In real armed forces, soldiers have defined roles. In team matches between competitive PvP players, the same is true.

The idea of this mode is to allow players to have defined roles, including support roles without support weapons being overused the entire game due to everyone wanting the biggest gun. The mode would allow certain support weapons to be balanced, eg MGLs, RPGs, etc by their points cost. Even things like jeeps would cost points, adding additional balance.


I also think that this mode would allow gameplay and tactics not currently possible. *
For example:
The commander could opt to assign most players shotguns (which are cheaper points wise, see below), freeing up a lot of points. This in turn would allow a greater number of machineguns to be assigned. Having more machinegunners than the enemy would allow the team to lay down a large base of suppressive fire pinning down the enemy in turn allowing the shotgunners to advance into range and take the enemy out.


(I'm going to add a bit more info, but I don't have the time right now, I thought I'd get this post out here ASAP).
I'm also aware that some of these suggestions would be a lot of work to implement. However I'm sure that at the very least a cut-down version of them could be implemented with far less work.

My suggestion is based around that concept.
How it works is this:

At the beginning of the match the players vote in a commander. The commander then assigns each player (and possibly AI) his/her weapon and number of starting grenades, using up points to do so. Once both teams have assigned their weapons completely, the game can commence. To address the possibility of abuse, players would be able to call a second vote during setup if it seems that the commander is screwing everyone over.

Players don't keep weapons they pick up when they respawn. They respawn with the weapon they were assigned. (It might be worth disabling weapon pickup altogether in the mode.)

As for the points cost of weapons; Comjack suggested this:
SMG<Shotgun<AR<MG<Sniper, with the possibility of the MG being the same as the sniper rifle.
If my other idea; AR w/ underslung launcher is implemented, it would go SMG<Shotgun<AR<AR/GL<MG<Sniper.

There are also the possibility for other weapons, like multiple grenade launchers such as the Milkor MGL. Since balance can be achieved through point cost and non-persistence/no pickup. If they were in the standard game then I think it would be unbalanced.

tl;dr

• Players vote in a commander.
• Commander assigns players weapons
• Weapons have a point cost
• Pickups are not persistent between lives or not enabled at all.

Additional Mechanics
Command Structure:
The Commander assigns players ranks in a command hierarchy and then assigns points to each squad.
The squad leader then assigns his fireteams their specific weapons, talking it over with them in command chat of course.

Alternately, the commander can just assign the leaders and the players can choose which fireteam they join.

Ingame Command *

• Fireteams and squad Level: The current system for commanding AI could be applied to players, a small marker appearing on the screen on a location where a fireteam or squad leader gives an order. (Colour coded to differentiate between and fireteam/squad). However fireteam members and fireteam leaders would not be able to see the markers of anyone other than their squad/fireteam leader.
• Platoon Level: Squad leaders in a platoon would be able to see the markers of other squad leaders in addition to the Platoon Leader. The platoon leader would be able to place map markers that have pointers from offscreen.
• Company Level: The captain/commander of the team would be able to place map markers that are visible to everyone when they bring up their map with the TAB key.

Possible UI design. Please excuse the lack of colour, I don't have the actual palette used for RWR. (with an auto-complete function.)

Command Chat
This would be a chat that would allow a player to talk to his subordinates, so teamchat doesn't become a mess.

Command Assigned Mortars
Mortar rounds are earned on a platoon/team basis and given out by the commander/whatever to their subordinates.

Reminds me a bit of ARMA, and I like it. Also reminds me of the Army Men game I recently posted about, which allowed you to spend points in building your base. You could either have a few tanks to play with, or have a ton of infantry, that kind of thing.

I imagine that if all the engineering stuff were implemented the commander would have to take base defenses into consideration as well.

About the slot screen, as I like to call it. Do players get to pick their own slot/squads or does the commander? I think players should be able pick their own slots with the commander able to override it. Assuming the slots are already set.

If they aren't already set, odes that mean you can set up the command structure however you want? You could click and drag subordinates onto a line, and then drag their subordinates on a line beneath them, so you could have a squad with 5 people or squads of just 2. Would you be able to switch squads mid-battle?

On a final note... what about the AI? Is this a PvP only gamemode?

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Ozymandias, King of kings, God of Caves, Wizard.

This is true.


Yeah, players would be able to pick what fireteam they're in.



They would be semi-set, but with some restrictions Maximum 4 people per fireteam with a maximum of 3 fireteams per squad + squad leader. However the fireteams don't have to be fully filled; some armies use 2 man fire teams but I don't believe that any use more than 4. The number of squads in a platoon is flexible, I see it as being the highest level apart from the commander, which would make the commander rank pretty much a Captain.

If you look at the UI image, you can see that some slots are filled by AI. AI would only be able to fill the lowest rank slots; they can't be NCOs or COs.
AI would be a option for either players vote or serverside.

I've also updated the OP with some more info. (Look for the red asterisk *)

I really like this idea, +1 to you sir!

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Even though we know dinosaurs survived the flood (on Noah's ark) we don't know if Jesus ever rode them.......But he probably did..

Great idea. I was hoping this would be implemented. I just think it would tie up a lot of loose ends. It would determine where/which vehicles spawned and the overall flow of the game. Running into each other wave after wave is fun, but it isn't deep enough to build a base for the game.

Dont get me wrong, I love what you are doing so far.

Given this is a multiplayer-only mode, and that it adds a completely new "RTS mini-game" with the special UI and no actual soldier to control for the commander, I'm having hard time seeing it implemented in the near future. While it's very close to the role the commander AI already has, except for the point allocation which is a non-existent concept in the current game, the game he's playing compared to everyone else is entirely a different one.

Maybe, as a post-1.0 update, just maybe, though even that area is starting to get a bit crowded with zombie modes and whatnot.