Hey there! You may see me ingame as Jeph[QC] or in a past time Jeph[ER] , the evil twin of Jephir. I was playing yesterday and SnakeDFox was our squad leader in echo squad and when he left demon hunter took over. Those two guys were really good at commanding the squad giving orders, making the squad stick together and for the first time in my life, i've seen real squad work. It made my empires experience even better than it was before. So it made me wondering, if we could make the squads more appealing, it would make the gameplay even funnier. As of right now, being in a squad gives you nothing. Before , you had a free skill, but right now you don't even need to be in a squad to get that free skill. If you can call it a plus, you see which person is in which squad and you have a letter over your arrow on the minimap :p . I've read through the forums to see what has been said about this and nothing exactly matched what i had to say about it ( but some elements were there though) Before i proceed into those suggestion, i just want to point out that these views are from a casual player; i rarely use a tank to fight ; i'd rather take a ride somewhere dangerous and take out enemy base and/or fortify/build an advanced base. I swear by the engineer class and i can't even point out what armor is good against which weapon after this much time playing( cumulative ~1 year, playing on and off). I've never commanded neither. I am throwing out these idea, the worse it can happen is that they get rejected and i move on. Constructive criticism is always welcome 1- Squad spawn : it has been proposed before. But people were against it because nobody proposed a cost to this spawn( if somebody did, i havent seen it, sorry). It is an advantage to be able to spawn at an advanced point, so you shoudn't be able to use for free. Solution : Squad spawn could cost squad points ( my preferred solution ) and/or having an additional spawn timer . Let's say as an example Squad spawn cost 3 squad point for 1 player respawn . That means, you don't always use the squad respawn to get to your squad because you are going through your squad point. But if your squad is in an advanced position without a barrack near it might be good to use a few points to have a reinforcement there. An additional small timer ( 7secs maybe? ) could be good because you could not have a fast respawn like Squad revive would do. if you want to spawn 3 person on your position, youd need 9 squad points ( which is considerable) and ~20secs ( if all the player are ready to spawn). It means that the squad leader need to survives in order to be able to spawn other squad member. 2- Again, this has been proposed , but give squads a mean to place a building. Right now , the only thing i could see is refinery.Other building need more planning and more strategy and can make the game shift because someone made a mistake(mainly by wasting precious ressource) . The way i see it is quite simple Solution : The squad arrives at the ref point and require a refinery (through the "f" menu). A small window pop in the commander screen, in a corner or somewhere that is not hindering. Commander accept or refuse the request. If he refuse, nothing happens. If it is accepted, a refinery is placed and can be built. The commander don't have to quit doing what he is doing, at a press of a button can place a refinery. If he needs the ressources to make something else, he just have to refuse. We limit ressource wasting while making the refinery placement more fluid and maybe taking off a bit of steam to the commander. 3. I havent seen this one so tell me if someone did propose it ; Better squad hud on screen. Right now we can easily spot our squad leader by the star hud over him. But for squad members, when there is a lot of people it can be confusing to find them. Sometimes, i gain squad participation point without knowing it. It means there was a squad member near. With a more flagrant hud for squad member, it could be easier to spot them and have a more efficient squad work for more squad point and overall more fun. It may not be that clear as english isn't my first language. It's hard for me to verbalise my ideas as i would do in french. So i'll come back later and read my post again and spot things that might be unclear. Any idea / suggestions / comments are welcome. As i said, i am throwing this out and the worse that can happen is it get rejected. We always talk about vets or noobs, never those in between so i thought i might share this as another perspective of the game. See you ingame!
