Commanding in NS2

Wyattx3Wyattx3 Join Date: 2003-07-23 Member: 18386Members
<div class="IPBDescription">so far...</div>Essentially this will be my opinion on how Commanding plays, for both sides, and how I personally feel it should be improved to keep the commander active and not annoyed.

To start off, I have been playing more frequently now that the game is much more stable. Many times I find myself the only one willing/able to command, and because of this, I've commanded more than anything thus far.

Overall, I have liked commanding, aside from the obvious clunkiness, I've had no serious problems with it. But I do have some suggestions, otherwise I wouldn't be making my own topic.


First of all, I feel we need reduce the amount of clicks/camera movements needed to initiate certain actions.

Drifters, for example, require you to go to the hive, click on the hive, click on the drifter icon (Or Press D) click on the drifter you want, and then finally give it a command after moving your camera to wherever you want to send the drifter. All of this is quite time consuming, and is not fun.

My suggestion would be to have each Hive appear as an Icon, kind of like NS1 did for all aliens, and allow the alien commander to select and give each hive commands through the icons. Now, drifters would be spawnable through these Icons, and then an option to Select all Drifters (Ones either specific to the hive or within a certain radius). Which would then allow you to bring your drifters to a certain area, without panning your map.

In addition, Starcraft II handles multiple commands to groups of workers very well. If you select a group of 5 workers, and, while holding shift, give multiple commands. The orders are issued to each worker successively in the order you give them.

The reason I see this being useful, as a Commander, I often times want to build in a certain hot spot, but I find myself panning back and forth so often I cannot focus on whats going on the ground. If there was a way for the commander to call his builders quickly and provide support to their team.

In addition, upgrades could be handled very quickly, and without too much distraction...



Most importantly, with the addition of all the new Commander 'spells' (like fury & umbra) I think there is an opportunity for the Commanders in NS2 to be an incredible experience. Although it is rare for the Commander to get the opportunity to make a significant difference in battles when their attention is drawn across the map several times throughout the game.

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