I am not sure if this has been suggested, but would it be possible to both lock units into a players control in a team map and have a slight color change to show players actions. explanation. would it be possible to have it so, say ctrl+ drag select will select a group of units in such a way that the rest of the team cannot select the said units with a simple drag select or click? this of course can be reversed with say, a shift+drag select from any other player to select the group of units and change them back to a neutral everyone controlled group, or another ctrl+drag select to change them to another players direct control. This will allow for team mates to work in close proximity to each other without having to separate forces every time. ctrl groups would also work like the ctrl+ drag select, causing the unit to be unclickable by other team mates unless shift clicked, ctrl clicked, or ctrl grouped out of the players control. I know that control groups can be used already to do this but it may be a nice feature to have regardless. Going along with this, would it also be possible to change the units coloring based on the last order given to it. Say yellow team has a blue player, orange player and green player. Would it be a feasible thing to have a yellow team unit change its detail colors to match the color of the player who last gave it orders until those orders are completed? orange player tells a scout to go to a point so its detail colors and strategic icon outline change to orange till it reaches to area it was told to move. Once there it returns to its natural coloring. Similarly when players use the ctrl+ drag select to grab units, may it be possible to change their main colors to the players while the detail colors change to the army's until returned to neutral control. The strategic icons could reflect this in turning the players color and being outlined in the armies color. The other army would of course only see yellow, but the yellow team would be able to see what the other players are doing with the units, and any observers and spectators would be able to follow the flow of battle. In competitive play it would make spectating on games more useful and entertaining as you know which players are doing what and what they are trying to achieve with those actions. This would allow for better team play and immersing spectators, while holding true to the shared unit and economy structure in the game. All team members may use the units, but this way they don't accidentally mess up anything important by a miss click.
I think this is a really good idea, but would have to be implemented very well. Trolling potentials are large, as such, undoing an action such as this should be just as fast, if not faster, than doing the action.
yeah but that happens anyway in a team game though more by accident then anything else. trolls will troll regardless, matchmaking and team choosing is the only way to fix that. This just eliminates the accidental while letting players see what their teammates are doing.
A well coordinated multi-player army can really wreak havoc, attacking from multiple fronts simultaneously, expanding through gaps in the enemy's intel coverage zones, setting up outposts and artillery batteries, all the while having their artillery chug further and further towards peak efficiency and ultimate production capacity. I really like the idea of separate player colours, with each player having a persistently colored Commander, and coloured units being "resistant" to mass selection. However, it may feel more gimicky than helpful, and would require quite a bit of tweaking.
I personally prefer separate armies for teams, having my economy tank because 1 person doesn't know a build order isn't an attractive option and it isn't something that can be solved without a MRR system.
Unfortunately that would be a different game. One of the core principles of this game is that a team shares everything If you have to undo your teammates actions your team is going to lose. You would be better off talking to them to let them know what you need or finding a better teammate. Again if you have to lock units to restrict your teammates you probably need better teammates. However having some graphical representation of who issued an order is a wonderful idea especially on large teams. Though I fear that changing to colors too much would lead to more confusion than anything else. What makes the most sense to me is more fully developing the toggle view of the units build cue. For buildings it could show the wire frame in a unique player color or even just with the players name. For travel paths you could show the planned path again in the player color or with the name. That way if you wondered you issued an order and what it was you could select the unit and find out.
Its not locking, your team members can still take control of the units, just not with a misclick. Say you and one of your team members attack the same base instead of selecting your units with his, you would only select yours, allowing the forces to join and split easlily without too much fuss. If your team mate needs to pull out all the forces to somewhere else he need only hold shift and drag select to return all units to normal. its not "locking" control from the other team members, but rather a way to divvy up forces with least amount of mistakes.
hmmm not such a good idea, really I can see this being misused just as much, your best bet is to get on voice chatt with your team, and play with people you get along with.
I like the idea, but I can see why there is opposition to it. I run into the problem during some heavy lag, that it is really hard to tell who is controlling what. Me and another teammate were effectively counteracting each others orders with a group of tanks. Not realizing we each were giving the group different orders until it was too late to do anything. Maybe at the very least, have units show a different color selection box, around units selected by a teammate. That hopefully would prevent accidentally playing tug-o-war with your units.
