Wulfyn

Ok, I've batted this one through the admin team and it has met with some positive response, so I'd like to put it forward here. It is essential to realise that this is not a rule, and will not be enforced, but hopefully enough people will like it that it will become a standard on the servers - assuming that it works that is. Consider you all as the playtesters for this idea.

BF2 has a really nice command structure. You join a squad and follow the squad leader's orders. You make a squad and order your squad leaders and follow the commander orders. YYou step up to commander, and you are in charge of the whole battle. RO doesn't have this, and in fact it wouldn't really work. If your SL got shot you could be isolated, so a strict squad set would likely make your orders less likely to work as people worried more about regrouping all the time than getting on and fighting tactically. But how do they do this in real life? The same situations are apparent - people don't respawn as a squad, and if you lose a leader someone else has to step up. If a couple guys join up with another group how do they know who is in charge. Well it's simple, the guy with the highest rank is in charge.

That's right - we need ranks.


Ranks can be easily set as a prefix into your name. This can be changed in game, and in under 10 seconds (so if you jumped into the top spot or if you no longer fancied being a leader and wanted to be a follower it can be a very quick thing to alter). Simply hit escape to bring up the selection screen, and choose the options to configure the game. From this menu select to alter the game settings. You should see your name at the top. Simply edit this, and hit back to get back into the game. Simple.

I am proposing that we use a 4-tier rank system.

Pvt.
Private - if you have no desire to lead in any fashion this is the rank for you. You play tactically by undertaking the orders that are given to you.

Cpl.
Corporal - you have little interest in leading, but if you are in a group of privates then you would step up to the job.

Sgt.
Sergeant - you have an interest in leading small squads, which will almost always involve co-ordinating a defence or attack on the ground. This is also the rank to be tank commander. May also end up in overall command occasionally.

Lt.
Lieuftenant - you wish to be in overall command of the team.


putting a . between the rank and your name will also help to separate it, thus:
Pvt.Wulfyn
Cpl.Wulfyn
Sgt.Wulfyn
Lt.Wulfyn


So I would like to test the possibility of this working, and use this thread for feedback. I would say that in order to give it a full test the following things should also be tested:

Follow the orders of someone of a higher rank than yourself. If you don't like it then up your own rank.
If you are the highest rank then please lead!
If you find yourself as the overall commander then please adjust your rank to Lt.
If you wish to be tank commander please adjust your rank to Sgt.
Have fun! Please don't boil this down to "I'm a Sgt so you have to do everything I say". This will require maturity for it to work.


If it doesn't work then it will be obvious as we'll spend a large amount of time just arguing. If it does work then we will have a nice command structure in place that can be used to organise and co-ordinate on the fly (which for me is an exciting prospect!)

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munchkin

This is an excellent idea, and please give it the time of day and support that it deserves. We're still refining our processes and systems here, so the more comments and discussion the better - but give it a try first.

Oh, and +rep Wulfyn.

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jaymind

That's a very nice idea, we need something like this in place. The only problems I forsee are having to change your name mid round and possibly getting an entire team of Lt's or Sgt's, etc...

Very nice place to start.

+ Rep - You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Wulfyn again.

Marconi

Wow. This could clear up a lot of things.

I'd like to add a possible follow-up.

We can use the quick-renaming ability to form up impromptu squads, if necessary. I know there are in-house squads already, but on any random night where there's a mixture of TG'ers, it might be useful to keep track of who is going to stick together and who's from a different squad just tagging along.

So that would be...

[TG-A]Pvt.Marconi
[TG-B]Cpl.Marconi

The A and B would be in-game, temporary squads that would attempt to group together. When local came on, you'd be able to glance at the name of the speaker and see if it's someone passing-by, or one of your squadmates. Ditto for Team, which gets confusing sometimes.

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jaymind

You know, this may not be a bad idea. Split the team into 2 squads using this method and give each an objective. At the very least you'd have people moving in the right directions from the get go and not having people run off where ever they feel like it.

+rep

Strag

This is a fabulous idea. It offers a great way to organize ourselves within the game, and it's easy to set up.

I can imagine spawning with a group of players and taking a second to glance at the various nametags in my group. If I was a Pvt or Cpl and saw a Sgt, I'd know right away that I should group up with him and follow. However, if all I saw was a bunch of Pvts, I would know that I could step up and become a Cpl to offer some leadership. This system of grouping by ranks should also help to make use of the Local VOIP channel more manageable.

To make the ranks easily readable, we would need to put them at the very beginning of our name tags, before any in-house squad, clan, or other identifiers, as in:

Sgt.|TG|Strag


I would certainly like to give this system a try. I think it has real potential if taken seriously.

Great job, Wulfyn!

Ironsight

"If taken seriously" is the key Strag. If people just respawn and run off without even looking around or communicating it won't work. Last night on the #2 server around 2030 to 2130 I couldn't get anyone to respond on local when there were people respawning right next to me. They just spawned in and headed back into the action. Maybe seeing someone of rank will help.

"MAKE ME A SERGEANT AND CHARGE THE BOOZE! MAKE ME A SERGEANT AND GIMME THE BOOZE! MAKE ME A SERGEANT AND GIVE ME THE BOOZE!"
-- Singing drunk ward inmate in the giant ant movie "Them".

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If your officer's dead and the sergeants look white,
Remember it's ruin to run from a fight:
So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,
And wait for supports like a soldier.
Wait, wait, wait like a soldier . . . R. Kipling

fldash

Ironsight, Local VOIP is bugged sometimes. There's a chance they didn't hear you.

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Strag

Yes, and this is up to us as players to do. Wulfyn has proposed an excellent method for how we could improve our play. I hope we can take advantage of it and try it out.

Ironsight

OK, hopefully that will get fixed. I did hear a few people talking. One guy swearing a blue streak about something unfortunate that happened...

__________________
If your officer's dead and the sergeants look white,
Remember it's ruin to run from a fight:
So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,
And wait for supports like a soldier.
Wait, wait, wait like a soldier . . . R. Kipling

FriedFish

Is there a console command to change your in-game name?

WhiskeySix

it'd be nice if they incorporated ranks into the game... so you pick a kit and a rank... then maybe put an icon beside your name..

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asch

Pubbies would be the first obstacle to this idea. Getting them to understand what's going on, let alone want to play along will be difficult. The poor in-game communication makes it hard to explain it.

The lack of good "squad" communication will be interesting to try and figure out when we're moving as individual units. While we can setup ranks, without effective communication I don't see it happening very effectively.

The other obstacle knowing who the guy is standing next to you. The friendly tags aren't always easily visible. Sometimes they appear when I view them with ironsights, other times they don't. I'm not sure on how/when they show up. Without seeing these player tags it will be difficult to know who is the ranking officer in the area. There's no way to easily identify these officers.

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aculle01

This has been tricky sometimes I have to crawl up to a guy and almost sit on top of him to figure out who he is.

But back to Wulfyn's idea. I think it definitely has possibilities but I do see a bit of difficulty when switching around kits and trying not to pigeon hole anyone to one role for the night.

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Usarion

I like the idea, and I think the game could use it. Unfortunatley, I have to agree with alot of what Asch said. I guess the best way to find out is to give it a go, and see if it can be implemented.

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