I have led tons of squads and platoons of all forms and colors, from casual squad on live server to platoon in ServerSmash, and been bothered by the choices you have to do as a squad leader. Don't pick Heavy Assault and you can't actually lead a charge yourself. Pick Heavy assault and you cripple your team firepower by checking the map. Don't pick infiltrator, and you have to check what your infiltrator is doing every minute to be sure you have the intel you need. Don't pick engineer and have your casual squad runs out of ammo because no engineer. The aim is to have a class you can reliably pull as a squad/platoon leader during an open squad or a competitive squad to perform everything you need to do as a squad/platoon leader without being OP. Weapons: Medic weapons (solid weapons but can't reliably oneclip a MAX like a LMG) Sidearms: well, sidearms Tool: Infiltrator tools (for intel) Ability: Heavy Assault shields (to be able to breach in with other heavies) Suit: Default suits Grenade: LA grenades (frag, smoke, flash, light flash) (no EMP/sticky/anti-vehicle, so support grenades that takes only sense while charging) Utility: auxiliary Shield, medikit, restokit, squad beacon, ammo pack (no C4, tough choice between squad beacon and anything else) Balance: Very good against bare infantry (as a consequence of heavy shield + infiltrator tool + assault rifle), but not necessarily better than HA (who have conc and rocket launcher and up to 200 mag), can't do anything against anything else. Also, it would force people to take this class to have access to the squad beacon, while the squad beacon would still keep the same mechanisms than before (have to be SL, disappears when SL changes). Also, this class have no real counter against MAX (or you would have to play your grenade very very well). Restriction: can only be pulled by a SL. Two options. Option 1: could be pulled only from infantry terminals (pros: easiest solution to code, would give value to hacking infantry terminals after dropping from a galaxy or valk, cons: couldn't be used while spawning from a gal/valk/squad sundy/squad beacon). Option 2: same treatment than other infantry classes, with the restriction to SL only. Potential abuses: Do not have any special capacities apart from the squad beacon, which is already in game, so no new "cheese". To pull several of those class in the same squad, you would have to cycle the SL role in the squad everytime someone respawn, destroying the squad beacon. While still having a single squad beacon at a time. It's possible but exhausting and most probably not worth it. Potential corollary: acts as a reward to people leading squads. Would allow to add more unique weapons/tools/mechanism to squad leaders.
I think this is more a problem with how teamplay is used in PS2 rather than the requirement of a squad lead class. If your team requires your Heavy firepower more than you giving orders and checking the map, than all your orders and squad-lead abilities offer very little power and advantage and it's better to let them run around. If you can't rely on your infiltrator to do his job, then either that player sucks or there's not enough encouragement to do teamplay (hint: It's usually the latter one, placing recon stuff isn't rocketscience). If your team runs out of ammo, why didn't you just order someone to pick an engineer? It's not as if you are the squad-lead and can ask players to do that right? I don't think the game needs a separate class for squad leading. What the game needs is more advantages for actual teamplay and better situational awareness. At it's core, any two players who work together regardless of class should be more powerful than two players who happen to be next to each other. Right now two players working together barely have any advantage compared to two players who randomly stand next to each other. This means that you need more synergies within classes and between classes. Ideally if two players meet up regardless of being a random, in the same squad, in different squads or in different platoons, they should want to stick together. If they meet other players they should also want to stick together for the advantage. Now if one of them dies, they should be able to meet up and teamplay with anyone else they meet for teamplay. You should never ever be reliant on being in the same squad, platoon or outfit just to be able to teamwork. Most teamwork should be as easy as the Engineer+MAX. The Engineer can provide repairs and ammo, the MAX will benefit from the repairs and ammo and in return will defend the Engineer and allow the Engi to munch some kills when the MAX is repaired. There's no communication required, there's no teamspeak and not even a V-chat required. They just have to meet up and teamplay happens. That's what most synergy and teamplay should be. Easy and quick. For better situational awareness, currently you can barely know whats happening on the other side of the base. You have to physically go there to see the radar blips appear and get an idea how the fight is progressing on that side. So we add to the radar system. Currently only players within a certain radius will show up when spotted. Their exact location is marked and visible. Anyone outside of that range is 100% invisible, mostly to spare the server. But we already have conflict-bubbles on the map. You can see where lots of weapons fire happens on the radar, but it's not very accurate and doesn't tell a lot about whats happening. This system is what we could build off. Imagine if all players that are spotted will just get a general-whereabouts bubble on the radar+map. This general whereabouts is updated once every X seconds to relieve the server. These bubbles merge with nearby enemy/allied bubbles so that you get an idea where an entire enemy group might be. The bubbles have different borders, showing off if they are infantry, tank or aircraft. Now if you open the map you can see what's happening on the other side of the base, or even what's happening on the other side of the continent. You can see friendly bubbles showing off infantry, tanks and aircraft whereabouts and all enemies they've spotted through Q-spot, proxy radar, scout radar, recon equipment etc. Now if you are a Squad-lead you can simply select such a bubble and select from a drop-down menu. You can say "attack this with tanks". Or you can put down a marker to swarm it with infantry AV. You can also communicate to others. If you say "There's a Sunderer at the infantry-ball north or Zurvan", then all players regardless of where they are can open their map/expand their radar and look there. Then they can identify where the enemy infantry is, perhaps see where enemy vehicles are that might be avoided, and then know where and how to attack. This also makes smoke signals more clear. Right now a smoke signal could mean anything from "enemies here" to "please a single infil needs to spot from this position". Spotting and scouting also becomes more relevant. An infil spotting a tank column forming at a base will now actually warn people in the next base what's happening, rather than no one being nearby to even see the blips on the radar.
