I've been starting to play left for dead online lately and have noticed the usefulness of it's automatic voice commands (ie: you look at ammo and your character will shout "ammo here!") and then I began thinking about Empire's cumbersome F menu and how it would be more intuitive if left for dead's commands system were adopted by Empires. It wouldn't even require new voice recordings since it's all there. The following are only examples so people can get a general idea of what I'm talking about. The devs will need to discuss things like what messages will be automatic and under what conditions if they're interested in this suggestion, this post only puts the general idea on the table and is by no means the exact thing that I expect them to do should they [the devs] choose to implement this. some examples would be: -look at unbuilt building or a ref node and use the "need an engineer" command if you aren't one. -you get below X amount of health and automatically shout for a medic after Y seconds -you run out of ammo and use the "need ammo" command -you look at an enemy and automatically use the "enemy spotted" command if it wasn't used on the unit already (is null when smoke or flashbangs are blocking your sight) -you look at an enemy grenade that was tossed and automatically say "take cover!" (is null for your own or teammates grenades, of course) etc, etc.... I think you get the idea. pros: -very intuitive, especially for the newbies -frees up the F menu and makes it easier to navigate since most commands wouldn't need to be there anymore -helps teamplay with minimal effort from the players -Definitely saves time and gives Commander more information on map control (Bass) cons: - Depending on how its implemented, could result in spam (R. Rego) ------------------------------------ Now then, let's get to brainstorming. Discussion on possible implementation methods thus far:
engineers walking close to an unplaced ref node = refinery requested" etcetc yes plz, but it has to be implemented in a way that it does not become annoying or cancels out strategy
spam. You look at an unbuilt base you get 4 messages. You're seismic spamming a building a flash between 0 and 1 nade when resuplying, it'll spam. You're taking cover in an armoury and get himby a splosive, not only will it spam with the other 2 guys that were with you, you don't even need a medic. I would delete the sound files for enemy spotted ffs, think about 24 player servers. 'eeenemy spotted' would play every 1-10 seconds. DO NOT WANT. Nothing wrong with something a bit more intuitive than the shity F menu, but Do Not Want auto-spam 3000.
Valve did a lot of things right to make L4D multiplayer fun and intuitive. Though, I'm not sure how interested the devs are in copying features from other games.
OK then, take out the automatic take cover then add a delay for X amount of seconds of looking the object that triggers said voice command (like how you have a wait a bit to honk a horn on a tank) as far as the unbuilt base goes. Chances are if you have 15 or 20 health (as a possible example) left you'd want a medic, besides that situation is a very specific one and if you're in an armoury and heal up the icon above your head goes away anyways it not like people will run half way across the map because they see a little medic icon on the minimap. There, problem solved. edit: there could also be a delay on the automatic medic call and if you're in an armory you can already heal yourself before it even triggers Not that it matters anyways because those were only examples so people would get a general idea of what I'm talking about. The devs will need to discuss things like what messages will be automatic and under what conditions if they're interested in this suggestion, the opening post only puts the general idea on the table and is by no means the exact thing that I expect them to do should they [the devs] implement this.
A minute into the game and comm hasn't dropped a single structure. "We've got a noob commander here, over."
deciding what triggers it and what doesn't is very important in this idea for example, most of these could be bound per squad, if 1 squad mate triggers the grenade being thrown at "take coveeeeeeeer", it blocks the trigger for the whole squad if an enemy is spotted, the area has to be safe for at least 5 minutes for the whole squad before the trigger unlocks again a ref node only requests automatically once per 5 minutes on 1 ref node no matter who triggers it if it is unbuilt etc etc, just examples
