Took a scan-through of suggestions, so pardon if I am repeating.

Is there any interest in one or both:

a. Defense-based game types (Protecting sectors, defending objectives, being the invaded force)

b. Civilian NPCs to defend when they're invaded by opposing faction.

I feel like it would add an emotional drive to the game if you feel like what you're fighting to defend/ invade has some humanity. Although the game does a surprisingly good job of giving you those feelings already with the one-of-many attitude.

Also, this is more of a pipe-dream, but are the developers interested in (for SP) giving the option of being a commander? Not actively controlling a soldier, but directing troops, sending in reinforcements and supplies, all against the clock and an always too small resource pool. That kind of thing sounds like an exciting way to experience the game a little differently.

I love this game, and I can't wait for the updates!

This is something most of us surely has thought of. It reminds me M&B Napoleonic Wars' commander battles.
For this, AI should be able to deploy sandbags, rob rare weapons from enemies or buy them at armory, do side missions, change grenade types at a certain point, pick up medikits when needed, like acting out of the box.
I also thought of, at a co-op mode and following the commander idea, players with higher rank giving specific, or closed and specified by the game, orders to lower rank ones, or maybe letting these join other's squads.

a. go to koth map. you have a area to take and defend.

b. hmm. new behaviour?. ally faction behaviour so the civilians wouldnt shoot you on sight but shoots enemies

_________________
co-owner of NEWA

I guess for the defense game-type, I mean more like a binary campaign choice. Greycollars or Greenbelts, Greenbelts invading and Greycollars defending. First map would be the hardest, almost certain to be lost, but you have the opportunity to do side objectives and the like that will support you later in the tour.

But I will still look at the KOTH map.

As far as NPCs, I view them as being largely powerless. NO weapons, maybe knives, and IF they have the ability to attack, only attacking when the enemy is incredibly close. They should mostly be fleeing and needing escort.

@Ewetcr

I think the modes have a lot of potential. And I personally think that getting XP/RP rewards for following the orders of player-character commands would be really cool.

ANd when I consider the possibility of players being in the same squads, I feel like players who stray too far from their commanding officer should not reap benefits of shared xp etc. Of course, these are all assuming a great many changes that haven't taken place yet.

I really like the simplicity that the game exudes, but becoming more complex could make it more fulfilling. Not in the vein of things like weapon mods, classes, character customization etc, but more along the strategic battlefield. MOre strategic obstacles to overcome.

Its just hard to think of what ideas are maybe only appropriate for mods, and which are appropriate for Vanilla.

I try not to think of things that really only belong in the modding environment. Like Warband's ideas are all really cool, but a good half of them really don't belong in vanilla.

It certainly has crossed my mind that you'd be able to take the role of the commander AI, but mostly I personally don't find the idea that fascinating gameplay-wise, especially given RWR's premise. Anyway, it should be feasible for someone to create it as an extension once the commander-soldier communication is made available for scripts.

Potentially, you'd have a completely different window external to the game working as the commander view. Heck, you'd possibly just have the server variant of the game running in the background as you don't really need the game visuals for anything, and all your commanding info and state would be shown in the external "RWR commander" application. The script side already has access to most if not all relevant game elements for this, you can query the status and positions of soldiers, vehicles, bases, etc, so one would be able to visualize this info and interact with it in some meaningful way.

The part that is missing right now is that it would need to be possible to disable the existing commander AI in a faction completely and expose the commander-soldier communication so that the script side could be the one issuing the orders. An order consist only from the location where to go to and the task which is one of attack/defend/protect vehicle, that's it really.

Ok, I mentioned the server right there, so this would also work in online. "Normal" RWR players would be able to join the server while someone else connects through the external application or with web browser depending on how the commander app/service is created, to play as the commander while others play as the soldiers and squads. Players would of course need to be directed with markers and radio chat, both are supported, rather than the exact positions used with bots.