Organizing 100 Players Against a Strategic AI

[Shanie]

Howdy Founders Reapers,

Let's talk "talk". AKA Communication. AKA Roger Roger.

Em8er's servers can currently handle 100 players with some beautiful basic AI. Assuming we're going to hold that 100 player population all the way through release, we're looking at trying to organize 100 players against a foe that's (assuming the game will be tailored to being difficult) collective, strategic, and unrelenting. To fight an enemy of that caliber, we too will have to be strategic to end up occupying the map and changing its climate.

For those who have played a WoW Battleground before (back when they were good), we understand that out-communicating your opposition is the first step to steam-rolling them. In Warsong Gulch, there was a real threat of getting distracted in the center of the map, attacking enemies and damaging that HP, but ultimately failing your objective of capturing the flag. Players understanding a basic mission: defending, harassing, or attacking, already put you at a solid advantage over the enemy. In Em8er, the AI will be forever-strategizing to our disadvantage and we must outcommunicate an AI for max gains.

In ARMA 3, there are many ways for players to get a handle on their objectives, some being VOIP radios and maps with objectives and assorted strategies to fulfill them. Failing to know the objectives or strategy could lead you to being alone and unable to be an asset to your team. Thankfully, you need not always know your objective because your squad leader got that handled, son. He's all over that map, he's communicating with command, he's telling you where to go and what to do to maximize your groups combat effectiveness. It's a team game, we gotta act like a team.

So how can Em8er bring in these team-based strategies into the game without being overbearing, complicated, or take away from the fun?
My ideas are as follows:

• Fog of War
  • You start with a blank map in each territory that everyone can see. (The ice and snow or storms or whatever doesn't give us good satellite data.)
  • Each player contributes to whisking away the "fog of war" by progressing through the map with an Omniframe.
  • Fog of War "refogs" if outside Omniframe scan range (terrain stays).
  • Can add equipment to your Omniframe to reveal larger swaths of the "fog" or reveal special enemy types.
  • What this does
    • Quickly shows new players that this is a team game and everyone is contributing to it in even small ways.
    • Makes the unknown more unknown, spooky.
    • Creates an immediate, strategy-based objective beyond simply fighting the enemy.
• Squads
  • "It's dangerous to go into the Fog of War without help! Get in a Squad!"
  • Compromised of a group of X people with a Squad Leader.
    • Players can be added to a Squad on join if a Squad is marked "open" (vs Invite Only or whatever).
  • Squad Leaders direct their Squad to move to locations, attack, or complete other objectives.
  • Squads have communications abilities, like VoIP or Text Chat and have different colored names.
  • Squad Leaders can request to add their Squad to a Platoon, or create a new Platoon.
  • What this does
    • Immediately gives newly-logged in players an objective and a group to work with.
    • Gives players a choice to be on their own or part of a fighting force if they wish.
• Platoon
  • A group of Squads (up to the full server) with a Platoon Leader.
    • Squads can leave a Platoon at anytime.
  • Platoon members can easily identify each other via the map and different colored names.
  • Squads can text chat with other Squads in the Platoon.
  • The Platoon Leader
    • Primarily focuses on the map.
    • Gives orders to their Squads which the Squad Leader can accept or reject with assorted reasons.
    • Can communicate with other Platoon Leaders via text or VoIP
      • Can see current orders from other Platoon Leaders (so you know what their Squads are doing)
      • Can give Squads to other Platoon Leaders for strategy
        • Ex: they wanted an Attack Platoon, a Patrol Platoon and a Defense Platoon they could do that.
    • Leaves? Squad Leaders elect a new Platoon Leader.
  • What this does
    • Lets players choose their leader instead of being forced a leader, or into a role they don't want.
    • Brings large-scale strategy into the game.
    • Promotes good leadership.

So yeah, that's what I think.

 

[Meower]

This is awesome. I love the idea of sorting groups into bigger groups such as this. +1

 

[Wyntyr]

I feel this topic will be up to specific guilds to manage at this time. I don't believe there will be voice or written chat in the game itself due to an ambiguous US law(s). Good write up though.

 

[liandri]

Very into the Fog of War mechanic. The grouping feels very PS2, which provided that squads and their leaders are dedicated to a specific purpose it would definitely allow a sizable group of players to effectively mobilize against an AI.

My suggestion would be with the command issuing/chat feature, to allow for quick chat (UT's 'V' command for example) to issue commands (perhaps specific to the enemy you're fighting. And map integration (waypoints, direction arrows and such).
A secondary 'command window' could be a beneficial. Available to platoon leaders, a view from a dropship above the battlefield. A chat on one side and a command structure on the other, allowing you to quickly issue orders and cover flanks as needed, and pass communications between squads.

But it would depend on players. You can build a powerful tool for strategy-minded players to wield, but everyone else might want to form a ring around the Kaiju and /dance.

 

[Tominakc]

I was convinced the story was more like 300-500 players per server no? But we will definitely want some groups and some comms, maybe consider the ability of making actual leadership positions server wide? Like some way of getting credit among the gatestriders by doing tasks and reaching a certain constant amount of credit gives you a rank of command, not something that lasts forever, something maintained instead so that these positions could rotate a bit and not be hardstuck by someone who got there first. Then again it might be for the best to let the players form these sort of communities and chains of command themselves, for a more social aspect of the game as that's where i can see much fun to be had. Obviously a way to do voice comms or at least basic groups with chat and such would be nice to have. Honestly what i would like the most is seeing some minor groups form of up to 10-15 players lead by a single player on their group, and someone coordinating 5-10 of those groups. Kinda like Squad but on a persistent world kinda play, when there's a crysis or some sort of action is being taken a big step and such we can do such cooperation, but when it's your everyday stuff a relaxed minor task kinda gameplay would be nice.

 

[Morihaus]

You can build a powerful tool for strategy-minded players to wield, but everyone else might want to form a ring around the Kaiju and /dance.

Correct.

But joking aside, I love the concept of fog of war. Really would capture the "terraforming a strange new planet" narrative. And squads/parties having the option of being open, and maybe paired with a "party finder," could be very fun. Set up the party finder to search for some open squads in your current region.