The Game Mechanic – Bossy Boots

We all have dream games. I always hoped and prayed someone would make a large-scale FPS with thousands of players and one Commander co-ordinating them in an RTS style, I literally used to daydream about how great it would be (I had a slow childhood). Now Planetside 2 has gone into closed beta and handed me one half of my dream, sadly I yearn all the more for the other half.

Planetside 2 is an MMOFPS that shares a lot of gameplay features with the Battlefield series except on a truly epic scale. The one Battlefield feature it’s missing is sadly the RTS element I dreamt of all those years ago.

It’s a spectacular game, I don’t want to understate that. There’s little more exhilarating than swooping into a combat zone loaded into the back of a huge Galaxy air-transport, as fighters battle it out in the skies around you and AA batteries hammer explosive rounds into you and other transports hoping to drop off the ground troops needed to secure victory. Tanks roll below as the Galaxy descends among its peers and heavily armed hard-nuts begin shipping out to go hunting for enemies. It’s carnage, death is everywhere. Galaxys spiral out of the sky, smothered with Anti-Aircraft fire, fighters collide with the towering structures we’re here to take hold of, large mechanised MAX suits unload ordinance all over the unfortunate attackers before being drowned out in a hail of gunfire. It’s madness, it’s wonderful.

But sometimes it’s simply not focussed enough. Things like I described above happen regularly, but sometimes the teams just have no direction. Many’s the time I’ve watched in annoyance as the four or five Galaxys I’ve assumed were heading from main base to the same combat zone flew off in opposite directions, no doubt to be slaughtered. What can be achieved in unity is lost as players try to go their own way and fail on multiple fronts rather than succeeding on just one. So why not let a few lucky players direct the directionless rather than adding to their ranks?

It doesn’t have to be just one guy per server, say 20 players presiding over a section of the map each, and gaining points for performing actions and giving orders that help clear their portion of the map. They could have the old Battlefield 2 abilities like dropping artillery every now and then or revealing all enemy units within a small radius. Give players down below extra points for obeying orders, especially if they’re working in an organised squad.

Without this I fear this wonderful game will be ruled by those with no agenda, and people who want to get in and co-ordinate will fall by the wayside.