The need for an in-game communication system for PUG groups is pretty apparent. I'd like to start another post for some suggestions on how BW might go about putting one in

Firstly, it should be based on quick keys or a radial menu that would use some kind of experience rank system that'll gate the number of commands available to the player. For example, a fresh player can only call for help and heals. A wing leader can do that as well as call the 4 members of his wing to form up and attack his target or continue to cover his six. Finally the squadron commander can do all of the above as well as direct the wings to attack or defend objectives.

HUD elements would be closely tied to these trickle down commands, A squaddie can see HUD indicators directing him to his squad leader ordering them form up, but not from other squad leaders. Similarly, the lowers ranks would not see commands to attack objectives. I feel this is important as to not overwhelm the player with too many instructions from conflicting sources.

Next part would be how to motivate the player to use their commands and follow them. Previously I mentioned ranks, obviously, following orders would allow one to improve their rank, as would issuing them. On top of that, awarding requisition points should overwhelmingly favor following and issuing orders, as opposed to individual kills. I would say that even wins and losses not count as much as following commands, but that might be going a bit too far. In additional to this, perhaps titles or gear can gated behind rank levels.

The final consideration would be how to stop people from abusing this system. I really don't have any firm ideas for this, a group of people who simply want to game the system are going to find a way. But, at the very least, req and rank points would be awarded only for actively doing something. And of course there's a possibility of the commands being spammed, so perhaps they can be set to a cool down.

So please, let me hear your thoughts on this and let BW we're hoping for a more comprehensive system for team play that goes beyond "shoot guys that are boxed in red"

The need for an in-game communication system for PUG groups is pretty apparent.

Not really. 90% of what you need to know is displayed on the domination scoreboard.

I get what you mean, and I understand why you're asking for the changes. But can they be done? I'm asking because I have little experience in Ops activities other than GSF - I think I've grouped once in Ops form to take down Bigass McGee on Hoth (the one who isn't Snowblind - I forget his name). Do we have capabilities like what you suggest already in use somewhere else?

If so, this might be feasible. If not, we're looking at adding a pile of code - and I don't think Bioware's got time to do that this year. -bp

I think that a hotkey communication system would be a good idea, and very simple to add (I would think) - This would just involve a set of keys probably numpad 1-9, with a set of canned statements:

"Need help at ___"

"Attacking ___"

"Need Ammo"

"Heal Me!"

Radial menus dont really lend themselves to "quick" use, anything I have to actually look at detracts from my situational awareness and in this game thats a death sentence. I would however find ample use for an easy / quick hotkey system for basic commands / questions. I doubt new players would use it, but it could help especially with the "novice" pilots who have had a few matches and veterans who are pugging. I would love to see this.

Not really. 90% of what you need to know is displayed on the domination scoreboard.

This is the eternal frustration for me. I get that, as a new player, you might need some time to adjust and get used to a game mode's mechanics. Domination is pretty standard in MMO's and should really only take 1-5 matches to get the idea.

Within 10-20 matches you really should have picked up the general flow of how it works in this particular iteration and the basic principles of winning and competing (fighting at the satellite, maintaining proximity etc).

Watch the map in Domination. If we are lucky enough to have a defender at a node and there are 2-3 red dots heading his way. Go help.

Watch the match UI in Domination. If the icon is flashing....and remember, you should know what this means by now....GO HELP. Break off your target, and go assist the node.

Anticipate the enemy in Domination. If we have cleared a satellite of attackers, don't just float about basking in your awesomeness because they are attacking the other freaking satellite. Rotation to incoming nodes is always an issue with pugs and this particular point is where i see so many pug matches lost. It is very often not that the pug team cannot defend a satellite, its that they cannot react fast enough to the switch to stay ahead on points. Despite my often constant pleadings....

Its a pug life man.

Radial menus? Hot keys? No.

Most people won't use them or watch for them, its just another distraction. The answer is in-game VOIP for teams. There are third party VOIP systems that can be added to a game; EVE Online added one years ago and despite initial issues it works well now. With VOIP you only need one key, don't need to look for text messages and can issue any message you want.

An in game VOIP system would also solve a lot of problems for all PUGs from FPs and Ops to ground pvp.

Radial menus? Hot keys? No.

 

Most people won't use them or watch for them, its just another distraction. The answer is in-game VOIP for teams. There are third party VOIP systems that can be added to a game; EVE Online added one years ago and despite initial issues it works well now. With VOIP you only need one key, don't need to look for text messages and can issue any message you want.

 

An in game VOIP system would also solve a lot of problems for all PUGs from FPs and Ops to ground pvp.

