Platoon Commanders: Why do you hate us SOE?

My Outfit's commander gets basicall no points apart fom base captures. He doesn't have time to figh while coordinating 2 and a half Platoons, it would beu good if therey was a Commander class otherwise no Certs.

Another thing that pisses me off is the [P] menu.

Why cant I move myself around the platoon as the platoon leader? I mean really, add the same dropdown menu to platoon and squad leaders and just add an option to the list to leave. Its reta.rded that I have to pass platoon lead to another person so he can move me around and then ask it back.

You remove the entire functionality for the list and replace with a giant G.t.f.o button which when you are a platoon leader is likely the last thing you will end up doing.

I support this post fully and will continue to bump it until they implement at least some of it. 2,3,5,8,12. Thats what I want to see.

Also why do you only show you own squad on the squad list? Last time I checked there was plenty of space to the right of where the list currently is with nothing occupying that space. Show the whole platoon even if its just for the platoon leader. If its gets in the way, add a opacity feature to fade the list out until the user is happy.

I normally end up flying a galaxy and landing it somewhere during a base assault, staring at the map while the squads do their thing not because managing 48 people is too hard a task but because the tools given just arnt sufficient.

Put a person on this SOE. Even just 1 UI dev would be satisfying.

1 million times agree.

I am the most vocal, attentive leader on the Jaeger server for the Vanu forces. There isn't a two minute period between me checking my map, updating waypoints, giving orders, talking in leader channel while still somehow managing to make it to BR50, get tons of kills and direct my own guys around.

I would give anything to be given tools and rewards for simply leading. Which is, coincidentally, the reason I play this game. I might be a badass infantry, armor and aircraft player.. but nothing is more satisfying than leading the troops to victory.

Upon continent capture, certs earned while leading on that continent should be doubled, in addition to granting 5 certs per base defense/capture or something.

At least give us more leadership tools.. let us reward people for participating in certain requests. Anything is better than nothing.

I dont get it?


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Extra tools:
You can make it so that you are Alpha squad leader AND Platoon leader.
Then you can use Alpha as your secondary WP squad. A multitude of WPs are both confusing and annoying to most players not in leadership, but if needed you can order Bravo lead etc to put down their WPs.

You also have access to the "Re enforcement markers" which can be used to mark a important AMS or similar for everyone to see. Mark it and talk via Command [Leader coms] to see if there are any air forces people can send.

As Alpha lead you can use a beacon.


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Intel:
You can ask on leader coms.

You can order one pilot to recon and report back.


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Forces and what you can actually do:
Allot of the time I see people leading like its a RTS game. Splitting up their forces too much so they lose on all fronts or hunker down in defense ala real world like they think the enemy will run out of re enforcement in a respawn game...

You hardly see any focus attacks in a defensive role on enemy spawn to over run them etc and you dont need drawing tools or a zillion WPs to get that done.

One of the downsides for leadership in this game is that its ether a walk over or you are losing hard. Making people that are sub par commanders think they are good because they ran a 30 man group all over the map more or less unopposed.

Give platoon leaders

- Artillery, Rain down fire of explosive shells on a target area once every 5 - 20 minutes (Receive points per kill)

- supply drops, Drop supplies for players to rearm, heal and change to MAX suits. (Receive points per resupply from platoon members)

- vehicle drops, Drop a vehicle into the action for platoon members to use upon landing. (Receive points per kill from platoon members)

- satellite scans, satellite image of a targeted area that reveals the location of enemy units.(Platoon leader eyes only)

- UAVs, Sits in the sky and reveals all enemy units in the area for all platoon members. (Receive points per kill from platoon members)

That is all. This idea is fresh and has never been used in any other game before. I don't know how I come up with this stuff but I amaze myself sometimes.

Before I start commenting, do you have experience in leading?

Yes you can be platoon lead and squad lead at the same time but if you have 4 full squads, paying attention to leading a squad as well as keeping track of 3 other squads on top of that as well as being a compitent soldier becomes pretty hard at times when the other squads need your attention as well as your own squad.

Right not there can be at most 3 waypoints on the map. personal, squad and platoon. They are even colour coded. I honestly dont think that can confuse you. Even adding more for a platoon secondary and tertiary objective with appropriate colour coding would be excessive.

The reinforcement markers work yes, but they have a 5 minute cooldown. and everyone can see all of them. When multiple people use this at the same time on the same base it would just confuse people when using it as a reference point.

Leader comms are filled with 2 kinds of people. PL's / SL's that care and those that dont. Those that care are in the minority and are generally busy dealing with their own multitasking. Those that dont just dont play with other outfits on a continent/global scale.

Yes you can use a beacon as alpha lead, but nobody else except alpha can spawn on it. Why is this annoying? It means all your leaders need to carry them and get out of vehicles to place them. If you have a squad dedicated to air, they're in planes and dont place beacons. The planes that get shot down and want to contribute as infantry until the cooldown is gone cant as they can use the beacon. You need to open the platoon page and screw around there, moving people back and forth just so everyone has access to the holy alpha beacon on the ground. Its unneeded.

Like I said, leadership is rarely used to relay info. Its used to ask for people to reinforce somewhere or keep track of friendly movement and not overlap on the same bases to avoid forming zergs and progress on the continent faster overall. Adding enemy movement to this could cause chaos.

Yes planes can go recon but a single person cant recon multiple bases if youre assaulting more than one at a time. This also adds to comms chatter, disrupting communication on the ground or to the platoon leader. If he could just scan himself, everyone else could function without having to listen to excessive information on the radio.

