Coordination Update - 2020

Work in Progress December 2020

Spawn, construction, battlefield resources, command and session group overhaul all in one, in what I am calling the Coordination Update.

Key features:

Session groups:

  • Fireteams made the session group an individual joins (rather than a squad)

  • Fireteam members would earn bonus experience on any action (not just direct support) near to another member of their fireteam, promoting coordinated play further

  • Any fireteam member can revive another, even if not a medic

  • Q menu enhanced to make it more useful second to second

Spawn changes:

  • Simplified to reduce jumping around the map without vehicles

  • Previous spawn point always available

  • Galaxy AMS brought back

  • Squad spawning into vehicle removed and replaced with fireteam spawning into vehicles

Battlefield resources:

  • War Assets granted through session leaders (fire team, squad and platoon leaders, as well as potentially company leaders)

  • Outfit members can still pool their war assets long term, as current

Goes hand in hand with the Intercontinental Lattice and the World Overhaul which I have made previously which address battle flow both within a territory and across the entire world space.

Session Group (Fireteam/Squad/Platoon) Changes

Individuals would no longer join squads, instead players would join fire teams of up to 4 players. This would make session groups more close knit especially when combined with the spawn options and other features mentioned below. It would help to break down the burden of command as the first step in leading would only involve working with up to 3 other players, rather than 11. Then if the fire team leader wants to join a squad then all they have to do is pay attention to their squad leader and their requests, and then build their confidence to lead a squad themselves.

Fire teams could join together to form squads, with one of the fire team leaders, or another player, leading the squad. Fire team leaders could take their fire team out of a squad if they wish. Squad leaders can move fire team members between fire teams, with the fire team leader's permission.

These squads can then form platoons, with a squad leader, or another player, leading the platoon. Platoon leaders could move fire teams around between squads with the squad leader's permission, as well as individual players, with the fire team leader's permission.

COMPANIES?

Session group leaders would earn War Asset resources, rewarding them for their efforts improving the experience of others. This would allow them to call in assets to help them on the battlefield, with fire team leads able to call in Auraxium assets, squad leaders Synthium assets and Polystellerite assets.

To make fire teams better a variety of improvements would be rolled out:

  • Fire team members would be able to see each other through obstacles, as we see in PS2s death screen and saw briefly in PSA for friendlies. Toggleable.


  • Any fireteam member can revive another member of their fireteam (although it would take perhaps 3x as long as a standard medic revive) making fireteam members much more supportive to each other, providing a huge benefit to being in a session group over playing solo.


  • Fire team and squad leaders would have an upgraded context sensitive (Q) menu, allowing them to direct their group rapidly and specifically, allowing them to set priority targets on friendlies and enemies, set assault and defend orders and call for the group to reform. They could also request fire support from nearby vehicles and place waypoints.

Spawning

All players would always have the option to spawn at their nearest:

  • Spawn Room.

  • Public Drop Pod Beacon (see details of this here).

  • Sunderer or Galaxy AMS (if deployed).

  • Elysium Spawn Tube.

  • Facility Spawn Room (Amp Station, Tech Plant or Biolab).


They could also always spawn at any warp gate spawn room that is available and Sanctuary, and wherever they previously spawned at.

In addition players could spawn at locations which have had a call for 'Reinforcements Needed' by a leader using War Assets. Note that these calls for help would only work in territories where the players faction is outnumbered by the enemy.

Members of fireteams would have the following further options, with appropriate cooldowns:

  • Drop pod to fire team leader.

  • Drop pod to fire team beacon (if deployed).

  • Spawn on fire team router (if deployed). Deployed through the War Asset system, if a Router base is within a certain radius.

  • Spawn into Galaxy, Sunderer and Valkyrie transports if a fireteam member is in them.

Outfit members could use the War Asset Steel Rain for their whole squad.


Spawning Restrictions

To balance fights and reward strategic play spawning restrictions would be in place.

If a territory is cut off from the warpgate all 'hard' spawns (spawn rooms and public drop pod beacons) would shut down, forcing players to rely on player placed 'soft' spawn options.

When population is imbalanced in a territory spawn timers would change to become longer or shorter, scaling with the percentage imbalance (alternatively with 'Effective Force' values, see link for details). For example if attackers outnumber defenders 2:1 then the attackers spawn timers would double, while the defenders would half. This would support the defenders while punishing the attackers for wasting manpower in this instance.