In order to increase the capabilities of the commander, I suggest giving him his own personal squad with which to conduct operations and whatever. A personal assault force encouraged to work under direct watch of the commander. The kind of stuff in the vein of the Frontiersman commander in NS. Like a typical squad, the squad leader can use squad points gathered from squad point activity in the vicinity. Commander squad gets points also when the commander is viewing point activity (so-and-so in comm squad kills a barracks, comm is watching, squad gets a point, etc). The commander will be able to use buffed up versions of class squad powers in exchange for more points as well as logistical support skills. For example, commander artillery. Ammunition resupply (akin to squad heal). Et cetera. But, no hide. Hide is completely gay. In managing squad composition, the commander will only be able to switch out squad leaders. Only squad leader can both promote and eject. Squad will comprise of six players: 1) Commander 2) Field squad leader 3-6)Squad members
this is truly a pointlessly dumb suggestion it's just a less thought-out way of saying commander powers (suggested and shot down how many times?) and forces the commander to watch a squad play in order to earn these powers. This is not much more than a decent squad leader can do anyway need I remind anyone how many times this has been suggested and why it is not a good idea?
Not a fan from what I see. Promoting the commander to pay atttention to a specific squad (probably to the detriment of the rest of the team) to gain abilities that can do anything significant (like arty) means your players will feel more helpless and commanders will get more god-complex... two things we really want to avoid. I don't know how many times it was suggested, but I'd like to read others reasoning on why it's bad. I don't think it's good, but I'd like to get up to speed.
http://forums.empiresmod.com/showthread.php?t=9221 http://forums.empiresmod.com/showthread.php?t=10255 http://forums.empiresmod.com/showthread.php?t=10359 Commander arty strikes, NS supply drops blah blah blah
This would be an interesting way to implement commander powers, which is something I'd like to see. I'm not sure if it's the best way, but it is one way.
Commander should get more points anyway, he currently only receives points for killing with turrets and teammates successfully killing attack orders. He should get points for every buildings that is built successfully and for completed research etc, perhaps even for map or squad specific things.
no wait what? commanders don't need more points, I'm sorry I totally disagree. With consummate boomtanking and frequent target spam, the comm is already in the top 20% of the scoreboard most games. Any increase would put him solidly at #1 for doing [mostly] things that take no skill. Let the #1 players be infantry who worked hard to achieve their point-whoring status.
In NS you used to see the comm being number 1 in most games (not sure how it is with newer versions). This isn't about the scoreboard, why should it be a problem that the commander is first?