Author Topic: All SL orders visible on map  (Read 1285 times)

Offline Lydecker

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All SL orders visible on map
« on: 07-01-2015, 10:01:23 »
A silly little thing came to mind when things were going to hell in a handbasket last night on Cassino. I slept on it, but still felt like posting about it.

Could it be possible to display what other SL's are ordering on the map? Like a gray line from SLs of another squads to their given objectives? This could be visible to other SL's only or even all players. Maybe it could help people focus their play and go like "ahh, no one is attacking/defending that flag, we go there!"

I think the idea's roots are from another thread about mapping and 'funneling' players like water etc. and the fact that like 1% use that mic.

Now how do I add this pic I masterfully crafted...

EDIT: so like that! Anyways, on the pic squads 1,2 and 3 are attacking, SL of squad 4 has died on his heroic decoy mission and only his troops are alive on top, but the marker is still visible.
« Last Edit: 07-01-2015, 10:01:13 by Lydecker »

Offline Gotkai

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #1 on: 07-01-2015, 10:01:16 »
I would support this idea. Could add a lot of information to other teammembers.

Offline Airshark79

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #2 on: 07-01-2015, 10:01:58 »
I think this would be a great addition which was being asked for battlefield itself. I've seen PR modifying the minimap but I'm not sure if this is possible.

Offline Kalkalash

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #3 on: 07-01-2015, 11:01:32 »
Yeah, would be pretty cool if it is possible to implement. Would come especially handy when having to defend multiple flags.

Edit: And it could just be a (grey) marker, so it wouldn't clutter the map too much.
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” - George Carlin

Offline jan_kurator

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #4 on: 07-01-2015, 11:01:43 »
I suggested this idea in one of the topics either here on our internal forum before. I think everybody likes this idea as it gives a lot of important information to players on the battlefield but AFAIK it was looked into and it's impossible to code it, unfortunately.

Offline Airshark79

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #5 on: 07-01-2015, 12:01:37 »
One way to do it is to use the pr's system to allow sl to put flags that are globally seen by the team when they give a certain order. The flag may or may not have the number of the squad that is doing this certain job.

It's a bit too rough but it might be viable to the sl's that actually try.

So with numbers, squad 2 and 3 are doing this job, I should do something else/help them

Without numbers, 2 squads are doing this job, maybe I should order an attack to this flag that is not being looked at.

It's a much more simple way of doing it than what pr does and I think it's perfectly possible.
« Last Edit: 07-01-2015, 12:01:25 by Airshark79 »

Offline Ivancic1941

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #6 on: 07-01-2015, 13:01:56 »
Nice too see this would improve gameplay
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Offline jan_kurator

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #7 on: 07-01-2015, 14:01:37 »
Airshark, what you think is possible and simple may not be simple or possible at all codding wise, when I suggested this idea internally, one of our developers told me that PR way of doing it is most likely the only possible way to code something closest to the suggested thing and it requires tons of coddding work. Of course nobody has a final word on it, because somebody might find a way of doing it in the future but for now it's unlikely to happen even if we like this idea. If you have any clue how to code it, feel free to help us and post the solution, it will be appreciated for sure.

Offline Lydecker

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #8 on: 07-01-2015, 15:01:14 »
I tried searching for this, because I felt like it'd been discussed or mentioned somewhere before. I guess it's a done deal then.

Offline Airshark79

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #9 on: 07-01-2015, 15:01:28 »
Well the developer seems to have made the same point as I did. What I wanted to say was if we want this to happen we first need to devise a system that is possible and the only working example I could think of was pr's marker system.

I can see pr incorporates commander and the markers work much like a longlasting artillery strike with a changed icon without any effects on the field. I'm not a coder though, my analysis might be wrong and I can't deduce whether it is easy or not.

Offline gavrant

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #10 on: 07-01-2015, 16:01:25 »
When 2 months ago I replied to a similar question from Kubador on the internal forum, I said it "is only possible in the way it works in PR - showing all orders without squad numbers."
Now I think I was wrong. As far as I understand, those orange shields in PR show the flags available for attack at the current moment or something like that? In that case they have the same meaning as the green circles in our push mode, and thus of no use for orders issued by squad leaders.

The main technical problem here is to get the position of the active orders. All the rest is a piece of cake in comparison, like catching the moment when an order is issued, or cloning 9 times every order icon, or inventing a smart way to position the order markers so they would not crowd one upon another, making them indistinguishable.

Offline LuckyOne

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #11 on: 07-01-2015, 16:01:24 »
Hm, but the commander sees all the markers, right? Maybe it's worth looking into the code that makes that possible, if it's not buried too deep.

Or you could add this to the commander, seeing as PR has devised a way of placing multiple markers, he could be allowed to place a single numbered marker to denote what each squad is doing at the moment.

He could even try to "confuse" the other SLs into thinking that another squad is attacking the flag instead, diverting them from an unimportant one, although I'm not sure if that's a feature or a serious flaw (although it would nicely simulate the problems of WWII chain of command where the orders were often completely messed up, and the real situation completely different from what was shown on the HQ's table :P)

Overall, if it could be implemented, great, otherwise I still think that giving the Commander the power to place permanent markers for spotted stuff is the way to go. It would surely up the communication aspect if the commander could play his own "find out where the enemy is now" metagame. With decent admins and a cooldown time, even trolling commanders wouldn't be such a problem.
This sentence is intentionally left unfinished...

Offline Airshark79

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #12 on: 07-01-2015, 17:01:55 »
I think putting together a working system is more important than theorizing scenarios. Many game aspects come together after they are in use. For the case of trolling I don't think it would ever be an issue.

You are correct about pr Gavrant. Good luck with your efforts.

Offline jan_kurator

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #13 on: 07-01-2015, 17:01:53 »
For the case of trolling I don't think it would ever be an issue.
that's a big problem during public play actually, devs have to design all the features of the game to be abuse free as much as possible, if you don't see it as an issue then they're doing a good job. If any feature can be used by a server troll or simply an idiot in an annoying way, he can ruin whole round for his team as it is very difficult to controll such things by server admins. It's not a problem during tournaments or PR where you have organised team play.

Offline Airshark79

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Re: All SL orders visible on map
« Reply #14 on: 07-01-2015, 18:01:10 »
We have to wait and see what coders have to say before pointing towards any possible problems.