Give Commanders A Minimap Overview Of Colony

[Steelpoint]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary): On /tg/station the Crew Monitoring Console was changed to show a mini-map of the station itself, and that anyone with their suit sensors on maximum would appear on the map in real time.

I think one of the problems facing commanders is that they lack situational awareness of what's going happening on the ground. They are trying to order squads around but all they have to go off this is the frantic words of squad leaders and whatever their (limited) bridge officers have to say.

What I suggest is porting /tg/station's monitoring console and making it a commander exclusive item that shows a overview of the main colony.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole): Giving the commander a effective overview of the battlefield will help the commander make strategic decisions on where to move squadrons, allowing him to better direct the ground forces and see the big picture, such as manurering squads to defensive locations, shoring up a faltering squad or figuring out which squads are cohesive and which are in disarray.

Only the colony itself should be viewable on the mini-map, the northern caves should be off screen so that twofold the commander suddenly is reliant on SL's for more information and it drives home the point that anyone in the caves is 'on their own', but also it would prevent meta of the commander ordering a squadron to move to the north caves to 'investigate'.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc):

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it): I don't pretend to understand the difficulties of porting content, but this feature is available on the open source /tg/station code base.

[Aztectornado]

Egh-.... That seems too powerful. Then all you have to do to rally marines to the nest is watch where the injured blip goes. Early aliens would be screwed completely over by this, and they can't do a thing since they can neither strip marines, nor disable this system somehow.

Besides this, that level of sensors such as is seen on stations, is because it's on stations. Lore wise it's because cameras are everywhere and we actually have mapped out the station because we built it all.

Who mapped out the jungle or caves though? I know realistically you could say "But satellites" if you really wanted to, but this is a small colony unlikely to have that, and it seems unlikely you'd get good reception in a cave, or through the jungle anyway.

Marines just need to communicate less with their dong guns, and more with their headsets. I make it a point to relay EVERYTHING I safely can when on the ground. You should too, especially squad leaders...

Marine gets jumped? Report it to the team. Enemies sighted? Tell the crowd. Under attack? Duck out and call for backup BEFORE you're in deep trouble. It's not hard.

[Steelpoint]

I did say how it should only be limited to the colony, not anywhere outside.

Maybe also limiting it to Squad Leaders to continue promoting keeping together with the SL.

[Jeser]

I'm totaly against suit sensors, but CO HAVE TO have a map of battlefield. It's really needed

[Biolock]

I'd say it'd be better if there were cameras on the planet by the facilities (obviously not past the river or in the cave systems), and there were a few camera monitors on the Sulaco bridge because obviously they would have the remote encryption key and whatnot.

[Steelpoint]

Only problem with cameras is that aliens can destroy them easily, unless its made explicit that aliens cannot destroy cameras.

Also using the cameras to observe the action is not very intuitive, unless you go for a AI eye style.

[Aztectornado]

I don't see how that'd be too hard to implement. It'd also give more incentive to keep the lights/power on.

Colony cameras only; make cameras repairable with welder?

[Artouris]

Two things, we definitely need proper cameras across the Sulaco and the colony, mainly because you would think security would have access to some kind of thing to watch the colony against raiders,dangerous wildlife,etc. Even if possible make all the cameras on the outside of the buildings have camera lights so they are at least somewhat effective when the aliens slash all the colony lights (because that seems to be the first thing to happen after power goes on, or sometimes even beforehand) and its too dangerous to send lone people but its not as high priority often to send out a whole squad.

Second is that "but satellites" doesn't have to be satellites. The Sulaco itself could take pictures and generate a map of the area by itself. We have spy satellites that are rather small and very capable of getting down to sub-meter precision (hell you could do it with the hubble if you pointed it down and adjusted its software, you get images in the meter range i believe). It wouldn't be far fetched for a troop carrier to carry such tools mainly because who deploys their troops blindly? You'd think logically these types of ships would have some sort of imaging equipment that would at least give them a map of the area so they could effectively direct their troops.

[Jeser]

Two things, we definitely need proper cameras across the Sulaco and the colony, mainly because you would think security would have access to some kind of thing to watch the colony against raiders,dangerous wildlife,etc. Even if possible make all the cameras on the outside of the buildings have camera lights so they are at least somewhat effective when the aliens slash all the colony lights (because that seems to be the first thing to happen after power goes on, or sometimes even beforehand) and its too dangerous to send lone people but its not as high priority often to send out a whole squad.

Second is that "but satellites" doesn't have to be satellites. The Sulaco itself could take pictures and generate a map of the area by itself. We have spy satellites that are rather small and very capable of getting down to sub-meter precision (hell you could do it with the hubble if you pointed it down and adjusted its software, you get images in the meter range i believe). It wouldn't be far fetched for a troop carrier to carry such tools mainly because who deploys their troops blindly? You'd think logically these types of ships would have some sort of imaging equipment that would at least give them a map of the area so they could effectively direct their troops.

Give that man a cookie.

[UnknownMurder]

[Jeser]

► Show Spoiler

Is it "the-most-latest-version-of-groundmap", Uknown??

[UnknownMurder]

Yes..

[TopHatPenguin]

That isn't the latest map.. it's missing quite a few buildings..

[UnknownMurder]

Shit.


Bam.

[Jeser]

Shit.

► Show Spoiler

Bam.

Oh, shit... Shit-shit-shit! I don't care HOW, but CO in game should have this map! It's fucking awesome!

[TopHatPenguin]

That is really well done and +10 for adding that for the command staff to use.

[TopHatPenguin]

Any news of that mini map you made unknown being added for command ?

[Steelpoint]

Any news of that mini map you made unknown being added for command ?

That's not a mini-map that's a official map image of the colony the developers put up on the wiki.

[TopHatPenguin]

That's not a mini-map that's a official map image of the colony the developers put up on the wiki.

Oh never mind then i haven't gone on the wiki in a while, but that map can still serve as a map/minimap for command staff e.g. have it built into one of the computers in the bridge for visual guidance icly.

[UnknownMurder]

Someone thought I made this.

[Lostmixup]

I'm not against having a sort of sonar/radar system that shows where SL's and general command staff are.

[Atpot]

+1

Only if SL's were the only ones with the tracking sensors. Too many blinking lights might give the CO a seizure.

[Sebro]

+1 Since this will help a lot in knowing where people are.

[Kukeke11]

To make this balanced make it so that you see alien blips only of the marine can see it or in marine view range.
Would be awesome to hear "Uhh.. I'm picking up a life sign near you.. but there are now marines near you, wait another one.. and another.. RUN!!!!!", at same time being in complete darkness.