Remove observer

Every game, I mean literally EVERY game, our team never gets fire support because the observer always fucks off somewhere and gets himself killed.

I'm sick of this forced team play element. It's stupid. It doesn't encourage team play in a natural way. Rather, it forces two players to be glued to each other at all times. Playing as a commander is one of the most infuriating experiences I've ever had in a shooter. Want to call in a smoke barrage to cover your team's approach to the next objective? Too bad, your observer just ran out in the open and got domed by a sniper. Want a gunship to break the enemy's defense while you push in? Too bad, your observer is all the way on the other side of the map, staring down his 2x red dot sight pretending he's helping and playing "tactical".

For the love of god, NWI, stop being married to this stupid fucking mechanic. Nobody likes it. Nobody likes to play commander because it's always a frustrating experience. Nobody likes to play observer, either, because they don't want to be glued to the commander's ass all game long.

Just let me carry the goddamned radio myself. Maybe then I wouldn't feel like smashing a vase every time I make the mistake of picking commander.

Yeah I do think it seems 'forced' in some way to bring this mechanic straight from DOI unchanged. Here's a suggestion.

  1. It would be possible for anyone to get a HQ Radio like DOI, but at a cost of 3 supply points if not an observer.

  2. Anyone can get binoculars, and those with binoculars, including Observers and non-observers, can call in the fire support with a commander nearby (if they do not have a radio an Observer needs to be nearby as well). However, the commander nearby must agree with it, where a map with the support locations pops up on their screen and they can quickly respond by holding down the binoculars key for half a second, when a circle with agree and disagree options will appear. If the commander does nothing for 10 seconds or dies before they can give a response (except from TK), the firesupport is also approved automatically.

This means that anyone can effectively be an observer and (limited) commander at the same time. Bad observers and commanders are no problem. You could argue that it makes it easier to grief - wasting firesupport or disapproving every firesupport suggestion as a commander - but right now anyone can become a commander and you can already grief just as badly if you wanted to anyway, so it can't make the problem worse.

Also, the mechanic is simple and easy to learn:

  • If you have binoculars, you can call in firesupport if you get a radio somewhere. Anyone can get binos and commanders come with them.
  • If you have HQ radio, anyone including yourself can use it to call in fire support. Anyone but commanders can get HQ radios, and observers come with them.
  • If you are not a commander, you must get approval from a commander to call in fire support. The default response is an approval.

(To tone this down a little bit, simply make it so binoculars and HQ radios are both in the same section, so you can't carry both.)

last edited by 2001zhaozhao

Can confirm what OP says. fellas, don't play the commander unless your playing with a friend ingame who knows wtf he is doing. It can be really tedious.

That said, I had an inedible amount of fun playing as the officer along side my dedicated radioman in Day of Infamy. They teamwork and coordination we had was amazing and we won pretty much every game, then switched teams and stomped our old team for another win.

I think with work the pairing can be improved upon in Sandstorm to make it more enjoyable to play.
For starters: MAKE THE ICONS MORE VISIBLE!

being an observer is a pain, to work you have to just follow the commander, no fun, please remove

I played observer once, focused on staying alive and close to commander, and it was no fun at all, and then the commander got himself killed because he wasn't cautious enough. I think the sticking "together" mechanic doesn't work well and isn't fun for either players.
I would recommend trying something where the observer has an active roll to play too. Like the commander uses binoculars to mark the target and choose what gets called in, and the observer has to "execute" the request by using his binoculars to stare at that spot for x amount of seconds, while you hear a radio call being made to call in fire support. The UI would have to very obviously guide the observer to do his job. But if it's done like this, he would have much more agency in how to perform his task, and more satisfying feedback for when he's doing it righ, imho.
Would still rather see the whole firesupport mechanic go, but that doesn't seem to be on the table right now.