Squads

]V[oo]V[anChoo

<div class="IPBDescription">Can we make it work?</div>
In my experience of NS1 the ability of the commander to assign ppl into squads was almost never used. In the odd game when it was, most players generally ignored it. I think this was mainly due to the inability of players to recognise fellow squad members. As a commander it was very difficult to have more than 1 group of ppl acting as a group, and I would love to see more smaller squads actually working together. Would it be practical to perhaps have a small colour change on the armour to identify fellow squad members? Maybe just a shoulder pad or something. Even perhaps commander assigned squad leaders being able to issue basic commands via his mic voice to only his squad members. Maybe the commander can assign a goal/task to each squad leader he creates. For example get me more res points, attack here, defend here. Perhaps theses commander instructions would only go to the squad leaders so that the rest are dependent on his orders to help the team. Of course one could still ignore it all do the rambo thing. What do you think? can we make it work? Does anyone else want to see more squads working together? Are there better ways of achieving this?

yoda

I dont really agree, but the idea of something on the shoulder or something like that would be a good idea in my opinion.

Also are you talking about having a seperate microphone key to talk to your current squad? I dont know if it would be possible but it would be pretty neat, in pub at least in comp it would be fairly useless because of the size of the teams.

schkorpio

The biggest reason i see squads didnt work was that as soon as you die, you have to go running all the way back to your squad - which a lot of the time by the time you got there , the squad was either dead or went somewhere else.

Respawning on the squad leader would easily fix this or a spawn beacon.

i love the idea of squads - i think no game does it better than bf2 and 2142.
-The squad system is player managed so you don't need the commander to do any of it - but it would be nice the commander could assign non squad players into a squad if wanted to. (its still up to the players to stick with the squad)
- the whole respawning next your squad is awesome - you always get to play beside your friends. unless they are all dead lol,
-squads keep the game momentum rolling, having to kill the squad "source" ads a new element of strategy.
- its easy to tell whos in your squad.

kharaa would need something to help disrupt squads etc too, because its very hard to beat a well organized marine team.

radicalkiller

Yea playing bf2 there squad system is the best i have ever seen just because you spawn on the leader. Maybe the comm makes squad and then selects squad leader. Being the squad leader you should look different then the normal marine "maybe more bad ass in a way" maybe even making the squad leader have more health or something and the down side is you can't become a heavy or something of that nature. make like a min of 3 people with him so thats 4 people 1 being the leader so its not abused. Maybe even make so more people in his squad the stronger he gets? that would prevent like 4-5 squad leaders and maybe encourage 2 really strong instead or something. There could also possibly be squad benefits for doing objectives and defending way points or something like extra armor.

just shooting idea's out <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/asrifle.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::asrifle::" border="0" alt="asrifle.gif" />

schkorpio

thats a cool idea too <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> the squad leader would maybe have less fire power but abilities which do a good job of keeping him alive. perhaps even motion tracking for that squad would be dependent on the squad leader - if he dies the squad loses MT - just an example, i don't konw how that would work in terms of gamepaly.

radicalkiller

Yea having the Squad Leader have special Area benefits to encourage the marines to stick with the squad leader is a good idea and have the squad leader limited to only that start out gun or maybe just the pistol so he don't go off trying to rambo.

N_3

I just dont think squads work in ns, these ideas have been mentioned countless times but the facts are that you only have 5 marines on the field and you respawn in base. It's easy enough for the comm to organize his team and direct each marine.

measles

Having squads set is indeed useful. When building over enemy lines, it makes sense to keep a soldier protecting it. Or even more than 1.. For that I would select a couple of troops and squad select them then assign them to a target. But as far as having anymore than 2 squads in your 1-5 quick select bar, its not smart. You need those for quick scans and keeping check of AA etc.