Improving fleet communications.

[Ophichius]

My apologies for this, I'm tired and this will probably ramble a bit.

So, having given some thought to the way fleets are laid out and structured, the current system seems like it could use a tweak. As it stands right now, broadcasts and fleet information are fairly limited overall, and being fleeted is of small benefit. (It is a benefit, but it feels like it's barely a step up from flag signalling in the Napoleonic Wars.) Why doesn't being fleeted, and being a squad/wing/fleet commander give access to a broader, more robust suite of information?

Why does fleet comms consist of a single set of broadcast commands, with no differentiation? What's the point of having squad commanders if the only way to issue squad-only orders is by crippling your ability to broadcast to the fleet (toggling that stupid broadcast target button mid-fight is unnecessary, having a second or third row of broadcast buttons that are squad-level and wing-level specific would be much better.)

Why can't I see how many of my fellow squad/wing/fleet mates have a target locked up?

Why can't I see vectors for my fellow fleet ships? (Hell, given that the info is already loaded to clients, why can't we see simple velocity vectors for all ships?)

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I guess what I'm asking is this. The overview is an insanely detailed, robust, customizeable interface for displaying exactly the information a pilot needs. Why then is the fleet interface so shitty? It shouldn't be impossible to improve the fleet interface to the point where one can have multiple profiles for different tasks, which display different sets of information based on the selected profile.

Ideally, you'd have situations where squad commanders would have the ability to designate targets individually and distinctive from FC targeting, where logistics ships could see not only which other logistics cruisers had a target locked up, but how many reps were cycling on them. Where cap values were globally reported to friendly pilots, and where it would be possible to have easy access to tiered broadcasts without fiddling with mode switches in the middle of combat.

The overview provides a cornucopia of information, and yet the fleet window starves us.

-O

[Knight7]

+1 I guess?

I mean, I agree that the fleet window could use some improvement, but do you have any specific ideas we could discuss, or what?

[Ophichius]

Sorry, that was posted while I was horribly sleep deprived. Basic ideas being that fleeting up should offer an information advantage, i.e. allow you to see more information about what your fellow ships are doing and communicate with them more effectively.

So, bullet points:

-Display cap levels of friendly ships in the watchlist
-Display how many other ships in fleet have a target locked
-Display how many other ships in fleet are cycling modules on a target
-Corollary to above, display what types of modules are cycling on target
-Display velocity vectors for all ships in fleet
-Expand the broadcast interface to allow multiple sets of broadcast buttons with different scopes. (i.e. get rid of the damn 'only squad, only wing, broadcast all' toggle button)
-Allow all of the above to be customized via settings profiles and have multiple settings which can be easily switched between, similar to overview tabs.

The goal being to give people more information about the state of their own fleet and the actions their fleetmembers are taking. Right now it's easier to gain information on the enemy fleet's actions than on your own fleet, due to the overview giving so much more information than the fleet window.

-O

[Sandslinger]

Not to be a party pooper, but

wouldn't that be immense amounts of data going back and forth I mean CCP already took away the bar that showed HP on all fleet as part of the need for speed initiative because appearantly once fleets became large enough the data shared broke the servers and gave us 15 man watchlists instead.

Half your suggestions looks to me like they would cause the same issue. Capacitor on watchlist sounds flipping sweet though I must admit.

What's always annoyed me is that you can't tie your overview settings into your broadcast settings. I have One Logistic setup and one Regular Pvp setup.

When I choose my logistic setup I need to manually remove all broadcasts which don't apply to me. then next time I PVP i have everything but the stuff i need to see and I need to manually go in and change the setup again and that button is a total pain to find in heat of battle.

the broadcast setting should be defined along with the overview.

Secondly Tagging is sweet in medium gang warfare, however the drop down method of tagging is a fucking pita. It should be possible to do much quicker like a ctrl-t click function or something where it just keeps incrementing by one as long as you have ctrl-t down while you click overview.

[Tyrus Tenebros]

A lot of this (not the display stuff bit the actual comms stuff) is already.implemented in eve voice.

Scouts and FC speak in fleet channel, WC speaks in Wing, etc.

Its not WELL implemented, and its certainly routinely ignored because lolevevoice isn't implemented very well still, but the basic functionality is pretty decent.

Allowing settings for broadcasts ("need armor" goes to logistics ships, "align to" goes to whole wing, "target" goes to my squad) would be a nice iteration, and giving multiple button layers might be a good way TP go.

[StevieTopSiders]

Sandslinger raises a good point about Fleet Window and Overview integration. As a start, I would like my hotkeys to work on the Watch List. I use ~ as my targeting button, and while that works fine on the overview, I have to revert to the default Ctrl + Click for the Watchlist. Another way to expand this functionality would be allowing you to hotkey select a broadcast as it comes down the Broadcast history. Currently, you have to right click those names, but making them hot-keyable would be a good feature.

[Ophichius]

Not to be a party pooper, but

wouldn't that be immense amounts of data going back and forth I mean CCP already took away the bar that showed HP on all fleet as part of the need for speed initiative because appearantly once fleets became large enough the data shared broke the servers and gave us 15 man watchlists instead.

Half your suggestions looks to me like they would cause the same issue. Capacitor on watchlist sounds flipping sweet though I must admit.

Actually almost all of these ideas are based on data that your client is already getting. The only one that involves new data is displaying cap levels.

Signalling what module counts/types are cycling on target and/or who else has that target locked shouldn't be hard, since that data is already known server-side in order to handle combat, and already served to players to handle the client animating ship turret effects/e-war effects/rep effects. Velocity vectors again are based on data already given to clients, I'm just asking for a nicer way for them to be displayed. (Hell, I really support global velocity vectors as an option, but I figure at the very least it should be allowed for fleet.)

What's always annoyed me is that you can't tie your overview settings into your broadcast settings. I have One Logistic setup and one Regular Pvp setup.

When I choose my logistic setup I need to manually remove all broadcasts which don't apply to me. then next time I PVP i have everything but the stuff i need to see and I need to manually go in and change the setup again and that button is a total pain to find in heat of battle.

the broadcast setting should be defined along with the overview.

I would fully support this.

Secondly Tagging is sweet in medium gang warfare, however the drop down method of tagging is a fucking pita. It should be possible to do much quicker like a ctrl-t click function or something where it just keeps incrementing by one as long as you have ctrl-t down while you click overview.

This is an awesome idea as well. Anything that makes giving relevant data to your fleet faster and easier is a Good Thing.

-O

[Knight7]

Sorry, that was posted while I was horribly sleep deprived. Basic ideas being that fleeting up should offer an information advantage, i.e. allow you to see more information about what your fellow ships are doing and communicate with them more effectively.

So, bullet points:

-Display cap levels of friendly ships in the watchlist

Hell yes.

-Display how many other ships in fleet have a target locked
-Display how many other ships in fleet are cycling modules on a target
-Corollary to above, display what types of modules are cycling on target

Hmmm. As an idea for implementation of the second two points, perhaps that could be integrated into the overview? In addition to the little icons of whatever modules you're cycling on your locked targets, additional ship icons appear representing fleetmates (just squadmates might be more practical) who have modules cycling on that target, and you can hover your cursor over each ship icon to see what modules they have cycling.

[Yankunytjatjara]

-Display velocity vectors for all ships in fleet

Why only the fleet? For a complete velocity vectors proposal (and a pretty good one) check: https://forums.eveonline.com/default...=posts&t=30543