Gameplay: The Magnetic Isle(Continent idea)

[VioletZero]

The Magnetic Isle would be a medium sized continent where, under normal circumstances, you are completely cut off from your HUD, chat, radar, killcams, etc.

The crux of strategy in these areas are cappable comm towers that allow you to access these functions.

The way comm towers work is that they have special devices that allow people within a certain radius of them to communicate with each other and access the aforementioned functions.

Comm towers will be placed in close enough proximity to "connect" with one another.

Let's say that Person A is in Comm Tower A and Person B is in Comm Tower C.

Comm A --- Comm B --- Comm C

These are all in a straight line. Comm A and C are not in close proximity while Comm B is directly in between. If the enemy captures Comm B, Person A and person B would not be able to communicate with each other. But if Comm A, B and C are all allied property, Person A and B would be able to communicate.

In order to communicate with the rest of the world, the comm tower radius you are in has to be chain linked to the comm tower at your home base.

If you need me to elaborate on any points, please let me know. If not, please tell me what you think. ^_^

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by VioletZero

If the enemy captures Comm B, Person A and person B would not be able to communicate with each other.

As I mentioned before when people brought up similar ideas, this just turns the community to using Vent servers and TeamSpeak. At no point should the game artificially limit communication. This is as bad as the people that don't like that people can chat when they're dead. Focus on gameplay, not the metagame stuff basically.

[VioletZero]

Originally Posted by Sirisian

As I mentioned before when people brought up similar ideas, this just turns the community to using Vent servers and TeamSpeak. At no point should the game artificially limit communication. This is as bad as the people that don't like that people can chat when they're dead. Focus on gameplay, not the metagame stuff basically.

You won't fit everyone in your faction onto a teamspeak server and there's more to communication than just talking.

Spotting info, for example, cannot be someone who you aren't directly linked with.

[Goku]

It is possible if organized properly. Back with the NCA there was almost a pop lock worth of players on TS2. This wasn't everyday but I am saying it can be done. Even if fights are bigger you can get hundreds and hundreds on one TS server. Alliances between outfits will only grow larger.

[VioletZero]

Totally forgot to mention in the original post:

For people who have taken the proper command CERT, there will be an option to take equipment that projects a small comm radius. Essentially turning the player into a mini mobile comm tower. It will also be helpful when making an attack on another comm tower.

Originally Posted by Goku

It is possible if organized properly. Back with the NCA there was almost a pop lock worth of players on TS2. This wasn't everyday but I am saying it can be done. Even if fights are bigger you can get hundreds and hundreds on one TS server. Alliances between outfits will only grow larger.

Maybe this could be an intended unintended side effect to get people onto teamspeak more.

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by VioletZero

Maybe this could be an intended unintended side effect to get people onto teamspeak more.

Planetside 2 is using its own built in chat system for voice communication. If I'm in an outfit I don't want to have communication cut out because of some silly game mechanic that was thrown in.

Regarding not communicating with everyone I'm not sure what you mean. You don't need to communicate with anyone outside of your outfit normally. If someone wants to communicate they can just use the shout out commands. I don't know anyone that actually read the chat logs.

I'm just being realistic about what players are going to complain about especially in an FPS game.

[VioletZero]

To add to this, I need separate input.

There will be two kinds of comm areas. There's isolated and linked.

The difference between isolated and linked is that isolated comm areas are not linked to your team's safe zone.

In an isolated comm covered area, you'll get your radar, HUD and other functions back.

But there are certain functions that only work in a linked comm zone.

One of these effects is the Galaxy's respawn function.

[Metalsheep]

This kind of works like CromeHOUNDS battle system. Across the battlefield there were towers called COMBAS towers, they start neutral, but can be captured by eaither side. They then allowed communications between players within their radius and also provided Radar and command abilities.

You could also outfit your own HOUND with a Combas unit, they were heavy and made you sacrifice armor speed and weapons in order to keep weight limits on your HOUNDS. But they provided a mobile COMBAS radius that travelled with the commander. If you wanted a large, mobile radius, you needed a MUCH heavier combas unit on your HOUND. Limiting your own defensive and offensive capabilities to assist your team with tactical data. It was a cool system, but we partially circumvented it with XBOX Live party chats. Before those were added though, you lost voice and text communication with your teammates if they exited a friendly COMBAS radius.