Bring in Organized Marine Squads in NS2!

CobraCommander

<div class="IPBDescription">"You are Squad 1" - NS1</div>I know Squads will be used in NS2, but I'm wondering if the Squad feature will stand out to the Comm so he could start issuing squads roles to the Marines right away, because we need to see more organized play in the Marines side of the game. An organized Marine team can be a very beautiful experience.
Eventually we'll be playing 16 vs. 16 games and I'm so excited to be apart of those games in post 1.0!

Lets get some ideas in to make sure Squads get used more often! We obviously want to see more differences between Marine and Alien play and the Squads feature can make this happen! So lets get this thread going!

<b>Here are some ideas for better Squad plays:

- Mic hotkeys to specifically speak only to your squad, to another Squad, or to your Comm. Nobody else can hear you on mic, so it's not confusing chatter such as the random guy screaming "Hey behind you!". This would be best for 16v16 games.

- Instead of calling a Squad by a number. Use names such as Alpha and Bravo. Coming up with futuristic names would be cool too(You might have to bring back that voice actor again ><).

- As the Marine Commander, use the tactical map to mark locations your squads need to be to attack or defend.

<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=119978" target="_blank">- Not really an idea, but this might also help each squad choose weapons wishfully, as the squad will be communicating to each other in many situations. For example when a Squad-mate respawns, he'll be told to grab a GL before heading out to location to take out the Gorge wall that's in the way.</a></b>

This sounds kinda like Arma II's squad play, but I really like these ideas for encouraging more fun, organized play in NS2 post - 1.0, because... 32 player games!! It'll probably get hectic.

these kinds of features will also encourage larger, more complex maps in the future. God, I love modders and mappers!!

<!--sizeo:5--><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->UWE just say yes.<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->

AurOn2

"just say yes"
Best way to get your point across, they can't say no, or risk being mean and evil!
I think in a 32 player game, that you don't need to do anything to encourage squad play, the maps are big enough to have you with a bunch of people, or die!
I mean imagine it, 16 skulks vs you because 1 skulk parasited you as you strolled nearby an alien hive?
Alots of teeths, aowies!

Align

<!--coloro:#FF8C00--><span style="color:#FF8C00"><!--/coloro-->Phased to I&S.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->

Grohmi

I think more organized Gameplay can be achieved in roles given to the marines, e.g. defender, rebuilder or conqueror. It is no big thing but if a marine has this role, a symbol can displayed in his view. The roles have to be explained before the game e.g. on loading screen while entering a game.


The interesting point on squads is, that the commander can give objectives to the different squads and not to a single person. Than you have to think about the different spawn point. Because when the squad is in action and one of the squad member dies, he will spawn on the other side of the map and this is the ground problem with squads in this game. If he wants to get to his squad he have to go through the hole map and this is unorganized.

ScardyBob

UWE was originally planning to implement squad features, but its one of those 'nice, but not necessary' things the fell by the wayside for the v1.0 push.

Kouji_San

BTW, Squad 5 is obviously the best one, judging from the commander's voice chat when he assigns it (NS1)

[HEI] Spade

At the beginning there was the coloured squad for close marines. NO MORE :'( Why? don't know, it was never mentioned on the changelogs. It was an easy way to tell a group of people in a room what to do. Maybe show that colour on the commander's minimap to know directly who is where and give orders without going to the specified place.

Give it back please :) sooner is the best because we'll learn to play with it!