Been musing on thoughts for the CO role-and while my suggestions might best be suited for the MOD suggestion thread, I throw them here because they're only partially thought out-but I thought they might have some appeal. I'd like some opinions....

1-CO (maybe not in vanilla) SHOULD act like a PL-and to that end I think they perhaps need to be more of a 'frontline' presence. I don't know about assigning a Praetorian guard to him/her at the moment, because of our continued (forced) ability to get along without one. Add to that the fact that the mod removes much of the CO's power, and I don't know that the assets committed to Platoon defence aren't to a degree wasted.

2-Accepting the idea of a more 'immersive' CO, and their importance-I offer the following suggestions..

a) I think we should reintroduce a very much weakened arty capacity into the Mod. Either one gun or 3, but with much, much slower rearm rates.

b) make those assets worth taking out! I don't know if we can mod the capacities of the supply crate, but I'd be in favor of an ammo crate as SIMPLY A FRIGGING AMMO CRATE! No more repair of assets, vehicles, health and the like. If we can't agree that far, make the ammo crate simply one of health and ammo-no repair. If that's not possible, tie # of commit-able ammo crates to squad elements-if 5 squads as a norm, no more than 5 ammo crates are allowed in a round for deployment.

c)-I say toy with the idea of making a sniper, or preferably even a spec ops kit to be responsible alone for spotting. I'd agree with the sniper kit, but I'm of a mind with Bommando-I don't like the kit's pervasive use-especially THAT kit, because I think it represents a huge sway from reality. Limit 1 such kit to a squad, if that's the idea, because I'm sick of the sniper wars. At least Spec Ops' kit is with a scope for recon, but a diminished-ranged weapon.

CONCLUSION- this would allow something of a PL element-you could task a 3 man element with spotting, or opfor's asset disruption, or calling in arty strikes. Since there is no scan, and if that element is required to an extent for both the job of protecting PL AND spotting arty placement, it would have both an offensive (and an important one) AND defensive purpose.
It would make being a member of such a squad somewhat more important than merely wandering around making sure PL hasn't sprained an ankle-but still force the PL to be immersed in the nearby action.
Lastly, if we could make the ammo crate less of a 'hand-of-god' element, it would mean that medics' role increases (since they alone are needed at all times for health improvement), engineers become far more important (I see Robo dancing for joy pumping a shotgun with this one) since ALL asset and vehicle repair becomes their baleywick, and makes the tactical requirement of a focus on enemy assets of some kind something for the PL to consider-either as defense or as of support.

All that because I see that without ANY assets whatsoever, and better support weapon function, that currently assaults have become victim of the Civil War motto-"seek ye better ground". Assaults currently are IMHO, a little too difficult. At least with a little arty, and a little purpose and a little immersion of the PL, these can become (again) focal points with a chance of being carried out.

WHEW.

Ok bust a gut telling me I'm wrong.