Empires need clear leadership

Part of what made PS1 special was how the empires' armies were led by a handful of well known individuals. These people aquired command rank for squad leadership over time and learned how the game mehanics work and how to be a good leader during this period. A lot of people knew them, because at some point they probably were in one of the squads led by the high ranking officers. These people actually cared about what was going on globally and distributed the forces accordingly. Elaborate battle plans were made and executed, continents conquered, even global domination has occured.

In constrast, PS2 "leaders" are a bunch of unknowns who put some points into the command tree...

This really needs to change. Command skills, global communication should not be a result of double XP weekends, but actual leadership experience. We need people who actually care about conquering continents to take control.

Join a good outfit.

I am talking about a level above outfits. Empire leadership was done by the best outfits, so it is not really unrelated, but is it all right for someone who is backed by 50+ people to be inferior to some noname, who put points in the squad tree?

How true. Question: In the first month of PS1, who were the leaders? Well, NO ONE. Because everyone was still unknown, people didn't have command rank, and folks were still learning about the game in order to MAKE battle plans. So, a better question is...why are you comparing the effects of several months work with the effect of 3 weeks work? Compare PS2 to PS1 at the 3 week mark, and I think you'll see the leadership was about the same.

Planetside is no longer about big scale warfare, it's about pretend big scale warfare, but actually small to medium scale in a few different places, large scale leadership is no longer a priority, or even necessary.

Yes, im agree with Azren, its ridiculous how some ppl just spending 100 certs are able to say some "orders". IMO, the access to that channel must be much higher, until then i will not take care about what they say on it.

I come from BF2 and 2142, i dont know anything about PS1 so i cant argue about anything PS1 related. But as far i can tell PS2 cant offer the commands, that are needed for a proper leadership. "Attack here" or "Defend here" is simply not enough.
My suggestion is to remove the platoon leader form the 4 squads and give him a special role, similar to the commander in BF2 and improve it.

There's little strategic value on global scale, combat units are essentialy unlimited and do not deplete, so I don't know.

In WW2 mmo fps game they have well known player volunteers as "High Command". They do all the basic leadership stuff, as boosting morale in hard times and giving tasks for squads. But they also have to keep an eye on the frontlines, give attack or "defend at all costs" objectives ( which then opens spawn pool more), move armor, infantry, air or naval divisions in and out as they deplete when used and have to be pulled back to resuply. Those divisions are limited in number, have to be used wisely as they can be destroyed completely. It's then players/squads job to pull out a successful attack, or defense.

For those leaders it's a strategy game and battle against each other, using real players as troops. Nothing of that here, it's a different game.

EDIT:

I agree with this though.

Yeh I remember that, the command channel in PS1 was full of wise sages, and not a zilllion kiddies who gained CR by mooching SL xp. Hah ha haha. Oh btw there is no global chat in PS2, just continent wide.

True, but my intention was not to complain about not having leader personals right now, but on the method they will be selected in the future. Someone who puts points into command tree (which he farmed by rocket podding for example) simply do not meet the requirements. The method of gaining ranks should change so we will end up with leaders who have actual experience.

Strategic value is in territory hold. This will be appearent when we can finally lock continents.

Well, there is no global warfare either. I assume global chat will come once we can lock continents.

I agree that its stupid that you can just cert your way into command.
The way I expect it to go is that the command channel will be largely ignored, and any coordination will happen between outfits.

Command should definitely be MUCH higher. 100 certs is nothing. 5000 is more like it, at least then you know they've played enough to be able to afford it.

Or, have a bunch of elected 'commanders'. Monthly polls.

Not true at all. On Amerish a couple of nights ago, Vanuhad two - three FULL platoons all working together. One or more holding the NC and the other capping the rermaining TR bases. Thats apart from the all the random players.

And by working together, I mean with different squads being given orders to hold different positions and to go different ways etc in response to enemy movements.

The battles were huge.

Join an outfit and wait for a new game to age so well known people can lead. your asking for people to be known and stand out in a new game. patience.

"We need people to take on leadership roles."

"I won't listen to anyone issuing orders."

This sums up the problems with "leadership". The other problem with leadership is that this game doesn't have 10% of the strategy that PS1 had, there is really nothing to do but swarm an objective, and leaders don't have access to something as simple as "reveal friendlies". If you want leadership, join an outfit.

the leadership chat should only be avavible to Platoon commanders, not squad leaders, eaven after you cert into it

its easy to randomly invite one person to become a "squad leader" and get access to the leader channel, but its atleast alittle more difficult finding those 13 people you need to form a platoon, and without a platoon of around 2+ squads there is little you can acctualy contribute with as an independent group of players without tying yourself up around the firendly zerg,
sure you can go and cap smaller points around the map, but as soon as you meet resistance a squad is ussaly better off pulling back and go to another place.

we are lucky on the NC side of woodman atm since the leader channel is ussaly not flooded by small randoms and the outfits are currently able to organize ourselfs with it, for now atleast x)

Had a great time coordinating with other people who certed into the command channel last night. Conquered Amerish and Esamir in the process, it's not all bad.

It got bad when everyone else in the command chat was my outfit, thus no-one to coordinate attacks with.

This is a meta game and will take time to develop. Ironically, it'll likely develop more quickly in servers with a dearth of solid leaders. But, that being said, in Waterson TR some people are showing themselves to be effective leaders while other people are making a bad name for themselves.

Legowen (sp?) is doing a good job managing the zerg. Last night we were getting pushed to our warpgate by VS and he organized large-scale base attacks while I was quietly leading my guys around capping smaller bases in support of his efforts. On the other hand, there is some tool named Mikee Funks which just abuses /orders to LARP his love for The Crown. People almost uniformly dislike him and people actively say in /yell to ignore him.

Clear leaders are coming to the fore, but it needs more time to develop.

Good point. I rescind my earlier comment. It's been my experience in other games, like DAoC, that the people who become leaders are those who have the best ideas as well as the communication skills which encourage others to follow them. You can't cert into those as they come from within. However, you DO have to cert into the ability to use the 'order' chat function I believe. I'm guessing that the people who do so, but can only scream like a bad parody of a movie drill sergeant won't become the leaders. Whereas those who can simply, swiftly, and succinctly describe their goals while gently encouraging others to follow them using charm and tact will become our leaders...because THEY are the ones who will have the most success.