Gameplay: Mobile Command Centers

[OutlawDr]

I not too fond of having a super critical unit that there is only one of. It just leaves it open to too much abuse. If there is an incompetent commander at the helm that day, everyone is fucked. In the end does only having one really add that much to the game compared to the headaches involved in making sure its stupid/troll proof?

Lets make any restrictions a little bit more practical. To start, a commander need needs certain command rank to purchase. He also needs a certain number of players under his command at the time of purchase. I wouldn't make it cost an arm and a leg. Instead let the other restrictions prevent spam. The player number requirement it an automatic checs to see if the commander actually has players under his command. This ensures that the commander first needs the trust and cooperation of a sizeable group of players in order to get his commander abilities (no lone commanders). This eliminates any concerns of trolls or overly incompetent people at the helm. If the commander is either of these two, then at most its that group's problem that they themselves can easily correct../leave. It doesn't however become a huge problem for everyone else on the continent.

The exact CR and number of players under his command are subject to beta testing. But I'd make it around platoon level. Remember, at most there are going to ~667 players per empire on the server...MAX. Thats ~22 full platoon at most. And you can't expect all those players to be super cooperative. There is going to be a sizable group of casual, lone wolves that don't care about the bigger picture. And thats during peak times. During off hours its going to lower, sometimes substantially lower.

[CaptnSlo]

OutlawDr everyone is not fucked because you have a layer of mobile command centers. If you are only running a platoon then you do not really need a command center. If you have 2-3 platoons then the platoon/company cc would be for you. You can either follow or not follow the commands from the Brigade Command Center. I would not consider the Brigade Command Center a critical unit because you can still play with out and win a battle without it.

How you run your game/outfit is up to you. If you want to be a small picture and run solo or join a large outfit then that is up to you as well. The battle is getting bigger than PS1 and more fronts will be openned up because you can secure any target now without going in a line like PS1. Also TerranRoughneck mentioned the command rank/higher ranked people required to call them in..

Like I menitoned there are different levels of command vechicles and maybe if everyone is bitching so much maybe we should just add another command center to have a three level system.

I do not know how the new outfit system will work in Plantside2 (I have heard talks about it though) but I would like to see it first before I mention anything about tweaks into it for the command centers.

[OutlawDr]

No you're still f'd, because if the other empires commander are using their uber CC competently, then your empire is at the disadvantage...all because of 1 player. Thats too much power in the hands of a sole player. I don't see the allure of severe centralization of power like this in a online game. Unless the goal is to simulate real military hierarchy in order to satisfy a RP itch.

If you are only running a platoon then you do not really need a command center.

How do you know this? Since platoons are the highest officially supported organizational unit in the game, I think its best if we start here.

[CaptnSlo]

All of the Brigade Command Centers are limitied with extra specs. If you feel that that person is an ass/troll/spy then kill him just like TerranRoughneck said. How do you know that the Platoon is the highest support unit in Plantside2 anyways? Are you in test or beta?

This command center idea is so that you can bring together a much larger army on the same sheet of music if you want.

OutlawDr it is pretty obvious that you didn't give two cents about my idea so why did you even post in here to begin with?

Like I mentioned you can either be a part of the picture or not. It is up to you how you play.

All of the command centers will have different things that it offers to the command and of course the higher it goes the more command you will need and resources.

[OutlawDr]

Originally Posted by CaptnSlo

OutlawDr it is pretty obvious that you didn't give two cents about my idea so why did you even post in here to begin with?

Easy now. Don't take things so personal. Anyway you didn't even start this thread, and this thread isn't about the single uber command center. This thread is about Mobile Command Centers in general. Its an idea I like, never said I didn't. However I don't like the idea of a single centralized power structure.

Platoons are the highest organization unit the devs have talked about. They haven't said a peep about companies or higher. Even if there were companies and higher though, I would still keep it at platoon for the other reasons I stated.

Sure we could all waste our time chasing down and tking commanders we don't approve of. All the while the other sides commander is Orbital striking and coordinating like a boss and rolling us over. Its not really a solution.

[CaptnSlo]

If you do not like the structure then what would you do? You haven't mentioned your idea yet?

This was my idea of being able to track everyone in your fraction (TR, VS, NC) on on screen or multiple screens. This would create a command structure. Yes, if you do not like other commanders then it might just not work. Everything can not be purfect, but this was my idea of how to link everyone on the battlefield together.

