[JackBoCracken]

Don't get me wrong, Planetside isn't a horrible game, but I won't go so far as to say it's a great game either. It's somewhere between mediocre and good, in my opinion.

Anyway, for the 2 months or so I played in beta, and the month or so I played retail, I never really enjoyed how it was just a mindless slugfest. There was no communication within the empires with the exception of a few outfits that might work together. Sometimes CR5s do help a lot, but for the average squad leader, it is very difficult to coordinate with other SLs.

I believe that part of the reason stems from the developers' desire to make Planetside a fast-paced game. Right now, while communication can make a difference, it's not something that will severely make or break a continent capture. Rather, it's pretty much down to numbers.

The outfit I used to play for (Goon Squad) has since splintered and degenerated into two smaller outfits with less players, but when I did play, we usually had 30+ members on at any given moment, enough people on the ground to actually coordinate with each other to accomplish multiple objects. I distinctly remember my SL telling me to grab my liberator and stem the flow of Vanguards from the NW side of Amerish (I hung out near the WG bubble on the west coast), while one other person in our squad escorted us in a skeeter and the other 26 people went off to capture....that base to the east of the second closest base to the VS sanct WG.

That was really cool. It felt really neat because for once scouting and communication actually made a difference. I knew if the vanguards got past me, they'd wreck the base that my empire was using to stage an attack. For some reason, they never did bring an escort with them, just the same 5 vanguards kept rolling to their deaths, with the occaisional sparrow running along them, although I could usually kill it before it got out of run mode in time to fire off missiles. I do wish the bottom of the liberator cockpit was clear, and you could just turn your head up and down. Actually I wish you could move your head in all the aircraft...but you can't, so dogfighting pretty much amounts to spinning in circles. Anyway, I'm on a tangent now.

Unfortunately as I played Planetside I just became sick of it because I felt like I was part of some zombie horde. It's like you get out and play, and it feels like you're stuck in this giant vacuum where all information is sucked away. Even as a squad leader, I could not coordinate with other SLs unless they were in the same outfit...it was just too hard to keep track of names to use /tell on and their current locations.

I know Platoons is supposed to change this, but I don't think it will. Sure, organisation and communication will increase to a degree, but I don't think you'll see much real direction as an empire.

I remember when I last played Planetside, I kept thinking "Jesus my empire is like a blind old man who keeps tripping on his cane."

If I could change the game, the first thing I'd do is make continents worth something. I know they're adding those stupid runes or whatever, but I would like to see a game where an empire can hurt badly for two days while the other empire snowballs into a stronger power for same amount of time. Just enough to give a little variety to the game, and not enough to make people feel like they're logging on in order to experience yet another day of soul-crushing defeat. I'd slow it down just a tad (think +25% more time for your average objective). Not slow down as in slow down movement speed or firing speed, but slow down as in increase the time it takes for an empire to progress across a continent. Then I'd put in some more effective command and control tools.

While holding a CUD, CR5 commanders should be allowed to see the distribution of friendly forces at all times as a toggle on their map, which refreshes every...oh, 1-2 minutes. Scouts in skeeters and on wraiths should reveal enemies in small pockets (100-300 meter radius depending on the vehicle, I guess 50 for on foot). This would update on the same 1-2 minute cycle. I'm assuming that since every soldier has a magical radar map that can reveal enemy forces in a 200 meter radius, this shouldn't be too far of stretch. There shouldn't be any of this retarded switching through modes and pressing the trigger on the CUD to get it to work...I mean, hell, the prox map updates without you hitting buttons...

This next part would be worthless unless they slowed the game down. It also would not work unless CR5s were chosen by the players and not the experience system.

There ought to be some sort of 'intelligence board' that the CR4s and CR5s can view...intelligence would be relayed within a squad to the SL, who could then write a 'post' similar to how the current Customer Service window works. I'm thinking the fields would work something like this:

Subject
Coordinates/Heading direction
Priority/Relative threat
Threat type: Infantry, Armor, Air, AMS, etc
Small message window with a 500 character limit
Request action? [ ]
If yes, please select appropriate response force: AI, AV, AA, OS, Other

Each intelligence post would have a button that would let commanders issue an order to deal with that report (i.e. a squad leader spots tanks at X,Y and requests that they be destroyed. A CR5 should be able to write which outfit takes care of it in the followup box, so you don't have multiple outfits fucking each other over...always sucks when you can't hit those tanks from the air because there's some idiot MAXes running right next to the tanks). The small window that pops up to issue the order should also have space for some sort of description so the CO can give specific directions if needed (i.e. approach from the NW).

The intelligence board should have columns so that commanders can sort by priority, location, request action, time issued, # of squads completing action request, etc. Perhaps to reduce typing, the subject field would just be a dropdown box, with an Other field if someone wanted to specify something other than "Incoming armor."

On the map, there would be an overlay toggle to show or hide report flags. Flags would have symbols relevant to the report (selected in the 'Threat type' dropdown box). Mousing over the report would show the Subject and a 200 character truncated version of whatever was in the report body. Clicking on the flags would bring up the report.

Reports would have to expire after a given amount of time. They would be automatically deleted once the followup action is completed, and should probably expire if idle for 10 minutes.

Intelligence reports could get out of hand mostly because it would be possible to place false intelligence on the comm. Thus, it might be a good idea to put in some sort of verification system. How this verification system works is up for grabs, I've thought of several methods:

Method A - Human approval

This method assumes that your average player is an asshole. It has a lot of monkeywork to achieve relatively little, but ensures a high quality of intel.

An intelligence report is first posted on the CR1/2/3 board, and will not show up on the CR4/5 board until two CR1/2s or one CR3 verifies the report. The CO(s) that verify(ies) the report may not belong to the same outfit as the one who posted it. While the initial priority is set by the SL who issued the report, this can be overturned by the commanders who verify it. CR4/5s may view the 'lower' board at any time; this just helps keep their special board uncluttered. CR5s may demote intel reports at any time; they are then sent back to the lower board to await reapproval. Thus this system would not work if CR5s are dickheads.

Method B - Outfit specific

Each outfit sees their own version of the board. There is a checkbox for outfit leaders to verify as they see fit, so while the entire empire shares intelligence, outfit leaders can filter out what they like. Unverified reports sink to the bottom automatically. Outfit leaders can also delete as they see fit--while this does not delete the report empire-wide, it does for what the outfit sees.

Issuing orders would be interesting. Hopefully a CR4/5 would be able to press the 'followup action' button found on reports, and then write out a little (think 200 character) orders. COs would choose outfits either by typing out their name, which would autocomplete after 3-5 characters or selecting them from an alphabetized list.

When an outfit is given an order, the squad leaders would show a popup box similar to a squad invite, simply stating that "CR4/5 (name) requests that your squad complete (type of action) for (name of report). Do you accept?" On the window there would be a button to view the report and the action request as typed by the CR4/5.

If a squad clicks yes, they are added to the followup request that is linked to the report. From then on, the report would first change in overlay color (from say, blue to tinted green). There would also be some sort of indicator showing all commanders how many squads are currently working to complete the request.

Obviously in the future, when Platoons are in, if the platoon leader accepts, it is treated as an order that is given to all the outfits that are part of the platoon.

There ought to be a better system for commanders to just select individual squads, but I can't think of any way, unless the map always showed the positions of squad leaders...

I thought about having the issued orders first trickling down to the CR3s, which would then give them to CR1/2s, but I thought that this would probably work better.

Yeah, dumb idea, overly complex, I know, but I hate feeling like I'm deaf in a game that's supposed to be a war.