I have to respectfully disagree with VOIP for three reasons. 1) can't really integrate VOIP into a HUD warning. Hearing someone call out for help and not knowing where that person is isn't helpful. My proposal would integrate the hotkey with Heads up indicators. A new player would know who to follow and a squad will know who is being attacked and where.

2) people are not compelled to listen to VOIP commands either. Granted they're not normally compelled to follow a hot key commands either but a hotkey system would be much easier to integrate with a revised scoring system. For example, calling for help could tag all of the enemy currently attacking that squad member in need, making them worth extra req when you score hits on the attacker. This is not something that can be done with VIOP

3) You don't always want to hear what your team has to say. Hot keys limits the communications to the gameplay at hand. You've all seen general chat. now imagine it with VOIP.

I get what you mean, and I understand why you're asking for the changes. But can they be done? I'm asking because I have little experience in Ops activities other than GSF - I think I've grouped once in Ops form to take down Bigass McGee on Hoth (the one who isn't Snowblind - I forget his name). Do we have capabilities like what you suggest already in use somewhere else?

 

If so, this might be feasible. If not, we're looking at adding a pile of code - and I don't think Bioware's got time to do that this year. -bp

I guess the ultimate question here is would be if this is WORTH doing.

Obviously I think so. It would make the GSF or any PVP experience that much richer and strategically transparent.

And I agree, nothing like this could possibly be implemented soon. I only wanted to get the dialogue on something like this started. Maybe encourage a dev to put this up on their wall of crazy. If they could put a system like this for all PvP, it would be a pretty significant update in my eyes.

As someone who flies about 5 hours a day (and will continue to do so until my g/f is finished with school for the semester) AND someone who uses VoIP to communicate with his guild, I gotta say that this really is the most effective way to go about communication. The major issue is finding the location of a player (but in your UI settings, you can increase the size of the map which helps) that you're trying to help. Typically, we'll call out the name of the attacker since you can tab target and find them. We'll also say the quaadrant (i.e. lower C4). It works, and works well (as long as Swansea doesn't just start taking out the entire team on his own and leaving his gunship buddy to get blasted by 3 battle scouts).

The main issue with VoIP is really that not everyone has a mic, thus isn't able to communicate. The issues about not listening are an individual's personal issue, but has no fault of the game to blame especially since they are able to communicate effectively should they chose to. Having an HUD thing like in "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" would be helpful (NEED A MEDIC!!! NEIN!!!) that send audio to other pilots, but that is a less effective way to communicate because it detracts from the attention to flying.

Ultimately, I'm going to use VoIP whether it's in the game or not. I think all pilots would benefit from doing the same, ESPECIALLY the new pilots. Since coming to the Ebon Hawk, I've been getting asked a lot of questions about builds and strats for new players. Every whisper I get is immediately responded to by "Do you have mumble / ts / vent?" and more often than not, they don't. VoIP just makes life so much easier. Yelling "Heading to C" into a mic takes less time than stopping, pressing enter, typing, pressing enter, then repositioning to resume flight. I know their are those who feel that VoIP wouldn't make a difference, but I can say that IMHO, it definitely helps. It's also a lot easier to describe what someone is doing wrong without being a douche (in game, I'm usually typing in caps to get people's attn, like "WHY THE HELL ARE WE LEAVING C WHEN IT'S NOT CAPPED", which in VoIP could be said as "Yo dude, don't leave C until we've capped it, even if there's someone there because of x,y,z". The whole talking thing allows for you to be more complete and sacrifice less time to convey a message that will ultimately help improve a players game.

Communication is too complicated. Nothing can force pugs to communicate. The system rewarding for issuing/following orders may sound great (it does indeed), but it is too complex for our devsies to actually develop to work well. Anything that rewards players for doing trivial things will be abused by nutjobs. Reward for issuing orders? Sure, they would sit somewhere and issue completely irrelevant command on cooldown. VOIP? This is F2P game. Every 10 year old freak can join in, which would make VOIP horrific, most likely.

The one thing that I see that could work is, single button, meaning "help". You press it, there is a popup message like "<Name>: Help at <Name's current coordinates>!" The area would blink several times on minimap, and that's it. Maybe, just maybe, enemies in the area could yield 10% or 20% extra req for 60 seconds or something.

If that would work out, then we'd see if it is enough, or if there is more needed. I don't think it is a good idea to make overly complicated systems straight at the beginning.

I agree that communicating through the chatbox is ineffective and inefficient, apart from it's tendency to fade, a person oftentimes has other things to concentrate on, besides the little text.

