Commander Plan Screen

[GeZe]

I posted this a while ago in the BF2 forum. Anyways, I thought I'd throw this idea here, maybe somethings will stick.

I thought of this and I think it would be a really useful feature to add to the game as a patch, mod or expansion.

Battlefield 2 comes with some really neat features that promote team play (squads, commander etc.) but these features aren’t used to there fullest because of a lack of planning. Such planning can only be achieved by organized clans, so far.

What I am proposing is the Commander Plan Screen, a virtual whiteboard of sorts. A couple of minutes before the game starts, perhaps while the game is loading, the CPS (Commander Plan Screen) appears. All the people on the team can see it, though only the commander is able to change it. (Note that a commander would have to be chosen/elected before the planning starts). The CPS is basically the map of the level; the commander can add units, organize them in squads and add arrows for movement. The players then fill the positions that the commander has created. This is better explained with an example:

Map: Gulf of Oman
Players: 64
Side: USA

On the screen the commander creates a squad template (or gets a previously saved one) called assault. In the assault squad template he adds five people: Squad Leader – Anti Tank, Assault x2, Support and a Medic. He then puts three of these assault squads in three different spawn points, the River Fort, the Rock Fort and the Village Fort. He drags the units from the ground to the vehicles (creating a movement arrow) the vehicles absorb the units. He then drags the vehicles from the River Fort to the Village spawn point. Then he clicks to change this to an attack arrow. The commander then takes the assault squads at the other spawn points and does the same, assigning them to vehicles and giving them spawn points to attack. The commander then creates a Special Forces squad template (or gets one from saved) and adds units to that (for instance a Special Forces, sniper etc.). The commander does this, adding squads, orders and so on unit he is satisfied. The plan is done, the commander in this case really like this plan so he saves the entire thing so he can reuse it if he becomes a commander again on this map.

Then he (or the game) selects people to be squad leaders. After this the people watching the plan can apply for the positions. There shouldn’t be much conflict in position picking, though if there is the person with the most points associated with that position (support player, helicopter pilot etc.) gets it.

Then the game begins! As the game continues, the commander could change his plans and the affected squad leaders would be notified: While the commander is in his normal command screen, in addition to sending artillery, marking spotted units and that stuff, he could see the current position of his squads and order them to a new area (using arrows or something like that) the squad leader would be notified of changes to the plan that affect him and he would go to the plan screen where he can quickly see the whole plan and what he has to do. The squad leader would then order his squad to that area to attack defend etc. And, for instance while the squad leader is in the plan screen he could see the areas where the commander intends to bomb with artillery, or where the commander has ordered his bombers to bomb and the squad leader could tell his squad to stay out of those areas.


This may sound like a lot of time to execute, but soon after the feature is implemented most commanders will have their plans saved. This feature would also reduce things like half a team being medics and other such problems.

I think this feature would be really useful in promoting organized team play in which battles actually make sense.

[Doc]

You mean like the Advanced Tactical Center for BF2?

[Evil_Eye]

Looks good, but it would be nice to plan before the round starts, in that 30secs. where everyone gets into a squad.