Project Reality Forums

Currently the commander does not offer too much to a team except for about 15 minutes of UAV time and 1 area attack.

Would it make the commander a more important role to have if having a commander would reduce the spawn times of logistic vehicles (logis, helis, trans trucks) by a set percentage?

Also, the UAV seems to be circling a little bit too fast, making it uneasy on the eyes to focus on things. I forgot to record it, but I've noticed it quite often. While we're at it, we could either extend the UAV "fuel" for 5-10 more minutes, or make it refuel slightly faster to keep the commander occupied.

While this might make it more important, I'm not sure if it will do anything to incentivize players to take this role up more often.

In the very off chance its actually possible to reduce spawn timers if there is a commander I think it would be a nice addition to the game. I used to love playing commander but something happened with either myself or the game and I feel out of love with it. Kinda wish you could get some sort of benifit to following commanders orders to but that is super unlikely to be possible.

Maybe commander can spawn extra logis like in BF2 or something around those lines?

InfantryGamer42 wrote:Maybe commander can spawn extra logis like in BF2 or something around those lines?

Imo from a gameplay point of view those spawn times would need to be linked for how long your are commander and not ingame time to stop the current meta of just quickly hopping in as commander and selecting it and leaving again.

Yeah, I guess if vehicle is destroyed while commander present, reduce spawn time. Additionally, commander should be able to "recall" stranded logis, something like the delete button for fobs, destroys logi with no ticket cost and has instant or highly reduced spawn time. This could be an ability that the commander can use once every 15 min or so

Maybe some deployable assets that can only be deployed by the commander? I remember, while modding random stuff on coop, finding things that are in the game but are not used like deployable pillboxes and command bunkers which seem to have all the meshes and stuff already. Not sure if they have ever been used before, but maybe worth looking into?

That would give the commander a choice of strategy - will I go and support the team by placing some additional deployables or will I go and gather some intel with UAV. Maybe even go step further and add an additional "CO Officer" kit that can only be obtained from the main base to restrict people from abusing the CO function by resigning whoever's on the UAV for a moment so some random guy could deploy something in the field.

Well I was going to suggest that the commander gets the ability to deploy a single vehicle repair station but I'm not sure whether a field commander is a good idea.

In that case, we could think about two "trees" of abilities. The first set will only be available from the tent in main, while the other ones could be available from the field. When at a fob, the commander could have some additional deployables and I'm addition to that, going wounded within 100m from him costs no tickets? Not sure if that's possible but it is an interesting directionto think about.

Time to revamp the commander role even more to incentives people playing it

I suggest you make commanders get kills from Area attacks

I suggest you decrease the AoE of the area attack and the amount of rounds aswell as the cooldown

UncleSmek wrote:Time to revamp the commander role even more to incentives people playing it

I suggest you make commanders get kills from Area attacks

I suggest you decrease the AoE of the area attack and the amount of rounds aswell as the cooldown

Shame the commander arty overhaul never panned out.

Rabbit wrote:Shame the commander arty overhaul never panned out.

It is still lying around, just need to finally finish it

I tried to make a similar suggestion; i was thinking about supply crate paradrops. They should have a 15-20 min delay and 10min cooldown or something.

The problem I see with many of the suggested buffs is that a CO is going to become a must-have for any team and I'm dreading the thought of that ngl. Like, to me the current UAV meta already makes recon obsolete and is borderline broken, now here we are with suggestions that affect spawn times, repair drops, supply drops, logi recall, requesting logis, special emplacements and probably more in the days to follow.

The question I have for you is thus:
Does anyone truly believe that this makes for a healthy metagame, when one dude can do all of the above on top of the already existing maphack? To me, the answer is that
1.) not only should the CO NOT be able to influence the battle any more than suggesting/coordinating assault, you're furthermore
2.) suggesting the CO is becoming a full time job doing everything but commanding with all the special stuff you're trying to pile onto him.