Still not a reason to not make it happen. If you have an entire suggestion, you can make a new thread where people can comment on it. Also, not everything is black and white. This class would have the same effect than the medic shield bubble on the medic. The medic shield bubble makes no difference in 1v1. However, it provides a lot of comfort for players holding a point by helping to regen their shield, which, in the end, helps the group. Same with this class, it would smooth the squad leading experience by helping in small ways. No more charge with open squads while having to say "No Patrick, don't charge in front of the enemy engie turret" or "No Patrick, don't run on spotted C4" on the voice chat. Just "Follow me". No more unzooming the minimap, checking it for infiltrator tool activity, rezooming, checking if there is an infiltrator in the squad, then telling people to get an infiltrator (which is risky because then your medics can switch to infiltrator to try to please you). Just press "3" and deploy tool. Instead of concentrating on punny things that players should do by themself, SL would be able to focus more on squad tactics and squad teamplay rather than just babysitting.
I read this suggestion from an old post long ago. Lead as a medic with triage riding a scout radar flash. You will provide the same utility as an infiltrator, heal allies and repair maxes without ever leaving your map screen.
Effectively, no. This class is essentially a Combat Medic for the weapon plus Infiltrator for the recon and Engineer for ammunition supply. Under the concern of wanting more class-squad interplay, I can't possibly agree to a stock type that does three for one, even under a limitation that you need to be SL. That's akin to a mandate that there should always be one per squad. Moreover, while you set out to create a class better suited for organizing and coordinating, you've set up a class better equipped to do things other than organization and coordination. Nothing separates squadleading from babysitting. Ask people questions and instruct people to do things. No recon? tell someone to pull Infiltrator. No ammo? ask someone to pull Engineer. Concerned about a conflict between battle-leading and squad-leading? don't be the exact head of the fight. The flipside of this being an organization-centric game is that you some times have to trust that another player has a clue about what he's doing.
I didn't read it all, let alone the rest of the thread, but if you're suggesting a new class of its own that would be reserved to squad leaders, I think that's a really good idea
All the reason not to make it happen. First off, you create a class that's only available to a single player who's being a Squad-lead, and as Fate has mentioned that class is better used as an attacking class than a commanding class. Just the fact that you have an AR+overshield is already a pretty OP combination, but you add recon awareness, infinite ammo and squadbeacon t othe mix? Even if the class has abilities that truly only support his teammates, it's not a good idea. By all means create teamplay abilities and capabilities for better squadplay, but those abilities should just be divided amongst the existing classes. Then we get to the core of the matter: Forced teamplay. You force a squad lead to equip this new class just to place a squad beacon. What's wrong with an LA Squad-lead who can get into better positions? Or an infiltrator? Additionally your idea's only promote leading, not teamwork, and it doesn't encourage players to really help you. Also the teamplay is only possible within the same squad. If you meet up with another squad, another platoon or some randoms those players can't do anything with you. All gameplay that's supposed to enhance teamplay should be globally oriented. It shouldn't matter if you are in a squad or not, if you meet anyone you should be able to teamplay together. A Squad should make it easier, but a squad shouldn't ever be a requirement. And your idea's not only focus solely on making the squad-lead a juggernaught, but even limit your options as a squad-lead. There's plenty of reasons to be an LA as a Squad-lead, it can provide you with an overview, allows you to spot enemies, scout terrain, give players a heads-up about what type of enemies and vehicles are moving about. Something the Infiltrator recon tools can't do. There's plenty of reason to use an infiltrator Squad-lead to do similar tricks but more invisible and support your team from afar with recon tools and snipers for better view, there's plenty of reasons to use all other classes as well. But your idea would make that obsolete, and would in fact make teamplay less of a requirement since the squad-lead can just perform almost all duties, meaning his entire squad can just be Heavies with maybe another medic sprinkled in. That's not what the game needs. The game needs more interplay between players regardless of them being in a squad, platoon or being a random, the game needs more interplay within classes, between classes and between infantry/vehicles/aircraft. A random should be able to request an airstrike on a target from a squad of aircraft flying above him, or even just give out a global request of "blow that up". Squad/platoons should only make such things easier. For instance every player has a maximum amount of requests that are visible on his screen, and his squad/platoon requests take precedent over those of other squads/platoons/randoms, with his squad-lead requests ranking the highest. Squad/platoon leads should be able to encourage players. For instance by having a squad-/platoon-based resource pot. Then the squad/platoon lead can offer discounts or small bonusses for players in their squad to pull a vehicle, or use the resources to buy a squad/platoon-based XP bonus for a certain class so that you can encourage players to get an engineer and get more XP while repairing MAX's. Or you buy an area-XP bonus, giving everyone in your squad/platoon extra XP or small resource rewards for fighting in a certain area. Or even buy exotic stuff like a temporary squad-beacon boost so that players can spawn on a squad-beacon after 10 seconds. Those are the kind of things that a squad-lead can do to encourage teamplay and strengthen his squad/platoon, those are the kind of things that make squad/platoon leading important, rather than just making the Squad-lead a super-powered jack-of-all-trades class.
Your heart is in the right place but this suggestion is the wrong way to go about it. I agree that leaders, be it squad or platoon, need more incentive to actually do what they do, but what you're suggesting is basically creating a super soldier class. The best primary weapons in the game + the best anti-infantry ability in the game + arguably the best class tool in the game. I don't have to explain why such a combination is hilariously broken, right? Squads can technically be created with just 2 people, and with access to a class that powerful as a reward for being squad lead, it is rife for abuse. I bet you're gonna see a lot more 24 squads of 2 people each instead of one platoon with 48 people.
Sounds like a pretty powerful combination of abilities and gear. Genuine question incoming...............could you form a squad, not invite anyone to join it and then play as an enhanced HA/Medic or whatever? i.e. is this an exploitable role?
