Outfit Ranking System

Discussion in 'PS2 Main' started by Jaamaw, Oct 28, 2012.

Outfit Ranking System

Discussion in 'PS2 Main' started by Jaamaw, Oct 28, 2012.

  1. IronCore

    IronCore .

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    Speaking of com disciplines that's something that we should be practicing anyway.

    While I like TS PS2 comes with built in multiple channels of communication. Squad leads and platoon lead should really be the only people speaking in platoon chat. Everybody else should stick to squad chat unless it's vital information that has to be passed on now. This simple rules was broken constantly in beta. Myself breaking it included.

    Outfit chat shouldn't ever be used unless you just need an invite to a squad. Far too often we had people running their mouth in outfit chat about trivial things while our platoon leads were trying to give orders.

    There are command channels as well that have to be unlocked by ranking up your command rank with certs. That's something to consider for those wanting to gain ranks in the outfit. It should be a requirement that you have up to a certain in game CR to earn the ranking in the outfit. Those are certs that you could have spent in a shiny new gun. So those dedicated to running our platoons should be given that extra bit of respect for certing into things that are helping the outfit rather than themselves.

    For myself I'm happy enough being lead for now. I will kill and take facilities for the outfit. Depending on how my free time plays out in the future I may be interested in earning my way up the command ranks. I have experience with this stuff.
     
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  2. WolfStar76

    WolfStar76 Platoon Leader of Last Resort

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    tl;dr - Do we really need TS3 along with all the Voice options already in PS2?

    Weighing in a bit on Com Discipline (sorry for the wall of text - and the sidetopic. If this should be split off into it's own discussion/topic/thread, as someone who's administered more than a few forums, I understand and support a topic split).

    I'm a BIG fan of TeamSpeak 3. I run my own server for gaming with my friends.

    But PlanetSide 2 has such a robust system of channels, that TS3 (in the two times I've used it) strikes me as more of a hinderance than a help for the most part.

    The channels that we already have in PS2 include:
    • Proximity Chat - Admittedly, the most likely to get spammed - but it's easy enough to mute/ignore people in PS2 that that's hardly a hinderance
    • Outfit Chat - Personally, if there's going to be random chatter in the game, I like it best here.
    • Squad Chat - Great for sharing quick information with your squadmates. Especially useful if you actually move together AS a squad, so that (depending on how para-military we want to get) you could get as detailed as announcing who's going to move forward into a room, sweep left, right, what object the enemy is hiding behind, etc.
    • Platoon Chat - Great for commands from the top to the squads - and for helping Squad Leaders pick and choose targets. When the entire platoon is assaulting a base - great to co-ordinating everyone to new/developing threats (Sundy parked <location>)
    • Squad Leader Chat - Very under-used, but allows all the leads in a Platoon (the four squad leaders, plus the platoon leader) to communicate back and forth to focus on strategy and tactics - discuss options for the next assualt, or falling back to an agreed-upon location. In fact, if SL Chat were used more, Platoon Chat could be used for more immediate threats to the platoon (sundies rolling in, libs starting to circle overhead, etc).
    What's more - you can tune and tweak the settings for each channel. Proximity chat can be muted, while turning up Platoon chat - leaving Squad Chat in the middle - letting the "right" information be heard over what might be less important.

    Given all these channels of communication - I'm really having a hard time seeing where TS3 fits in without simply causing more "clutter"? How do we see using that in conjunction with everything the game offers? For the most part, it sounds to me like it, at best, takes the place of Squad Leader Chat (and/or Platoon Chat) - but if that's redundant and an extra step beyond merely entering that game - what benefit do we see it giving?

    I don't like asking these questions, mind you. I forsaw setting up my own TS3 server to handle PS2 chat - including setting up a channel for a full platoon, with squad channels below. Teaching people how to use Channel Commander and keybindings so that Leads could chat back and forth without cluttering up everyone else's chat. Whisper bindings to channels, Priority Speaker for the Platoon Leader - etc etc etc.

    But really, with only one minor quibble (I wish I could separate game sounds to my speakers, and voice chat to my headset, instead of combining them all into one place - the ONE advantage I can see TS3 offering), voice is really really well done in PlanetSide 2. So much so that I think we really need to evaluate if TS3 has a place (beyond simply being a point for NNG and friends to gather and socialize) in NNG's PS2 plans? If so, we should work to define how TS3 is going to supplement the channels already available - and perhaps draft guidelines for "com discipline" (EG - what is each channel for, who can use them and when, etc).
     
