Battlefield Commander

[Profane Arbiter]

Similar to games like Battlefield 2 or BF2142, the commander is given an overhead view of the action, can spot targets for teammates, suggest tactical movements, depoly UAVs, drop supplies, and call in an orbital strike.

I get the feeling this might not be doable within the confines of the game engine. If not, is it possible that at least some of these capabilities could be made purchasable items that can be bought from the field from a bot "commander?" ?

In other words, lets say you're up on a mountain as BA or in your mech and want to take out a position with an orbital strike. You call the strike in by going to your buy menu and can access only abilities like the UAV or orbital strike while in the field. You then can designate the target and voila, we break up the hangar campers.

[Virt]

I'd love to see something like what you've described ... though a little differently to how you've described it.

It would be great for a designated commander on each team to be able to see and use all the accumulated information available from all the sensors of all of your team.   However, I wouldn't want them to have a privileged 'eye of God' view of the battlefield and enemy.  That is, I wouldn't want them to know anything about the enemy that isn't being sensed by a member of his team, as that would be unrealistic.   Nor do I want them to have any 'Hand of God' weapons.

How about this:

The designated commander could have access to a special command room in the hangar, which basically contains a big realtime map with all your team's information, and whatever your team is currently sensing about enemy locations, designations and conditions.     The map would be interactive, with menu and mouse shortcut commands to enable you to issue your team with instructions and intel.

Further potential enhancements:

* The commander can launch from his hangar a recon probe/drone which cricles above some point on the battlefield of their choosing.  The probe would provide radar and visual information, and it would be able to be shot down by the enemy.   If it gets shot down, the commander has to build another one, which takes time to manufacture and deploy.

* The commander could send a remotely-controlled robot Mobile Field Base to deploy at a designated point on the map.    The MFB would enable basic team repairs, and ammunition reloads.  It would have a turret to defend itself when deployed, and would have an exhaustible supply of armour, parts and ammo.   Again, it's destructible, and takes time to manufacture and deploy.


I think the above would add a great new dimension to the game.   I used to love playing Titan commander on BF2120, directing the team to the latest hotspots of the map, providing supplies as needed, helping them help each other, etc.

[Profane Arbiter]

Like I said, that would be preferrable...I just don't know if it's doable.

[Jaso the Sniper]

good idea, but orbital stike should  be a hell of a lot expensive, and maybe act as a high-caliber LBX fired from above (or would it be a large laser array coming from the sky?)

no to "see-all" commander, though. an orbital radar network (also loads of cbills) that connects to C3 and gives occasional orbital position tech (i.e. a ping every minute where everyone is... yes, it's very very very expensive)

dropping supplies would have to be done by aero/vtol, makes more use for them, but how would the supply system work? CPods and other stuff? or if an APC gets it it goes to the nearest/most damaged unit?

What are UAV's?

Also think that you need "sniper-vision" from the sky, like a telescopic instrument that lets you look around for a minute. only problem is, it would expose your radar signature to the other team (even with passive or ECM) so they might get to you before you can get everyone out. Would give units/clans with structure and edge, maybe just for league play?

EDIT: "The designated commander could have access to a special command room in the hangar, which basically contains a big map with all your team's information, and whatever your team is currently sensing about enemy locations, designations and conditions.     The map would be interactive, with menu and mouse shortcut commands to enable you to provide your team with instructions and intel." along with the 'spaceradar' and 'spacescope', I would love this! Only as BA can you get in here, but say anyone can get in. only thing is, it costs money, and each operation ('performed by a 3rd party company') costs money as well. Other than that, I love it.

Also see issue with people hating the better radar/vision enhancement, but no "god's view" please. I would hate that.

[Virt]

I wouldn't be so keen on introducing the 'Hand of God' mega weapons.     Long Toms are already a bit like that.       

But hey I could live with it if that were the price of getting the Commander idea into the game

[Jaso the Sniper]

yeah, the stuff like spacelaser and spacenuke (no nuclear weapon ever, please) are not very nice, but it gives incentives for coordinated gameplay without "huddling", maybe make the Commander a server option, or by default have megaweapons disabled? waddaya think?

[Virt]

A server selectable mega-weapon (from a canonical perspective it would be an Orbital Bombardment Laser) would be the best compromise I suppose, in that it adds functionality but doesn't make it mandatory.

Thinking about the orbital laser... you could actually show the orbital track on the map.  The commander would have to aim the weapon by using thrusters on the laser to change the orbital track, and then fire it at the right moment. 

That makes it a little less 'point and click', less insta-kill, and a bit more realistic to boot.

Hey, I'm 'warming' to this idea

[Jaso the Sniper]

good! nice ideas!

just hope HAARP doesn't come in and kick me out...

[(TLL)KitLightning]

Commander position in MWLL
Tactician / Battle Commander
Command Map
Friend grouping?

I would'nt see having a Commander being able to launch orbital attacks, such functions can be abused. Thou having the ability to set up Waypoints for the Team would be welcomed as well as organizing the Players into Squads.
The Commander would have to be appointed or at least voted for, as in BF2 etc. This would work in mwll that there is less players in the game and they will usually pick the one whom they have faith in.
The Commander would be in command of a minor additional arsenal that would be active for a limited time, e.g. Phantom Drones, that would be sending out falls signals of a randomly chosen asset, or simply Radar Beacons that would relay hostile movements to all nearby friendlies. And yes all the additional assets that the Commander would be in charge of would have their own costs.
Having a Commander in charge of Orbital Weaponry would be far fetched on the size of the maps and would ruin all game-play leaving all sitting back in their bases, bombarding the other teams hangar.

[Jaso the Sniper]

yeah, but I mean make the strike cost as much as an atlas or something (note: have no idea how much atlas costs in MWLL, i mean as much as an asault) so that you basically can have a maximum of 1 strike in 2 spawns of the whole team (read: rare and expensive)

if you strike my Raven, I'm OK, I'll buy an Osiris next! Thanks for wasting lots of cbills!

this would  be a last-resort method of course

[(TLL)KitLightning]

Banking in a coordinated team will quickly enable your team to field a few Atlas'! If there would be an Orbital Attack function it would have to cost at least 1 Million C-Bills with a reactivating time of say 15 minutes. You'll also remember that the Commander will gain C-Bills for every asset destroyed in this way which would then reimburse the Player for another attack.
Having a limited Orbital Attacks would be a good solution, just as long as Players would not be able to switch the role of Commander to other Players just to re-enable that function.

[Jaso the Sniper]

only one Commander

or maybe not give him as much 4 for every asset destroyed? after all, a group of 3 atlases is enough to destroy without getting much money!

also important in limited-ticket games and no-respawn too... and ToS, and many upcoming gamemodes.

[Virt]

I'd start with the basic command and control and probe functionality I described earlier, and only add in the orbital strike later.

[Jaso the Sniper]

great idea i would love this

[Ingrater]

The dev team did think about that already, and we came to the conclusion that it would be doable but we are currently focusing on other features. But it is not impossible that it might get implemented some time in the future.