Clan/group/friend recognition

[blunce 991]

I'm more for unique clothing artifacts such as armbands, legbands, etc.

 

I think providing players with the necessary tools to better identify eachother would be the better route opposed to an in-game mechanic dedicated specifically to identification such as player feedback messages.

 

We do already have the necessary mechanics. Groups can decide to all wear a certain hat, face mask, certain color overall, or any combination of clothing. It's just a matter of your entire group being in compliance & communicating effectively.

 

There are things such as body language as well, a lot of people will do the "friendly dance" (Q & E) at long distances. Then there are such methods as using code words. Discuss it with your group beforehand. Have 2 code words, one for when engaging, & one for responding, such as "Apple" & "Seed".

 

When you encounter a player in close quarters, engage in direct chat & simply say "Apple" & nothing more. If it's your squad mate, he'll know to respond with "Seed". You've now identified each other quickly, concisely, calmly, & effectively instead of trying to identify friendlies in a manner such as "Who is in the red building on the left side?", "Which way is left?", "Single or multistory red building?", "Where are you guys?", or in what is better known as a "clusterfuck", if you will.

 

If your squad mate fails to respond, it's simply a matter of poor communication regardless of who is at fault. But you learn from it & can easily correct it with a little trial & error.

[UltimateGentleman 355]

1 I'm more for unique clothing artifacts such as armbands, legbands, etc.

I think providing players with the necessary tools to better identify eachother would be the better route opposed to an in-game mechanic dedicated specifically to identification such as player feedback messages.

 

2 We do already have the necessary mechanics. Groups can decide to all wear a certain hat, face mask, certain color overall, or any combination of clothing. It's just a matter of your entire group being in compliance & communicating effectively.

 

3 There are things such as body language as well, a lot of people will do the "friendly dance" (Q & E) at long distances. Then there are such methods as using code words. Discuss it with your group beforehand. Have 2 code words, one for when engaging, & one for responding, such as "Apple" & "Seed".

 

4 When you encounter a player in close quarters, engage in direct chat & simply say "Apple" & nothing more. If it's your squad mate, he'll know to respond with "Seed". You've now identified each other quickly, concisely, calmly, & effectively instead of trying to identify friendlies in a manner such as "Who is in the red building on the left side?", "Which way is left?", "Single or multistory red building?", "Where are you guys?", or in what is better known as a "clusterfuck", if you will.

 

If your squad mate fails to respond, it's simply a matter of poor communication regardless of who is at fault. But you learn from it & can easily correct it with a little trial & error.

 

1 But it's never going to be that unique though unless they make it so your clan has a red armband and only your clan can see that it's red, which is kind of dumb.

On any one server with armbands for instance it's highly likely multiple clans will all have the same colour so I think a mechanic is fine it just makes up for what you can't tell from what the game shows you.

 

2 Again you shouldn't have to act like you're some military squad the game is built on an ARMA engine yeah but we're not soldiers, why shouldn't we be able to function as a group without acting like we are?

 

3 Yeah the dance that most people do, movement doesn't have enough variety that you could be safe with a signal like that anyone can just watch from the bushes then show up doing the dance and slaughter as many people as they can.

 

4 What about people who don't have voice chat though? Or people who don't all speak the same language? Or just have hard to understand accents. It should be possible without voice chat to form some kind of group.

[blunce 991]

1 But it's never going to be that unique though unless they make it so your clan has a red armband and only your clan can see that it's red, which is kind of dumb.

On any one server with armbands for instance it's highly likely multiple clans will all have the same colour so I think a mechanic is fine it just makes up for what you can't tell from what the game shows you.

 

2 Again you shouldn't have to act like you're some military squad the game is built on an ARMA engine yeah but we're not soldiers, why shouldn't we be able to function as a group without acting like we are?

 

3 Yeah the dance that most people do, movement doesn't have enough variety that you could be safe with a signal like that anyone can just watch from the bushes then show up doing the dance and slaughter as many people as they can.

 

4 What about people who don't have voice chat though? Or people who don't all speak the same language? Or just have hard to understand accents. It should be possible without voice chat to form some kind of group.

 

1.) I agree in the regard that armbands wouldn't be exceptionally unique, but they could definitely serve a purpose & have their place with a decent amount of variety too. There's black, white, blue, light blue, green, dark green, red, pink, orange, yellow, gold, grey, purple, etc. That right there is 13 options alone, then they could get into things such as patterns (plaid, stripes, polka dots, zig zags, etc.) & given that your group plays on a private hive, you likely won't find a group that is nearly identical to yours, although not impossible just like real life.

 

2.) I'm not saying you need to act like Seal Team 6, I'm just suggesting that communicating effectively is leaps & bounds beyond an I.D. system whether it be attire or in-game mechanic. & when you play with a group of friends consistently, it just comes naturally really.

 

3.) While that's true, I was more so referring to when you're trying to identify a friend (assuming they're in a 3rd party coms program with you such as Skype/TS) at long distances when you can see them but they can't see you. Most of my original post was based on the notion that you want to identify friends that you're already acquainted with, so I considered random encounters irrelevant in this scenario.

 

4.)Again, I made my post based on the notion that you were referring to friends that you play with regularly, that you would likely be in Skype/TS with.

 

So let me reiterate I guess -- You're suggesting that we should have an I.D. system that is used to identify friendlies. So what predetermines them as friendlies? Do we need to have an in-game mechanic to put them on the "friendly list" to make it work?

 

You gave the example of establishing a community in game. So what sets these people in said community apart from any other randoms that you happen to meet in game? You're suggesting that the community would have no form of 3rd party communication other than logging in & hoping to find the rest of the community at the camp site? Not saying that that in itself wouldn't work, I just mean that 99% of established groups/squads have some other form of communication other than direct chat in-game.

 

So, that being said, anybody that you encounter in game, you likely haven't encountered before. So your character wouldn't know who were approaching regardless if the system you suggested were in place.

 

I just feel that overall, effective communication & maybe disciplining your group to wear similar clothing would yield far better results than what you're suggesting.

 

It should be possible without voice chat to form some kind of group.

 

I agree. Although, the vast majority of groups communicate using a 3rd party program. Such a system that you suggested would be catering to an extreme minority in my opinion. Say you do establish your group without any 3rd party communication. Whether you set up a camp or barricade, have everyone in your group approach the base in the same way. Whether it be unarmed, by making a hand signal before entering, entering from a certain direction, or giving a verbal password upon arriving, or any combination of the 4.

 

Just like real life, you would ask yourself who you see in the distance. There's no point in receiving status messages of what your brain can do by itself.

Edited November 6, 2014 by blunce