Officer Class

[Sox]

With this influx of new players it's becoming almost impossible for Regiments to get Officer avatars with which to lead their units. No matter how many times we explain to new players that Officers are actually needed to perform tasks, they keep on taking them. Is there any way to solve this problem, say by increasing the number available?

[Reedrick]

Perhaps giving NCOs the ability to use the Q-key line formation system might be another option.

I second this, perhaps a range could be implemented to where the NCO could place lines as long as there was no officer within a set distance (to replicate no officer, or the officer being killed)

[Korvyr]

Perhaps giving NCOs the ability to use the Q-key line formation system might be another option.

You'd risk line-spamming. I'm not against it otherwise, by any means, as they should be just as capable of directing troops when needed.

Perhaps have the Sergeant lines not be visible for as long and as far away? Perhaps put some restrictions on how many lines can be placed within a given time frame for Sergeants?

Both of those might be poor options, just tossin' balls to get the thonker thonking.

Even with just officers able to place lines, there have been times when I was overwhelmed with the line pop-up/overlay where I couldn't see what I was aiming at or where I was trying to look, and it is quite annoying.

Perhaps we simply wait for the game to get a bit further along and hope they make it so the officer class can only be used by veteran players? (Which I hope nobody disagrees is the way it should be. Have to learn how to follow before you can even begin to learn how to lead.)

Edit: Reedrick's idea above is also good.

[Poorlaggedman]

Get rid of the officer class for a few updates and see what happens. Dead serious. You don't need them, you just need people to stop idolizing the class and whatever utterly random player is in it for the sake of going along to get along. That dog is only going to hunt for so many releases of WoR before we realize we were all trying to hard to make it work and it's just a CQB class. The lines are not that useful. They're slight screen clutter but I consider them solely clutter. Take them away and give the officers and NCOs some hand signals. The officer using his sword, the NCO using an arm to point left or right to form on him or whatever. Way better than an annoying Q line by an officer wobbling all over trying to form it with a mob behind him. If someone can't speak in voice and motion with his arms well enough to get you to understand what he wants then you don't need to be following him.

The class means nothing. There are literally players confidently trying to lead who are their first day in the F-ing game. It's only going to get worse with a larger community and so is the bickering over the class and demands of special privilege for people in the company tool. Either make the class mean something or ultimately require the private servers to allot set steamids to select the class and assign them a seniority. Or allow players to declare themselves running for officer at the very start of each round and with an upvote other playerto elect them to the privilege of that class from a clear-cut voting screen during a planning phase on the skirmish rounds. If the first guys disconnect then the next in line can switch over. Allow players to de-spawn and respawn into the role when that happens. Or make a rating system for each and every single player and allow more uprated players to select roles like the officer and the flag bearer and force a less senior player to reclass when he dies. Just make sure the server can overrule that and assign an officer. Just my 1 dollar.

[Sox]

Get rid of the officer class for a few updates and see what happens. Dead serious. You don't need them, you just need people to stop idolizing the class and whatever utterly random player is in it for the sake of going along to get along.

I'm sorry but we do need them. If CG would have allowed a third person view just for moving, then we could easily manage, their compromise for this was obviously the Q lines. Getting forty plus guys into line without them is a massive pain in the backside. Hand signals won't work, officers are behind the lines most of the time. In Alpha it was a problem, in beta it's impossible. We're trying to use a system here that's obviously a hybrid and it's just not working. IF we could spawn in as our own regiments, with our own officers, this problem would not exist, it's the same problem with the Flag Bearers. In Skirmishes we get to pick one of two regiments, that's four officers and two flag bearers total....most of the time there are how many Company Tool raised regiments on a map? The math just does not work, and that's without factoring in pubs spawning the class.

I have no idea if CG are ever going to tie the Company Tool to the game, but that's one obvious way to keep the class for those actually leading formed companies.

[A. P. Hill]

... Is there any way to solve this problem, say by increasing the number available?

If you increase the number of officers available that just makes more officers from the newbies grabbing them up before actual unit officers. And all they do is rambo and spam that damned Q line. You just give more opportunity to these people.

[Korvyr]

Over the past few days I've followed many a leader that didn't currently hold the officer class, and I've seen many an officer who was not a leader.

If the class is going to keep its unique capabilities and remain more than just a "CQB" class, as previously described, it needs restrictions on who can claim it.

But this has devolved into whether or not we need the lines on the ground, so I'll give my nasty opinion. I'm game for them staying, but for the love of all that is holy, restrict it to the tactical view like the capture point indicators. Maybe an hour ago we had an officer who loved spamming lines and I couldn't see a charging force with all the pop-ups. I could have warned our group to shift or fall back, but no chance as we got swamped. I assume the officer was trying to use the lines to indicate the charging force, which was a piss-poor decision on their part.

[LaBelle]

Get rid of the officer class for a few updates and see what happens. Dead serious. You don't need them, you just need people to stop idolizing the class and whatever utterly random player is in it for the sake of going along to get along. That dog is only going to hunt for so many releases of WoR before we realize we were all trying to hard to make it work and it's just a CQB class. The lines are not that useful. They're slight screen clutter but I consider them solely clutter. Take them away and give the officers and NCOs some hand signals. The officer using his sword, the NCO using an arm to point left or right to form on him or whatever. Way better than an annoying Q line by an officer wobbling all over trying to form it with a mob behind him. If someone can't speak in voice and motion with his arms well enough to get you to understand what he wants then you don't need to be following him.

The class means nothing. There are literally players confidently trying to lead who are their first day in the F-ing game. It's only going to get worse with a larger community and so is the bickering over the class and demands of special privilege for people in the company tool. Either make the class mean something or ultimately require the private servers to allot set steamids to select the class and assign them a seniority. Or allow players to declare themselves running for officer at the very start of each round and with an upvote other playerto elect them to the privilege of that class from a clear-cut voting screen during a planning phase on the skirmish rounds. If the first guys disconnect then the next in line can switch over. Allow players to de-spawn and respawn into the role when that happens. Or make a rating system for each and every single player and allow more uprated players to select roles like the officer and the flag bearer and force a less senior player to reclass when he dies. Just make sure the server can overrule that and assign an officer. Just my 1 dollar.

The Q-Line is pretty important. To say it's a useless class is rather broad and short-sighted.

Let the NCOs place down a yellow line to differentiate it from the white line of an officer. Instead of making it shorter ranged or disappearing quicker, have it just be a line on the ground with no UI popup. To combat line spam, have the name of the player who dropped the line appear just "above" the line in question so units can tell which line was dropped by their NCO/Officer.

[Sox]

As I said before, I have no clue if CG have any plans for linking the Company tool with the actual game. It's one sure fire way of resctricting what you can or cannot spawn in as, ALL the classes are available in the drill camps & that should never change. For a system like this, it's pretty vital that NCO & Officer classes can be utilised & if that is not the case then the system, as we've quite clearly seen over the past week, falls apart.

[McMuffin]

You do not need the officer class to lead or even an NCO class. It is nice to have it and makes it more immersive, and yeah it is kinda annoying when you cannot choose the class. I'm not denying the usefulness of the line mechanic, but that is really more useful when you have a lot of pubbies in your line (which certainly can happen) who are not exactly well trained or not trained at all and you cannot communicate with as effectively as your own unit. To lock people or prevent people from playing as any class based on the fact they are not in a unit is not fair since I know many many public players love the fact they can be an officer or an NCO or private and lead really anyone but do not want to join a unit. In regards to boosting the amount of people per class, I think the number we have right now for NCOs is fine, but officers could maybe get an extra one or two at max.