So, how about event cues?

[DuckieMcduck]

By event cues I mean, are there warning messages or equivalent popping off somewhere on the HUD when something happens? Events such as:

- Unit is out of/running low on the selected ammo type (less than half the default amount)
- Vehicle status change, damage report
- Man down (This is already on multiplayer)
- Pinned infantry
- Enemy Spotted

These would be very useful. Especially for the campaign on high difficulties. Sometimes I find myself overwhelmed by the complete lack of consciousness over what's actually going on, and for a game that demands you to micro manage a lot it can be needlessly frustrating. A little bit of information supposedly coming from your own units would be helpful.

It could prevent situations like when you don't notice your AT gun just gets blown up (out of chance) on the other side of the map but you're busy trying to tell a soldier to restock a Heavy MG because you didn't predict it could be low on ammo and your entire right flank squad just gets shot down by oncoming infantry as it was unable to fire back soon enough as it was under fire by tank MGs. Basically situations you tend to become a little bit frustrated over because you were simply unaware of something prior.

[oooo]

Terrible idea, Unless it's optional (which the devs never like doing they always force veterans to endure dumbed down changes and wait awhile to allow us to turn it off) why dumb this game down with a bunch of warnings everywhere. The game shouldn't be turned into a board game, like a relic game such as Company of Heroes. It defeats the whole purpose. The game has always been about rewarding those with observation skills. Maybe you notice cover here, and use it. Not losing anyone, maybe you notice that there is a gap in defense here, or maybe you notice mines, it's not just about seeing "events" and acting on them. It's about noticing them in the first place.

And yes, this game can be changed in completely fundlemental ways if enough people -people who find it too hard. Have their wai.

but if its all optional, and I mean all of it, then yeah more options couldn't hurt. But the devs have stated they dont like adding them.

Also some tips for micromanaging is focus on a select few units at a time and have some move to cover when in stand by. Just keep track (made easier by the squad icons you get now in game, which I dont like) of who you have grouped and where you put them. YOur minimap shows you all the dots which belong to you so have that out. And move units from point A to point B to engage enemy 1,2,3,4, and then move, its easier to keep track of individuals and easier to move them through maps.

for example

"Moving my squad A, to cover, to engange this sniper here"

"Moving my squad B, to concealment, to wait for enemy squad here."

See what I'm saying?

doing stuff in little incriments will make the game less complicated. even so part of the games charm is a ton of things can go wrong at once, it shouldn't be made easier to compensate for that or the game loses it's "soul".


Here, allow me to demonstrate what I mean by all of this:


You THINK this game should be like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPm9k6ul9EI


but in reality this game has always played like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S-7OdAc3ws

notice the players intense focus. no icons.

[DuckieMcduck]

Originally posted by _):

Terrible idea, Unless it's optional (which the devs never like doing they always force veterans to endure dumbed down changes and wait awhile to allow us to turn it off) why dumb this game down with a bunch of warnings everywhere. [...]

The game shouldn't be turned into a board game, like a relic game such as Company of Heroes. It defeats the whole purpose. The game has always been about rewarding those with observation skills. Maybe you notice cover here, and use it. [...]

I knew some "elitist" individual like yourself would show up with this whole "dumbing the game down" concept after a random suggestion. You don't play singleplayer and that's ok, I can see how it could get annoying because you don't have as much going on in MP (as you don't really have to multi-task building, fixing queues while positioning and resupplying in really short time with zero slip-ups). Multiplayer versus is not like Skirmish.

Also Notifications of what is going on in the game isn't playing the game for you, nor telling you what to do, but giving you information to consider.

So that said, unless you consider blinding the player to be a mechanic, this isn't a change: it's an addition. You can still arduously look over the map and check every inventory individually looking for units that need to be resupplied if you're that much of a time wasting masochist (note; unless you have some sort of HFAutism you're not actually playing the game when doing any of this).

Originally posted by _):

Also some tips for micromanaging is focus on a select few units at a time and have some move to cover when in stand by. Just keep track [..]

That's nice, I didn't ask for your useless tips by the way. Regardless this doesn't apply to situations found in campaign mode.

I can see how flooding your opponent with distractions can be useful on multiplayer when they're basically not being told of things, I personally already do that at chess. That example you gave of chess is really poor and shows ignorance, by the way. Clearly you've never played with a timer. What I've experienced in the campaign on Heroic compares to playing several timed Chess matches at the same time.

