Commanders = Overloards

[Dr. Chagas]

When I used to play vanilla BF2, I usually ended up playing as a commander. It wasn't until last night that I ever played as a commander in PR. In fact, I didn't even realize it was an option, I never noticed it in the squad menu.

Wow! It sure isn't like vanilla. I obviously miss the UAV and being able to spot enemy troops, but the god cam is great. Which brings me to point, why don't more people play as a commander?


In PR you basically become an overlord. If anyone is thinking of playing this position, here are some tips:

1. You need to be able to use VOIP. You need to be familiar with the map. And you need to be quick! Be as clear as possible, don't stutter.
2. Get your armor into one squad. Get your air into one squad, your best bet is to seperate choppers and planes. Make sure ground troops are all assigned to squads.
3. Order ground troops logical flags to attack. Get your armor to back then up, have them pummel flags from afar. Armor should NEVER move up unless the area is secure. Try to keep your armor from moving into crowded urban areas.
4. Keep watch over ground squads. Make sure your telling squad leaders where enemies are or are coming from. Listen to their needs. If they need air, or you spot boggies, call in air! A-10s are great for hitting large areas, gunships are accurate as hell.
5. Anti Armor, IEDs, VBIEDs, inbound vehicles, snipers, mines... you have a lot on your plate, but it falls on your shoulders, don't be afraid to Caps Lock and type a message to your team.

Comments? Tips? Let 'er have it!

[Doedel]

I used to play Commander in vBF2 a lot, but I've never really tried it in PR.

[Rick_the_new_guy]

Great thread Doc.

The new grid system is a great asset for the C.O. Really helps with communication.

I hear tale that the C.O. will be completly redone in .6 Source: egg.

[PF-Greasy Monkey]

you can also give precise orders/intel using the attack/move... markers
ie: Squad 4, there is a sniper there (move marker) on the move marker.
you also have 3 more infantry comming from the south behind the fence.
they are currently here(attack marker)

also tell your SL when artillery/supplies are ready to be used

other than that great thread

[Matt23]

someone should do a trainable commander game like what fuzz did for squad leaders. But i don't know how that would work with only one commander at a time.

[[PTG] ]-[00T]

One guy who plays commander on our server a lot is orangez_fr. A very good commander and uses the destroy icon to identify hostile targets or rally points - I liked the method so much I now use it to identify areas containing hostiles when I'm Sqd leader, which is most of the time.

VOIP is key as I use the commander to relay information to other sqd leaders - and it comes in handy so often to have that instant transfer of info across the airwaves.

Good thread mate - the game needs more VOIP using commanders.

[Orangez]

When you play Commander you play to win - Nice x2 Bonus
When you are on foot you looking for easy kills

And when you are a good commander, your men will follow your order because it's ultra profitable.

As I said, in 0.5 the commander is like a talking UAV with some smarts

[Topf]

Is there any possibility to have some squads even before players join them?
So that players can choose an armor or an Air-Squad before making a new squad?
Basically, players shouldn`t create the squad, they should be there before players join and only the decision which squad they join is up to them.

So you join a server and the player can choose between:
-Armor Squad
-Air Squad
-grunt Squad 1,2,3,4

This would be quite nice.

[Cerberus]

I haven't played .5 yet due to my internet's inability to stay connected for more than 30 minutes. Can the commander zoom in all the way now?

[Nephrmuus]

I haven't played .5 yet due to my internet's inability to stay connected for more than 30 minutes. Can the commander zoom in all the way now?

Yes, you can still zoom in as in BF2/older versions of PR.

[Biggaayal]

Good co tips there.

I feel though like it is, most PR squad leaders aren't able to use their co at all.
The main difference vs vanilla is the absence of scan/uav. Thus you are nearly blind as a co, and totally unable to really understand the battle on your own.

In vanilla the intelligence came from the tools that the co had. In PR the CO is totally dependant on SL input. The flow of intelligence has been reversed, and the CO role has been shifted to coordination more.

The squad leaders have to communicate often to the co what is happening in the area around them.
What does it help if you can spot some enemies on your co view for a certain squad, when there is a tank sniping them from the other side of the map. The CO has no way of understanding this.

I encountered this in a game on road to kyongnang yi (or something like that). From a certain moment my team wasn't able to do anything, where they were dominating before. When we were already far behind on tickets. I noticed why. For some time enemy tanks were being spotted again and again. Too late I saw that on our whole team, we had only ONE AT! With 32 players!

What should have happened is that loads of SL's (they were all cooperating very well) would have told me that they were being raped by armour. Yet not one did, and only by checking kits myself did I realize what the problem was.

SL's need seriously to use their CO's, maybe then more people will play as CO.
Remember that the CO is blind without your voip input, SL.

