Gameplay: Localized Missions/Waypoints - Transport Available, Emergency Medical Assistance, ect

Zekeen · 2012-06-15, 11:04 AM

As we all know, there is a very in depth mission system in Planetside 2, though we haven't had a chance to really get to see it in action. I've thought on something that can improve gameplay and teamwork as well as organization. And that is through "missions" in the immediate area.

Medics can see who is injured, but if you call for a medic, you will give a "local mission" to nearby medics that you need immediate assistance. Completing this mission won't net them any bonuses, but maybe it can go toward a merit.

Another local mission, is one that gives nothing but helps organize troops not grouped together. Transports can use a voice command to call for passengers. When done, the transport shows up as a local mission to nearby troops who can see what the transport is lacking when looking at it. This is a rather important idea so allow me to go further into depth.

You're in a friendly base, a Galaxy lands behind you and calls for passengers. A small blip on your screen appears pointing to turn in a direction to face the Galaxy. When you turn and look at the Galaxy, it shows a line of infantry icons, greyed out, and 2 MAX icons, greyed out as well. This means the transport is empty and each icon lights up as itfills with troops. This lets you see an available transport that's not used by a specific squad and is freely transporting allies. This effect will also be useful when a vehicle is in the field and is calling for a gunner. Imagine having a tank nearby call for a gunner and you get an icon to run and jump in the second seat.

These localized missions can be seen through walls and even give distance to the objective. They can be used to get the attention of allies in a multitude of ways, signaling them to specific alerts or needs.

Here's a list of some things to see how this can help.

Medic - Calling for healing as more of an emergency for a medic to see your immediate need.

Repair - Calling for a repair for your vehicle or MAX so engineers in the heat of combat see you are in danger.

Transportation - Calling out for others to see you are ready to take them to the battlefield.

Backup - Calling out to allies that you are being pressed by the enemy and need more to come reinforce your position.

Scouting - Calling out that you have spotted an enemy from your position. Allies will see a marker of where you are, even through walls, but not the enemy. This seems worthless, but when defending a base it can tell you which side the enemies are at.

Squad Commands - Unlike basic commands, there are more squad commands to give your squad simple specific local missions when doing a bigger mission (attack a console instead of just attackign a base).

Attack Position - Send your squad after a specific objective.

Defend Position - Send squad to defend a specific objective.

Hold Position - Call squad to defend the area you are standing in when you give the command.

Regroup - Call squad to move with you.

Squad Transport - Call squad to use a transport without calling non squad members to the location.

Squad Dropzone - Call for squad mates to drop in to your location when using the drop pod ability... be sure to step a few steps back after doing this.

In the end, these serve as only a special way to assist a player with organizing the game. It's chaos in war, but if there is a way to help them out through their own actions instead of holding their hands, it gives the game just that much more depth.

In PS1, probably even harder than finding a medic, giving backup, or attacking the right objective, by far the most difficult task was logistics. I was a Galaxy pilot and frequently went in them as a passenger as well, and what I always remember was people being unable to find the right Galaxy to enter and getting into a space. I would call out for passengers and many times they would not find it, forcing me to use the chat to direct them to me in the courtyard. This is very hard with more Galaxys in the base too. Imagine if it was a thousand instead of a hundred players trying to find a vehicle. Having these localized missions give directions to where they can get things done. This can speed up the game without actually speeding it up. It makes it easier and less confusing as well.

A few final notes on localized missions -

They are used for convienance, not rewards.

They have a limited range, depending on the mission type so does the ranger (Galaxy transportation is much larger than calling for backup, vehicles get their nice intercom extended range)

Local Missions will ends over time if not completed. A backup call with not last more than 30 seconds, you are usually dead after 30 seconds or everyone has seen the call by then. Transportation missions last until transport moves out of the area.

Squad calls should be certed in the squad leader tree.

Vanath · 2012-06-16, 01:43 AM

I can see this being really helpful. I approve.

Saifoda · 2012-06-16, 02:37 AM

Wow, +1k zekeen

A couple of suggestions on this:

Transport: I'd say rather than having the icon appear directly on the playing area, have it appear on the minimap; this might prevent clutter. This one is not such a big deal as the others (as I'll point out further down) since there aren't going to be a hundred gals or sundies in the area, but it could be a nuisance to those who are not interested in hopping in a transport and are just on the ground shoosting it aways with the enemies. Another note on this, rather than having individual spots that appear greyed out or colored in, just have a number appear on it (infantry/max can have theirs be specific as well) and that number is just how many spots are available. If there are no spots available, just have it be 0

I think that would be easier to determine rather than looking at a bunch of dots on the minimap (if we take it that route) or even on the icon appearing on the field.

Medic/Repair: Good idea here, only thing I'd add (which I assume you implied) is have a maximum range for it, so you're not looking at everybody who needs a medic on the entire continent. So make it like, 100m or 200m or 50m or something, and perhaps make it adjustable in the individual's settings. I think this one can appear both on the minimap and on the field as well.

Backup/Scouting: They both serve similar functions, and I would say let this be a squad or platoon only thing. I can just imagine now tons of images appearing "NEED BACK UP HERE" all over the field and that would DEFINITELY get in the way, much more so than the transport thing (the issue I brought up above, obviously).

Overall I really love the idea, I think it would allow and encourage better cooperation. And I really hear you on the galaxy thing

that was definitely annoying.

MacXXcaM · 2012-06-16, 03:33 AM

Nice ideas. I really like!

