Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 22

Thread: Game Design ‘Gap’ - “Spawning at Main and Know Where to Go”

  1. #1

    Game Design ‘Gap’ - “Spawning at Main and Know Where to Go”

    There’s a bit about this at Steam but the devs don’t read it as often as here (sorry, my gut feel ).


    If flags are down and you’re spawning at Main after dying or joining the game late (not initial spawn), there’s no definitive way of locating your unit or knowing it’s status.

    This is a problem in PUBLIC games and leads to:

    “Where is my Company?”

    “Are we all alive or dead?”

    “Officer is out of VOIP range, where is everyone?”

    “Should I run back to where we were? But what if they’ve all gone somewhere else?”

    “I’m a flag bearer and my unit needs me. Is that formation marker I see for my Company or the other Company?” (Even worse when no Formation marker showing. Where do I go?)

    For a game that pretty-much whacks you ever the head (rightly) about the importance of staying with your unit and in formation, this seems incongruous.

    It’s a design gap that needs fixing.

    We need a COMPANY marker to show on T for our current unit location along with some sort of status indicator. It’s not enough to show Officer or Flagbearers because they might be dead and half a minute away from spawning, leaving you with no idea where to go.

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Dec 2018
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    29
    It's the old "realism versus a good game" balance. Some indication of where your unit is would be useful, particularly for officers who are killed. As long as it's unobtrusive I don't mind the idea.

    I do like the confusion to some extent, the fog of war and lack of communication. Some interesting, mixed units result!

    "C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre: c'est de la folie"

  3. #3

    USA 1st Lieutenant

    Dman979's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    201/200
    Posts
    450
    Last night on Harpers Ferry, we solved the problem by posting an NCO in main telling people how to get to their unit. You can also use text chat to communicate over longer distances. Neither of these are perfect solutions, but I think that a perfect solution would take away some of the confusion which is critical to keeping the game from becoming a 4-player RTS for the officers and boring for the men.e2


    Best,
    Dman979

  4. #4
    While I can see and understand the confusion I tend to agree that I like the bit of uniqueness it creates and forces people to talk on chat or officers to reform in order to be effective

  5. #5
    It’s not a game-breaker by any means and yes it can be worked around with adhoc methods like those described above.

    But I still think it would be better if we had our own Company indicator pop-up when pressing T to help keep the game cohesive. We shouldn’t have the Flag Bearer or Officer wandering aimlessly for precious minutes because all our gameplay suffers as a result.

    It’s penalty enough that they’ve had to respawn and travel back to the front - wherever that is.
    Last edited by Quaker; 12-27-2018 at 06:47 AM.

  6. #6

    USA 1st Lieutenant

    Dman979's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    201/200
    Posts
    450
    Oh, one other thing- I believe that CG has mentioned that the location of flags will appear on the map when spawning.

    Best,
    Dman979

  7. #7

    USA General of the Army

    A. P. Hill's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Location
    In Maryland State Near to both Antietam and Gettysburg, Harper's Ferry et al.
    Posts
    3,390
    Quote Originally Posted by Quaker View Post
    It’s not a game-breaker by any means and yes it can be worked around with adhoc methods like those described above.

    But I still think it would be better if we had our own Company indicator pop-up when pressing T to help keep the game cohesive. We shouldn’t have the Flag Bearer or Officer wandering aimlessly for precious minutes because all our gameplay suffers as a result.

    It’s penalty enough that they’ve had to respawn and travel back to the front - wherever that is.

    Just a friendly reminder. Just because you're playing the game now with these conditions, is no indicator that this game is done. This is still only Alpha Early Access, and not Beta or complete game release. These conditions are likely to change before the game goes final.

  8. #8
    No reminder necessary, I’m aware of that. This should be treated as feedback on the alpha.

    And as it turned out the scenario I presented here happened to yours truly last night.

    Spawned as a Flag Bearer at Main and ran around looking for my Company to no avail. Got the 3 minute warning or whatever it is saying I was out of line before hooking up with the wrong company.

    The point being I could never tell where I was in relation to my Company.

  9. #9

    USA General of the Army

    A. P. Hill's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Location
    In Maryland State Near to both Antietam and Gettysburg, Harper's Ferry et al.
    Posts
    3,390
    Quote Originally Posted by Quaker View Post
    No reminder necessary, I’m aware of that. This should be treated as feedback on the alpha. ...

    Then it should have been "filed" here.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Dec 2018
    Location
    Nebr
    Posts
    7
    One thing interesting is that this can create ad hoc companies. This will probably be a bigger thing in full maps when there are more than two companies. Last night I was in a battle and respawned. I was 6th LA and the rest respawning were VA. A VA officer spawned in while I was loading before setting out in the direction of gunfire and started organizing everyone on spawn so I fought with the VA boys until I was able to rejoin LA after dying a time or two more. I’d read about this happening in the civil war where men would get lost and join whatever unit they happened to end up near.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •