Assistent Squad Leaders (Seargents)

GhettoPrince · 2012-06-01, 06:42 PM

The unique thing about planetside was that you were fighting over entire continents. This meant that groups needed a simple command system that let everyone in your squad, or your platoon, or even everyone on the continent know what was up, what was incoming, and what the larger plan was.

I'm suggesting a small change to the way command xp is awarded. Because in Planetside, the only person who could get any command xp was the squad leader ,but those squads had 8 to 10 people in them. I think it would be a great idea if you could select one person in your squad to be an assistant squad leader or seargent, and give them some command xp and some squad abilities.

Most squads lose track of each other after awhile , and I think a system like this would be a fun and simple way to help keep people organized and effective, and would work very well with the theme and atmosphere of the game. It gives some more options to people who like to run in casual squads , and it gives some more flexibility to people who like to run with outfits.

Of course it would have to be limited to full or almost full squads to keep everyone from forming two man groups and exploiting it, but I think this idea is useful, and it would cut down on squad drama over command xp.

Toppopia · 2012-06-01, 06:56 PM

Originally Posted by GhettoPrince

The unique thing about planetside was that you were fighting over entire continents. This meant that groups needed a simple command system that let everyone in your squad, or your platoon, or even everyone on the continent know what was up, what was incoming, and what the larger plan was.

I'm suggesting a small change to the way command xp is awarded. Because in Planetside, the only person who could get any command xp was the squad leader ,but those squads had 8 to 10 people in them. I think it would be a great idea if you could select one person in your squad to be an assistant squad leader or seargent, and give them some command xp and some squad abilities.

Most squads lose track of each other after awhile , and I think a system like this would be a fun and simple way to help keep people organized and effective, and would work very well with the theme and atmosphere of the game. It gives some more options to people who like to run in casual squads , and it gives some more flexibility to people who like to run with outfits.

Of course it would have to be limited to full or almost full squads to keep everyone from forming two man groups and exploiting it, but I think this idea is useful, and it would cut down on squad drama over command xp.

That idea makes me think of Ghost Recon: Island Thunder. Having 2 fire teams and telling them what to do, then if you played co-op your friend would control one team and you get the other. But this is an awesome idea.

Marinealver · 2012-06-03, 12:22 PM

Well Squad Leaders are basicly the Sergeants. It is Corporals that are fire team leaders.

Well if you need to break up a squad just make a smaller squad. Nothing wrong with having a platoon of three 4-men squads.

Could call them MAX teams. Team Leader, MAX, MAX assistant, Rifleman.

DviddLeff · 2012-06-03, 04:05 PM

Sound idea.

Check it out with extra details on my upgrade project, command overhaul section.

SgtMAD · 2012-06-03, 04:50 PM

if you are in squads that lose track of each other then you are in the wrong squads

Saifoda · 2012-06-04, 11:46 AM

Originally Posted by HtSgtMAD

if you are in squads that lose track of each other then you are in the wrong squads

The point is still valid though, and I gotta say I spent plenty of time going between "LFS" and getting into crappy squads. So even for the casual lfs gamer this could help with squad cohesion; most lfs guys are just looking to hook up with a squad and be done with it (in my opinion, of course).

Thoughts on how the mechanics of this could work: Call the squad leader Staff Sergeant and the team leaders Sergeants, or call the sl Sergeant and the tl's Corporal -- don't think it really matters whether we follow Army or USMC standards.

With the concept of the how the mission system is going to work, with the squad leaders being able to give out sort of "mini-missions" in the form of tactical orders (defend this area/node/whatever, attack this tank, assault the burger town, etc...) then perhaps the team leaders could give their own orders to their teams, for example "rally on me" might mean that if you are within 25 or 50 meters or something of your team leader, then you will get bonus xp along with the bonus xp you might get from completing the mission in other regards, and that will give your tl's some command xp (if they're going to have that -- also remember that we're making a lot of assumptions about command xp still being a part of the game going into planetside2). Or even alternatively, the squad leader could say "alpha team, attack this node. Bravo team, provide suppressing fire [or whatever] from this position" etc...

I think one problem I'm realizing as I hash this out is that it is looking to become more and more detailed; perhaps a simpler system could be used.

