Squads, Sergeants and team buffs?

AegelWard

Could player character squads be brought back at some point? for commanders in NS1 it was a easy and convenient way of ordering players or even finding where they were on the map.

Although with some evolution of the concept, naturally, for example being able to designate a member of a squad as the leader or 'sergeant' along with some small buffs to encourage squads to stay in close proximity to each other. For example 1% more damage per squad member in proximity of say, 1-2 meters, of the sergeant with a maximum of 5% buff. Perhaps more sprint time too.

Similar buffs for aliens with say "packs" with an "alpha" being designated, extra damage and more attack energy.

Of course this is a random shot in the dark idea to try and get people to stick together more.

Draptor

You may not even need a stat buff. The ability for the commander to designate one or two team leaders (I'd give the player the ability to accept or deny the request) would be wonderful. It could show something like a mini waypoint overhead, and we all know how new folks like to follow shiny waypoint things. Something for the commander to say "Hey guys, this guy knows what he's doing. Do as he does." It would be useless in competitive play, but since most of us are part of the 90% who just pub (Which right now is essentially acting like a cattle herder), it could greatly improve things in times like now when there's a sale.

I never played NS1 when there was a squad system, could you explain how it worked? To me it seems like it would encourage folks to run alone across the map trying to reach the squad they died with unless you implemented some battlefield spawn on SL mechanic, which would not fit at all.

aeroripper

In NS1, squads were pretty much a useless gimmick and not used, beyond the giggles of making everyone on the team squad 5 (you're squad five!). Early in the ns2 beta as you may remember there was an auto grouping squad feature, but it was ditched since it didn't really add anything to the game and was again, useless. You can still hot group groups of marines as comm though, although its far more effective to just call people's names out to go places individually.

1dominator1

This is another feature that died in the pipes. Probably of asphyxiation.