Submitted by Florian on
Hey all,
I’ve put up a new poll for you guys to vote on. We're interested in how you guys feel about AG's and related competitions. The results of the previous poll were pretty overwhelming: (67%) in favour of the implementation of some sort of strategic battle plan feature. Luckily, we agree! ;)
So allow me to explain a bit what we have in mind here. We want to provide the commander (and others if the commander allows them to do so) with a quick (!) and effective way to communicate a plan to the rest of the team. In practice this means that it should be possible to make complex plans by a few simple clicks on the map. To make this possible CoCv2 will allow all players to switch to a strategic view, which gives a nice overview of the entire battlefield. Orders can be given to players from this view by drawing attack arrows or defensive lines on the map. These orders are overlayed on the map and will automatically be shared with all team members. Such plans can also be saved in a personal battle plan folder to be reused in future battles or shared with other players.
But we want to do more with this idea than simply provide the commander in the game with a new toy to play with in the strategic view. We want to use the same system to allow all players to coordinate with fellow players in the heat of the battle. Imagine this scenario: you and a teammate are about to assault a house occupied by enemy soldiers. Using this system you would be able to - with the help of temporary overlay arrows on the map - show your buddy that you are planning to assault through the left door and suggest to him to cover the right door and windows. This information is overlayed on the map in an unobstrusive manner and will fade after a limited time. Again, the point is simply to allow you to better coordinate actions with teammates. After all, some things are simply a lot easier to point out directly on the map than explain over the chat.
We understand that this feature is most useful for the more 'serious' games and gamers, but we nevertheless feel it has added value overall. Making it as easy to use as possible is our very first priority, as that will in the end decide whether people will use this feature or not. It is our hope that this additional communication tool (next to chat and voice) will help players work even better together as a team and make the game even more focussed on collaborative action.
Best regards,
Florian