New orders system
Anticept
Join Date: 2006-12-03 Member: 58875Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2006-12-03 Member: 58875Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">Place objective priorities instead of orders</div>Marine commander has too much to do in order to micro-manage the little bits of "select marine, go there." The auto-orders helps relieve some of this, but what I truly believe will help is a quick command system. Aliens could probably benefit from this too.
Basically, let's take mineshaft. First thing is first, grab the two nearby nodes. I quickly look at them put an order on the nozzle, and both will show up on marine screens screens. Once I place a building, it will still be there until the building is constructed. At the same time, the buildings in the base also get the auto-orders, so that those buildings get built.
Now that the base is done, and the nodes are placed, I start deciding that I want central drilling AND to have scouting done in a couple places on the map. I place the waypoints on the nozzles, and set scouting points. I decide that one place is more critical to scout than another, so I drag a line between them so that one is a prereq of another. I can also turn off order auto-expire, so that it marks an important point to ALWAYS hold/scout. Notice that I -never- said I select a marine. There's just no time to pick them out. However, selecting marines still give the "attack there, defend here, etc" that we already have.
To avoid screen clutter, when waypoints are far away or up close, they fade out until they are very faint. To mark distance, the icons shrink and grow.
Basically, it's an aid to help the commander tell people where specific things need to be done. Yes I'm aware of the select all marines, and I'm also aware I can bind people to squads. Two things though: Realistically, the game is too dynamic to really use squads in a pub. Second, only one order shows up at a time. So, by setting these quick commands around the map and just telling the marines in <insert room here> to follow the commands on the west side of the map, I can wrap up things quickly. It's a sort of planning system, but is meant to keep simple or it defeats it's own purpose.
Available quick commands
Scout
Assault Room
Defend Room
Attack Target
Defend Target - imagine a few of these on an arc train. Very useful.
Placing Defenses - Useful to tell the team where comm is placing defenses (marines) or wants defenses to be placed (aliens)
Patrol Here
Basically, let's take mineshaft. First thing is first, grab the two nearby nodes. I quickly look at them put an order on the nozzle, and both will show up on marine screens screens. Once I place a building, it will still be there until the building is constructed. At the same time, the buildings in the base also get the auto-orders, so that those buildings get built.
Now that the base is done, and the nodes are placed, I start deciding that I want central drilling AND to have scouting done in a couple places on the map. I place the waypoints on the nozzles, and set scouting points. I decide that one place is more critical to scout than another, so I drag a line between them so that one is a prereq of another. I can also turn off order auto-expire, so that it marks an important point to ALWAYS hold/scout. Notice that I -never- said I select a marine. There's just no time to pick them out. However, selecting marines still give the "attack there, defend here, etc" that we already have.
To avoid screen clutter, when waypoints are far away or up close, they fade out until they are very faint. To mark distance, the icons shrink and grow.
Basically, it's an aid to help the commander tell people where specific things need to be done. Yes I'm aware of the select all marines, and I'm also aware I can bind people to squads. Two things though: Realistically, the game is too dynamic to really use squads in a pub. Second, only one order shows up at a time. So, by setting these quick commands around the map and just telling the marines in <insert room here> to follow the commands on the west side of the map, I can wrap up things quickly. It's a sort of planning system, but is meant to keep simple or it defeats it's own purpose.
Available quick commands
Scout
Assault Room
Defend Room
Attack Target
Defend Target - imagine a few of these on an arc train. Very useful.
Placing Defenses - Useful to tell the team where comm is placing defenses (marines) or wants defenses to be placed (aliens)
Patrol Here
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