Howdy Omniframe pilots,
Going to get right to it: I want to talk about how teams communicate in the world. We will soon have environments spanning 8x8 km large with multiple friendly and enemy bases in the area, constantly pressured by Chosen Tsi-Hu. Without proper communication between teams or guilds, the server AI could, and should, easily mow us Gatestriders down without much challenge. The "Vision" Book explains that we have faster-than-light communication, so inter-guild communication should be simple and effective to keep the Tsi-Hu on edge.
The question arises, what kind of communications system would work for Em8er that not only permits communication between guilds but does so effectively? What have other games done to achieve this goal, and what should Em8er do?
Here's the Short before I get to the Long: Guild Leaders in a Zone, as a collective, should have the ability to communicate with each other (with a Guild Lead Chat) and nominate a "Commander" for the zone (that can be mutinied at any time a-la Battlefield 2). A person that you trust, your guild leader, and a series of other leaders that other people trust, should be able to come together to put someone in charge of a zone to effectively issue orders over a large playing field.
I asked @Grummz "With multiple bases over 8x8 km, whats the plan for coordination? [...]" in Discord, you know, unofficially, just looking for some tips, and his current thinking is "Think APEX ping system maybe". This is effective for goings on within a base that you're in - point out Kaiju, point out Tsi-Hu, announce weakpoints that need reinforcement. This is totally effective within a 500m radius and should definitely be in the game. But you and I don't need that kind of information 8km out over 100+ people, we will need information on when teams are having trouble or when Level IV Kaiju appear. We need Zone Commanders we can trust to give us well-informed and competent orders. And this is where we hit a major roadblock. Grummz, with his many years of deving understands that it's "hard to find and identify good commanders" and he's absolutely right. Would you trust some rando to command 100+ people against something in which you've maybe spent a half dozen hours or more working towards? Of course not.
So my idea is simple and straightforward: Permit guild leaders to have their own guild leader chat within a zone, and nominate a Commander either from the guild leaders or someone within their guild that every other guild leader votes on to become a commander.
Do you think there should be a "command interface"? Would that be part of building the first base (think launching a low-orbit satellite)? Would you think there should be a completely different way to coordinate with world-mates? I'm open to ideas because I think this kind of feature could really notch this game up another level.
Thanks for your support and contributions!
Going to get right to it: I want to talk about how teams communicate in the world. We will soon have environments spanning 8x8 km large with multiple friendly and enemy bases in the area, constantly pressured by Chosen Tsi-Hu. Without proper communication between teams or guilds, the server AI could, and should, easily mow us Gatestriders down without much challenge. The "Vision" Book explains that we have faster-than-light communication, so inter-guild communication should be simple and effective to keep the Tsi-Hu on edge.
The question arises, what kind of communications system would work for Em8er that not only permits communication between guilds but does so effectively? What have other games done to achieve this goal, and what should Em8er do?
Here's the Short before I get to the Long: Guild Leaders in a Zone, as a collective, should have the ability to communicate with each other (with a Guild Lead Chat) and nominate a "Commander" for the zone (that can be mutinied at any time a-la Battlefield 2). A person that you trust, your guild leader, and a series of other leaders that other people trust, should be able to come together to put someone in charge of a zone to effectively issue orders over a large playing field.
I asked @Grummz "With multiple bases over 8x8 km, whats the plan for coordination? [...]" in Discord, you know, unofficially, just looking for some tips, and his current thinking is "Think APEX ping system maybe". This is effective for goings on within a base that you're in - point out Kaiju, point out Tsi-Hu, announce weakpoints that need reinforcement. This is totally effective within a 500m radius and should definitely be in the game. But you and I don't need that kind of information 8km out over 100+ people, we will need information on when teams are having trouble or when Level IV Kaiju appear. We need Zone Commanders we can trust to give us well-informed and competent orders. And this is where we hit a major roadblock. Grummz, with his many years of deving understands that it's "hard to find and identify good commanders" and he's absolutely right. Would you trust some rando to command 100+ people against something in which you've maybe spent a half dozen hours or more working towards? Of course not.
So my idea is simple and straightforward: Permit guild leaders to have their own guild leader chat within a zone, and nominate a Commander either from the guild leaders or someone within their guild that every other guild leader votes on to become a commander.
Do you think there should be a "command interface"? Would that be part of building the first base (think launching a low-orbit satellite)? Would you think there should be a completely different way to coordinate with world-mates? I'm open to ideas because I think this kind of feature could really notch this game up another level.
Thanks for your support and contributions!
