7 replies to this topic

[bac9]

Couple of ideas to improve tactical messages that will help efficient teamwork quite a bit.

I've made some explanatory images, so if you don't mind, I'll just post them all first, and proceed to describe proposed changes below.

► original UI
► proposed changes to alerts
► proposed changes to alerts (w. explanations)

First of all, "Help Requested" tactical message is not working well at the moment. In contrast with "Enemy Sighted", there is no visible location marker (or I haven't noticed it, maybe it was semi-transparent white icon that disappeared quickly), which essentially leaves your teammates completely oblivious to where they should go and who was requesting that help.

I propose several little changes to make this alert efficient. First of all (if there is none yet), add a marker similar to one "Enemy Sighted" leaves to the "Help Requested" message. Attach it to the mech that requested help, so that it will move with it. As every teammate can already see where every ally is (HP/nickname markers), additionally highlighting last person to use "Help Requested" alert would be quite logical thing to do.

Second, marker visibility for every alert (including "Enemy Sighted") is a bit low at the moment: if you're not facing in a direction of the alert, you won't see it. If an alert is out of your field of view, it should be displayed as an arrow on the side of your screen, so that you will know where to turn to see it.

Third, to help further, it would be logical to add small colored directional arrows onto the radar borders, pointing to the directions of last alerts. For example, red for "Enemy Spotted", white for "Help Requested".

Also, as of now, there is no way to get players together in the team deathmatch or to mark priority objectives in Missile/Siege modes. Using chat is slow and unreliable (90% of teammates won't see your message), voice too, and both methods don’t give any visual cue to team mates, so every newbie who won't understand the meaning of messages like "rush to AA" will be left out, even if he would actually like to know where the action is and where he could help his teammates.

I propose a third alert: Rally Point.

Adding it will potentially help with aforementioned problems, providing an easy way to remind people of objectives and to give them a direction to go. Pressing that alert should leave a marker visible to every teammate, in a position you were pointing at. Another great way to implement it would be to allow to point at a location on Map interface (thanks for suggestion, Elix!) Marker won't fade until a different location is specified by another teammate.

To avoid spam, conflicting directions, and ensure more or less reliable response from teammates, use of this alert should probably be restricted to one or several top-scoring players of a team. Obviously, that will decrease the risk of pointless and disruptive spamming from unexperienced teammates, and will somewhat solve the inevitable questions like "who the hell are you and why should I listen" (top-scoring players have a higher chance to be perceived as authority, I guess).

With this alert, we will be able to work as a team more efficiently. Some examples:

- Marking the second energy tree when the first one is depleted instead of going to S1 yourself to bump some clueless teammate and trying to explain via chat that he's not contributing the team or gaining anything by sitting there.

- Marking a rally point for TDM to get into packs easily (be it some easily defended chokepoint your team holds or ever-changing location for roaming groups of mechs). That solves the ever-persistent question of "where is my pack" for teammates who have just died and spawned across the map and helps to focus the action: I hope you can agree with me that deathmatches between two organized groups are the most awesome thing to encounter in TDM, and this option will help to guide people towards the hottest spot on the map.

- Marking AA during Siege, because, as you well know, no amount of chat messages, speaking on voice, shooting and bumping gets through the heads of some teammates standing at your base or camping energy trees when you're about to be blown up. Additional marker never hurts for these people, even though the game marks AA as objective already.

- Marking priority missile silos in Missile mode to route the firepower of the team where it's needed

- Marking fallback position during overwhelming attacks

***

All and all, I feel that this option would benefit the teamwork efficiency and options quite nicely. Updated "Help Requested" alert described and depicted above should help teammates in need too. And proposed updates to out-of-view markers will tremendously help with situational awareness, preventing the need to spin furiously every time you hear an alert (to catch it on your screen).

I hope you will like these ideas. Thanks in advance for any answers and cheers everyone! :)

Edited by bac9, November 11 2012 - 01:52 PM.

[bacon_avenger]

Me gusta.

My own ideas were to have some kind of marker on the HUD and the minmap when someone is talking, and have grid coordinates on the map as well specifically for being able to tell team mates where they are or left things, such as a radar or turret.

The minimap does show who requested an assist or where the enemy was spotted, but having them on the HUD would go a long way to help team play (which is something that is still kind of lacking in many matches, beta or not).

[bac9]

bacon_avenger, on November 11 2012 - 04:25 PM, said:

The minimap does show who requested an assist or where the enemy was spotted, but having them on the HUD would go a long way to help team play (which is something that is still kind of lacking in many matches, beta or not).

They are displayed if they are inside your radar scan radius, which often kind of defeats the point as you're already nearby to help. :)

Oh, and marking teammates using voice is a nice idea! :)

Edited by bac9, November 12 2012 - 03:19 AM.

[DDwarrior]

bac9, on November 12 2012 - 12:13 AM, said:

bacon_avenger, on November 11 2012 - 04:25 PM, said:

The minimap does show who requested an assist or where the enemy was spotted, but having them on the HUD would go a long way to help team play (which is something that is still kind of lacking in many matches, beta or not).

They are displayed if they are inside your radar scan radius, which often kind of defeats the point as you're already nearby to help.

Oh, and marking teammates using voice is a nice idea!

In my experience if you're not very close or have long range firepower with a clear shot, you won't be able to reach them on time unless they know how to retreat.  All nice ideas however.  One I want most is to highlight whomever is speaking.

[bac9]

DDwarrior, on November 12 2012 - 02:44 PM, said:

bac9, on November 12 2012 - 12:13 AM, said:

bacon_avenger, on November 11 2012 - 04:25 PM, said:

The minimap does show who requested an assist or where the enemy was spotted, but having them on the HUD would go a long way to help team play (which is something that is still kind of lacking in many matches, beta or not).

They are displayed if they are inside your radar scan radius, which often kind of defeats the point as you're already nearby to help.

Oh, and marking teammates using voice is a nice idea!

In my experience if you're not very close or have long range firepower with a clear shot, you won't be able to reach them on time unless they know how to retreat.  All nice ideas however.  One I want most is to highlight whomever is speaking.

Sometimes, "Enemy Spotted" is beneficial even without guarantee to kill. For example, to alert your mates about enemy movements in Siege AA defence or to spot attack directions in team DM, or to mark a distant location with enemies where everyone should rush this instant, because there is a group of vulnerable campers there. Plenty of options. : P

[Gont]

There are two tactical alarms I really missed during play:
• AREA CLEAR, when arriving to an unoccupied energy tree or after whacking an enemy mech, or when AA is undefended.
• FOLLOW ME aimed at certain players, so only them would hear the message.

As for the problems that OP stated, I really think that radar blips are enough and there's no reason to put another markers on the HUD.

[Makhaon]

I think at this point (minus the voice chat), it's too dangerous to communicate (via chat) which is why people spam the Enemy Sighted or Helped Requested buttons rather than specifying anything else. I'd like more options as long as they are easily used and explained.

Area Clear would be nice.

How would you key Follow Me to certain team members_ Maybe it only goes to those in your radar range_

Or add an auto-pilot/run button to allow people to keep moving while typing a chat msg.

[Gont]

Makhaon, on November 14 2012 - 09:58 AM, said:

How would you key Follow Me to certain team members_ Maybe it only goes to those in your radar range_

Aim at them