To be honest, the HUD system already in place often hinders rather than helps. The constant "So-and-so destroyed this-and-that" distracts from the flight/fight, the map is too small to be effective -- even at 1.25 scale -- and the Dominatino scoreboard is, shall we say it, glitchy. I have seen it reverse who had what sat, and so on.

Per Status, I agree that VoIP is the best way to go for coordination, not just for GSF, but for FP/OP/WZs also, and an in-game voice chat would be the best thing the devs have done since, well, launch.

Combined with a handful of pre-recorded comments, i.e. "A in trouble", it would be a most effective system.

True, some people do not have mics, or are not always in a position to use them (cough* me *cough), however it is always better to hear something than nothing.

It is, however, true that getting pugs to work together is a challenge, and given how leadership is assigned to a complete noob 70% of the time, I see a lot of potential for disaster.

The system would need a lot more work than just putting a skype-look-alike into the game, for instance mute permissions, and leadership assigment should be tweaked.

In summary: no more clutter on the HUD! Give us in-game voice chat!

I agree that communicating through the chatbox is ineffective and inefficient, apart from it's tendency to fade, a person oftentimes has other things to concentrate on, besides the little text.

To be honest, the HUD system already in place often hinders rather than helps. The constant "So-and-so destroyed this-and-that" distracts from the flight/fight, the map is too small to be effective -- even at 1.25 scale -- and the Dominatino scoreboard is, shall we say it, glitchy. I have seen it reverse who had what sat, and so on.

 

Per Status, I agree that VoIP is the best way to go for coordination, not just for GSF, but for FP/OP/WZs also, and an in-game voice chat would be the best thing the devs have done since, well, launch.

 

Combined with a handful of pre-recorded comments, i.e. "A in trouble", it would be a most effective system.

 

True, some people do not have mics, or are not always in a position to use them (cough* me *cough), however it is always better to hear something than nothing.

 

It is, however, true that getting pugs to work together is a challenge, and given how leadership is assigned to a complete noob 70% of the time, I see a lot of potential for disaster.

 

The system would need a lot more work than just putting a skype-look-alike into the game, for instance mute permissions, and leadership assigment should be tweaked.

 

In summary: no more clutter on the HUD! Give us in-game voice chat!

I don't know who you are, but I like you.

Why the hell can't Aygo or Whatsherbutt on the Imp side help us with the callouts? I mean, they're on our butt when we're about to lose a sat anyway - while they're making us feel terrible for taking the pounding, could they not at least give us the letter of the sat they're upset about us losing?

Once the match starts nobody pays attention to the chat (I've been guilty of it myself). I try to chat all the basic strategy before the match starts. It's the only time people read.

Usually just telling the team to cluster together in a deathmatch can make a huge difference. One moron "Leroy Jenkins" into the enemy and dies instantly while the rest of us circle close to home and pick off the enemy as they filter in.

Some smart ***** occasionally comments "we know how to play", but they don't. If you don't repeat the basics before a match your chance of winning drops before the game even begins.

Once the match starts nobody pays attention to the chat (I've been guilty of it myself). I try to chat all the basic strategy before the match starts. It's the only time people read.

 

Usually just telling the team to cluster together in a deathmatch can make a huge difference. One moron "Leroy Jenkins" into the enemy and dies instantly while the rest of us circle close to home and pick off the enemy as they filter in.

 

Some smart ***** occasionally comments "we know how to play", but they don't. If you don't repeat the basics before a match your chance of winning drops before the game even begins.

I think the individual who started this thread is more in favor of audio cues.

The one thing that I see that could work is, single button, meaning "help". You press it, there is a popup message like "<Name>: Help at <Name's current coordinates>!" The area would blink several times on minimap, and that's it. Maybe, just maybe, enemies in the area could yield 10% or 20% extra req for 60 seconds or something.

 

If that would work out, then we'd see if it is enough, or if there is more needed. I don't think it is a good idea to make overly complicated systems straight at the beginning.

I think that would be a great way to start. In the end it might be all that's needed.

I think that would be a great way to start. In the end it might be all that's needed.

I disagree, as again, we go back to the matter of textual announcements.

What does it matter if the text is in the left corner and orange, or centre-screen and yellow?

When I dogfight someone, I have better things to watch than announcements, i.e. my power levels, terrain --- it is embarrassing to power drive into the very satellite you are protecting, and that is what happens when you try to reference visual cues, or the map, as was my misfortune on a time.

Once, when stacked against a skilled pilot, I was dogfighting him for 3:51 before I got called away via Google Hangouts (we were using that) to help a sat.

Visual queues are nothing more than distractions.