I want Brink to become very successful because, even though it's not perfect, it's trying to be innovative and pushing the very stale FPS genre forward, which we desperately need. I came up with an idea I think will greatly improve playing with AI or human teammates by making the game less repetitive and more dynamic.

I've been playing Brink for a little while. I've leveled up 2 characters to 20, reset their points, and experimented with different classes to see how they feel. Unfortunately, Brink is starting to become a little stale for me.

The thing that seems to be missing and making the game a little stale for me (with both AI and human teammates) is that for a game about teamwork there is no real communication, the essence of teamwork. Predefined objectives list ways to help your team and give an illusion of teamwork, but it isn't real communication because you don't really have a say in what other people do.

If you were really in battle, you would be communicating information and tactics to your teammates even if you aren't the leader. You should be able to tell: an Engineer where to place his landmine, someone to buff someone else, which areas to hold for a push, where immediate help is needed, who should do an objective, or someone to switch their class. What I'm talking about is player-created (ex: put your turret here) and player-assigned (ex: you escort the hostage, you capture a command post) objectives. Brink's Squad Commander isn't very helpful when he's yelling at you to capture a command post when you are seconds away from losing your main objective.

How would this work in practice? It'd be a section on the Objective Wheel called the Command Wheel that allows you to access squad commands.

It would be similar to Mass Effect 2's squad command. Your squad's AI in the game wasn't great, but you could least tell them what to do and they'd do it (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fxe9Q2BQnM#t=1m04s from 1:04 - 2:18). That control over your support proved crucial to the game experience. You could tell a teammate to go to a certain location by looking at it, hitting a button, and they would go there (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7ZMq-PZFwU#t=1m09s from 1:09 - 1:46), allowing you to coordinate all efforts not just the high-level ones. The same holds true for human teammates. "Go to the left side" doesn't quite work as well as a distance indicator on all your teammates screens that shows exactly where you're talking about.

The fine details of logistics are a separate question. For example, I think a human should be able to order an AI teammate to do something but only suggest a human teammate do something, but that is all up for debate and I won't pretend to know exactly how this would best work.

What do you think of this (admittedly rough) idea? How would you improve it?

First off, welcome to the forums. Here is your turtle :turtle:

Your post is detailed, educated and intelligent, something you don't really come to expect from a Layman member haha. I really like this idea, especially for control of the bots who seem to love going about their own business. In MP there is always the mics option, but the ability to place directional waypoints to suggest to teammates where to head for would be nice.

Though I imagine it would be quite a strain memory-wise to put it in, I'd be all for this idea if it didn't mean drastic cuts elsewhere or it didn't push the platform too far... people are having freezes enough as it is. We don't want another MAG on our hands. :thumbsup:

I like the idea, do you mean suggestions for the AI/human players?

If that's what you mean then that would be great! A suggestion to consider for team mates
Of course that would lead to problems like unnecessary placements of mines/turrets in a certain area.

I guess that would all depend on the team you're playing with.

Haha yes I've noticed. Thank you for the warm welcome. I hope to contribute to these forums more in the future.

I would say suggestions for human players (they don't have to follow) because you don't want someone changing your objectives for you, but orders for AI players (they have to follow) because the AI isn't smart enough to know better yet.



Ideally if you created a "place mine/turret here" objective, it would go away after someone placed one in the general area.

Of course like any system, there is always room for proper use and abuse.

For example, when I was leveling up earlier on, I would let my AI teammates get incapacitated instead of boosting their health because you get 75 XP for boosting their health/throwing them a syringe, but 100 more if they use a syringe. Hehe

There's another thread about this from a while ago.

I don't think Brink would work with a player squad leader - the AI commander is a great feature, imo. What WOULD be good is a "call for support" option when you're going for an objective - select the objective from the wheel, then select it a second time, and it has a "request support" option, which gives a slight additional bonus to any player who guards/helps with the objective in question.

I agree 100%. But I'm not suggesting there be a player squad leader. Everyone should be able give AI teammates orders and give human teammates suggestions as it would be in real life. It'd be more "communicating your strategy/needs at any given point in time" rather than "taking the reigns of the entire team as the sole leader".


I agree. However, the AI commander always communicates the same high-level strategy (ex: capture command post, guard door, escort hostage, hack/destroy) every time on each map. The Command Wheel would be more for coordinating lower-level strategy and immediate goals like "set up here like this so we can hold this position" or "stay with me as I flank them so we can break their guard", which the AI commander does not do.


I like this idea a lot. I would extend it by being able to ask for support at your current position too.

Now THAT would make everything fall into place...

Or they could reduce the extra complications, and make it so any objective marked by a player gets highlighted a different colour than normal on the objective wheel, and if you select it, you're shown the location of the requesting player(s) as part of the objective. That way if you double-select an objective, teammates will know where it is, AND where you are (along with anyone else trying to the same objective) so you can work towards one another easier.