Pointing - "laser pointer"

[Mormegil]

This is a repost of something from a different thread:

How about sort of a "laser pointer" feature by the officer/commander.

So if you're an officer class, you can currently select primary weapon, secondary weapon, nades, and binocs. Why not add - "Finger" or "Pointer"


Now here's the deal, since it's hard to really see where a character model is pointing, when the commander points (fire button) at something, or somewhere you get a green/red dot, just like a real life laser pointer (visible only to teammates).

Granted, they didn't have them back then, but this is a concession to facilitate gameplay, since it's hard to "read" somebody's avatar's body language.


Right now, in BFE, when we plan our strats, the Komandir typically points things out by shooting at it, eg "We need a sniper in that window [rat-tat-tat-tat]"

This works fine while planning, but not that useful during battle, as it wastes ammo and gives away your position.

Imagine, the commander can point out which corridor to go down, which building has a sniper in it, even which door he wants you to go in.


I think it's a lot less cumbersome than the rally points when you're trying to be very specific. Ever tried telling people there's a sniper in one particular window via rally point? It's often hard to visualize the 2D overhead map to specific buildings (and they are often not very precise).

 

[Hyperion2010]

I think the first thing that should be in place is simply the pointing animation which points at whatever is in the middle of your screen.

If it proves to be unrealistically hard to firgure out what the player is pointing to from the third person then maybe a "HUD cue" could be used. But not before pointing by itself was implemented.

EDIT: Oh, and everyone should be able to point. (Commanders already have the rally point that works sorta like a laser pointer)

 

[Nimsky]

Why not just make your pointing finger appear in first person? Then you can go 'over' the thing you want to point out and press "fire" or something. So you press the number corresponding with your current weapon to put it on your back. Then when you hold down the fire button, you see your pointing hand coming up. Release, you point.

Instead of a laser pointer, I think it should be done with sound. Every part of the map has an ID with a description of what it is. So when you point at the second window from the left, your character yells out "Enemy, right over there!" along with a team chat message "Enemy, sniper building, second window from the left". But then again, what if there is no enemy there but you just want to point out a spot.

One things's for sure, RO:O needs a good spotting system.

I agree with Hyperion, let's put in pointing first, maybe it isn't even that hard to figure out from 3rd person

 

[Hyperion2010]

I like where this is going but pointing should be REALLY easy. So maybe have it be like jump or crouch or something so that you can do it quickly and with ease. Maybe once that button was pressed the arm would animate to "point" first person and then the player could adjust if it was too far off.

 

[FYROM]

So if you're an officer class, you can currently select primary weapon, secondary weapon, nades, and binocs. Why not add - "Finger" or "Pointer"

As an alternate method, and more intuitive:

A player can hold down button "___" to enable pointing. The avatar lowers its gun and gestures with the left hand, with the finger lining up along the iron-sight axis but off to one side. As long as the button is held the finger will point. This is mirrored by the third-person avatar (gun lowered, left hand pointing).

To take it further, pressing the button could also bring up a voice menu with options, such as "Sniper spotted!", "Mg spotted!", "Armor spotted!", "Move up there!", etc. A commander might get a wider range of options than a regular grunt.

I don't think there should be a "laser pointer" associated with it though, not only for realism reasons but also for atmosphere/balance. There should still be a bit of uncertainty involved, so that while you know that there's an mg ahead, you still don't know exactly where unless you stick your head out to look. However, someone can always point at a building and say "mg 2nd floor right", and then you'd know for certain

**********

To bring in another idea though, something that was on the old forum a long time ago, was being able to assign "names" to objects and areas on the map. So, for example, a mapper could assign a street to be "Bismarck Strasse" or a building "Polizeistation". Then when the point feature is used, the computer plots a line from the finger to the general location and adds it to the announcement.

i.e. a soldier points to a tank heading up Bismarck Strasse and presses "3" to shout "Armor spotted!" The computer determines that he's pointing at Bismarck Strasse, and adds in the teamchat "Armor spotted, Bismarck Strasse!" Other players bring up their map, which has Bismarck Strasse labeled.

