INCREASE CERT PRICE FOR COMMAND CHAT!

Command chat should not be restricted to outfit leaders or outfit players. If a zerg player leads PUG squads and platoons and they have enough experience doing it, they should be able to gain access to command chat without joining an outfit.

Do whatever you want with it. Make it a million certs for all I care. In the end they will be wasted certs.


Most of us outfits are waiting on the map app for our second or third monitor. We are hoping they give us a way to use that in conjunction with icons that individual captains can use to show themselves and squad leaders that move in real time like the squad numbers do. We hope they will be toggles so we can choose who to show and who not to show. We will pick the faction commanders ourselves based on merit and capability, not who spent certs for it.

They want to make a global chat channel and let us choose manually who to add to it? We would love them for it. Superimpose that in the corner of the map so we can catch it at a glance with the rest of the information and we will be golden. Spending certs for it is not an option. I do not care who is dedicated. It never amounts to who is skilled and who is deserving of our attention.

The way it is now? Any idiot can get in there and spam it. Like a global channel. There is no prerequisite of competancy. Just certs and that is not going to work out well. Just leads to us ignoring it more than we do now...

Limiting the Command Channel to Platoon leaders would serve the same purpose and wouldn't exclude everyone, for now and bring back the same situation in a couple months from now.

It will happen ANYWAY.

This "orders" thing is new to me to be honest. I haven't seen any of that chat channel yet. The one I'm speaking of is known as "Leader" and is accessed via /leader or /com, and is only visible when I'm a squad leader AND I have the command chat certification.

The command chat cert has a cost of 100 certs, and gives you access to that channel, and from what I've seen there's maybe a dozen people on my server (Connery) that can access it right now. I've seen about 12 unique names, counting my own, and never more than six of us have been online at a time (due to time constraints I'm sure). We've had some good coordination thus far, and have had no issues about command chat being abused or used for anything other than commanding (with the exception of first time introductions between commanders).

My guess is that orders chat requires you to be a squad leader, yes. But having never heard of it until now, I can't say for certain. I would hope it does, because if anyone can talk in it then it sorta defeats the purpose of having specific people as commanders :/

But to hopefully allay your fears, the command chat channel seems to have some fairly good protections so far, inasmuch as you need to be an active squad leader, and trolls can be punished/ignored for abusing the chat.

/leader allows you to access a command channel reserved for squad leaders only.

/order allows you to give continent wide orders that everyone on your faction sees. It has a cooldown timer of 2 or 3 mins or something like that. It will be horrible once everyone has it similar to /continental chat in PS1. I believe /order is only available if you have unlocked the certification for /leader (under squad leader certifications)

It should be for outfit leaders only. And not small outfits, but like 50+ member outfits.

Both require that you be leading a squad too, so I just grab the next random I see to join my "squad" and blast out my chat.


I've been using /orders in tandem with the attack / defend icons for continental-scale zerg coordination. I don't have time to micro-manage squads and play global command / intel. I just wish /region wouldn't break as much.

Cont all - 2000 certs, minimum BR30
Global - 4000 certs, minimum BR40 (or whatever max is)

If someone spends that long grinding for it they aren't going to lose confidence of the empire by posting spammy **** or trolling, and if they do then thats their loss.

seems a bit much but ya

somewhere around 3000+ for leader chan
br isn't really needed as 3000 certs is a lot of brs lol

I really miss the old command rank system and the CUD. It's been dumbed down now and there are far fewer useful features available to commanders than there used to be. Continent, global and command channels; reveal friendlies and enemies; emp; orbital strike... all sorely missed. Maybe if they introduced a tiered system, akin to the old command rank system, with 5 levels to unlock in the command channel cert.

1: Low-Command channel read
2: Low-Command channel write
3: High-command channel read
4: Continent channel write
5: Global channel and high-command channel write

This brings people into the know without having them spam up the important things, plus it adds layers of organisation that have been stripped since PS1.

I think I might have an idea with which everyone might agree I hope.

It’s obvious that the current system has room for abuse. IMHO this hasn’t manifested yet, except for a few notable anecdotes, but as certs will become more abundant abuse will become more frequent.
Fact is that we do not yet know what’s in store in terms of coordination tools. There used to be talk of a mission system, which I’m sure has known a lot of development time. Connected, or independently of this was a Twitter like offshoot that would allow people to “follow” a few people if they were to like their missions.
How far away these features are, or if they’re coming at all, remains uncertain.

• Buying access to command tools with certs makes little sense I believe. Certs rewards combat ability and have little to do with leadership or responsibility.
• Outfit leader only access leaves out a lot of talented people IMHO.
• Buying access with SC is overly elitist.
• The PS1 CR system had flaws, certainly, but offers a nice basis to expand upon.

