mech, one navigates, and also moves, but the other one is the tactician, who is saying, to where should we orientate, and when, and sets waypoints, and watches the map. Like F18 jets have 2 seat variations..

Edited by Axxon, 03 February 2012 - 05:48 AM.

[Axxon]

offtopic:

also if you find yourself to have misspelled "uptaded" - "updated".. or something similar, you can know, something is wrong with you! so you (i) need a break
that above is a sign of a beginning debilitation, which usually occurs because of the extensive lux amount we take from our TFTs on a daily basis..

also the flashing commercials can cause progressive debilitation to any subject... its just a matter of time, no matter how strong you are / your mind is!

remember those TFTs, that could not produce a REAL black level..? - trouble.
maybe the OLED monitors can save us. god bless us everyone.

i have written this, because if youre walking in the same shoes - there you can know theres something wrong in there.. its not your natural state to make stupid mistakes

spread this - accidents can be foregone
its a <dont drink and drive!> situation