Tactical / Commander Mode/Mod

[rulerofiron99]

If you've ever played Natural Selection or Savage, you should get this pretty easily.

For those that haven't, the idea is that one player on the team (the commander) is playing and RTS (top-down strategy game), and all other players on the team are his "units".

It would work as follows:
- Commander has no character/gun/etc
- Commander's view is at a set downward angle, and WASD moves the screen up/down/left/right
- Voxels seen would be based on what your players have seen/are seeing. You have vision of any enemies that your players currently have vision of, and if an enemy leaves vision, a marker/blip is created at its last location, which will fade out over time. Terrain wouldn't be updated until a player sees it.
- Tunnels/underground spaces would be visible as dashed lines, or the commander can choose to hide all blocks above a certain height.
- Left click/ drag click would select one of your players
- Right click would give an order to the selected player/players. Right click location: move order. Right click enemy player: attack order.
- For the ordered player, it would appear as a large partially visible arrow/target with a direction indicator if not facing.

Additional functions/abilities:
- Build tower/wall/trench/tunnel at location. Creates a transparent building icon/beacon at the target location which only your players can see. You can right-click it to order a selected player to go build it. Hotkeys: Build, Tower, Wall, Trench, Tunnel. For wall, trench and tunnel, you can click-drag between two points. The blueprint/icon/beacon must be manually removed by the commander. Only a few would be allowed at a time and not within a certain distance, due to spam considerations.
- Artillery.
- Give players general orders/behaviours: attacker, defender, builder, sapper, stealth.
- Mark structure. Target a location to mark it as a structure, which will show up as an icon for all your players. You can also issue right-click orders to it, telling your players to destroy (if occupied by enemies) or occupy (if empty or occupied by friendlies).
- Supply drops. Drop ammunition, health packs, blocks, alternative weapons for your players. This would have a lengthy cooldown/cost.

[Build]

This really seems like a whole different game within itself. Best to keep it within those genre's of games that you've listed.

[rulerofiron99]

I've suggested it here because it would fit in so perfectly with what Ace of Spades already is. Both of the mentioned titles suffer from huge balance issues that Ace of Spades, in its simplicity, is largely immune to.

Best to keep it within those genre's of games that you've listed.

NS and Savage are both FPS like AoS.

[Derpylicious]

I really cant believe this would work, I for one would just ignore it outright and anyway who makes the choice to be the commander?

The only way I can see this working out is if you give everyone the "ARMA" system of commands which on Multiplayer are more helpful hints then commands.

[rulerofiron99]

Any player can get into the commander's seat, and other players on the team would be able to vote to eject him/her.

I understand that many players wouldn't use it, that is why I've suggested it as a separate game mode/mod, which arranged teams can use, for a game with more strategic depth and commanding efficiency.

[Stiivais]

- Tunnels/underground spaces would be visible as dashed lines, or the commander can choose to hide all blocks above a certain height.

Disagree with that, as this would remove the ability to sneak,
but everything else seems legit...

But maybe, instead of blueprints, commander would have the ability to beacon a place on map (e.g. savage, highlights a spot). I, for one, would not like to join a game with n00b commander drawing transparent penises on the premise of map...

[rulerofiron99]

Disagree with that, as this would remove the ability to sneak,
but everything else seems legit...

Your vision is based on what your players can see. If your players haven't seen a tunnel or the player sneaking through it, it appears as solid terrain to you.

But maybe, instead of blueprints, commander would have the ability to beacon a place on map (e.g. savage, highlights a spot). I, for one, would not like to join a game with n00b commander drawing transparent penises on the premise of map...

Indeed. I'll update opening post accordingly.

[Build]

NS and Savage are both FPS like AoS.

They're FPS and RTS hybrids, just saying. I really don't think this will go anywhere.

[IrishElf]

Eh, I'd rather see this "Commander" role reserved for admins and players they allow to take over the position. Otherwise, you'll see way too many

n00b commanders drawing transparent penises on the premise of map...

[Gorman]

This idea is really awesome, but is it fitting?

We could have a somewhat scaled back version of this; if squads were implemented in full then there could be an interface like this built in to map. Albeit without the building, but the orders and supply drops (supply is gained from squad kill streaks) would certainly be interesting. Perhaps there would be a squad leader in charge of this?

[Garamond]

If you've ever played Natural Selection or Savage, you should get this pretty easily.

For those that haven't, the idea is that one player on the team (the commander) is playing and RTS (top-down strategy game), and all other players on the team are his "units".

It would work as follows:
- Commander has no character/gun/etc
- Commander's view is at a set downward angle, and WASD moves the screen up/down/left/right
- Voxels seen would be based on what your players have seen/are seeing. You have vision of any enemies that your players currently have vision of, and if an enemy leaves vision, a marker/blip is created at its last location, which will fade out over time. Terrain wouldn't be updated until a player sees it.
- Tunnels/underground spaces would be visible as dashed lines, or the commander can choose to hide all blocks above a certain height.
- Left click/ drag click would select one of your players
- Right click would give an order to the selected player/players. Right click location: move order. Right click enemy player: attack order.
- For the ordered player, it would appear as a large partially visible arrow/target with a direction indicator if not facing.

Additional functions/abilities:
- Build tower/wall/trench/tunnel at location. Creates a transparent building icon/beacon at the target location which only your players can see. You can right-click it to order a selected player to go build it. Hotkeys: Build, Tower, Wall, Trench, Tunnel. For wall, trench and tunnel, you can click-drag between two points. The blueprint/icon/beacon must be manually removed by the commander. Only a few would be allowed at a time and not within a certain distance, due to spam considerations.
- Artillery.
- Give players general orders/behaviours: attacker, defender, builder, sapper, stealth.
- Mark structure. Target a location to mark it as a structure, which will show up as an icon for all your players. You can also issue right-click orders to it, telling your players to destroy (if occupied by enemies) or occupy (if empty or occupied by friendlies).
- Supply drops. Drop ammunition, health packs, blocks, alternative weapons for your players. This would have a lengthy cooldown/cost.

Pubbies are ignorant pricks, as a general rule. No matter how capable the commander is, your soldiers probably won't listen to you.

[Tek2]

So in a nutshell both teams have a guy who sees everything removing key aspects of the game.