So here’s the idea:

It should be possible to be voted on by your squad and platoon members. Instead of a general score (for example in a range of 1-5 stars) I would prefer a few different rankings, for example, “communication” and “Insight”. This to subtly urge people to think about their score and to decrease the odds that the scoring becomes purely a popularity contest.
When a sufficient average has been achieved the squad/platoonleader would become a Tier 1 Commander

Tier 1 Commanders have access to a /sitrep channel. This channel would be visible to everyone in Tier 1 and above. Their presence there and their ability to suggest certain actions, their prowess on the battlefield and the accuracy of their sitreps can be voted on by Tier 1 and above, with Tier 2 and Tier 3 votes being of more worth. When a sufficient average has been achieved the Tier 1 Commander would become a Tier 2 Commander.

Tier 2 Commanders have access to a /leader channel. This channel would be visible to everyone in Tier 2 and above. This channel is used to debate and discuss the server situation and the course of action. This time it is possible to nominate and vote on a Tier 2 Commander to become Tier 3 (using for example /votetier3 [name]) or to possibly demote someone. The only extra power of a Tier 3 Commander is the ability to use extra communication commands. /broadcast : Talks to everyone on the continent.
/broadcastserver : Talks to everyone on the server.
/broadcastsquads : Talks to all squadleaders.
/broadcastplatoons : Talks to all platoonleaders.

I’m aware of the unintuitive and cumbersome nature of this process. This has disadvantages but also advantages. Only people who are willing to put some effort in the process will be inclined to invest the necessary time.
I know it will favor outfit leaders (as they will have an easier time getting the required votes). Perhaps it would be necessary to limit the amount of people from one outfit from being able to become Tier 2.

But still I think this proposal sufficiently combines certain democratic and meritocratic elements to make it rather hard to game the system into being used for childish BS.

Had some spamming the command chat the other night for recruits for his or her outfit. Annoying, to say the least.

Squad Leader Certs (just like the old command xp).

No only commanders.

There is anotrher chat that becomes available /orders which can be seen only on that continent and has a 5 minute cooldown..

And yes there is a problem but no this isn't the solution.

No opinions on my idea?

Honestly I think most of you are missing the mark altogether. The command chat in and of itself is not a good idea. What would be much better is a more robust chat system.

It would be much better if players could make a chat channel and have various parameters to customize it. Then we could have public, private, continent and global settings. Outfit leaders then could have their own channel that other outfit leaders could join in order to coordinate their actions. Have a list of channels just like there are for squads. Give the channel owner some admin rights to kick and ban players from their channel and all will be well.

This should not even be part of the cert system at all. Let the players have full control over it and let a players reputation be the factor that will determine who listens or ignores them.

Oh stop this elitist whining ("only outfit leaders of 10000+ outfits should have it, it should also cost 29837289 certs" - LOL). I have a hard time to even take this op commander seriously when he writes in all caps (do you also write like that in the command channel?).
I have seen a hundred times more whining about the possible abuse of the /orders command than i have actually seen it being "abused" (infact, i have yet to see anyone besides me using it at all on my server - and i play solo and just get a wingman to have access to proper communication tools so i can share useful global informations about zerg directions and such).

My advice: Get a grip and deal with the one or two trolls that may annoy you the traditional way by reporting or ignoring them.

There are FAR more important issues this game has.

I suppose your right jonesitronator, just because you "earned" the right to chat in command doesn't make you any more of a leader and all that does is postpone the c5 members ship club .

Provide a means for players to organise themselves, through actions would be better. Have the hierarchy more organic. Ok maybe cert points can be used to give number of squads you can "command", then each platoon in a "battalion" etc. Have them public listed and list for squad to join platoons, platoons to join battalions, under a continent army.

Player see listed squads (like it is)
SL see listed platoons to join
PL see listed of battalions to join.
battalion is on continent.

Command then only operate in that hierachy and across that hieachy
SL chat all Platoon SL's
PL chat all battalion PL's
BL chat all battalion BL's on cont.

done.


If anyone else has suggested this earlier apologies but not read the thread in full.

Yeah i got to agree. I have not been to command chat and i dont feel like wasting 100 certs so i can read the rantings of a bunch of battle rank 5 armchair generals and morons like this having hissy fits when they start losing or no one listens to them. Player ran channels can be elitist circle jerks but they could be easily avoided by simply leaving the channel and finding a new one with rational people in it. Morons in command chat cannot be avoided because there is no kind of player moderation.

If it was up to me, you could not write in command chat unless you pass a 1 month vetting period,
write a essay to smedley personally and a go thorough rectal exam, twice.