Variable sized squad support
So I had an Idea for a mod, but before I fire up emacs and start working, I like to hear some opinions.
The idea is quite simple, squads/groups are used in other games(shooter and rts) and I think it would be a nice addition.
The Comm:
-can create arbitrary number of squads
-can assign player to a squad
-select a whole squad via shortcut and give commands for the whole squad
A few features for normal players to better see squad members are also possible, but
the main advantage would be that a commander can give commands to 2-5 people at once.
That should make managing and coordinating a team a lot easier.
I can program, but I never worked on a mod for ns2 before.
Thats why I posted this in the first place.
Is it viable with the current mod support from ns2?
Would any of you want to play with such a mod?
Or is it a complete and utter waste of time?
Thanks!
The idea is quite simple, squads/groups are used in other games(shooter and rts) and I think it would be a nice addition.
The Comm:
-can create arbitrary number of squads
-can assign player to a squad
-select a whole squad via shortcut and give commands for the whole squad
A few features for normal players to better see squad members are also possible, but
the main advantage would be that a commander can give commands to 2-5 people at once.
That should make managing and coordinating a team a lot easier.
I can program, but I never worked on a mod for ns2 before.
Thats why I posted this in the first place.
Is it viable with the current mod support from ns2?
Would any of you want to play with such a mod?
Or is it a complete and utter waste of time?
Thanks!
Comments
Imo, the biggest thing missing, is the player's themselves have no idea if they're in a squad. There should be a Squad UI / Widget for non-comm players. So when they're commander says "Squad one, go to XYZ". They know what he/she means.
More simply, the Squad name/logo could appear someplace obvious but non ubstructive; next to health (since we look at that fairly frequently) or maybe a watermark under the mini-map?
The real key, would be to allow the comm to communicate only with the Squad he wants. It would cut down the chatter, etc...
As the coding for a coloured outline around a player is already in the game. a quick dirty mod editing the shader colour outline seen around a team mate when a commander assigns them to Blue squad or Red squad would be visually easy to understand for both players and a commander. you could even have the colours tied into the map overview.
This is probably a lot of work, but... Squad voice chat?
I have to say, I didn't know the mark and ctrl comb. Shame on me.
However it should be possible to select player for a squad from a list, without searching him on the map.
Colors is a good point! I had different colors for different squads on the mini map in mind.
Squad members should see which squad they are on,
and also see (via tab maybe?) which player is in which squat.
So to compile the ideas:
- Ui for assign players to squads
- a color for every squad
- a colored non-obstructive Widget / symbol for a player to know which squad he is on
- UI list for every player to see which player is in which squad
- squad members are colored on the mini map (only the own squad or every squad in the squad-color? I would like the latter)
- of couse hotkeys for squads in comm mode
What do you mean by that? Just: "Blue, you attack cargo?" and everybody hears it or do you mean
a hotkey and only the blue squad gets to hear it?
What about players being in more then one squad? Would be like tags than though.
Thats possible in most rts, but maybe a little to confusing ingame.
Whats also important for me, would be auto assignments to squads, i.e. people join and mid game and automatically join a squad.
Edit:
Hehe, it could be a blue bravo! But I think colors have immens benefits. Not every one knows α,β,ɣ.
Thats what I asked above, but how would the team benefit from that?
Most of the time you need every information you can get, from every on the map.