Cross Atu
Conspiratus Immortalis
775
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Posted - 2012.11.18 18:52:00 -
[1] - Quote
I could see a squad leader "passive" defend order, but I would make it a lessor order so some priory has to be established. This would be useful however for squads who run with a sniper on overwatch, an AV guy split off to counter HAV/LAV/Dropship or a "stealth" hacker/flanker. In all of those cases having someone not with the squad is actually more effective team play and if the squad leader were a passive bonus then there isn't a forced choice regarding which part of the squad gets the order bonus.
Variable bonus amounts seems good, would likely require some iteration to find proper balance for the amounts but it seems like a good idea. Another aspect that could be looked into is variable order ranges. Right now all orders have the same effective range and you have to be inside that range to get credit, this makes attack orders often 100% useless (outside of highlighting the target), for example taking a high priority target like a HAV, Dropship or enemy sniper will net those who follow the order zero bonus points in the majority of cases.
Hacking an objective from the enemy is another example where the restricted field size requires you to hack and then defend from the often tactically unsound position of right on the objective, making the "capture" order suboptimal past initial deployment.
I fully agree that Objectives should be awarding the highest bonus, and installations having a higher bonus would give incentive to do something other than "defend order on squadmate --> fire and forget". On a related note having deployable targets such as hives, uplinks et al be target enabled on the squad orders menu would be good as it would allow a more dynamic battlefield wherein temporary strong points could be set up and defended based on tactical considerations rather than having to find something you're able to tag or losing out on the squad orders (you can always just order defend on one squad mate but that's not very dynamic nor is it very feasible if you're being pressed hard in a hotzone and burning a few clones to hold the line).
On a closing note, even with increased squad order awards Precision Strike spam could be avoided simply by making two changes to the PS system regarding WP awards.
1) Change PS kill awards to Assists for all members of the squad (including leader). They are earned by the squad after all so why not share the awards?
2) Do not let WP earned through the use of PS count towards earning another PS.
With the system changed thus earning PS should be approximately the same as it is now even with increased awards from some squad orders, and thus allow us to refurbish the order system while still avoiding PS spam.
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