As far as the player cap thing, maybe something saying that your squad must have 7 players before u can add tl's (1 sl, 2 tl's, 2 players per team = 7 total) and maybe even have up to 3 teams (USMC again) with 3-4 players/team and up to a 12-man squad. Idk, just throwin around some possibilities.

Maverick · 2012-06-04, 01:36 PM

This is a must for me. Im a big time strategy player, and i was highly intending on running some ops. A robust, scalable, and intuitive command and control system is a big deal to me. The way I plan on rolling it, some squads should be named, color and/or icon coded ui representation, even have their own cosmetics. By scalable I mean I can choose to have a number of tiers for squads as I choose and squads the size of my choosing. And saved for future squad selection when building platoons often from return squads.

Some simple map drawing tools that can be shared between a squad leader to his squad, or a platoon leader to his squad leaders and squads. This in order to make attack plans and objectives, that squads can maybe check off as complete as they go. Perhaps this could play into the mission system they have.

They could already have these in motion for all I know, just throwing out some ideas.

GhettoPrince · 2012-06-04, 11:36 PM

Do you mean like the combat commands from brothers in arms? Where you just point at what you want dead or the cover you want to move to and right click to order the move/attack/suppressing fire?

Yeah, something like that sounds really fun, but I was mostly going for a simple system to deal with the fact that

1. Platoon Leader/Squad Leader is a tough job and it's sink or swim, so something like this would give people a way to ease into it without dropping them into a situation where they have to organize transport, plan a fight, call the fight, be fighting as well and having to stay in contact with the other squads in the platoon.

2. Just give a fun way to deal with the fact that respawns get hit and in a long , chaotic fight half of your squad is gonna end up respawning all over the map and the other half will be running back for vehicles.

There are a lot of people who can be great squad leaders, but they just don't want to deal with the stress of having to learn to do all that at once. I think the game could really benefit from having a "learning curve" built into squad leading.

Cutter · 2012-07-13, 03:45 PM

I can't wait to see what they have for squad assignments/clan tools.

Baneblade · 2012-07-13, 04:02 PM

http://www.planetside-universe.com/s...87&postcount=7

We do know that platoons can be as large as 10 squads in PS2. So that is potentially 100 players to keep track of, and managing that needs multi level leadership.

So my idea with 5 player teams would be comparable:

Team = 5
Squad = 16
Platoon = 49
Company = 148

Now it could be done PS1 style where the leader of the first squad is the platoon leader:

Team = 5
Squad = 15
Platoon = 45
Company = 135

Leadership in PS1 was pretty much all or nothing. In PS2 with a proper command hierarchy, you can have multi tier leadership and a much larger leader participation profile.

OutlawDr · 2012-07-13, 04:26 PM

There is no command xp afaik in ps2, but I still see use for team leaders. Especially when talking about span of control. 9 players under 1 guy is a bit much. Allowing the SL to have 2-3 team leaders under him to distribute command is not a bad idea. If anything it allows the SL to officially in-game designate subordinate groups within the squad. It easier for the SL when he only has to deal with 2-3 subordinate elements instead of 9. Also allow team leaders to have some basic command utility, such as acting as a squad-spawn beacon along side the SL but only for members under his team. It'd make the benefit of having those teams a bit more concrete.

Ravenclaw · 2012-07-14, 04:31 AM

Lets not over complicate things, they system in place that's unlikely to change, but a nominated assistant is not a bad idea still...

how about keeping it simple... squad leader nominates a assistant this leave 4 squadmates for for himself and his assistant.

and if the squad leader leaves for some reason the assistant automatically take command of the squad... he can then nominate a new assisant

Baneblade · 2012-07-14, 07:46 AM

It isn't more complicated... if anything it would be less to have more hierarchy options.

Saifoda · 2012-07-16, 02:01 AM

Originally Posted by Baneblade

It isn't more complicated... if anything it would be less to have more hierarchy options.

That, and also allow for more leadership roles for players. And I promise I'll finish writing my outfit/mission/etc... post soon (finished up my space stuff for now, moving on lol).

BraavikStal · 2012-07-16, 03:05 AM

It's a good idea. If you want to have cohesive squads then having a TL or two under a SL in a full sized sqaud would work. The SL would be able to provide missions to his TL's and then they would pass it on the the squads. So your making the SL's job much easier.