Comm over the shoulder

Scuzball

<div class="IPBDescription">I've got my eyes on you</div><ul><li>When the commander can see you on his screen, an indicator lights up on your HUD (possibley top mid-screen).</li></ul>
This comes from the viewpoint of frequent comming. Marines yelling for orders, yelling for medpacks, dutifully telling me the status in the field, and all the while totally unaware that I'm hovering right over them, and they're dithering my attention.

You're ninja'ing a hive. Will he medpack you? Did he even notice? A wide, cool-blue bar lights atop your HUD, and a phasegate materializes.

I think it'd be a great phsycological thing too. The comm's with us! We can TAKE EM! *charge charge rah rah*

Sounds pretty easy to make too, but don't take it from me.

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And this just spawned from the topic title. What if the comm could spectate the marines directly? Oftentimes I'll be totally unaware of anything besides the marines and nearby structures without pinging them. What if the appropriate hotkey and a click on your target marine let you see the field from his eyes until canceled?

Tyrain

Cool idea, I like it.

I don't know, if its possible, but splitting screens, adjusting them to specific marines (squadleaders anyone?), seeing from their perspective, would also add some more flair to the commander job.

aeroripper

Love the idea of having some neat indicator when the comm is hovering over\near you, though I think it would get overly complicated if they could spec you from first person perspective. Being able to view through anybody's perspective would ruin the whole experience of being comm and your special overhead view.

wankalot

i think its a great idea. it doesnt have to be overly intrusive on ure hud. an indicator the size of a fingernail would suffice. Its just good to know when you actually need to ask for orders, doing so when you dont need to can be costly if theres a few skulks nearby that were previously unaware of ure presence.

Its not really neccessary, but it think considering its such a simple thing to implement, why not?

aeroripper

I can't imagine its that simple to implement. Isn't the comm essentially a floating spectator IIRC? Of course that's in the goldsrc engine, aka a big hack <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />.

Kester

As for viewing through a marine's eyes you could have a section on the commander vgui with a cam link, which just plays what ever the marine you have selected can see.

If you have multiple rines selected you could scan through them with a scroll button below.

It could also have some suitable scan line effect overlay.

Magrath

I see this kind of pointless unless there is some strategical bonus for having the notification of the comm hovering over you. The comm only hovers over one player for short time to drop him meds/ammo/rt/etc...

It would only distract the marines from the game looking up at their HUD. Unless it was like a red light by their minimap then I don't see it really making an impact.

This could really kill the comm's ability to be many places at once considering he may be trying to keep an eye on all this RTS/PGS. It is only a distraction to the comm unless you can make an easy exit function such as the comm moving his mouse all the way to the side of the screen and it automatically takes them back to overhead view.

It only seems to be a cool feature right now.

Lance_Lake

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As for viewing through a marine's eyes you could have a section on the commander vgui with a cam link, which just plays what ever the marine you have selected can see.

If you have multiple rines selected you could scan through them with a scroll button below.

It could also have some suitable scan line effect overlay.
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If there is a balance issue with this, then I'd suggest making the screen half filled with static. Perhaps make it more the closer you get to the hive.

Kind of like Aliens. As they got closer to the chamber, the video got all crackicly.

Scuzball

The whole shoulder-cam thing was a throw-away. Maybe just a small video feed in the corner of your screen if you select just one marine (as a wow neato feature). Forget about it.

This was supposed to be about knowing the comm sees you. Often times people will yell for orders etc, and I'll just respond with "I see you" while I wait for res.

It would be a very simple thing. Maybe a soft glow, 2 centimeters tall, covering the middle 1/3 of the screen. Unobtrusive but easy to see without blocking your vision. Transparent too, in case you get head-bit.

glimmerman

i think just a little hud icon on the side will suffice, maybe in the top right hand corner (or what ever corner the mini map isnt on).

Kester

A red light in the corner of the minimap would be best I reckon.