suggestion 1 - its called Squad revive, which is available for engineer squad leaders to revive their whole squad to its location for the cost of 10 squad points. (press f followed by s to see all engineer powers while leading) suggestion 2 - there is basically no need for this since a commander see the text message "ref" in the chat which automatically gives coordinates already and allow the comm to rapidly move to the location and place a ref in a matter of seconds due to his ability to instantly move his view between locations. suggestion 3 - Squad leaders are stars, squad members got small triangles and they also show their specific squad letter on the minimap/worldmap. its nice suggestions, but there is versions of them already ingame that is available
But in non escort maps 10 squad points are often to much. And often you won't waste them, if only one teammate is dead. So an idea would be to add a squad revive for only one squad member. Cost will be 4 squad points. The "ref" spam in the chat is not the best solution. There are many better ways for this standard procedure. In my opinion maybe even the player should place refs at their own. Or is there any reason, why not build a ref? Zoom in the minimap also helps a lot. Then I have also one suggestion mostly for scouts, but it will stick the squad together too: http://forums.empiresmod.com/showpost.php?p=200544&postcount=6 (Scouts automatically give target with binoculars, which can only be seen by their squad)
Ten points for what will normally be one person if used in the manner suggested is very costly. A team revive is for one everyone gets slaughtered and you need them back asap or you are out of tickets. Im not sure whether the idea would work, but this is defintely not 'already done' by squad revive. ref ref at A7 plz ref ref at A7 plz comm ref ref FOR FUCKS SAKE CAN I HAVE A REF AT A7 PLZ noob comm f s space everyone. Yes but a lot of the time they get mixed up on the minimap and i dont want to be zooming in and out of my minimap all the time, i want to play. so all i think that needs to be done here is make the squad leader star always on top of other icons on the minimap.
It's good to see it's stiring! When you only have 1 dead person, 10 point is a lot. I really don't mind giving the one person revive only to the engineer. When i lead a squad, i often get stuck in the "One of my squad member is dead, i need him but i don't want to use 10 points to bring him back" situation. I feel like its a waste of point and i could use those points later. I don't mind to have restriction/limits on this power. Infact, i think it needs to be restricted in order to make it work so that squad revive is still needed and as powerful as it is, but when you got that situation that you need that one person, or your squad is lost in the enemy line, you don't have to walk back there in hope that your squad is still alive or wait for them to respawn and stick together again. 3 or 4 squad points + an additional spawn time would make me happy. Still, the commander needs to stop what he is doing and get back to it, even though it's not that of a big deal. I made these suggestions in perspective to make the squad more appealing and more interactive. The commander don't have to look at the chat all the time for ref ( god knows sometimes the "ref" request get lost in the spectators chat), only a small windows pop up with something like "refinery A5 : Yes No". It is subtle, still it stands out more that "ref" in the chat and make a small interaction as a squad and gives a little feeling of doing something. I think the commander still need to be able to say no to the request of the player. The biggest reason of this is for the commander to still have control over the resources. I know that refinery don't cost that much, but they still cost something, and if 2 or 3 refinery is built at the same time, it takes a chunk of resource that the team might need(research or another key building). Exactly. Your idea is good. Also , another coloring of the name could be good. Like you see the names of the squad members in Orange, or any other color that stands out in the hud. I had a fun time in your squad, you made my night. I wait for more inputs! Thanks for the constructive feedbacks
ok for those who didnt understand what i ment regarding suggestion 3... this is what... http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c150/Luzzete/squads.jpg and to the diffrense of the minimap, there is nothing you need to change anything in order to see this while in a squad.
There has already been a suggestion to address this -- refs that 'pay for themselves' by staying offline until they would have contributed 100 res. And, honestly, the situations where comms actually have to deliberately delay res nodes are vanishingly rare... and the situations where failcomms take forever to respond to a res request despite having thousands of res on-hand are painfully, pathetically common. It's the second-easiest way for a comm to fail (after forgetting to research), and all it does 95% of the time is add more useless distractions. Another simple option would just be to add a button the comm can hit to restrict/unrestrict auto-ref creation by the team. But honestly, prepaid refs is the right solution... it doesn't break anything, really. It's pure win.
I didn't see that suggestion Aquillon but i admit that it is a great idea and would solve the restriction from commander problem.
the ref idea seem like a good idea, but if u think about it they might span "ref" when they are at the location of a ref point and i think that would get on the comm's nerves