There is no shame leaving it as it is. Heck, there is no shame forgoing the sort of attitude that this role HAS to be feature complete, fullfilled and fully realised. The game is good the way it is in this regard. And if you desperately need that Area Attack to break the enemy, then so be it, it's not a shame to have "1 minute until area attack is ready"-Commanders.

The problem is not what abilities the CO has.

The problem is that the CO role has no relevance.

If going commander is not relevant then why would anyone really commit to it.

The commander is not in command of anyone or anything.

The commander is on equal ground with every ******* on the server. So as a squad leader, anything from the commander is just bullshit, and you have no reason to listen to him over anyone else.

Then you have the CO's abilities, which have nothing to do with command at all. There is nothing a "commander" can do to command anything the squads do. All the commander does is give certain support to the squads.

The Commander needs ways to enforce command, meaning the abilities of punishment and reward in whatever way could be implemented, with out the position being an ******* magnet.

But this would all have to work around that people can just become CO for 2mins to do something, and leave.

There would have to be someway to make the player commit to the role for a while, or some way to make a player want to stay as commander.

Either make it fun, or Make it critical enough to the game play.

we NEED to have a medic
we NEED to have a crewman if we want armor support or trans
we NEED to have pilots for air support or trans

Yet we most defiantly do not need to have a commander, as the system is now.

Well yes, but we also don't need to have a squad leader, it could be just a mic-less guy with a rifleman kit. Yet a squad leader is to be followed and he also gets an array of unique abilities that can help the team (rallies, fobs, emplacements, comms).

I see your point, it would be nearly impossible to give hierarchical meaning to the commander over 50 other guys, after all, it is just a game, that's why I think the commander needs some more abilities that will tempt some more players to stick with the role

Make commanders able to mutiny squad leaders!

Honestly the one way to make the commander absolutely essential is if we got rid of the SL channel haha. It would up the team play and communication required for sure. Of course it's not exactly realistic, like two infantry squads would have direct comms IRL, but a jet pilot and an infantry squad would not have direct communication (I assume?) IRL. It might even make the commander role very stressful having to deal with all the communications and requests from SLs. Do I want this to be implemented? Maybe on a full server with good SLs and asset squads but otherwise no.

I agree with adding a change regarding CMDR.
However, I disagree with nerfing what SL and other players can currently do in order to give the commander an advantage.
A major change in the meta could have a major impact on the balance of the game and what has been attracting players.

I personally think it would be interesting to add paradrop crate as suggested above, para drop logi, simple air radar that only works against aircraft, special asset that only commander can place, etc.

As someone who plays commander, I think the commander is in a good position right now and doesn't need to be buffed (much). The UAV is extremely powerful, as an IFV with good UAV support is more dangerous than a tank that no one communicates to.

Even without UAV or area attack, having a command who encourages SL's to communicate and instantly marks stuff called out by SL's is powerful, both for assets (because they can just check their map and see what they can kill and what they should avoid) and infantry (now the whole team knows where the enemy fob is that our APC drove past but couldn't mark because they didn't have an officer kit).

BigBigMonkeyMan wrote:Honestly the one way to make the commander absolutely essential is if we got rid of the SL channel haha.

Squad leader comms are at the core of PR, that shouldn't be touched under any circumstance. We need to think of the commander in an optional way. Having one would reward the team slightly, but not having one won't cripple the team. Right now is a good example of that, but the commander role itself is not lucrative for most people to take it up.

UAV = OP but dull gameplay which makes it less played by default, even more so with the current playerbase

Freekit team who can't follow up on the info given by OP UAV (happens sometimes) = not CO's fault = why would someone waste their time as CO to use OP tool if team doesn't take advantage of it.

Ppl who think the CO should pester/micro SLs and squads in pub games are wrong.

And people are talking about other suggestions already while one of the recent changes (which iirc was kind of a bug fix related to CAS, but still) is the CO needing Officer kit to mark/delete markers/FOBs which certainly won't help how often a competent/off-the-UAV CO is present.