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Guild Wars 2: The Squad System in WvW
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The Guild Wars 2 blog has been updated with a new post detailing how the squad system will play out in World vs World competition. Acknowledging that general chat is too broad for effective communication and that party chat was too small, the team devised the squad system to allow for better control of each world's forces.
A squad is a one-to-many command structure, with one commander at the top, and his followers underneath him. Each squad receives its own chat channel, which all members can see, but which only accepts chat from the commander. Normal members can only see what the commander says and cannot speak back.
Additionally, commanders gain access to a small set of squad map markers, which they may place on the map just like their normal party waypoint. All squad members will see these markers on their maps and compass. They represent orders such as “attack,” “defend,” “rally,” and “bring supply.”
Read more about the squad system on the Guild Wars 2 blog.
Comments
The question is - how to make players actually obey the commander??? In TOR imperial commander would often cry to fall back so that the republic forces can leave their Ilum base and the fighting begin, but people won't listen and stand and farm the daily by pulling some reps out of their base. lol
There should be something more than a mere one way chat channel! Like some zone marker the leader set up on the map, so players from the quad who are within the marker get extra points, while those who are outside get less as they disobey the commander's orders.... yep?
I don't really like that crap about selling the right to be a commander for a "hefty gold cost". It's pretty obvious why they did that. <cough> cash shop <cough>.
Well, whatever. I guess I already knew it was a cash shop game. I was just hoping they wouldn't go too nuts with it.
This is a rediculous comment. According to your logic the only way they can make you happy is by removing ingame currency completely.
Being a commander doesn't give any gameplay advantages.. hell, people in the sqaud might not even listen to your commands or your commands could actually be terrible and cause your side to lose.
If someone thinks it worth spending $50 on trying out the commander role then let them, it doesn't mean they will be good at it. Forming a group or guild yourself and communicating using the usual chat methods has the exact overall effect you know... until you can afford the role yourself using ingame methods.
That is a failure of the game. Anytime one side should back off to let the other side do something the design of the game has failed.
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so nobody can talk to each other in the squad? i don't like that at all.. there's no way to talk strategy.
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what is the size of a "squad"?
Who designed that system? hahahaha!!!
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Actually you are correct that it doesn't give any gameplay advantages. In fact, after thinking about it I realize there is a good chance it will be nothing more than a fluff thing which most people will completely ignore.
However, when they talk about "strutting around with your special commander icon", it's pretty damn obvious that it's intended to sucker money out of people who want that ego boost. Which I should be ok with because I know that's how they make their money but it still seems sleazy to me. What can I say, I'm from a different age.
They also said, " The right to become a commander must be earned. " Which just rubs me the wrong way when what they really meant is that the right to become a commander must be bought. I know I'm opening myself up to a big, stupid, semantics argument by saying that but it's the context in which the word was used which matters in this case. "Earned", in this case implies proving yourself in some way through gameplay but in reality all it will mean is whipping out your credit card in real life.
You buy the commander role with ingame currency, please tell me how this is related to "whipping out your credit card".
I'm too lazy to bother. Why don't you tell me how it's not related.
Lemme guess... you're gonna try and relate this to the people who will be selling their gems for gold. The same people who would normally buy gold from gold sellers. So again... not much to relate.
Haven't you guys heard? Gems are the only way to obtain gold in the game now..
Seriously, it's funny how some people believe for 100% that Gems will be the best way to get gold in the game. It's highly likely that the supply of Gems will be high, but the demand low.
Just stop with these ridiculous "gem-to-gold = pay2win" arguments.
A large amount of cash shop items can be found or bought with karma and gold in game.
Oh goodie, another GW2 thread that is devolved into cash shop talk.
Anyway, there is a good thread on guru about the limitations of the system. With that said, we don't know a whole lot about it and what ArenaNet will implement. Obviously the intent of it was to provide communications on a large scale without it being a spam fest.
I'm really excited about this chat function, if it was me before army I'd have been furious of such design, but really if there is only one person speaking the chances of people listening are far greater than having everyone shout their own rules.
Currently being in army and having done all of these - “attack,” “defend,” “rally,” and “bring supply." - in real life to the degree of being exhausted to death and now getting to do that in game gets my blood rushing
There won't be any advantage for players that "buys" ingame cash for real money when it comes to this, being a commander........ Doesn't mean that players have to follow him or something.....
The high price to become a commander (ingame cash), is there so that you only become a commander if you really need it....... For example the leader of a guild..... It's things like that you spend the "guild-money" on..... And it will most likely mostly be the players from the guild following the commander, and others might follow too if they see that he's good.....
And it's not useless.... I've played Warhammer Online, and when playing Open RvR (like the WvW, but not instanced) it was pretty important to have some type of leader to follow..... Had a good leader in my guild, but there were a even better leader in another guild, and players followed him everytime he was on the battlefield, cause they knew from other battles that he was a good leader........... It worked, but it would have been nice to have some kind of mark over his head to know were he was all time......
So I see this as good little feature to add...... Who knows, maybe after some months there will be some players that will get recognized as good leaders, and players following them when they are on the battlefield...... Or it could just be a feature that will help guilds know were their leader is all the time......
It's not something to get mad about at least..... If you don't like it, then just don't care about the commander mark and follow the player you want......
I don't think that was explicitly said. The article stated that 5 man parties were to small, but not how big squads would be. So a squad could be the same as a 5 man party, but it might be bigger and have some sort of raid group appearance.
As for people throwing the P2W thing in here due to the cost of gold to be a commander, what does being a commander get you as a player. Well absolutely nothing. It is pure fluff except for the few real leaders and those will get that status due to their skill.
Squads... Sound cool. Can't wait to see it play out.
I like the system.
People will be people, and do what they want - including ignoring poor leaders - , but this help streamline coordination.
If you don't want to listen to your squad leader, whether it's because you like to be a lone wolf or because your leader is incompetent, leave the squad or don't join in the first place. Some of you people talk as if you're getting press ganged into the squad structure. It's optional, like just about everything else in the game. If you don't like it, exercise the freedom at your disposal and don't use it.
Decent start to the system, but will need to be refined as players gain experience and their needs grow.
This is an excellent tool to use for guilds and alliances. For zergs and pugs it will be like herding cats, but that is usually how it goes anyways.
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This has potential, but i'd like to know if theres a channel where u can discuss within the squad or something?
Hey people - stop arguing about cash features in the article not related to it in any way. It concerns the system itself. Will it be effective at organising player groups? - I think not, as it gives no real power over the squad members to the commander, so they will rather behave sparadically as in most other MMOs.
The only way to make random people actually obey the commander is to give them bonuses if they follow orders - which in turn means there should be special system for giving up orders: zone markers where the squad should stay, order to follow the leader, targets to atack (in most MMOs there are target markers the leader can set up on enemies, but no bonuses for atacking the right target), etc.
It is called MOTIVATION - you get the candy for doing the right thing / or you get penalised for doing the wrong one. One way chat has nothing to do with the both of them.
The icon is not visible to members of other squads, but it is visible to your squad’s members, other commanders on your team, and players not in a squad so that they can easily identify you.
This sounds like there could be more than one commanders in one squad. I read the entire article thinking that there is only one commander per squad until this statement, am I missing something here?
I would really prefer for there to be only one knowledgable person giving orders or maybe two at most but if not then it gets all crazy. I really love the sound of this though, it's like a well organized massive battle ground in WoW. The fact that you can switch squads is a great thing as well.... really looking forward to this.
I think it is more along the lines of if there are other commanders on your server, and they are in a squad, they can see that you are a commander. Rather than multiple commanders in one squad.
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