I run my platoon with 2 infantry squads (4 firesquads), 1 air squad and 1 armor squad. We assault 2 bases at once with infantry. Air and ground provide support depending which base needs what. What the drawing tools would do is allow me to plan a route for the infantry to follow (queue their objectives if you will) and only manage the air and armor to support them as they request it. Even if just squad leaders can see the drawing and then manage their squad from there that would be fine.

Yes it comes down to large groups steamrolling half the time, but the fact the SL's can do more that PL's is the flaw here. We sometime hold up on a Amp station and defend against the zerg head on. What does this mean for a PL? mirco-manage the wall defenses. Assign squads to protect certain things. How do I assign each squad to a different objective when I only have 1 waypoint. no smoke, no reinforce markers, nothting. Just 1 orange waypoint.

Teamspeak is filled with "B4 needs a medic, C9 needs repairs, Enemy lib coming in form the SE direction, Southern Wall AA guns need repairs" You dont have time to sit down and lay out the plan. You need to tell them what to do there and then. 1 Waypoint just doesnt cut it

This sounds good. The vehicle drops could even use the platoon leader's recources if needed. Its not like he'll be using them lol. All these things are realistic, the artillery needs to be used wisely though as it could be used for grieving. A punish mechanic for TK'ing with it would have to be added to insure those that abuse it have the privilege removed.

The UI changes are still badly needed though

+1 to OP. Give leaders a better GUI. And give some kind of reward to leaders, separate CEXP comes to mind. Reward a PL more than SL.

More than you apparently considering I have the experience to see solutions where you only seemingly see issues.

...and? So you cant use leadership smartly then because most others dont?
I can see your expertise and validation of questioning my background in this shine. /sarcasm

This ... Dear god this.
SOE read and learn ... read and learn.

Allso I agree with the op and I understand his pain and frustration.

Now that's a very clever idea, have it so the squads members can see a silver star next to the floating names of the SL & a gold star against the PL. Make the 2 stars a different shape/design if colour is a problem for some.

It was merely a question out of curiousity and not indended as an insult. Sorry if it came across that way. A simple yes or no question. Discrediting me wont provide anything to the thread.

Im not saying I dont make it work currently, im saying it could be better. There are proposals in this thread to streamline a PL's role.

If I can or cant use leadership is irrelevant here. There's no point spamming enemy locations if im talking to myself.

I was merely trying to understand the situations you are buiding these solutions on. Everything I said was based on experience only and dont make me right in any way. I just provides insight on problems i've encountered and solutions I've used. I dont recall saying your solutions are wrong anywhere.

In my outfit, you're only allowed to be squad leader/platoon leader if you have voice coms. We run with 2 or so platoons. We use platoon coms to give out orders, and you'd be surprised how much people listen. You absolutely need voice coms. So yes, wit alone is enough to command a platoon, if they aren't all bambies.

When you give out orders, repeat each thing you say twice, so people understand you better.

If you got good squad leaders, you can tell them where you want their squads to go. It's better when they can do it, I won't have to keep on going back to my map.

My biggest problem with it is that it's hard to move people around from squad to squad. Also, if you DC the person after you becomes PL. High chance of it being a random afk scrub.

What about squad colors? Why delta waypoint and transport are green - the color reserved for alpha?

Why can't people clearly see which galaxy is theirs when you have less than 3 minutes until the enemy gets sundy bum rush rolling and end up with passengers from three different squads in one transport?

Why that galaxy pilot cannot compensate for that - why can't he see another sqauds' waypoints?!

Very good points and ideas, and I support most of them aside from the "intel" one.

Really, if you want intel, send out forward observers. Actually players, on Flashes, in planes (with radars) and as Infiltrators, who's job is to report any significant activity in their designated area.

If you have no time to parse all their reports, have your XO do it for you and only interrupt your for anything which he deems important to your current or planned operation.

You guys must lead platoons differently to me.

I tell my squad leaders where they need to be and what they need to be doing, and I let the squad leads run their squads whilst I run mine.

I periodically check the map for changes in the situation and adjust orders accordingly.

Jobs done.

I agree to the OP on a lot of the points and this thread inspired to write a longer suggestion to SOE's request for metagame comments: http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/16ta7f/metagame_design_meeting_idea_organization_and/

Look to BF2142 - rewards for both successful completion of orders (platoon command) and for carrying out orders (grunts). Small things like that. Pity SOE is only looking at profit margins.

I lead a smallish outfit of 100 or so people, I can form multiple platoons which compounds this problem for a number of reasons, however I don't agree with pointing out a problem without offering solutions so yes, more beacon types, markers etc would be wonderful, the ability to use them whilst not a squad lead would be fantastic (perhaps a specific slot in the Platoon structure just for the platoon lead) but on the prospect of XP gain I have a solution: Give PlatComs a percentage of the total XP of the platoon for ANYTHING, kills, objectives, etc. It would help put Platcoms at the top of the Leaderboards where they belong, and using a percentile will balance out zerg Platcoms that gather a bunch of people, herd them towards objectives and gain kills themselves; as they will receive the same amount of XP as a more strategic PlatCom would if its platoon was killing the same amount.

I recall squad exp whoring in PS1 (gotta get the OS).

I think this would make things worse. Instead of people with real leadership forming platoons you would have people looking for free exp. Platoon leaders need help I agree but I'm not sure making it an exp machine is the way to go.

Now if you had Certs for leadership abilities that worked this way that were different (command exp vrs regular) I'd be in favor of it.