Command Updates - 2018

Aim

Make command roles appealing to more players and give commanders tools that support them in playing the objective in a cohesive, coordinated manner thereby enhancing the experience of all players.

Introduction

Command. Updates. How many times? My squad management panel was on version 10. Version 10. SOE started it by putting a few of my early suggestions in from my first version. Here we are 5 years on and I am still banging on about this stuff. Why you ask? Because it's important!

Planetside 2 is a game of massive scale, massive possibilities and to channel my inner Yamiks, massive fucking zergs. Command is the key to unlocking the games potential beyond zerging. It is all too easy to get tunnel vision - install game - spawn at a Sunderer - move to point - get killed - do it again - and again - and again. Most players quit, some stay and adapt. Hell I find it hard to watch a stream without getting confused and I've been on Auraxis more days than not for the past 15 years. But what if that new player joins a squad with a leader who knows enough to not get his squad farmed? A leader that knows how one squad can make a difference in the right place at the right time? A leader that is not burnt out and salty? That player might just stay to lead themselves one day.

Command makes the game more than just a team death match, command gives the game spectacle, command makes players stick around. It is worth doing properly.

And now the devs say that 2018 will be a year of leadership, outfit and new player experience development and that there is a UI guy, a UI guy at last! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited by the prospect. I just hope it is not too late. I've seen so many good leaders disappear I hope that it is done in time.

Anywho, here we go again...

Finding a squad

Lets start off with joining a squad. Right now it is tucked away in a menu with a few hints on loading screens and the tutorial to prod you towards it. Lets change things so that when you log in you log in as part of a squad. Priority is a squad led by an outfit mate. Then a squad with your outfit members or friends in it. Option to not be part of this. For newer players there would be mentor squads that you would be funneled into as described in the image below (click on it to see the full size image).

For those players who want to use the existing panel to find a squad right for them, I suggest three separate options; list, hierarchy and map view.

List View

Above is the existing screen but with a bunch of additions:

• Speciality: See the squad management section for details.

• Leaders Leadership directive progress (yeah, the directives all need an overhaul).

• Mentor squad or not (see link above)

• Extra filters including for local and mentor squads

• Invite local players/Friends/Outfitmates buttons to make starting a squad easier

• Note show would be you able to order the list by clicking on the description bar

Hierarchy View

This view would show you how the organisation of the faction is arranged, so you can find who is leading platoons without having to join them to find out. This screen would be visible by existing leaders and give them the option of joining larger groups that their smaller group could fill.

Make note of:

• Filters - especially useful for finding the groups on your continent

• Companies - yeah, sure the population is slowly dwindling but I have hope! Plus we still have way more people fighting on a single continent than a single platoon so it would be helpful

• Independent section - for those squads that are not part of a platoon. Other leaders could invite these squads to join them through the button on each

• Fireteam leaders - see the squad management section for more details

Map view

This would be an option for the map screen which would show players looking for a squad or in one if options are ticked where friendly squads are on the continent.

Note:

• Mission system - see this link for more details

• Squad speciality - see below for more details

• Also note that you can see who is using voice communication while on the screen

Squad management

Note the following additions:

• Fire teams leaders - they could place their own beacons for squad members and use my overhauled Q Menu to direct their fire team members. Honestly if I could have one thing from this entire set of ideas it would be this. See the image below for all the details as well as a few extras about fire teams. I would also like it if squad members could request a squad waypoint using this system.

• Squad leader directive rank shown

• Squad member nanite amount shown – lets the squad lead know who he can ask to pull a Galaxy without having to ask

• Squad composition – totally optional, but would allow squad leaders who want to micromanage their squad classes to do so if they wish and save/load certain compositions

• Squad mission – displays the current mission (see link above)

• Outfit recruiting – automatically funnel outfit members into your squad all at once or when they come online

• Squad speciality – see details below

• Auto local invites checkbox - automatically send players near to you a squad invite if you have spaces available

• Squad queue - for players who want to join your squad, but can't fit in. I've not made an image with management of this, but there would be option to create a platoon and such. Players could queue for one squad while being part of another

• Squad statistics – allows the squad lead (and squad members) to see how the squad is doing and their impact on the world

Squad Specialities

Squad leaders would be able to select a squad speciality, which would give the group some perks as an encouragement to stick with a role. This is important for a number of reasons, primarily so that players know what they are getting into when they look for a squad, but also so that other leaders know what assets are in play around them. Note that this would overlap with outfit division specialities (more long winded concepts on the way).

The specialities are as follows:

• Infantry

• • +10% experience for actions taken as infantry classes

• Mechanised Infantry

• • -30% nanite cost of Sunderers and Harassers

  • +50% experience for infantry actions taken within 100m of a squad Sunderer or Harasser as well as those using them, or 180 seconds after being in one

• Airborne Infantry

• • -30% nanite cost of Galaxies and Valkyries

  • +50% experience for infantry actions taken within 100m of a squad Galaxy or Valkyrie as well as those using them, or 120 seconds after being in one

• Armour

• • -30% nanite cost of MBTs and Lightnings

  • +30% experience for actions taken within 100m of a squad MBT or Lightning

• Air Cavalry

• • -30% nanite cost of ESFs and Liberators

  • +30% experience for actions taken within 100m of a squad ESF or Liberator

• Special Ops

• • +30% experience for actions taken as an Infiltrator or Light Assault

• Irregulars

• • These guys have not picked a speciality - the fools! No buffs for you. Seriously, choose a speciality - it's free certs.

