JTAC Functionality for Squad Leaders

[maradine]

I've been mulling over role specialization for a bit. We have a lot of fun rolling from battle to battle, setting up no-fly zones. We advertise this service in /leader frequently, and it's led to a number of really great saves and lots of back-patting after the dust settles. One of the reasons this is successful is that you don't have to be particularly precise with the request. "WE NEED AA AT TI ALLOYS ASAP" is pretty hard to screw up. Roll up a bus, dump a bunch of lobster suits out the back, and go to town.

On the other side of the coin is air support, and here, the existing tools aren't as useful. "WE NEED AIR SUPPORT AT TI ALLOYS ASAP" can mean a lot of things. Obviously, you can get better instructions from the requestor, but that's not usually a conversation he/she has time to devote attention to. The cavalry can, of course, race in as it sees fit and do a lot of damage. But will they hit the sunderer that's the actual root cause of the ground problem? Or is it the snipers on the ridge that are the big issue?

So, squad leaders have smoke. The appropriately certed squad can change their call to "NEED AIR SUPPORT AT TI ALLOWS ASAP ORANGE SMOKE". Now, the incoming cavalry has a reference point. But where should they start their run from? If they're coming from Vanu Archives instead of Allatum, are they going to overfly a burster nest? Should the requestor take that into account? Can they communicate it effectively?

Finally, there's general presence information to be considered. Would squad leaders want to know there's air cavalry on call? Is leader chat sufficient for this?

====TL;DR====

What do you think of the existing toolset for inter-squad communications? Is it sufficient? Should more be added? If you run a squad or platoon, what do you wish you could communicate to other squads quickly? If you run an air cavalry squadron, what would you wish to hear from the boots on the ground?

[Javelin]

I think the mission system should fulfill some of needs of "call for fire" assets. That said empire wide air support (w/ variations for type, ie; CAS or CAP) markers for platoon leaders would be good.

Also smoke markers should be more obvious on the mini map. That would help a lot to pointing where fires should be directed for air crews.

[bpostal]

Adding in missions such as this would be one of the major reasons I can't wait to get the mission system in the game.

[haggy]

Originally Posted by maradine

What do you think of the existing toolset for inter-squad communications? Is it sufficient? Should more be added? If you run a squad or platoon, what do you wish you could communicate to other squads quickly?

What i really would like if i could see the waypoints other squads or platoons set. I don't really have anything in mind how to implement that. But it would just be great to be able to see where other platoons are headed, without asking them. although that probably never will be implemented, cause it's so easy to exploit the plans of a whole faction to the enemy if they just log on another character..

Of course they can do about the same thing right now.. But its much harder to gather the information at the moment.

To be honest i kind of like and dislike my own idea

[belch]

Yeah, currently, smoke grenades do not throw off enough of a plume to be useable for directing CAS.

I like your JTAC idea though. Along those lines, coordinated comms channels for aviation would be a nice tool. Squad leader gets access to request fires, etc.

[Stanis]

platoon leader needs multiple waypoints.
platoon and SL need drawing tools.


This was fairly easy to do when you just drew a big X on the map in red and an approach vector/line.

Same for defence line across a hill.
Red line on the hill to hold. green line to advance/push on.



simple things. smoke is just about the most useless thing.
I want proper waypoints 1 through 4 colour coded by squad.
and a main platoon waypoint/marker

[maradine]

The question was mostly centered around non-platooned squads, but those are good points.

[Fear The Amish]

yeah i mainly am a PL i would just love multiple different colored waypoints. Actually... as an SL imagine that Place a red on on A a blue on B 1-6 on red 7-12 on blue go!

[Brusi]

I would like to see an Alliance System, that allows Different Outfits to communicate and fight under the one flag.

This could then be used to coordinate large outfits in a global offensive, or simply to bring smaller, specialized outfits into the larger faction community.

Leader channel doesn't currently do this.

[Starstriker]

This. A thousand times this.

These days I typically run an air support squad in a platoon with several other squads from my outfit. While we're very effective while left to our own devices, it's a huge pain to keep everyone oriented in the right areas and close air support is all but impossible. The other squads can ask for air support, but it's difficult to orient ourselves on the target even with good landmark information, and often that landmark information isn't forthcoming. This makes it nearly impossible to provide timely air support on the targets the squad would like us to hit. The only effective method I've seen is for the platoon leader to put the platoon marker down on a desired target, but that's cumbersome and stops him from using it for other things, AND only the platoon leader can do that.

I've also felt the same thing when commanding infantry squads. The move marker is good for long-term movement but crap for short term priorities, and being constrained to only pointing out one thing at a time is not exactly ideal.

The way I see it, there's three main issues to deal with for squad command and control:

1) Using the waypoint system is slow, cumbersome, and requires the squad/platoon lead to exit gameplay and try to pinpoint something on a map, often without knowing the exact location

2) Leaders are restricted to a single (useful) marker. Smoke grenades don't show up on the HUD, so I don't really consider them.

3) With the exception of the platoon marker, markers can't be seen outside the squad, making it difficult to collaborate

I played a lot of Project Reality (a battlefield 2 realism mod with a heavy focus on teamwork and communication), and the mod suggests a solution for problem #1: make the Q-spot a communication rose ala BF2, with the central spoke corresponding to normal spotting behaviour, and the outer buttons corresponding to various markers that a commander might wish to place. This allows a squad leader to look at something and mark it immediately, which is quick, convenient, and intuitive.

Problems 2 and 3 can be solved at the same time. Give the squad leader several different markers that can be placed via this commo rose or the map. Some of these markers are visible outside the squad.

Just off the top of my head, I'm thinking of something like the following marker scheme:

1) Squad primary objective (the current green towering pillar of light)
2) Squad secondary objective (differently coloured pillar of light)
3) Fire support marker (visible to nearby allies on their HUDs, regardless of squad or platoon affiliation. Fire support markers within your own platoon are highlighted more. These wouldn't be pillars of light, but just icons on your HUD)
4) Alert marker, which could be used to mark enemy attacks, spawn locations, burster nests, etc. Also just an icon on your HUD.

Platoon leaders would get the platoon marker in addition to that, as well as the ability to set the primary objective of any of his squads.

The idea here is that squad leaders would be able to highlight several different types of objectives simultaneously, and do so quickly, AND they'd have a special fire support marker for pointing out priority targets, calling in air support, etc.

[belch]

I like the idea of using the commo rose for key leader commands, but then I also played a lot of BF2. While many may reject the idea as that game was mentioned in having implemented it, it's a really quick way for leaders to mark objectives, request supply drops, etc. It works, and shouldn't be dismissed.

Thinking about the ability of all leaders to place call for fire markers....it might get a bit messy across the battlespace, but the idea of organic elements markers being brighter/highlighted is also a good one.

[Starstriker]

I don't think allowing all squad leaders to place fire support markers is all that extreme. With each squad having one marker at a time, you're looking at maybe a maximum of 8-9 in the site of a very large battle. Especially if they're limited time markers, that's not too badly cluttered if the icon design is sensible.

[belch]

I'm with you. I like your idea of having internally designated markers highlighted more. Having them render at an appropriate distance, 1000m or so for line of sight, but clearly visible on map/mini-map would work as well.

[Meatball Mobeus]

The only thing I've been wanting is some more waypoints.

[Hamma]

Originally Posted by bpostal

Adding in missions such as this would be one of the major reasons I can't wait to get the mission system in the game.

This