[DirtyHarry88]

I tried for the first time in all BF2 history today on basra and it's very annoying.

Some moron and his squad wouldn't follow my orders and just stayed at village despite me telling him numerous times the insurgents can't cap it.

[Michael_Denmark]

I

...Some moron and his squad wouldn't follow my orders....

Been there done that too. Always frustrating. ---



Think I posted something like this before but wth, here I go again:
(its not very well thought through, so take it for what it is)


1.
I Believe that the score system needs an supplementary “star point value” system, where squad members, squad leaders and commanders are rewarded with either plus or minus points due to their ability to either command or be commanded. (TEAM WORK) The more stars = better to team work.

It could be as simple as a single plus point every time an order is carried out and a minus point for each time an order is disobeyed.

The star points would over a short time give other team players a pretty good indicator about where to find other team work players.

Maybe the points could be highlighted in the in game player list, where u also see ping digits and so on?

Maybe an even more advanced feature could show an entire squads star point value, which should highlight the squad’s average star point value? (How to find a good team work squad)



2.
Also, commanders should only get rejected when applying for the C role if the other player/applier have more star points.



3.
No matter what kind of indication system that could tell players on a team where to find the other team work players would in my point of view change rounds in the future dramatically. Cause the teamwork wolves, would simply get together.

And lone wolfs would maybe not even have a hard time, since they could sign up in their own squad.



Mike

[UK_Force]

When you play Commander you play to win - Nice x2 Bonus
When you are on foot you looking for easy kills

And when you are a good commander, your men will follow your order because it's ultra profitable.

As I said, in 0.5 the commander is like a talking UAV with some smarts

PR is not about points though !!!!

[eggman]

In v0.6 a Commander will need a small squad supporting him due to the nature of the activities he will need to perform to assist his team. Teams without Commanders will be heavily disadvantaged over team with Commanders. The nature of the changes will depend heavily on some teamwork between the Commander and a few team mates.

I am *hoping* that what we see is guys who play PR who do nothing other than play Commander most of the time. With say 20 servers running and populated .. that means we need to have ~40 guys who are good at Commanding. Right now Commanding is so boring that there's not many folks who actually play it. Hopefully we'll get it interesting and there will be some folks up to the challenge

[ArmedDrunk&Angry]

I'm looking foward to .6 more and more.
The CO postion is more often draining rather than boring unless you have no VIOP with the squads which is rare these days.

[Nephrmuus]

In v0.6 a Commander will need a small squad supporting him due to the nature of the activities he will need to perform to assist his team. Teams without Commanders will be heavily disadvantaged over team with Commanders. The nature of the changes will depend heavily on some teamwork between the Commander and a few team mates.

I am *hoping* that what we see is guys who play PR who do nothing other than play Commander most of the time. With say 20 servers running and populated .. that means we need to have ~40 guys who are good at Commanding. Right now Commanding is so boring that there's not many folks who actually play it. Hopefully we'll get it interesting and there will be some folks up to the challenge

Whether in vBF2, vBF2142 or even PR, wherein the commander has a lot less "magic-tools", I have never stopped being painfully busy right throughout the round as commander! "bored" is absolutely the last word I'd use to describe my experiences as commander; "frustrated", "over-worked" and/or "under-appreciated" are more on the mark! Admittedly, I don't actually command very often at the moment and I would command more, but I'm finding so few squad leaders interested in teamwork on any level, that I'm having to do that job all the time. Since I can't see much point in a commander without decent squad leaders, I generally stick at the lesser position of responsibility (guys, being squad leader is about more than pressing the "create squad" button!).

I'm looking forward to the new 0.6 commander tools though, since I have to admit that I'd like some more variety of tasks. Thinking again about it though, I did find 0.4 to be more dull, since tactics were a lot more limited in a linear CP setup, something that AAS2-groups has opened up a lot (thank you!).

[Michael_Denmark]

eggman']In v0.6 a Commander will need a small squad supporting him due to the nature of the activities he will need to perform to assist his team. Teams without Commanders will be heavily disadvantaged over team with Commanders. The nature of the changes will depend heavily on some teamwork between the Commander and a few team mates.

I am *hoping* that what we see is guys who play PR who do nothing other than play Commander most of the time. With say 20 servers running and populated .. that means we need to have ~40 guys who are good at Commanding. Right now Commanding is so boring that there's not many folks who actually play it. Hopefully we'll get it interesting and there will be some folks up to the challenge

Looking forward to 0.6 then. Maybe i will be one of those players always being commander then?

Nice to see a developer focus on the small target group players like my self represent. Thx.

[eggman]

The Squad Leaders will hopefully have a lot more time for the Commander because the CMDR will really play a key role in the fighting. Er.. or so we hope hehe.

[StyrmanKarlsson]

I use to play as a Goat.