Note that the pure infantry speciality has a reduced buff to XP as the other options promote more offensive play taking the fight to the enemy, instead of pure defensive play or relying on other groups to pull Sunderers.

Command Points

Command points would be earned through the actions of your squad or platoon. Platoon leaders would earn them at a higher rate compared to their squad leaders to encourage people to join larger groups. The points would also be earned faster if the squad supports each other and fights in even or outnumbered fights.

These points could then be spent on various perks for the leader to use to help the team. This addition would provide more incentive for players to lead and provide obvious bonuses for those players using the squad and platoon system. Alternatively these perks could just be on a timer as they were on the original game, but this encourages players to rotate squad lead instead of one player sticking with it (yes I know passing SL is vital to keep beacons up, but beacons should not be tied to the SL - give us squad sergeants who can drop the beacon and lead fire teams).

Potentially some perks could only be used in friendly territory or if certain assets were available (eg Amp Stations could allow for Supply Drops, or player constructions could tie into them). Some perks could only be available when used from specific command vehicles such as the Supply Drop being reliant on the Command Sunderer or Galaxy.

Perks:

• Fire Support Request – alerts nearby ESFs, Liberators and MBTs to the target location for 30 seconds.

• Recon Sweep – reveals all moving enemies in a 200m radius to the leader only for 5 seconds, no MAX indicator or direction.

• Recon Drone – controlled like an aircraft this would let the leader look around their position and use the other perks, place waypoints, smoke and potentially set missions. Can be shot down.

• Defence Drone – this would follow the leader around for that life, and fire on enemy targets that fire on the leader or close within 20m. Can be shot down. EMPs disable it.

• Supply Drop – this drops an ammunition crate that not only resupplies infantry but vehicles as well.

• Steel Rain – a pop up asks all squad members to respawn on the squad leaders position via drop pod with a 15 second wait time.

• Sunderer Drop – this drops a stock Sunderer on the location (can only be used outside of both enemy and friendly no deploy zones). Has a random element to the drop so you cannot reliably pinpoint drop it on top of a spire for example.

• EMP Strike – this disables enemy vehicles weapons and halves their movement speed for 15 seconds. It also masks friendly players from enemy recon devices and spotting. Only available if a friendly Glaive is on the continent.

• Orbital Strike – this calls in a destructive blast which can destroy unshielded Sunderers. Only available if a friendly OS is built on the continent.

The perks could be used via the map screen, via an improved Q menu, the command vehicles, Recon Drone or the minimap, potentially with restrictions as mentioned above.

Perks of Command

Commanders should be rewarded for their efforts with real, tangible things. Right now there is a directive hat and points, which is lackluster. The hat doesn't even look good and is covered in glowy Ghostbusters slime. I mean I like Ghostbusters goo when I was 5, but I'm 33 now and I am all grown up with manly hobbies like playing serious business video games and making up concepts about a game without even being paid. Perhaps the directive could be changed to also give more stuff like a fancy camo at least. People love the White/Black rewards but less so the command helmet.

Anywho, what rewards should there be? A shit ton of certs for starters! Good leaders should be rolling in certs and should be given a decent proportion of their groups earned experience if they earn them within a certain radius of the leader.

On top of that leaders should earn cosmetic loot drops like we see with alerts currently. I would have leadership roles earn progress in a personal bar which when completed unlocks the leader a loot drop. These guys selflessly improve the play experience for others and they should be valued and rewarded as such.

I would also make leadership a more prominent part of the scoreboard, making squads shown up on it in addition to the individual list which we have now and you can see an older concept for it below.

You could also make the top squad leaders name show on base caps where an outfit squad contributes to a base capture/defence to further get the message out that squad leaders make a difference.

I often wonder if PS2 foray into the world of MLG would have gone better if there was more emphasis on the leadership of groups, rather than a focus on the whole mass of players, but that time has passed.

Squad HUD Additions

A whole bunch of stuff could be added to the HUD to help squads, including some of the bits and pieces on this older image:

Miscellaneous changes

• confirmation boxes when passing leadership, and if no one wants it then the group should disband

• a way for disgruntled subordinates to mutiny vote out a bad leader

• leaders that lose their group through a disconnect should be able to reclaim them if they can reconnect within 5 minutes

• when groups end up 'orphantooned' for too long (eg the leader takes no command actions or does not use voice comms), they the group should be automatically disbanded to push players into more engaged groups

• The certification description for Spawn Beacons is very unhelpful - each stage of it simply says that it reduces the timer, the description needs to be quantitative

• Have an option to automatically boot players from squads who have been too far away from the squad leader for a certain period of time

• Priority for leader voice comms, ducking other squad/platoon comms

• Leadership metrics should be recorded and recognised, as shown below

Conclusion

Well done for making it this far, if indeed you are still reading. I am passionate about leadership being a more important, rewarding and useful aspect of Planetside 2 and I hope is that if enough additions are made then the deafening silence that follows the words "I'm heading off, who wants lead?" will hopefully be replaced with a bunch of people clamoring to have the opportunity to take command.