What I would like to do, first of all, is re-remove commander targets from the game entirely. The current system, that the commander can give a single target, is the worst of both worlds. Back in the days of unlimited targets it was okay, although infantry combat was 70% reliant on who's commander refreshed targets more, and when they were completely removed it was great too. I propose we remove them again and give the targeting ability to the Scout's binoculars. Unlimited targets, of course, because the Scout would have to see the enemy and spot him through the binoculars. Currently the binoculars are fucking worthless except in the one instance of an old money map and helping out your team's arty. That's it. You might say "oh no but on big desert maps you can spot the enemy command vehicle or a heavy going somewhere or something" and I would say yes, yes you can, which you can also do over voice chat and without the use of the binocs. The targets would only apply to infantry and vehicles, not buildings to prevent dumb shit spam. The regular "building spotted" would still apply, however. Post feedback below while I go off and find a coder to help me do this.
UNLIMITED TARGETS??? - the com attack order is a legal wallhack - good as it is and shouldn't be touched!!! why it should remain - on low pop maps it can be a bit overwhelming tough - but it helps in targeting so that not 2 players run around nearby without even meet once! (needs 2 good coms ofc) at larger games it's not much of an issue, but can help in focusfire! ;-) i agree on enhancing binoculars, giving them an unlimited spoting feature and maybe even automaticly everything in sights but just the poor normal orange spoting diamonds! (otherwise its too op!) but also maybe a arty strike ability that can only be recharged after death!
I would hate it if there was no way to give attack orders as commander, for 2 super solid reasons. You could no longer give targets to that one engy running around your base wrecking shit so it's going to be much easier to take down a base and I wouldn't be able to pinpoint the one thing that's preventing me from dropping a building somewhere. Binocs giving targets sounds... ok. It shouldn't last forever though, a simple timer is the usual way but the target going out of range of the original spot he was targeted or possibly the scout who gave targets dying erased all targets he gave are some other options.
Well, the discussion about Scout being useless goes on... and yet another fix emerges (which will be left unnoticed). The Binocs in that way would be really great, but the targets should fade out in like 10~ seconds? And removing targets from commander menuu would help him focusing on building and researching than controlling the battlefield, but this could be too much for commanders without mic (like, if there's enemy sticking CV or something). Actually, it could correlate in some way with squadleader, like maybe giving him option to add more of these markers?
If the targets fade out in 10 seconds, in won't be worth whipping out your big fat throbbing binocs and slapping targets on the enemy. You wouldn't be able to highlight a whole squad no matter how clumped together they were. 120 seconds might be a good compromise though, so you can't target a tank and watch it run around the whole map for the entire game.
whats wrong with using the usual spot feature? - doesn't that already fade and stop after 1min?! disagree on cuting command features from commander role! - adding more we need! com orders and squadlead should remain the only ones with semi wallhacks
You're new and haven't experienced both full targets and no targets. The commander has a fuckton to do as it is, and even then, he can always just F2 and describe things. Currently it creates a massive imbalance in infantry combat which I don't think is fun - one commander giving targets so his team gets a wall hack on one dude who doesn't know where he enemy is and will be 10% as effective. The usual spot feature doesn't give targets.
Have you ever been commanding AND giving targets? I'm not trying to attack your expertise in commanding field, but it really does splits commanding into tactics and strategy, but the tactical element of commanding could be transfered to squads with better binocs usage. And the usual spotting feature is hard to use because of that pulsing and dimishing. And yeah, these 10secs are too much, but it 120 is too much for me. I'd suggest around 30-45 secs to help in short operations and moving frontline, not sieges or tank battles.
Should the responsibility for giving additional targeting to the infantry be shifted away from the Commander? Yes absolutely. Should the Target ability be removed from the Commander? Hell no! How am I supposed to tell a guy to attack a specific target then? simply saying "attack the barracks" is often not enough. Binocular giving targets? Okay, but what if you don't want to have that target and you have a scout spamming you with a useless target? How do you determine who gets the target? Some quick thinking, if it only gives a target to the squad I guess it would be okay, sort of a way to give targets to the squad that don't involve having to be squadleader. Maybe even add a skill that gives scout the ability to give multiple targets. This is a suggestion I actually like, scout's binocular have been outdated ever since the auto-spotting of buildings. However as someone pointed out it will fall into the abyss of the suggestion forums crumbling under the weight of stupid suggestions. As the developers are currently focusing on rewritting the game and not implementing new mechanics.
well, the easyest compromise would be to cut it from infantry targeting, leaving vehicle and building attack orders untouched! (means commanders can't drag boxes around infantry and issue an attack order on them - only squads can still do that!) Spoiler: idk to what this was originally related to xP @Xyaminou: nice idea, but doesn't suit so well at the mostly underpopulated empires community ;-) there to much new players that aren't familiar with squadplay and in worst case you have a small 5vs5 game with one team having a squad and the other only lose players - atm that means not much, only that the squad team gather rank points quicker ;-) with you suggestion it would put one team clearly in a downside because the com can't issue commands to single players!
I think you need to re read mr. x's post. He's against removing targets from comm. Scouts giving targets only to squad doesn't actually hurt low pop either. Why you may ask? It is because it's low pop and that scout simply can't do much at that low pop. Engy and gren have the ability to do so much, scout is just going to not get much done so you'd still want basically only engineers at low pop. At 10v10 or more then it's just whatever that squad decides, if they think intel is worth more then a rev engy or a gren then so be it, it's their tactical decision.
You don't balance Empires around low population or unskilled players anyway. You balance it around 26vs26 scrim level games. Or you might as well just uninstall the game and go play CoD
it's a fact that most games are under 11vs11 - even 5vs5 can often not be reached! balance the game clearly needs to take that into consideration - it's useless to design a game for a minimum of ??x?? players when you have issues to reach that minimum count (wich is 2vs2 at inf only and 5vs5, including the com, at classic mode already! - related to the smallest maps i know in that modes! - and there are much much more large maps at classic mode!) and the source engine isn't a good engine, if you wanna old scool "pistol headshot from afar" (because my aim is pinpoint accurate, biatch) then go and play cs please (pff CoD, thats the other extreme - empires is unique, but sadly suffers from its source engine! - it's just not very attractive for "fresh meat" and should be optimised to compensate it's engine flaws! - not to serve old vet's that don't want to learn something new!)
You obviously know nothing about game design, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ignore your posts from now on.
running away from facts doesn't negate them! - instead your childish behavior negates your stand! xP and we're talking about minimum, reasonable playercounts where a game aims at is another "paper/page" (but you suggest to increase the minimum player requirements, thats why i wanted to remind you about the reality! - though we have also medium to large games sometimes, but even at weekends we're NEVER fill 2 servers - thats just the reality!)
Are you seriously insulting me because I am dismissing your comments because I find it would be a waste of my time to try and explain to you how things work? You don't want to go there, believe me.
I think this suggestion is insane. How am i supposed to tell my team where to go or what to attack without a mic? Did devourawr play when there were no targets? you'd have to put a move order on the area next to the thing you wanted to attack. it was stupid
i think a better targeting mechanism incorporated with comm abilities could do the game good. something along the lines of a drone (blimp for nf?) which scans the area and shows enemy positions for a second each other second both on minimap and in 3d space. obviously the drone is visible to the enemy and can be downed - also the ability "casting" it has a cost and cooldown and is only one of many. and while you implement this, you also switch to a more modern engine and hire 10 artists with 24/7 time at hand. having said all that, ground based attack-move-defend orders should remain in the game no matter what. its an absolute requirement for comm to direct his troops.
