Playing together with a friend!

Triggerman

<div class="IPBDescription">Steamworks friendslist, minimap, chat messages, coaching etc.</div>Since the game interface is under heavy construction, have you considered the idea of "playing with friends" and support that?

I played with a friend back before build 200 quite extensively and it was a ton of fun. However, playing together by being on the same spot on the map (as alien in particular) was a struggle. Newcomers don't know the minimap or the name of locations on it! They get lost, they stand around for too long, they don't know how to reach you, you both get frustrated and rarely end up playing together. What I would want to suggest is that the game can make a distinction of a Friend on your Steamworks list.
The best thing about such a system is that it would encourage players to overcome the learning curve of the game as well, since they have a solid Friends system to help them through.

Here are a few examples:

<b>Easy</b>
<ul><li>Floating nametags show up in a different color.</li><li>Friends are displayed in a different color on the minimap and the full map.</li><li>Friends chat messages are in a different color.</li><li>Friends using the voice-channel are displayed in a different color.</li></ul>

<b>Difficult</b>
<ul><li>The direction to a friend is tracked with an arrow on the minimap.</li><li>Mutual friends have a dedicated voice-channel to speak in (good for tutoring).</li><li>A part of the HUD has the friend's Steamportrait along with their location always up to date.</li><li>Friends can alert friends by pressing a button which creates an alert ("ping") on the minimap and full map.</li></ul>



I've written a similar topic before called "<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=115806&hl=" target="_blank">Mentoring newcomers and spectating players</a>" as well.

Rover

Or they could take map reading 101 and use something other than the game for voice (steam, mumble, skype, ts, ventrilo, ...)

Triggerman

<!--quoteo(post=1924010:date=Apr 10 2012, 04:56 PM:name=Rover)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Rover @ Apr 10 2012, 04:56 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1924010"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Or they could take map reading 101 and use something other than the game for voice (steam, mumble, skype, ts, ventrilo, ...)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Well, first off, hardly constructive.
Secondly, we played together on Skype. There's just a limit to the amount of information you can take in the first time you're playing, especially if you spawned at Hive A whereas your friend spawned at Hive WherethehellamI on the other side of the map and wants to regroup with you. We could mention a location on the map on Skype, but due to the nature of the beast you can rarely stay put in one location for very long or one of you simply dies. Especially if your friend is new to the game and rightly confused about the whole thing.

Colouring your friends nametag and icon on the map is not a difficult feature (unless Steamworks cannot support this, but I doubt it), but it would add the first-glance information you want when you're playing with your friends.

C.Advent

It'd be nice to have this kind of stuff in NS2, the game will need more focus on the social aspect of gaming when it is released.
Any change that makes the game more accessible and mainstream without actually changing gameplay is a good one