Squads sticking together

[Moody]

If this game attracts the crowd it should attract, then I don't think that there will be an issue with people playing together. The real problem will be with people staying together in the same squad, not because they don't want to, but because they die and respawn far away. That's the biggest problem with squad play. At the start of a match the squad will be together and good to go, but after you die, how do you regroup? Taking a trek through enemy infested territory will only lead to you dying alone. In PR there are rally points, and squad medics, which help a lot.

In the end, staying with your squad comes down to how the logistics in the game work. Will there be forward spawn points that squads can build or set up? I think this is a topic worth discussing, because it's difficult to work together in a squad when it's difficult to regroup with your squad.

 

[Nate]

I think there was a similar discussion in the base building discussion. Maybe something like a squad dug foxhole that could provide 8 spawns or so and the would just become a defensible position. With limited spawns it wouldn't become overpowered and if if you allowed a squad to build a limited number then it wouldnt be abused. It would be cool if one squad was attached to a half track where they could spawn at least a couple times (maybe even at a reduced rate like allowing only two spawns per minute.

Actually this brings up the question of how respawning will occur. Will it be individual spawns or wave spawning like in RO2. Personally I prefer wave spawning because it immediately places you around teammates so you can attempt to get back to your squad in one piece. This is definitely a good discussion to have though.

 

[JinxSwe]

The only really intense squad action teamplay game they I really like and think dose the whole teamplay aspect excellent is project reality for bf2.
First kinda forcing players to be on pr mumble that has awesome 3D position system.
Second with the spawn is you have one in ur main base. Then u can build OP's that acts like spawn points. Then the squad leader can spawn a spawnpoint but only if there is 3 from the squad close by.

 

[Maniche]

On the subject of the "forward spawn points", we've been discussing the possibility to "build" such a thing (see the thread "Firebases") in some earlier discussions, where both Developers and Community Members have pointed out some good ideas that might work.

Such a thing as a "firebase" (or forwarded spawn-points if you'd like), has its advantages of channeling the gameplay in the right direction, but has its cons as well; a well-placed firebase could really be quite devastating in terms of gameplay, as it gives the team using it a great advantage to control the gameplay (not that its anything wrong in "rewarding" a team that does good), but we need to find a balance between it being too overpowered and it being too weak again.

My suggestion would be to have;

1) A build-timer and restriction of X number of firebases at the same time (perhaps something like 30 seconds or so in building time, and a maximum of 2-3 (depending on server-size)).

2) Make it have a health-bar so that the enemy can either re-take it or destroy it (how big of a health-pool would need to be discussed, and having the option to re-take it might destroy the gameplay, as it pretty much gives the enemy team another CP that can totally overrun the map (here, again, we talk restriction on the number of firebases on the map at set time)).

3) If a health-bar proves to be too efficient (AKA, it never dies/gets recaptured), having a death-timer would be ideal, and personally, I believe the option 3B would be the most realistic and balanced way to do so;

A) After 5 min. of being inactive, it will automatically be destroyed.
B) After 10 respawns, it will automatically be destroyed.

All of these suggestions would encourage people to stick together, as it would form such a viable and important object, and loosing it might be devastating for one team. It could be like an aura (I'm a fan of those, haha!), so that the more players that are close to the firebase once it's being contructed, will boost the contruction time by a set amount or anything alike.

Having a forwared system like this would help with the problem you described, Moody, as no one wants to linger in enemy-infested fields any longer than necessary, and doing so alone isn't any fun, haha.

Maniche

 

[Moody]

I like the idea of it being destroyed after X amount of respawns. As far as limiting the amount on the field, I think having one firebase per squad, where only squad members can spawn on their specific firebase would be the best option. This makes it so that the same squad members will spawn on the same firebase, so the squad actually stays together. The firebase can take somewhere around 10 respawns (enough for the most of the squad to respawn in once) before being destroyed, but can also be destroyed by grenades/satchels (so if an enemy can get close enough to throw a grenade, they can take it out). Upon being destroyed, the firebase has a cool down timer (a couple minutes), and can be built again afterwards.

A good question would be, how will these firebases be build? Do the squadleaders put them down like in PR, do you use shovels, or does it simply built itself and you just wait a while? However close it is to PR, I think that having squad leaders put them down, and squad members shovel them up is definitely the best system. I can't think of any other effective way of implementing it.

I think on top of this, it could be possible to have one squad (combat engineers, or platoon HQ squad) that can set up a firebase with more respawn amounts (50 or so?), which everyone on the team can spawn at. This means that squads can have small pushes on areas before they run out of respawns, but the platoon HQ can set up a forward base where the whole platoon can make a large push from (again that firebase can be destroyed with explosives). These platoon firebases would have a larger cooldown once destroyed.

Edit: I think a foxhole/trench would work best as squad firebases, and a large tent/sandbag emplacement/trench would work best as a platoon firebase.