I've been considering to work on something like this for a couple of months now. Of course there is the question of whether it's actually useful and the problem of it maybe giving an unfair advantage.
As I'm too lazy to type something new, I'll just show you what I have already. I pretty much considered this project dead anyway, because I thought I'm the only one interested in it, but...
Problem:Only the comm has the tools and the time to appropriately evaluate situations and how to deal with them.But he does not have the tools to relay this information. Text chat is too slow. TS doesn't offer simultaneous communication. In-game commands to a whole team/subgroup is ineffective, because nobody knows who else accepted the command. (Besides, many people unfortunately don't accept commands if they are already performing them, thereby not informing the comm that they are. That is something this project won't solve either, though.)Apart from looking at the map, the comm has no possibility to get a status on what his pilots are doing. (Again: asking is too slow.)Intended solution:A TSO-like program (overlaying in your DX-app) that allows the comm to define tasks (and optionally adding the number of pilots he wants to see doing this) using hotkeys. The pilots can (using hotkeys) change their current task. The comm (or maybe the pilots as well) sees the list of tasks and the list of pilots doing a task.Some examples:On game start, the comm creates a 'con d' task and can quickly see how many people are doing that. Preventing 'no scouts' and 'everybody scouting' situations.Somebody needs to fly to a certain sector to get some pods. Using a task prevents the 'five ships for pickups' situation that results in wasted time.A rather unimportant base will soon be under attack. Defend it or fall back? The task list will show if enough people are ready to defend it, or if defending it will just result in more pods, so falling back to the next tech base would be the better solution.Are there enough probers? The comm can't see whether a scout is out to hunt miners, to nan a bomber or to probe. And: a sector has to be probed quickly. Is nobody going to do it or are there three scouts heading for it already and therefore, again, wasting valuable team time.Two bbr/HTT runs at once? Need a balanced amount of nans on both? Add two tasks and you'll see it.In summary, it perfoms three tasks:
a) Give an overview what everybody is doing and in what numbers.
Give a possibility to avoid spending time on things somebody else is doing already.c) A possibility to allow giving out tasks with max numbers (a bomb run with 20 nans is nice, but not if it would succeed with 10 nans as well while the other ten pilots could hunt miners, stop cons, defend bases/miners, etc.)
Some more random notes:No, TS is not better. If every order is commented on by all let's say 20 players on the team, TS is a mess.
TS is a great help in games with organised teamwork (be it a SG or just a very good pickup game), but it has two major problems that the chat does not have: simultaneous communication is almost impossible, and information is lost the second it was transmitted, there is no way to read up on stuff you missed when you were busy.I do think this would improve at least my performance even in SGs or as a comm a lot.I fail to see what this has to do with 'forcing' people to an order.I fail to see what this has to do with 'forcing' people to a wing.
-- Cort
