[Suggestion] Empire Coordination

[ringring]

As we know the command tools in ps2 are few and those that exist have issues, e.g. command voice chat scrambles brains.

So I have a suggestion. The key to this is:
1) Easy to use
2) Does not provide too much information, does not do too much hand-holding and specifically give no information about the enemy, we have enough even too much already.
3) Simple to implement and let's face it developer time is at a premium and if it is too difficult it won't get done this decade.

The feature is this.
Provide a new map showing the locations of platoon waypoints, simply that.
It would be viewable by everyone but obviously only updatable by platoon leaders.
The appearance I envisage would emulate the 'plotting board' used in WW2 air ops - I don't know if you've seen the film Battle of Britain but something like that. However, to ease the development it could also be an additional filter on the existing mapping.

What good would it do?
Well, if you're attacking VS held Hvar from the North and you see that NC are making a big push towards the Mao region you can see which platoons are responding and so have better information on whether you need to relocate or not.

What would be shown?
Simple a representation of the Platoon waypoint. It could be the same at a marker on google maps, a bubble with a downwards pointer and in the bubble it would have the outfit abbreviation and possible the numbers in the platoon could be shown to indicate strength.

Why allow everyone to see it, it should be platoon leader only?
Why not allow everyone to see it, why not allow your squad members to be informed? Besides, the workload on platoon leaders is too much already we shouldn't pile more onto them.

Any thoughts?

[Boomzor]

That's one if the things that has been annoying me for a while...
There's no quick way of finding out how your empire is distributed over a continent. You have to manually hover over each hex, look at the number bar and compare it to the percentage pie chart.

A simple "heat map" would do wonders. The more crowded it is, the higher value of the colour.

[ringring]

Originally Posted by Boomzor

That's one if the things that has been annoying me for a while...
There's no quick way of finding out how your empire is distributed over a continent. You have to manually hover over each hex, look at the number bar and compare it to the percentage pie chart.

A simple "heat map" would do wonders. The more crowded it is, the higher value of the colour.

Heat is a different kettle of fish to what I am talking about. Heat could signify zerg while this signifies platoons and organised bodies.

[Eggy]

Both these suggestions allready exist, they are just used by very few PLs and SLs.

Every squad leader can choose to cert into offensive and defensive markers.
These are visible by everyone in the empire. So give a good idea as to where the "leaders" want people to attack and defend. They are not much use if people dont use them, in much the same way as the coloured smoke doesnt work if you dont use it.


On the right hand side of the map screen there is a filter option. This lets you change the information you see on the map. One of the options is the "heat map" and gives exactly the information you have requested.

[ringring]

Originally Posted by Eggy

Both these suggestions allready exist, they are just used by very few PLs and SLs.

Every squad leader can choose to cert into offensive and defensive markers.
These are visible by everyone in the empire. So give a good idea as to where the "leaders" want people to attack and defend. They are not much use if people dont use them, in much the same way as the coloured smoke doesnt work if you dont use it.


On the right hand side of the map screen there is a filter option. This lets you change the information you see on the map. One of the options is the "heat map" and gives exactly the information you have requested.

I know about offensive/defensive marker requests and this is not the same thing. This idea is not a request system it's an information system and would give better and more consistent info than the request markers you mentioned.

Many people have asked for a 'commander' screen similar to bf3/2 or some such. The downfall of that is that PS2 isn't a squad based shooter it is a empire based shooter but the only coordination tool is leader chat, which is poor.

[Rivenshield]

We need command chat back. It would be comparatively easy to implement, like a lot of other things they've chosen not to do that we had ten-plus years ago. Like a four-hour cooldown for empire swaps, say.

Yeah, I'm in a bad mood today. Deal.

[Obstruction]

great suggestion all around.