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  3. lPaladinl

    lPaladinl Traitor

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    Love the Protoss theme. Didn't actually notice it myself until reading some forum posts and seeing "For Auir!" popping up now ;P

    I do aspire to be a good leader for our squads. It's difficult starting the whole leadership thing, never done it too much in other games (Never played any that could use good leadership as well as this game can), and it's even tougher being new to the end of the beta, and even more so, being new to this outfit/clan. So, hoping i'll warm up to everybody and be able to help give those game changing orders.

    EDIT: And yeah, I would have to agree that we have Comms cluttered as of the Beta. Wish I could help supply ideas to further fix this problem.
     
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  4. Sphinx

    Sphinx .

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    The good thing about teamspeak , if you've been on often, is that you'll have whoever is leading the platoon getting feedback from the squadleaders or will get suggestions and since the rest of the platoon doesn't need to know, else it gets endless on the comms, it avoids having to much chatter on the platoon comms for undecided matters. You'll have for example the leader asking his squad leaders , what do you guys prefer to do , should we do that or this, any volunteer for that, etc... Stuff that the platoon doesn't really need to hear about and they usually talk about 2-3 steps ahead of time on teamspeak , and sometimes the less information you give to your little foot soldiers, the less confusion happens too. And if you have to change your mind about the next step, you don't have to tell people to forget about it etc.

    I think it's great that you have teamspeak to have only the squad leaders/NNG members. The platoon isn't always made of only NNG members. My 2 cents
     
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  5. WolfStar76

    WolfStar76 Platoon Leader of Last Resort

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    Which is all fine and good - but is also served by the Squad Leader VoiceChat function in-game. Which still makes TS3 feel redunant - for PS2, at least.

    And it (in-game chat) doesn't require people who aren't NNG members to swap to our website, find the TS3 link, install TS3 if they don't already have it (which, I often find people prefer Ventrillo (yuck) and sometimes flat-out turn up their noses at TS3), etc etc etc.

    I really want to be clear on this. I love TS3. I think it's ~the~ best VoIP product out there for outfits/guilds/clans. I'm just looking for a reason to use it in conjunction with PS2, and I personally have a really hard time seeing one.
     
  6. Cryms

    Cryms .

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    For one a TS chat will be very handy when we have more than one platoon going and want to coordinate them. Along the same lines when we do coordinate with other outfits it would be nice to have something to help get input from just more the leaders or more of the squads/platoons in on the discussion.

    As stated above being able to toss out some ideas to (hopefully) people you think can give good suggestions/feedback makes things smoother before a choice is finalized.

    Leaders can talk more specifically to a subdivision if the squads are not perfect (i.e. more than 12 in the infantry subdivision). This also can help when we need like a sunder but there are quite a few PUGs in the platoon it does not need to be said to them unless necessary to cut down on getting too many.

    Another is if someone has a question about something related to a subdivision and if we have some people in a specific channel for that it would be easy to ask and get a quick response. Could also be used for general help for new recruits while not overcrowding the voice/chat messages in game.

    I have a feeling I am spacing a few others but this should get the bigger ones. Based on how the TS was being used during Beta I would say there was not a lot that the in game functionality didn't provide and can understand why you were wondering if it is worth it.
     
  7. IronCore

    IronCore .

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    Well, Wolfstar just said what I said about 10x better.

    I used to like Ventrilo a lot. With TS3 out there though it quickly converted me once I started using it.

    We could potentially use TS as the squad lead chat until our leads get far enough into the CR certifications to be able to use those and be ranked in a couple combat certs also.
     
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  8. WolfStar76

    WolfStar76 Platoon Leader of Last Resort

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    Inter-outfit communication is one thing I hadn't thought of. I suppose TS3 could also be useful for if/when we have more than one platoon going (though, if those platoons are led by NNG members, as per the guidelines elsewhere - Outfit Voice could still fix that for co-ordination.)
     
  9. Jaamaw

    Jaamaw .

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    This is old but had to drag it up
     
  10. Jaamaw

    Jaamaw .

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    lazy bump