[oooo]

Originally posted by UnluckyDuckie:

Originally posted by _):

Terrible idea, Unless it's optional (which the devs never like doing they always force veterans to endure dumbed down changes and wait awhile to allow us to turn it off) why dumb this game down with a bunch of warnings everywhere. [...]

The game shouldn't be turned into a board game, like a relic game such as Company of Heroes. It defeats the whole purpose. The game has always been about rewarding those with observation skills. Maybe you notice cover here, and use it. [...]

I knew some "elitist" individual like yourself would show up with this whole "dumbing the game down" concept after a random suggestion. You don't play singleplayer and that's ok, I can see how it could get annoying because you don't have as much going on in MP (as you don't really have to multi-task building, fixing queues while positioning and resupplying in really short time with zero slip-ups). Multiplayer versus is not like Skirmish.

Also Notifications of what is going on in the game isn't playing the game for you, nor telling you what to do, but giving you information to consider.

So that said, unless you consider blinding the player to be a mechanic, this isn't a change: it's an addition. You can still arduously look over the map and check every inventory individually looking for units that need to be resupplied if you're that much of a time wasting masochist (note; unless you have some sort of HFAutism you're not actually playing the game when doing any of this).

Originally posted by _):

Also some tips for micromanaging is focus on a select few units at a time and have some move to cover when in stand by. Just keep track [..]

That's nice, I didn't ask for your useless tips by the way. Regardless this doesn't apply to situations found in campaign mode.

I can see how flooding your opponent with distractions can be useful on multiplayer when they're basically not being told of things, I personally already do that at chess. That example you gave of chess is really poor and shows ignorance, by the way. Clearly you've never played with a timer. What I've experienced in the campaign on Heroic compares to playing several timed Chess matches at the same time.

Don't dumb this game down with useless event timers and clues. I play single player all the time, and I don't want to see my single player experience forcefully dumbed down by someone's blanket suggestion.

Chess has plenty of clues. You see where every piece is placed and every piece has a ruleset. Pretty much what you're asking for. In this game, one unit, ONE unit can take down every single unit on the map. Literally. War is simulated here, and war is about observational skills. About not seeing things happen playing out on a board.

But what's this? The game has Fog of War options, and already has a bunch of features there to help you find whats going on where (Minimap SHOWS bullet tracers).

Elitist?

Really? How about go play CoH if thats what you want. We're sick of seeing this game turned more into arcade than tactical.

For example, in chess, when your unit is "down" you knock it down, and place it on the side of the board.

In men of War, when you're unit is down, you either notice it is when you went looking for it, or you see the corpses.

[DuckieMcduck]

Originally posted by _):

Chess has plenty of clues. You see where every piece is placed and every piece has a ruleset. Pretty much what you're asking for. In this game, one unit, ONE unit can take down every single unit on the map.

You do realize I said cue, right? Not clue. Chess doesn't have cues, save for "Check", and even then sometimes that is disabled. If you don't look twice you can lose to something you didn't see coming because you were paying mind to something else - which is exactly what happens here.

The difference is that Chess isn't real time.

Originally posted by _):

Don't dumb this game down with useless event timers and clues
How about go play CoH if thats what you want. We're sick of seeing this game turned more into arcade than tactical.

If I were to take one thing from CoH and put it in this game it would be the voice acting.

Regardless pointing out major things that need attention is a basic mechanic to a strategic competitive versus video game.

You could debate the lack of cues makes the game "hardcore" and "tactical" yeah, but take out the cues from any of these games and tell me they wouldn't be "extra hardcore":

Starcraft tells you when units are being attacked or a nuke is being launched.
DoTA tells you when someone falls, or when your ancient is being struck.
Counter-Strike tells you when a bomb was planted in one of the objectives.
Age of Empires lets you know when a unit/building is being seized/converted.
ArmA has people telling you things all the time about what is going on.
CoH tells you when your units are just sitting there unable to shoot or move (which only lets you retreat, if you pay attention you can avoid getting pinned altogether).
Quake tells you when your flag has been taken or moved back.
Team Fortress 2 tells you when a point is being captured.

Now you come up to me and say that this isn't meant to be arcade, ok. But it isn't realistic either. Your units should be telling you about their status without you having to ask them. They're clearly not smart enough to handle themselves, but it's the least they should do.

So what is it if it's not either? Some odd RTS/Tactical fantasy mix where every entity is a dolt with missing elements that you've simply grown used to and so don't want it changed? You remind me of Binary coders when they refused to program in assembly language merely because they've grown used to wasting lots of time doing things that don't need be.

