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When players ask me why we don't give way more player agency in GA or CS, I think about threads like this. I think GA/CS hits the right balance for how much you can trust your allies vs how much you want to trust your allies.
Edit: To be clear, the first line is a bit of a joke. Also, those videos of people crashing into ships with troop transports from BII (2005). Oh, the memories...
Communication with teammates would be nice, having some sort of emote or command system that you guys were working on but have not said anything in a while
We'll say something shortly.
Situations like this don’t automatically mean you can’t have more player agency. There are almost always other solutions. Some that I can think of:
-Better UI hints at objective (maybe if AT-TE hasn’t fired ion charge recently, make the ability button flash on the interface. Also, make objectives better displayed or could rework the touch pad from scoreboard to a map overview/objective list)
-Require special objectives such as AT-TE commandeering and LAAT flying (a common request made on here) accessible to players of a certain rank so that the experienced ones are more likely to do it right. Maybe have some copilot options for any rank so they get experience doing things in the vehicle.
-Someone suggested AI AT-TEs along with player vehicles which would show clueless players where they are supposed to go.
I’m not saying that more player agency is always better or is preferred for this situation, I’m just saying you can’t automatically discount it.
Totally. I was just being facetious. We want players to feel like heroes, no matter what unit they're playing as. It's something we're exploring more internally.
Respectfully, I disagree. The issue here isn't one of players being given too much agency, it's one of lack of effective communication on how to complete the objective - it needs to be more clear to players that you can enter the AT-TEs, and how to use the ion cannon. The gameplay mechanic here is amazing and makes Geonosis the most fun GA map - we want more like this!
I know. As I said to another person, I wasn't being completely serious. Geonosis was a step in the direction we want to take the overall game experience.
Okay, that's encouraging to hear! Thank you for taking the time to reply. What lessons would you say you and the team have learned from Geonosis, good and bad?
Good: Maps don't have to get smaller as we go to force players to play the objective and come together.
Not really sure there's a "bad," just a lot of small things we learnt from. CS was (to a degree) designed around the idea that things don't need to get smaller, per se. Despite transitioning into the Capital Ships, you still have choices in where you go and when for the objectives.
The maps getting smaller is probably my least favorite thing about GA - so many maps like Theed, Kashyyyk and Tatooine are great until their latter phases where you're funneled into one room/area to die repeatedly to a hail of grenades and explosive sentries. I'm really glad to hear that's something the team has consciously moved away from, even though this was clear from the way CS has been developed.
Is it too early to ask if lessons have been learned from the reception/execution of CS?
Many lessons. As this is a live service, we plan to execute on said learnings across the entire game. It's never too late for anything.
But lot of the time i want me and everyone else just to be a normal foot solider on the massive scale battle. So when i pull off something cool or heroic i actually feel like a hero :0 don't forgot this type of idea.
That’s what I meant! We want being a hero to be something you can strive for outside of just playing as an actual hero. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.