THE IMPORTANCE OF TEAMPLAY/SQUADS
So now that everyone is on the same page, let's dive in.
- Spawn Lanes: 90% of the time, when you're spawning in a squad with random players and in a random spot, you note that every member of your squad is going to different directions. This can get frustrating because you know that If you want to quickly collect Battlepoints you have to play as a group. And there's no way to tell your squadmates which objectives you want to engage. It can also be frustrating because you sometimes spawn super far from some objectives (for example, in the second phase on the Yavin IV map, I was always spawning far, far away from one of the 2 objectives, so it was a bit of a hike to go there!). I do have a proposition that (I think) can fix those two issues. I call it Spawn Lanes. Basically, when spawning every player need to choose which objective they want/need to attack. And based on that choice, players are put in squads only composed of players who want to attack/defend that specific objective. So no more split squads! Plus, the choice that you make determine where you spawn. For example on Theed, if you want to play on the east side of the street because you think that there are too many enemies there, just select the right objective and boom, you're at the right spot with your squad to focus on the objective!
A visual example of what the "Lane Spawn" select screen could look like:
A top-down layout of how the Lane Spawn System would work in the 1st phase of the Yavin IV map.
- Let friends stay in their own squad: this could work as well with the Lane Spawn system, but it would be up to the squad leader to choose which objective his squad will attack.
- Reinforcing the officer role: Every class on the battlefield has a very distinct role and way of playing them, and can turn the tide of the battle in his own way. This is not the case of the officer class: outgunned by every other class, he knows he has to rely on his tactic abilities to compete with others. But with the actual spawn system, it's frequent to find yourself alone on an objective (even more frequent when there are 3 at the same time!). You can't really defend yourself as an officer. And because you aren't that important for the squad, other players don't bother sticking with you. As you can see in my visual explanation of the lane spawn, there's a "Spawn on officer" button. Of course, you won't be able to spawn on every single officer on the map, but only on those that were in your previous squad, if they haven't been killed until then. I think this could be a great step towards giving more importance to this class. Everyone would try to protect the officer while he's buffing the squad. Everyone wins!
- Give at least the opportunity to the players to choose their starting map in the rotation. I don't think there is a need for splitting maps according to their era or else. Just keep the full map rotation while giving a bit of choice to the players.
During my trial, I wasn't able to play on Kashyyyk, Takodana and Jakku. Sad, I am
- Endgame celebration: If there is one thing that is turning me off every time is how boring the endgames are (not talking about the small cutscenes here). Basically, every character stops moving and VICTORY/DEFEAT appears. I think I would pay to see the whole winning team celebrate their victory. It would be a perfect reward for the winning team (even more for the Star Wars fans!).
THIS IS IT! This is what I think could greatly improve the game. I know this is a huge topic but I really think Teamplay is something worth fighting for, specifically in a Star Wars game.
(Nothing more rewarding and thrilling than feeling that you're fully part of a bigger team, helping and interacting with others teammates. Plus, if you want a game to sell well, give the players a reason to bring their friends in.
Because I don't really see the point of having objectives and classes if we as players don't have the tools to work together towards those objectives.)
This is a repost from my topic from the Battlefront II forums. If you dig those improvements I'm suggesting, please upvote that topic and give your opinion. We MUST be vocal about this, as we know that a proper squad system could greatly improve this game (even if it's already great).
(hope you've liked my visual concepts, BTW )