The leash!

Salute Soldiers,

We have something very interesting and equally important to discuss today; the squad leash.
The squad leash is the allowed distance between a player's soldiers. In other words: how far is a squad allowed to spread out?

In both chain and call we have always played with a fixed hard leash. Meaning that soldiers were allowed to spread out, but only up to a certain distance. When the maximum distance was reached a soldier could not move further away from the rest of his squad. Now the question is, do we want to keep it this way? We have come up with several options, but which option is the best? :) We would love to hear if you guys can think of any other options. And what you think about the ones we have come up with.

The options:

1. Hard leash. The 'old skool' way. Soldiers cannot spread out more than a certain distance.

2. Flexible leash. Soldiers can spread out (in principle to wherever on the map they would like to). But the further away they get from the rest of their squad, the more certain abilities will be downgraded. Abilities such as their stress level, fire rate, accuracy and their response time to orders they receive.

3. No leash. Soldiers can move freely over the entire map. Where the rest of their squad is, does not matter. There are no consequences such as an increased stress level, etc.

What do you guys think?

Regards,

Erik

Comments

Erik's picture

Yep. On a personal note, the longer I think about it, the more i am in favor of (some sort of) leash. As it encourages teamwork and increases the strategic aspect of the game. Which are both core values of our game :)
malfreda's picture

Been following you guys for awhile now with my fingers crossed. But I had to come in and comment about the possibility of losing the leash. As far as I am concerned, there has to be a leash of some sort. And I am thinking about AG games only (don't care about opens). COC has always been about resource management. Your team mates are your resouces. And you must deploy them in a manner that both accomplishes the map mission within their own capabilities.

If you can have every team member send one man to each location, then you can end up with one guy playing the whole game while other, less skilled players sit and shoot. I do not really wanna plan an assault knowing Eric will be defending the entire map with 3 squads of players sniping and feeding him grenades.

You lose the flexibility of counting heads and changing your strategy. I can not count the number of games I commanded where seeing an unexpected head count on one side of the map allowed me to change my strategy for a better chance at winning. A huge part of winning AG games is knowing when you can push or when you should retreat or shift because of numbers.

There has to be a leash of some sort. I enjoyed the old way, but am open to something new. But I do not want to have the entire map be a potential ambush. Not enough nades in the game to clear every corner, every window, every wall across the entire map when soldiers can be anywhere at any time.
Leech's picture

The flexible leash seems best, gives more options for strategic maneuvers and setups, and nothing was ever more annoying then trying to throw a grenade/dodge one and having the little red line tell me he is to far away. Either way seems better to me than the old school fixed one
Erik's picture

This was a great discussion. For me personally it has really helped to shape my opinion about it. As a finishing touch, please vote in the new poll :)
Pai-ku-han's picture

Hey guys. I love what you are making. I have a question, what is the difference between limited flexible leash and extended flexible leash?

I personally think that players will tend to keep their soldiers together, because they are easyer to deffend and to control. BUT, if someone wants to streatch a lot to, for example make a wide flank on someone with two soldiers, there has to be a penalty ... so ill go for a flexible leash, with reduced vision and increaced stress as soldiers get farther apart. Cheers!
Erik's picture

Limited flexible leash: a little flexible, only up to a small amount.
Extended flexible leash: very flexible, a squad can spread out extensively.
Rapidkiller's picture

Fixed leaves less room for creativity. Flexible allows 1. more complex plans and a unique experience and 2. if you are still implementing the command chain system, allows more experienced players who are lower in rank to have eyes on the fight.

Unlimited is too sandbox-like but can be used for custom rooms maybe?

Keep up the good work!
Chopstick's picture

An old player here. couldn't remember my first account from years back but I felt like checking into the old CoC. To see it reviving brought tears to my eyes. can't wait to see how this turns out. any idea when it might open up?
Erik's picture

The official release is still set on spring 2014 Chopstick.. In all honesty/realism we are leaning more towards summer 2014 atm though.. Quite a bit of hard work developing a game we found out ;) A lot of fun, but a lot of work :)
Chopstick's picture

I'll wait as patiently as I can, spent years here before. will probably spend many more once its back up.
Erik's picture

Good to hear guys, thx for the support :)

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