Issue: Players "jumping the queue" when building vehicles; not normally a problem but in the scernario when your: resources are sparse, the com does lock down the VF, some lovely emp_recuits build half a dozen jeeps ahead for your one sweet-but-expensive arty tank thus denying your efforts by draining resources. Ok the issue described should be of little suprise to the more seasoned player of Empires and result of such an action range from biteing one's lip to a server kick (depending on one's mood, naturally). Suggestion for solution: It occured to me that, without going into any detail at this stage, that if some sort of queueing system where implemented for the VF then: 1) this would given those players with better resource awareness a better chance at aquiring there optimal vehicle sooners and 2) may actually discourage overly keen newbies from grabbing a jeep if they see it might require a waiting period (in addition to resources). Possible Implementation: I can see that in theory this could bit a easy piece of logic (not nessarily code!) to implement: while player A is still *configuring* their vehicle, player B can configure *and* build ahead of them but, once player A "commits" their design to the VF, (and for arguements sake resources are too low for contruction), subsequent player C would then enter the VF queue until the resources where enough to build player A's vehicle (and exit the VF?) then player C vehicle would then build and so on. I think i've cover the basic logical and i believe that should not impede players, i.e no-one can sit in the queue and jam it up. I hope this can add a bit of fairness to the system. PS: you could also show some where one the VF build panel the current queue possibly displaying type, amount of resources and if possible a rough ETA for all the vehicle to clear the queue, etc. Your comments, thoughts most welcome, -eth0
Some time ago we were discussing the possibility of letting commanders have more control of what ppl build, a request system and other stuff. Most ppl probly forgot, this idea would well fit with it. The problem I see it having without integrating it into commandermode is that the commander wont have full control over the resources. Ofcourse he can restrict, but a queue that the commander doesnt know about will probly make him think he has enough resources to do something and then suddenly the resources get snatched away from him because thats how much a tank that was queued costs. Also might promote ppl camping their vf because they have something queued. Also what about those ppl that requested a tank and are now on the other side of the map? On its own I think this wouldnt be a very good idea.
Good point dizzyone, i hadn't considered the COMs perpective on this... Well as i mentioned that the queue could be visible to players on the "build" console, a COM could have a same/similiar view with the possibility of cancelling and changing vehicle build priority in the queue and also when COM builds a vehicle that could "jump" the queue, etc. I actually invisaged that a player would still need to be present in the VF just that when they are done configuring the final stage button could be labelled "commit to vehicle queue" and that dialogue would remain until built and apply for all queuees (<- that can't be a word!) Ta
or, everytime a player designes a tank and hits construct, the com gets a pop up. he can say yes, no, not now, never for this player, never for this setup, alwase for player, alwase for set up, or if he doesnt look at the tab 5 secs afterit apears, it auto accepts (useful for when com is busy or vacent)
dont get me wrong, its a very good idea and definitly a good way to fix the annoyances of jeep buying bastards. My point still remains and that is that the commander should have full control over this and this should be part of a better commandermode vehicle menu. I could start again talking about teamplay and I think if you work as a team, buying vehicles shouldnt be on first serve base but on priority, who decides what has more priority for the team? The (field) commander. Right now its chaos, but atleast the commander has full control, not saying your idea would obstruct the commanders resource managment, its just a fast pub fix, but I dont see much more in it on its own.
I think that every single request for a vehicle should go to the comm screen. he then allows / denys it. with no commander, things can be built with the current sceme
yeah, sounds good, like a 12 second time limit, and a button on it for "wait" as well as allow / deny. also, an ability for the comm to auto allow would be quite good. so where it currently says "lock vehicle factory", it can also say "auto allow" furthermore, players need to know if a VF is turned off, because I hate running up to it just to discover "commander has locked VF"
Sounds great to me, a prompt on design would be very usefull; would solve the problem of jeep bastards and such...
There should be a tab in the Vehicle factory section where it says the type of tank/who's building it/cost. Commander should also be able to remove some of the queue, also, one queue per person. Great idea (b '_' )b
How about, when opening the "factory" section, comm sees, in an arrangement kindof like the current squad menu, queues for each factory. The factories continue to operate along the queue, unless the commander changes something. If he left clicks on one of the vehicle requests, he sees details about it. Right click on one, and he cancels it. As far as letting players know if a vehicle factory is locked, how about within a certain radius of a locked vehicle/aircraft factory, a red X appears over the little tank/aircraft picture at the top of the hud?
@Falcon: that's pretty much what i was suggesting, re the queue,albeit in a more abstract way. As far as this issue of a visual way of indentify if a VF is locked, how about a set of doors that prevent actual access (problem with that is you might end up locking player in the VF!) or more simply on the console to the VF you overlay a padlock icon if someone try the alternative "v" key you could display a similiar padlock icon on the first screen and as of the minimap... I'm not a big fan of letting players know everything-at-an-instant about the full status of their team via features like a minimap with lots of detail, that's what your Com, squad leaders and your own memory are for. However i would be in favour of limited detail when in promity so only if your barracks is local to a VF do you get the minimap hint that is might be locked, but not is your spawning at a different barracks across the map
You're forgetting the times when a quickly built tank can save the whole base. Having a wait time on getting the vehicle will make those surprise attacks that much more biased towards the attacker(who already has the advantage of surprise). And in all that chaos an inexperienced commander is already overworked even without any pop-ups blocking his view...
This situation only really applies for those times when more than one person is in the VF wanting to get a vehicle. Running in and buying a tank would be exactly as it is right now, if nobody else is queued up. I agree, no popups for Comm please. An interface into the production queue (on the VF pannel) and control over it would be helpful, but getting a dialog box that blocks whatever you are doing every time some n00b wants a jeep would be disasterous even for the most experienced commander.
just have the apporpriate tab flash a few times, and mabey an aditory thingy as well (sry, spent the last 1/2 hour talking about kantian philosophy on another forum, my big word list is depleated)
I'm studying kant too! and I pictue the popup would be just a little box on the left of the screen. furthermore, most comms are going to want to auto allow vehicles, this ability just allows some to micromanage.
I would love to see the pop up for commanders. I'm quite tired of everyone on my team rushing to get a heavy soon as its available. If I block the VF all together then they can't build med tanks to keep the pressure on the enemy. If I micromanage building tanks for them, I can't do other important things. I'm sure what Private Sandbag said is true. Most will want auto allow but, I'm sure there are times when all coms would love to stop people from making tanks with no guns/armor.
I'm not sure if this is a good idea, it would encourage people to wait at the VF, instead of going out on foot (which is what you should be doing if that low on resources). It would be better to just have an enhanced restrict mode, where commanders can restrict certain vehicle types.
