I'd like to start with saying that I love the Squad Leadership certifications, I have mine maxed to 100%. With that said there are a number things that I would like to see changed or added. Spawn beacons: Currently Spawn beacons only work for your squad. I've been in a huge platoon so many times and have wanted the entire platoon to be able to use the beacon. The beacon from the Platoon leader should work for his entire Platoon. Improved Platoon and Squad Objectives: Currently there is a squad objectives cert which allows you to 'q' on a capture point and make it a priority. This needs to be changed. Just like ability to right click on the map and set empire wide Assault and Defensive requests, the Platoon leader should be able to do the same on a map and set Alpha/Bravo/Charlie/Delta Assault/Defend for that area, then individually the Squad leaders who get this order should be able to set the order for their squad. This would allow better coordination and Experience bonuses could be granted for following orders. A bonus if following platoon orders, and another bonus on top if following squad orders (so of like in Battlefield with the Commander and Squad leader system they used to have). Also if you're in the assigned area you could have something in your HUD and minimap that says to assault the area or to defend it, and if it changes some voice could come up saying squad/platoon orders have changed (because some people zone out and just get into killing or whatever they're doing and don't notice chat or have voice). UAV/Sat Recon: A leadership ability to target a hex or area and set a recon request, it's and all Enemy units in that area are temporarily highlighted like someone looked at them and pressed 'q'. Supply Drop: I know that engineers can drop ammo, but that's limited to the weapon you're on, and they can only drop so much. If there was a squad leader ability, perhaps a little laser pointer or clicking the map to have a supply crate dropped. Clicking on it will resupply you with everything, all weapons and equipment (including grenades, and medkits, etc..), like hitting resupply at an equipment terminal. You shouldn't be able to change your loadout, just resupply, and it's good for a time limit, instead of so many reloads. You could have different levels of this cert which increase the time it's around, and how often you can request supply drops. Another change I'd like to request is the ability to start a vote for a new platoon leader. I know many people have been playing in large platoons, and their platoon leader goes afk, just disappears. Not everyone knows each other, but it's a good platoon and they'd like to keep it going, instead of disbanding and hoping they all find each other again. The platoon leaders absense causes a number of problems, if squad leaders leave or need to be changed, noone can assign them, noone can move people between squads if they join to be with a buddy and end up in a different squad, etc... Far too often I've seen this happen, and there needs to be a way from the existing squad leaders to remedy this. And even down on the squad level, a large squad and the squad leader afk's, they should be able to replace him too with a vote.
So ... Battlefield 2142? I tried posting for more exp and others have tries posting to expand leadership roles in general but alas all have been ignored. Hope they actually do something soonish because leadership in general is a joke and it is a very serious issue for a game that specializes in team work
Really, this is pretty basic stuff even. We're just talking about organizing your team mates and that’s kind of the point of being in a outfit or a large platoon anyway. Except there really isn't a mechanism to do so, without having to leave the game and mess around, and if your in a pub squad no one is going to look anyway. "Do this for more xp" is a sure-fire way to get people to co-operate in a game like this. XP is the driving force behind pretty much everything honestly. If its like 2142 is because that game hit the nail exactly on the head honestly. PS1/2 already borrowed a million ideas from a million different places, may as well borrow some of the better ideas too while they are at it.
Well I have to say that the commander position and his interaction with his various squads in Battlefield 2142 created the best generic PUG teams I've ever found in any game. I love all of Pannath's suggestions myself, especially the spawn beacon being platoon wide rather than squad, and the vote for new platoon position. There are many times the platoon commander, for whatever reason, becomes inactive. Either they don't realize they are platoon leader (and aren't paying attention), or they go afk for long periods of time. Just to add one more comment to Kize here too.. That purely organic teamwork from BF2142's system, I believe was as encouraging to good team play as it was, because of the point system it had: Perform an objective: 1 point Perform a squad leader assigned objective: 2 points Perform a commander to squad leader assigned objective: 3 points Encouraging team play by awarding bonus experience for such a chain of command like that has proven to be VERY effective in the past, and I love this kind of thing.
I agree, and yes I'm glad you noticed that some of the ideas were based off of battlefield 2142, but the organization is similar, and both games as SaslsaDoom said took ideas from a lot of the same places. These changed really do have to be made especially in a game on this scale to help organize squads and platoons.
I agree, since you get considerably more than 1 xp per kill. I think he was just showing that in battlefield you'd get 1 xp for a kill, 2 if you were following the squad leader objective, and 3 if following commander and squad leader. So in Planetside you'd give significantly better bonuses for following orders, which would seriously promoted teamwork in the game, and lead to more organized squads and platoons.
it would be nice to see some response to this subject. the team play element really isn't as good as it should be.
I would hope this sort of incentive for team play would improve it across the board, and encourage people to work together more, have active squad leaders, or request their squad leader be replaced with someone who will be active.
Giving leaders more options and tools to do their job properly would be extremely welcome. Maybe it would even be worth adding an additional slot: a Leadership slot? In this slot, you could put different things in order to balance added leadership mechanics, so for instance you would have to choose between the UAV drone or the Supply drop. You could make the Platoon Beacon a seperate certification tree to the Squad Beacon, or make it the same and just have it change based on what position you find yourself in. --- Besides giving leaders additional tools, I also think that adding an XP bonus system would help in keeping players around the objective. You could give the map markers leaders can cert into additional value by attaching an XP bonus based on radius. I guess kind of like BF2142. Because that game totally nailed the chain of command. Perhaps a 5% XP bonus on actions performed within a 100m radius of a squad marker, and a 2% XP bonus on actions performed within a 500m radius of a platoon marker? This would add an incentive for people to keep following waypoints, as it would actively reward them for doing so. Additionally, give Squad leaders a 5XP reward for any actions performed by their squad members within the 100m squad marker radius, and give Platoon leaders a 2XP reward for any actions performed by their platoon members within the 500m platoon marker radius. This would actively reward good marker placement and, moreover, provide additional XP to players who are generally too busy to accrue it in more conventional ways (leaders often find themselves looking at maps more than killing).
I was trying to say that about the bonus xp system for following orders too. I think once this is in we will find it being made use of more, and squads gaining more active leadership. Also more people joining public squads and platoons. I'm not sure about the platoon beacon being a seperate certification or not. unless it is just certification you spent on once without multiple levels to allow your spawn beacon to apply to the platoon if you're platoon leader. Since I already spent quite a bunch of certs maxing my spawn beacon to level 5 already. It would also be more incentive for players to defend a base if they're given instruction. If you prevent a base cap that was part way through and recap the base, you don't get any points extra for a facility defended. But if you're gaining extra xp because of a platoon and squad defensive order, that certainly helps.
I think the game needs significantly more improvement leadership wise. I also wish there was a way to pull up a map screen you could set waypoint and other things on without pressing m to the menu. Some enemy always finds me whenever I pull up the map without fail. I wonder if I could have the map up permanently with multi-monitor support and just hit alt to move my mouse over.