My idea was to use a higherarchy of command centers to do this and each command center would also allow for smaller command if you did not want to be part of a bigger picture.

Maybe you could be able to create your own mini-command center chain. I would say if you wanted multiple Brigade Command Centers then you can not have the special perks (ground movement, radar-jammer, or radar), but if you wanted that speical perk on the aircraft then that type of aircraft or ground vehicle is only limited to one per faction per continent. That way you still could have mutliple Brigade Command Center, but you still could have one or maybe even two of the special ones. It is all up to the SOE team what they feel is good anyways. Shit they could say we love the idea and we will give you all three per faction per cont.. Who knows just an idea that I thought would help out with the larger battles are coordination

[OutlawDr]

Originally Posted by CaptnSlo

If you do not like the structure then what would you do? You haven't mentioned your idea yet?

Like I said I support the OP's idea. I like the idea of a MCC adding another logistical layer, plus giving commanders a more top down view of the battlefield. If there needs to be restrictions, keep it to platoon size.

You can still link everyone together without needing a single overlord CC. Just allow everyone in a CC to communicate with each other and transfer information. Allow the server community to organize themselves. Its the best you can hope for. Forcing command over people in an online game doesn't have good results.

[CaptnSlo]

You could do that as well... have all of platoon command centers talk to each other. I would still limit the range on the scope of the view to .5 radius (1km diameter) for the Platoon/Company Size command vechicle.

So for the Updated Platoon/Company Size Vechicle I would have it be ground only and have seats for commander, three platoon leaders, 50cal gunner seat, and drone driver (cert req for extra seat).

I think the real questions is how many Company sized CC's can you link together? The reason why I am calling them company sized cc's is because they will have seats for all three of the platoon leaders in the same vechicle. Each Platoon leader would have a screen to track and give orders to his troops and the overall commander can task his platoons. I guess we could give OS command to the overall commander who is a high command rank.

Does that work for you OutlawDr?

In order to communicate with other Command Centers I would suggest a RF frequence. I am going to suggest using a 6digit number like this 675.270 and it would range from 000.000 to 999.999 so they will be hard to find out which freq the enemy is usuing. Now you are probably going to complain and bitch that the enemy is going to find out what we are using and spy on us. Well, I a good army and commander never are on the same frequence the whole time. They usually have presets which change on a daily/monthly basis.

If we do add in Mobile Command Centers then I think we should add in a way to spot them on the map by track the frequence that they use. This would require an Anti-CC type Vechicle that would scan def frequence until you found the enemey kind of like a Police Scanner. The range of this vechicle would be the same as the Command Center. The Ani-CC Vechicle would not communicate with your own Commander Centers so you need to verbaly let your army/outfit the location of it. You can of course tune your own CC's into the frequence but a good army will not always be on the same frequency for that long.

You could have a couple of options which are automatic and manual scan. The automatic scan would scan every freq but it takes an awful long time to scan. If you know the general freq that they might be using then Manual would be the right option for you as it would scan 50.00 points below and above of that number.

[OutlawDr]

Originally Posted by CaptnSlo

You could do that as well... have all of platoon command centers talk to each other. I would still limit the range on the scope of the view to .5 radius (1km diameter) for the Platoon/Company Size command vechicle.

So for the Updated Platoon/Company Size Vechicle I would have it be ground only and have seats for commander, three platoon leaders, 50cal gunner seat, and drone driver (cert req for extra seat).

I think the real questions is how many Company sized CC's can you link together? The reason why I am calling them company sized cc's is because they will have seats for all three of the platoon leaders in the same vechicle. Each Platoon leader would have a screen to track and give orders to his troops and the overall commander can task his platoons. I guess we could give OS command to the overall commander who is a high command rank.

Does that work for you OutlawDr?

Well I still don't see the need to have 3 commanders in one MCC. I think it would be much more interesting if they each had their own, were spread out covering more space and communicating with each other to coordinate missions. All 3 in one place also seems redundant.

[Baneblade]

Command Vehicles can be a Sunderer Variant. One per Platoon. It gives access to Command Abilities and Mission Generation.

Or just forgo the idea entirely... I prefer my Vanguard as my Command Vehicle.