Tasking Tool

Isgrim · Post by **Isgrim** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 4:03 pm

i was thinking in the line of a UI tool that the commander can use to assign different players to different tasks, such as miner hunting, base D, probing etc. This gives commanding a new dimension as you have to know your pilots strenghts and weaknesses, where to apply them and when to rotate them so they do not get bored of miner d a hour in length for example.
The tool is for the commander, but every player can see which task they have veen assigned to and who they are working with.

Terralthra · Post by **Terralthra** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:09 pm

Isgrim wrote:QUOTE (Isgrim @ Jul 21 2006, 02:03 AM) i was thinking in the line of a UI tool that the commander can use to assign different players to different tasks, such as miner hunting, base D, probing etc. This gives commanding a new dimension as you have to know your pilots strenghts and weaknesses, where to apply them and when to rotate them so they do not get bored of miner d a hour in length for example.
The tool is for the commander, but every player can see which task they have veen assigned to and who they are working with.

I'm not sure how exactly this is DN development.

Flower · Post by **Flower** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:48 pm

Such a tool would be great, and it would work great in tandem with the "Blackboard in the upper right corner" Idea which was discussed in this other thread. (no clue where it is right now but I am sure you will find it or already read it)

Dengaroth · Post by **Dengaroth** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 6:09 pm

In my opinion, such a tool would be useless, because it'd still depend on individual discipline on the pilots' side to stick to their assignments.

As we all know, that sort of discipline never happens in pickup games, and squadgames have that without needing a tool.

guitarism · Post by **guitarism** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 7:33 pm

Not to mention, do you really have the time do that while commanding? Metting out indivdual players on a seperate interface, when you could just as easily PM them or give an individual order. They have a checklist on their screen you know...

Isgrim · Post by **Isgrim** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 9:52 pm

guitarism wrote:QUOTE (guitarism @ Jul 21 2006, 05:33 AM) Not to mention, do you really have the time do that while commanding? Metting out indivdual players on a seperate interface, when you could just as easily PM them or give an individual order. They have a checklist on their screen you know...

yeah, PM every player instead of a fast one click /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

im not sure what you mean about checklists, if you refer to the wing assignments they are not chosen by the commander. The commander should disposition his forces like in a real outfit.

i am aware that the thread is probably misplaced so i started one in misc dev. too.

and that pickup games are disorganised. That is exactly what this tool is supposed to better. Not completely cure, but improve. There are dicipline in pickup games, not as good as in squadgames ofcourse. But this tool will atleast improve this aspect somewhat.

Post by **Pook** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 9:59 pm

I love the new forums and their handy merge tool.

/mrgreen.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="mrgreen.gif" />

Anyway what you really want is the ability for the command to click on any unit, click "FORCE TO..." and then click somewhere else on the map... and have the computer override the pilot and fly them to that waypoint.

/wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

Post by **TheBored** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 10:08 pm

Though that would be nice, you would have people forcing people 20k away from base just to mess with them.

TB

Adaven · Post by **Adaven** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 12:05 am

_SRM_TheBored wrote:QUOTE (_SRM_TheBored @ Jul 20 2006, 05:08 PM) Though that would be nice, you would have people forcing people 20k away from base just to mess with them.

TB

Just enable every ship to eject, then this feature wouldn't be any different than forcing a gunner on your ship and launching w/o turret mounted.

Flower · Post by **Flower** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:11 am

Dengaroth wrote:QUOTE (Dengaroth @ Jul 20 2006, 08:09 PM) In my opinion, such a tool would be useless, because it'd still depend on individual discipline on the pilots' side to stick to their assignments.

As we all know, that sort of discipline never happens in pickup games, and squadgames have that without needing a tool.

I think that many of the novices have indeed the "discipline' but they are lacking in skill or situational analytics.
And even if they have acquired the skills to fly the ship and the basics of the game they are still lacking the knowledge to correctly compare their current task with 'the new order'(assuming non-personal orders) and prioritize accordingly. Examples would be: Continue miner defence or defend base? Nan Bomber or keep camping Aleph and so on.

A Tasking tool would be nothing new but would rather improve upon the already present in-game system of ordering people around.
For example a tasking tool might allow to revoke assignements just by clicking on the pilot on the 'tasking tool blackboard' and putting him per drag and drop in a new group... lets say 'defend'.
Thus new appropriate orders would be automatically given to the pilot.
a) he would know that he should do miner defence until he receives such a new order.
(I guess the 'lacking discipline' stems from just not knowing if they are still supposed to do the job)

he would instantly receive a new order like: 'Defend Station in L'Sau' or 'prepare to be nanite escort for bomber in dunatis'

I think the possibilities of such a tool would me multitude. It just would have to been implemented and thats the hard part.

As to Squadgames:
I assume they have the 'discipline' as squadded pilots have far greater skills at situational analysis compared to pilots in pickups (along with whole-team usage of Teamspeak). As long as every member knows what to do by himself a tasking tool would be neigh useless. And for the instances where input needs to be given Teamspeak or the limited inbuilt command system is by far enough. :-)

This was the other thread which was quite similar:
http://www.freeallegiance.org/forums/index...c=22453&hl=

P.S.:
I am just saying that I see the advantages of such a system. I do not think its a priority to implement.
I would rather prefer that I would find my teammates on teamspeak while flying in pickup games.