Cues for what is going on for what you can already see isn't arcade nor a dumb down. It's about sparing focus and letting the player actually strategize with the time given.

[oooo]

That's the whole point, the game isn't meant to tell you something you're supposed to figure out yourself.

[DuckieMcduck]

Originally posted by _):

That's the whole point, the game isn't meant to tell you something you're supposed to figure out yourself.

It's not a matter of "figuring out". That's a term you use when you have to think in order to discover something.

This, however, is a matter of keeping a living eye out for things that shouldn't have to be focused on, and priorly knowing what should be focused on, unlike your own dynamic movement and engagement tactics that you usually "figure out" on the go (the focus of the game). It's literally something you have to grow used to and develop useless knacks for since it's a problem, not a feature.

It's a waste and not fun to normal human beings to have to check if your unit is still up from time to time, or staring to see if the unit is shooting back or not, if it can even shoot at that. Again not really a "mechanic" based on thought but simply mental unsteadiness.

Damn I have a feelling you don't even set a timer for your food while cooking either because you get thrills from checking over to see if something's fuc‍‏ked up. I bet if you had to check if your soldiers had their shoes untied and have to tie them accordingly it would make for quite the adventure to your senile head.

[oooo]

I think I agree with the OP, we should also remove individual unit control, I think squads are more effecient, also building destruction and dynamic cover is confusing, I am in favor of indestructible terrains so I can always know where cover is. It will make it easier in single player should enemy tanks use high explosive rounds on me or something. I need less worry in this game and more gameplay. Also I think there shouldn't be so much focus on inventory or whatever, what is this a RPG? I think we should maybe do away with all these different ammo types or have ammo boxes that auto load into a ammo slot for units, and maybe add stats for tanks so I don't worry about part damage or any values for armor penetration, seems legit.

see ya dudes.

[DuckieMcduck]

Originally posted by _):

hurr sarcasm look you implied all of this when you suggested battlefield updates, EXCUSE YOU this is a RPG????

Oh sorry, Role Playing Game? Well you're not playing the role of a commander because those receive feedback from their COs. If you're playing any role it's of a baby sitter to an army of braindead zombies with basic reflexes, because even an army of stupid-as‎s robots would be taught to update on their status.

There's a difference between being observational (which I actually am) to being completely paranoid, without saying that you can easily dismiss cues if you aren't paying attention. All you've done some far is pull sh‎it out of your as‎s without even being able to back it and think you're right simply because you've grown used to being an idiot and feel like everyone else should. That's elitism at its finest.

[oooo]

I'm not being sarcastic.

[DuckieMcduck]

Originally posted by _):

I'm totally not being sarcastic.

You made ridiculous premises within your post contradicting all you've brought up priorly and said that you "agreed" with me implying that my train of logic would vouch for such changes. You've been appealing to fallacies for a while now.

Unamazingly, you've went from being just a self-righteous elitist to a babbling idiot in less than 4 half-as‎sed replies. Well done, that's around three more than the average.

[oooo]

I still don't see how I am being sarcastic. I think these ideas are good for this game.

[Maple Nukem]

OP, It's your job to know what the ♥♥♥♥ your doing while playing, there is no need for the game to tell you information which you should already be monitoring. Go play COH, this game isn't for you if you're having such a tough time with it.

[DuckieMcduck]

Originally posted by The Great Mango:

OP, It's your job to know what the ♥♥♥♥ your doing while playing, there is no need for the game to tell you information which you should already be monitoring.

Yeah, watching not when, but if the tiny triangle surrounded by fifteen tiny balls on the other side of minimap is going to disappear while fighting off the things it's meant to be fighting off, while you're busy trying to have the AI not stand still with a tank turret or kill itself by taking cover on the opposite side of things, sure is a mind boggling challenge rather than just a chore.

Surely a RTS game with luck-based elements up the as‎s wouldn't need a way to inform a player with only two eyes when certain things outside their field of vision happen, god forbid keeping non-autistic people from becoming frustrated by having them pile up potentially useless, withering tasks before the meaningful ones.

It seems this game struck a goldmine of "h4rdc0res" by taking out basic elements a calculator should do from its gameplay, and achieving said hardcores by simply bottlenecking its players.

Gee I wonder why every other game in the world hasn't followed such brilliant idea? Clearly because it's too hardcore for the common folk, not because it's stupid and needlessly confuses people.