Systems: Semi-automatic V-N-G

[Traak]

I suggest a change to vehicles and gunners getting together.

Instead of spamming vng VNG VNG VNGOMGZZVNGPLZZZ0RZASAP; make a system whereby you all go to the terminal, drivers select gunners from a pool of gunners at same terminal, or lock to a friend/squaddie/outfittie, and when veh. spawns, gunner warps into gunner seat as it drives/flies/crawls off the ramp.

Gunners at the same terminal can select from vehicles being spawned to be available to gun. When availability meets gunner, he is warped into the gunner's seat.

This way, these points:
a) less time spent unarmed/dispossessed
b) vehicle can roll out ready to rock
c) elimination or reduction of wandering from veh. to veh. looking for a gunner's slot
d) pre-rejection of known bad gunners through an "ignore/block/be inwisible [sic] to" list that you build either parametrically (no one from X outfit, no one from outside my outfit, accept anyone who is a mechanic, whatever parameters) or specifically (specific player names)
e) vng message, if used goes out first to your trusted faithful gunners, wherever they are, if they are looking to gun
f) more fun!!!

[Malorn]

I like the idea of making it easier to find gunners, but not sure the suggested implementation will achieve the desired result.

Things that I think might help that are rather trivial:

- Put an icon on any tank without a gunner on the mini-map, so any would-be gunners can head over.

- Do a BF-like thing where you can point at something and then easily send a message directly to the driver for gunners that want to get in. The driver could do the same to any random person they see sitting around. Direct messages work better than just saying to everyone around you "hey I need a gunner". In the BF games if you use the "spotted" key on a friendly vehicle it does a voice macro and puts an icon on the minimap of the driver shwoing that someone wants to get into your vehicle. Real easy to do.

- possibly do some mini-map interaction where you could right-click on a unit or vehicle and invite them to gun for you or request to gun.

- could have a little flag infantry can set like "I want to gun" and have those show up differently on the minimap to a vehicle without a gunner. Sort of like an "LFG" flag in RPG games. In this case "Looking For Gun"

[Talek Krell]

I've been thinking an LF(Gunner) tool akin to what they have in WOW might help alleviate the difficulty of finding a gunner and be used to encourage people to work together for longer. Haven't put much thought into how it would actually work though.

[basti]

Do i understand you right? You get to a vehicle pad, use it, but instead of getting a vehicle you select for what vehicles you would like to gun for? And the moment someone pulls one of them that is open to you (not squad restricted), you get in if its your turn in the quene and you are still in range of the pad?

I like that, but it wont have much use really. It saves some secs for the driver (he doesnt need to stop once hes off the pad) and shows the driver what vehicles have quened gunners, but other than that its pretty useless.
But well, why not?

[Lonehunter]

Originally Posted by Malorn

- Put an icon on any tank without a gunner on the mini-map, so any would-be gunners can head over.

So simple, yet solves so many problems

I also like the idea of a gunner que. Something next to the vehicle pad, you can select if you want to gun a heavy vehicle, aircraft, etc. Of course the driver can choose to have this option on or not.

[Traak]

AND if they have good skills, it is displayed, or something is displayed such as number of tank gun kills, for example. It might even come up like a squad invite...

"Basti wants to gun your tank main gun. 2.4k kills" (meaning he has accrued 2.4 thousand kills with only that weapon) flashes on your HUD.

As opposed to "Noobonics wants to gun your tank main gun. O kills."

Which do you choose? With a proper system, and they do say stats will be tracked, this would be easy.

[basti]

True True. Actually like it, as long as it never allows to teleport into a vehicle from far away.

[Traak]

Originally Posted by basti

True True. Actually like it, as long as it never allows to teleport into a vehicle from far away.

That would make it a functional router h4xx. One gunner after another clown-wagonning in and then out to go infantry from Old Oshur or something.

[Redshift]

i honestly never had an issue finding gunners, the only issues were when people pulled useless vehicles ... obviously no one wants to gun a raider ....
or when people pulled ground vehicles and the fight was half a cont away across a river

[Traak]

Perhaps a mod would be to see, on the vehicle panel screen, a list of who wants to gun what. If no one has it in their list of first three choices to gun a Raider, then you may instead decide to pull a Skyguard, which has ten people available to gun it, from which you can choose.

Vehicle pad menu: Left side, hotkeys (numbers 1-0) for your fave vehicle setups. You come to the terminal click in, hit 3 for Skyguard with short-range ultra-lethal flak in the magazines, select a player from the right hand side who has made himself available to gun, hit ENTER, vehicle spawns with you and him in it, loaded up with the ammo you prefer.

Another option: If you are a Skyguard gunner in general, you can select to be available for a gunner invite (not warp into the seat, just a notification) if you are in the base SOI. A vehicle driver comes to the terminal, he clicks on your name, which is in the SOI column, not the immediately available column, and you get a gunner invite. If you click YES, a waypoint appears on you and him, guiding you together, or you just get highlighted on the map.

If you are in a vehicle as something other than a passenger, you get no gunner invites or warps, even if you are parked right beside the Vterm.

So, vehicle pane is larger, has quickslots on the left, with hotkeys 1-0, vehicles down the center you can scroll/mouse through, and gunner columns on the right, one column for those at the terminal SOI who can warp in, those in the base SOI who can be invited, and your fave players/friends at the bottom so you can know if they are on cont for a manual invite, which would involve you clicking them and they would get an invite.

In addition, you would know by a quick glance after scrolling to the Raider or WHY, if ANYONE even wanted to gun it, under the left side of the Raider would be those in the Vpad SOI who would warp in once selected, and under the right side of the picture of the Raider would be those who were in the base SOI who would be invited once you clicked on them.

The vehicle pad would assist in getting you out the door as quickly as possible, already loaded with your favorite ammo/guns/tinsel/sound system/whatever, hooking up gunners with drivers and vehicles they wanted, and allowing drivers to find out if anyone wants to gun their vehicle, and if so, who and how many.

[Traak]

Another option is people who just want a ride. How often have we seen non-full Galaxies, Sunderers, and other vehicles head over the horizon when, if they knew there were more people wanting a ride, they would have been full or more full.

The vehicle pane can also allow you to pre-OK ANYONE so your vehicle spawns already filled to the brim with whoever is available and in the Vpad's SOI.

[Tapman]

Anything that helps me gun a Vanguard more often is a win in my book, nothing quite like drinking a beer and blasting people away at the same time. Great ideas!