Squad Status - Command improvement

[sixthday]

Hey, I've experienced, while playing as commander, that sometimes (especially if SL's have no mics or simply do not talk - but not only) it is very hard to coordinate various squads (what should be CO's main task).

I thought of a little improvement which could have a major impact on organizing big, multisquad attacks.

A "squad status system" could do the job. Every SL could choose from his rose in which status he is at the moment: e.g.:

• waiting for orders / idle
• in move
• constructing
• securing
• in position
• ready for attack
• in combat
• need reinforcements
• dead / knocked out

The status of every squad could appear on the commander's and every squad leader's main screen as texts or icons. This way it would improve game play too, even if no commander is available or few squads in proximity to each other could organize themselves without interrupting the CO.

With such powerful communication system the commander could order different squads to get in position and, for example, attack when everyone is ready.
It would give the commander a bigger overview to assess the situation, show him where soldiers meet resistance, what should be reinforced and where to send the men.

What do you think? Comments and improvements welcome!


For example (did this very hasty, sorry for such an ugly picture )

[arjan]

i like, but would take some time to do

[dbzao]

The idea of communicating status is something good, but there are a few alternate ways of doing that with tools already in-game (voip, chat).

So unless this brings other incentives it's not that useful imo.

[Smegburt_funkledink]

Nice suggestion, This could help the lack of inter-squad communication due to hardcoded voip.

However, I don't like the idea of helping organisation without a CO or kinda cutting out the middle man. All games, even on public servers with less mic' users should be encouraged to have commanders and follow orders.

Also, I prefer telling/hearing the commander/squadleader "squad 1 moving in from the south"..."roger that, squad 2 will cover your six" than have more text on screen.

I have a feeling that if this feature was in vBF2, it'd have been taken out by PR by now as these tasks should be performed over the COm channel.

If we can get samples or record voices for "in position", "moving in" etc... then it'd be worth being able to shout that out to other squads via the rose.

[sixthday]

but there are a few alternate ways of doing that with tools already in-game (voip, chat).
So unless this brings other incentives it's not that useful imo.

What I wanted to improve with this suggestion is the overview for the commander. Often you just don't know what the different squads are doing. You cant ask for status every time because it disturbs 1. the squadleader and 2. it takes the opportunity to react quickly

For example, you have one squad which sits in the woods all the time - you are pretty pissed off that they to not follow orders - you are asking - min. later you are asking again.... and so on. If you have 5 more squads, you can't follow one to watch them all the time.

And as I said before, it is crutial being able to react quickly. You're about to lose a flag or two - now you have some squads all over the map - you can't decide quick enough if you have to ask every squad for status.
Sometime squads are deplaced, but they do a great job keeping hostile attention on them - destructing infrastructure.

An just a few words on

I don't like the idea of helping organisation without a CO or kinda cutting out the middle man.

I don't thing that improvement has the capability to omit the commander, as it just gives the status and nothing else. Any tactics ect. have to be discussed with the CO.
That means without tactical communication the team will lose as quick as now.
But what such an improvement is capable of is to increase the strategy.
Have you ever seen a squad asking the commander if 5 other squads are ready and in position before attacking a location?

Big greets

[Death_dx]

I like this idea, but I'd venture a guess that displaying the squad's status to the SL would be difficult if not impossible, but perhaps the icon that changed when a squad requested new orders in bf2 could be used.

[1st.Gunnery]

Hey sixthday,

i realy like the idea of the "squad status system", it will help the CO to see with one look whats his teams doing right now, and he can coordinate his resources as needed.

I think only the CO should see this kind of info, and not all other SL.

This kind of system will increase the gameplay for the hole team.

thnx

Gunny

[pureperversions]

this would also help lots in the international stage not every squad leader and commander may speak the same languge so a english speaking commander trying to find out what a polish/french/german/ speaking squad is doing can be really hard at times

[Rudd]

Looks good to me, commanders need to know when a plan is sidetracked.

[mammikoura]

nice idea but I'm a bit worried about SL's actually using it. They have a lot to do already so changing the status all the time might be a pain in the *** which results in SL's not doing it.

[sixthday]

I'm a bit worried about SL's actually using it. They have a lot to do already so changing the status all the time might be a pain in the *** which results in SL's not doing it.

Hmm... that's right, but consider that the status has not to be changed every 10 sec.
It rather interacts with the orders given by the commander. It gives him hints what the squad is currently doing. If a squad is in position and waits for an attack order, the SL has a little time to change status ...
More problematic - imo - is to change the status in a battle situation. But as is said, it is rather for an overall info for CO and other squads. E.g. a squad is clearing a place and meets heavy resistance and prepares for a longer skirmish.

[AnRK]

Most people have mics so it's not really needed, kind of a cool idea though. Although if it stops me from getting attack markers from commanders that are 500 meters away, when I'm trying to clear enemies street by street using move markers Band of Brother styley then I'm all for it

[sixthday]

Most people have mics so it's not really needed

Goddamn! Have you read my posts?

[Colt556]

From my experiance I've found inter-squad coordination to be SORELY lacking, and I think PR puts too much dependence on a commander. You shouldn't lose just because you have a shitty commander, or no commander at all. It should certainly be harder, but not impossible. Inter-squad communication should be improved, drasticly. I mean they're soldiers for gods sake, I'm pretty sure they talk to eachother on the field without going through the commander.

In real life I highly doubt every individual squad gets the ok from a commander for every little action they do, or if they can work with another squad n whatnot. So I think this should be implimented, and all SL's can see it. So the SL knows which squad might be able to cover his, or which squad could use help.

Commanders should be there for overall battle strategy, and planning the attacks and what units go where, but the squads should be able to organize themselves to accomplish those objects as they see fit. So yeah, give SL's more ways to comunicate with one another to make inter-squad coordination better.