 

[Hyperion2010]

To bring in another idea though, something that was on the old forum a long time ago, was being able to assign "names" to objects and areas on the map. So, for example, a mapper could assign a street to be "Bismarck Strasse" or a building "Polizeistation". Then when the point feature is used, the computer plots a line from the finger to the general location and adds it to the announcement.

i.e. a soldier points to a tank heading up Bismarck Strasse and presses "3" to shout "Armor spotted!" The computer determines that he's pointing at Bismarck Strasse, and adds in the teamchat "Armor spotted, Bismarck Strasse!" Other players bring up their map, which has Bismarck Strasse labeled.

As I was reading the first part about the voice menu assotiation I immediately though of context sensative voice commands that resulted from pointing. So for instance if you see a tank and point at it "Armor spotted!" this might result in some problems if a player was to simply move their hand around until it came to rest over a sniper which was visable but that they might miss... However for windows it could work or for streets:

*guys are pinned by a sniper*
*guy sees sniper in a window*
*guy points at window*
"2nd floor third window to the left" voice command plays (could be a pain for sound recording)
This way all the guys already know it was a sniper but the the sniper's location is determined by a static part of the world and would prevent "pointing cheats".


Issuing contextual voice commands could work by clicking mouse 1 on whatever the "contextual" pieces are. (The alternative is to use VOIP) Note that this also eliminates the "pointing cheats" by forcing mouse 1 to activate the command (wow, this gets better everytime I think about it!)

eg, if you point at a player click:
"You, come with me!"
or if you point at a player and click and then another player and click:
"You, follow him!" (note that theoretically a script could be used to say the player's name: "Hyperion, follow FYROM!")
or if you point to a player and click and then a point on the map and click:
"You, get to that roof!"
or if you point to a rifleman and click and then to a location where an enemy is hiding and click:
"You! Covering fire on that position!"
EDIT: Something like a nade could have a larger "click" field so when the player clicks on the area where a nade landed:
"Grenade!"

clearly the list goes on and the level of "detail" would have to be tweaked for gameplay and the available commands tweaked for different classes to reflect what orders they could give vs what info they could relay.

Wow, if ROO doesnt implement this I might implement it in a hl2mod I might make! It would work WONDERS for communication, teamwork and simplistic realism!

EDIT again: and even better way to implement it! Simply make the USE key enable pointing mode while held down (and not being used for "use" functions)!!!!!!!!!

 

[Zell]

Ooh! Ooh! And to go along with the 'hold down a button, finger points' idea, when the menu comes up, it is small and off to the right side, and using the mouse wheel scrolls through the list of things to say ("[object]spotted!", "Move here!"), and pressing fire selects it. When the menu is open, you are free to aim and move wherever you like, but when you press fire, the spot you were aiming at last is marked on the screen. This makes it super easy and super fast to use. The only problem is, I wish there were something a little better than a dot on the screen to show the area, something a little more realistic.

This is my combination of other ideas.

 

[Mormegil]

Lot of great ideas here guys. I certainly hope at least one of the Devs is reading, and not too busy coding/painting/researching/whatevering.


I really like the idea of using the point to designate people and where to go. Our usual shoot at the spot wouldn't work too well with people when pointing them out.

At the very least contextual menus / order menus should be able to be easily implemented with a pointing system toward other players. Right now, the computer knows who you're looking at, as evidenced by the player ID.

 

[Greasemonkey]

Don't add a laser pointer... just an animation to point. Besides, commanders can set "rally points" with the binocs and it shows up on the map for the team. A pointing animation would be a nice addition for all players though.

 

[Zell]

The point of this is that the overhead map is too vague. It's hard to pinpoint an exact location in a building with the rally point marker.

 

[SgtH3nry3]

Now here's the deal, since it's hard to really see where a character model is pointing, when the commander points (fire button) at something, or somewhere you get a green/red dot, just like a real life laser pointer (visible only to teammates).

And it's also hard to see where someone is pointing towards IRL...

Just pointing would suffice.

As long as RO:O keeps away from fancy corona's and nice lighting effects to show where you are pointing, etc.

 

[Golf33]

How do you simulate grabbing a soldier and pointing him at the target?

 

[SgtH3nry3]

How do you simulate grabbing a soldier and pointing him at the target?

You don't.

You might have someone to point at, and then you can "fire" at him.
Then only that person hears: Hey you! (In Russian or German, or whatever language)

Accordingly you point at something.

That's it.