There are a myriad of games and game modes, to include PVP centric games, that don't have minimaps, red "shoot here" name tags, ect. It's totally bogus to suggest that "gameplay" requires minimaps, red tags over enemies heads, and floaty/shiny icons all over your screen. I'd ask what's the purpose of implementing Friendly Fire in Eternal Crusade, then place red "shoot here" tags over enemy players, and friendlies have the "dont shoot" ghostbuster icon? I don't think they could dumb it down any more than what we're seeing in Pre Alpha. Isn't the purpose of implementing friendly fire, to get players to think about what they're shooting at? To determine Friend vs foe based off visual recognition? If you can't tell and Ork from an Eldar, or Chaos from Loyalist without the aid of flashy red/blue icons telling you who's bad and who's good... well I don't know really what to say about that.
WEATHER SYSTEMS & STORM CREATIONS Weather changes and atmosphere. This always makes the significant difference. Additionally, weather ought to be atleast a simple system of weather changing and oncoming storms. It would be especial to have a truely extensive system from which the everything contributes to Arkohna global weather changes
There is such a thing as too little UI/HUD, take eso for example of that. I understand its very annoying to see a hundred name tags floating above players heads, but I'd still like to be able to know who I am talking to and fighting with, sure we can do without enemy player's name tag, but allies, probably not so much. Being able to see who you are with is something every mmo needs, especially with a party/group system like the one EC is going to have, how will you be able to know who you are inviting to your party unless you are all in a chat together? How will you even get into the chat group without knowing who the player is on the field? Allowing players to see each others names is essential, if you dont like all the names on your screen, just turn them off in the option menu, it would be very silly to leave that out as an option, as Steven and Brent said in one of the streams, you will be able to see who is in your party/guild/strikeforce etc, that should definitely be in game, I'd really like to know who I am with when starting a party/group. For the minimap, yeah its not super immersive, but every game has one, why shouldn't EC? Even if its just to detect nearby enemies and doesn't show surroundings or whatever (somewhat like destiny's) that would be useful. A map is always needed, a full scale map showing where you are headed and what large objectives there are, it would be very frustrating not knowing where you are going. Also remember this game is going to have to be newbie friendly, dont want someone new to start playing, have no idea what to do, get destroyed, then leave thinking they just wasted $40.
I suppose if the minimap only showed enemies that are in LoS its ok, but if they show every enemy within a certain radius then it defeats the ability to ambush and would penalise melee players since it would hamper their ability to close
Perhapps the way the mini map and spotting work should be different for each factions? Maybe ork reall lack the tech to spot people on there mini map, but they can hear them? maybe the sm and cm have more things in there hud because of there helmets...and i don't know about eldar
I like the idea of requiring an Auspex/Equivalent in order to access dots on the minimap, but I also understand that this goes against lore. Space Marines have Auspex built into their power armor, even dating back to the Heresy. Eldar are all psychic and can sense people when they make an attempt. Orks, well while I do find the idea of the Ork radar system having a couple of them die and the rest converge on that area it'd be mildly unfair. I propose a button to instigate an Auspex sweep/Psychic once-over, available to all units. Equipment might be able to hide you from these sweeps but it would have to take up a slot or be a part of the subracial traits (Night Lords, Raven Guard, etc.)
I'd say for the sake of good gameplay, for both veterans and newbies, allow a mini map, even if it just shows spotted enemies, for every faction to be fair. If you want something more complicated, then yeah, using an additional piece of equipment to maximize the use of a mini map would be alright. But just so you know, if its really so bad to be allowed a mini map, then it must also be bad to allow a planetary map in a menu as well, just because thats the kind of logic being used here. Also for team/friend/party/guild play, a mini map and name tag is a necessity, or how else will you be able to see your fellow party members amongst the crowd? Don't say using comms, because like hell that fixes the problem 100%
lol using comms as a solution has to be only partly serious at best, the games going to multilingual...having someone warn you in a language you dont understand isnt going to help you know theres someone around the corner waiting for you the games a persistant 24hr world..this will mean people will at times not want to use their speakers or enable game comms so as not to disturb their household people play differently...some players simply wont have or wont use the games comms systems 3rd party VOIP...you cant hear people if theyre not using the same comm system you are most of the time I'd guess ingame comms will be useful, but I can easily see many times when it will be useless as well