Fab · 2012-06-16, 06:45 AM

Anything that helps organising and focussing teamplay on clear objectives is a good idea. I hope they already implemented lots of your ideas. If they didn't, i hope they read this forum.

Zekeen · 2012-06-16, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by Saifoda

A couple of suggestions on this:

Transport: I'd say rather than having the icon appear directly on the playing area, have it appear on the minimap; this might prevent clutter. This one is not such a big deal as the others (as I'll point out further down) since there aren't going to be a hundred gals or sundies in the area, but it could be a nuisance to those who are not interested in hopping in a transport and are just on the ground shoosting it aways with the enemies. Another note on this, rather than having individual spots that appear greyed out or colored in, just have a number appear on it (infantry/max can have theirs be specific as well) and that number is just how many spots are available. If there are no spots available, just have it be 0

I think that would be easier to determine rather than looking at a bunch of dots on the minimap (if we take it that route) or even on the icon appearing on the field.

Well, first off, you're not going to be loading up even a single Galaxy with troops if we got enemies around. It's to get TO the battle, not away from it. So there's no rush of a dozen in the middle of a battlefield going "We need passengers!", unless it was some sort of spam team doing it for kicks.

I just think a more graphical indicator on position is more appealing and draws people in toward the vehicle more than a 1/12. If I see 1/12, I generally miss it or just don't feel like it for some reason. Seeing a line of graphical symbols grey and lit up has a sort of bug zapper effect on people. They feel compelled to get in. And seeing as transports won't be loading up in battle usually, it won't be too spammy. There's also the new bigger size of transports, making it seem less dense.

Originally Posted by Saifoda

Medic/Repair: Good idea here, only thing I'd add (which I assume you implied) is have a maximum range for it, so you're not looking at everybody who needs a medic on the entire continent. So make it like, 100m or 200m or 50m or something, and perhaps make it adjustable in the individual's settings. I think this one can appear both on the minimap and on the field as well.

As ya said, I made it rather limited in my design, and there's a time limit. It's all based on "How soon can you get there?". You don't wanna happen on dead men all the time, medic calls are short ranged and immediate area. If there's no medic nearby, you're doomed anyways. It's mostly to call attention to the back flank or a particular medic you see. Give them a bigger reason to heal you.

Originally Posted by Saifoda

Backup/Scouting: They both serve similar functions, and I would say let this be a squad or platoon only thing. I can just imagine now tons of images appearing "NEED BACK UP HERE" all over the field and that would DEFINITELY get in the way, much more so than the transport thing (the issue I brought up above, obviously).

Backup is to say you're under attack, scouting is to say you spotted, this means not in combat and at some distance. You're not going to call for backup from a sniper roost, but you will from the front gate. Scouting is the least important, but it is a sort of fast icon, appears for very few seconds, but has a longer ranger. It's just an indicator to prepare for battle.

I feel this idea should be getting more responses, but I wonder if I just named it wrong to get their attention, but I can't think of anything better. Let's hope more people catch a whiff of this then.

Saifoda · 2012-06-16, 04:04 PM

I think the issue is that it's a lot of words and people have trouble with brains sometimes

.

I see what you're getting at now with the gal/sund icon. And I see your point about the icon vs. numbers thing; maybe that's something else that people can just change in their personal settings (I personally would use numbers, just easier for me to see it I guess, but again I see your point -- icons could be default setting). The only thing I would say again is that now that the gal is going to be a spawn point, players will risk bringing the gals to land closer and closer to the bases, whereas before of course it was more like a fire and forget kinda thing lol. Idk, it could go either way with that I guess, hopefully they'll put your suggestions into the game if not at launch at some point soon after -- some really great ideas.

+1 again lol.

goZiva · 2012-06-16, 05:45 PM

First, Hi all! I'm new here and never played PS1 but I'm really hyped for the new one coming out!

I like your idea a lot. How many times I found my self without a gunner or a team-mate in my tank or aircraft, playing the various battlefield games, not being able to call people over.

I've noticed how the devs are trying to keep the UI clean. I think this falls into the strategy of getting Cod console players to quickly understand what is going on without to many info on screen at one given point in time.

Here's my idea. Instead of having the player icons popping up on the side of the screen when you turn towards a galaxy, you could have visual cues about passenger capacity on the vehicle itself, as decals or lights for example. Or even a projection system similar to what they have in the last splinter cell.

I think this would ensure the UI stays clean and would tie this game-play aspect to whether or not you can actually see the vehicle in the game world. You could also have additional info on the mini-map, like general direction of a particular micro-mission.

Zekeen · 2012-06-16, 09:35 PM

Originally Posted by goZiva

First, Hi all! I'm new here and never played PS1 but I'm really hyped for the new one coming out!

I like your idea a lot. How many times I found my self without a gunner or a team-mate in my tank or aircraft, playing the various battlefield games, not being able to call people over.

I've noticed how the devs are trying to keep the UI clean. I think this falls into the strategy of getting Cod console players to quickly understand what is going on without to many info on screen at one given point in time.

Here's my idea. Instead of having the player icons popping up on the side of the screen when you turn towards a galaxy, you could have visual cues about passenger capacity on the vehicle itself, as decals or lights for example. Or even a projection system similar to what they have in the last splinter cell.

I think this would ensure the UI stays clean and would tie this game-play aspect to whether or not you can actually see the vehicle in the game world. You could also have additional info on the mini-map, like general direction of a particular micro-mission.

Nothing in my idea is UI other than an arrow pointing to which direction a waypoint is. The icons would appear over the Galaxy, not on your UI.