Rookie Tag for Rookie Commanders
yehawmcgraw
Join Date: 2012-09-16 Member: 159694Members
Join Date: 2012-09-16 Member: 159694Members
The current green color-coded rookie tag system is clobbered by the yellow commander highlight. This is a real problem.
The newest players are much much more likely to get in the comm chair because they inherently have no idea how important the role is. When asked they will usually answer "No one else was getting in so I figured I would", but a long wait for them might be 10 seconds or so. This means it happens often.
Unfortunately they won't communicate much for help or to say they are new, likely because the don't know how or don't know that it matters. Usually these new commanders will go largely undetected in a game, appearing like a passive, quiet commander, until it is too late, and the team is hopelessly crippled by lack of RT/terrain capture. This ruins a game from the start, and is further exacerbated by the 10 minute minimum concede time.
Bottom line is players need a way to tell if a commander is new, because it really (in my experience) happens way too often and hurts way too much.
The easiest solution would be to just append a text-based "(rookie)" string to the name, instead of the green color, but this only acknowledges the players with 0-2 hours (or is it 0-4?) playtime. IMHO players really need at least 15 hrs before *attempting* to command, and under ideal circumstances.
A solution I feel I'd like more is keeping a count of games spent commanding and show via name text if a player has less than 5 games commanded, but only show the number of games if it is less than that 5.
Still, I am not really that enthusiastic about either of these solutions (this is more of an acknowledgement of a problem, not a solution). So I turn to you guys, how do you solve this problem?
The newest players are much much more likely to get in the comm chair because they inherently have no idea how important the role is. When asked they will usually answer "No one else was getting in so I figured I would", but a long wait for them might be 10 seconds or so. This means it happens often.
Unfortunately they won't communicate much for help or to say they are new, likely because the don't know how or don't know that it matters. Usually these new commanders will go largely undetected in a game, appearing like a passive, quiet commander, until it is too late, and the team is hopelessly crippled by lack of RT/terrain capture. This ruins a game from the start, and is further exacerbated by the 10 minute minimum concede time.
Bottom line is players need a way to tell if a commander is new, because it really (in my experience) happens way too often and hurts way too much.
The easiest solution would be to just append a text-based "(rookie)" string to the name, instead of the green color, but this only acknowledges the players with 0-2 hours (or is it 0-4?) playtime. IMHO players really need at least 15 hrs before *attempting* to command, and under ideal circumstances.
A solution I feel I'd like more is keeping a count of games spent commanding and show via name text if a player has less than 5 games commanded, but only show the number of games if it is less than that 5.
Still, I am not really that enthusiastic about either of these solutions (this is more of an acknowledgement of a problem, not a solution). So I turn to you guys, how do you solve this problem?
Comments
The trouble with that is people hopping out, but the whole no-res thing changed that a bit :P
I kinda like your idea, I just wish we had a commander tutorial.
This would mean that even experienced players would appear as "Rookie Commander" when they have commanded, say, less than 10 games.
This would at least solve the problem of greens becoming commander without the rest of the team knowing that they have some kind of minimum experience level.
For instance, with almost 500 hrs playtime, I've only commanded about 10 games total (alien and marine combined, and those MANY builds ago), and when I get in the chair, I would want my team to know that I will not be very quick on the meds
To me, ns2 is sort of like 2 games in 1, and as much as I hate limiting or restricting players, it might be beneficial to prevent "rookie" players from getting into the chair until the green status has gone away, and then give them a green commander status until they've got 10 games under their belt as commander*.
*this would need to be applied individually to both marine and alien commander, as they play differently
I agree all comms have to start sometime and sometimes are better than others.
I feel that and others don't mind as much or at all when you *know* he or she is new (and you've found out that they're willing to learn/has mic), so you can instruct and help out, thereby mitigating team damage and helping the new comm learn correctly. I think it would be 10x better for both parties that way.
This does not only make sence, because in real life a TSF marine could never become commander the first day on the field, but it will also make it very clear commanding is kind of a big deal.
It will be like an achievement to work towards, struggling through green blood and gore with your bare hands before you are allowed to step into that chair.
( And this should play from 0:38 when they step into the chair for the first time: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL7F37BB1A67E0238D&v=tFXYuw96d0c&feature=player_detailpage#t=39
I'm not sure if you're being serious or not. Not letting someone in the chair at all is a terrible idea. Even now there are times when games don't start for several minutes because no one wants to get in the chair/hive, what your suggesting can potentially spawn a situation where a game can't start at all.
Also, I really hate when people try to bring in Natural Selection "lore" to justify gameplay changing ideas (the vast majority of those ideas tend to be pretty terrible).
I agree, this 'unstartable game' case scares me. Maybe a hard-to-ignore pop-up dialog upon entry for under 15 hours explaining the seriousness , and an ok dialog more or less worded 'Command anyway'?
Personaly I don't think the problem is rookie players getting in the chair. The problem is other players not knowing he/she is a rookie like the OP said.
Adding annoying pop-ups would be terrible. Specially on the command chair login which is so uniquely merged with the world.
When it is clear from the start a comm is a rookie, other people can immediatly explain things. Or when the commander is unresponsive, kick him out of the chair. ( and ofcourse telling him gently why that happened )
I agree, and also seperate alien and marine commander rookieness.
And it's true they have to start somewhere but first you have to learn what other commanders did wrong, like building an arms lab in the first minute.
And explore in tutorial mode how to build everything, what it does, etc.
Now, games commanded is not really a good measure as well. I can command tons of games, starting with sentry nest at base and in the hallway right next to base. And all of those would lead to fail. Games actually won as a commander should be taken into account to distinguish boys from men. Five on each side should be enough, I guess.
Rookie tag on comm is a good idea overall. Unless it's rookie friendly server, I'd like to be commanded by more experienced person or take over myself.