16+2 / 48+2 Official Zeus Changes (Suggestions for BI)

[Toedeli 12]

I've been playing Public Community Zeus for quite a while now. Despite its problems with the playerbase which do sometimes occur, it is still a good amount of fun when everyone tries to cooperate. Although, there are various things I'd like to see changed, along with many other Zeuses, for quality of life, but also for greater immersion and overall improving the quality of Public Zeus. We will be going over a couple of suggestions, of course everyone can post their own ones in this thread too, and try to keep it active, so hopefully BI Developers will see it by chance.

 

We'll get started. All suggestions are built up in atleast three parts, the idea, why it would be useful, and how it can be implemented.

 

 

No °1: Zeus as a Player

I would like to see that the Gamemaster is a 'player' on the ground, usually part of the team the mission takes part in (in BLUFOR servers, Zeus is also BLUFOR etc). Although, with the existence of 48+2 servers, it would also be useful for Zeus to be able to rapidly change comms, means, that he can change his 'faction' and effectively communicate and coordinate with the other team if necessary. 

 

This suggestion is made mainly because of the fact that communication in Public Zeus can sometimes be difficult and 'overwhelming' for players. If Playerbase and Zeus want to talk, they have to do so through the Global Channel, no other channels seem to work. It would be great if Zeus could talk in Command Channel directly and only to squad leaders, or in direct, for a more 'personal' note, maybe for some immersion and such. Also, during 48+2 servers, it is much easier for Zeus to give orders to different factions, without informing the other factions of their plans, which could be mission compromising even.

 

Now, to its implemention. The best way, as mentioned, is to let Zeus spawn in as a faction specific character. With the existence of 48+2 servers, the best would be to grant Zeus the ability to change his faction 'allegiance'. It could also be added for 16+2 Zeus, but that is optional, as usually, Zeus only needs to communicate to his guys. Regarding the game moderator, he could also be a player on the ground, and here it is very definetly recomended to add either: Allow a parameter function where the gamemoderator can only spawn in as a character, but also keep it seperate from spectating only. This simply means, that if the gamemaster doesn't want anyone other than him be in a character slot and so communicate with the playerbase he can do so.

 

 

No °2: Direct Communication

A small suggestion, but with a great impact is to allow Zeus to use direct communication while remote controlling units.

 

This would allow for more immersive communication, and wouldn't require Zeus to wander around rapidly to talk to players if No °1 would be implemented in the game.

 

It would simply act similiar to how players communicate with eachother in direct, and would only be used while Zeus is remote controlling an AI unit. 

 

 

No °3: Custom Compositions 

Something I have noticed is that many Zeus missions often are very generic in a way that they all look and feel the same. It's quite difficult to build in Zeus, so it would be easier if gamemasters could launch up the Eden Editor or Zeus and build something, and then save it as a composition. Same applies to units, it would be awesome if we could deploy custom units instead of having to arsenal every single one of them seperately, which is very time consuming.

 

This is something which many Zeuses would love to see, missions can easily be more immersive and much quicker to make! Yes, there is a chance that some Zeuses will use this to pre-build missions most of the time, but this will easily make missions more easy to deploy and faster too. It makes playerbase wait less time before they can do their next mission. Bonus Points if Zeus is also able to spawn said Custom Composition on the positions where he created it. By that, I mean that when Zeus creates a mission somewhere in the mountains, he can press a button, and all the objects he put down there and saved will be put at the exact same position where he put them down while he was creating the composition.

Sidenote: please also add us the ability to do this for arsenal and supply crates. It'd be great to quickly ressuply players with their corresponding supplies instead of having to spend five minutes in a UI to select everything.

 

This can simply be implemented by allowing Zeus players to access their custom compositions they created in either Eden or Zeus. I very much hope this is possible, since this would make playing as a Zeus so much more enjoyable. If all of the other suggestions would be thrown away but we could keep this, I'll be more than happy still.

 

 

No °4: Implementing Scripting / Advanced Functions

This is optional, but was the case once for BI Public Community Servers, but one day got disabled, it was some time ago so I forgot the exact reason why. Although, everyone would still love to see it return, not even in the form of the Debug Console, but atleast something where we can use scripts, or more advanced functions like making units surrender and such. 

 

It may be a bit more controversial as it has been disabled before, but this would make it easier to design missions. Letting units surrender is a key to this too, as that would be great to see in missions, enemies who aren't just shooting bags, and can also make rescue missions easier to implement. Overall, as said, there is no need for the full debug console to return, but it would make everything much easier, and would be saving time for the guys at Bohemia Interactive, as then it's up to the players to create said functions themselves. But if it would simply be advanced functions which can be applied on AI, that would be useful too.

 

All this would require is either granting Zeus be able to edit units the old way, and if the debug console gets enabled, either grant its usage to the server admin or to the Zeus. With advanced functions, it would require some scripting on BI's part.

 

 

No °5: More interactive markers in the map

Currently, markers in the map are basic but do the job. It would be great to see players be able to create 'zones' in different colours to make the surface of areas more cleary, and make orientation of ground troops easier. That is the main part to this suggestion.

 

As mentioned, orientation is easier to understand and if zeuses could atleast draw (like players can), this would make it so much easier to better coordination with the teams.

 

All this requires is to add more advanced markers to Public Zeus. Nothing more, atleast according to my understanding.

 

 

 

I very much hope you guys like these suggestions, and can maybe even forward them. I understand Public Zeus isn't the most popular gamemode, and not high priority, but many players still very much enjoy playing it, and it's a great place for new Arma 3 players to start. It's really time to update it again, as Zeus is being overshadowed by the Warlords Gamemode, which is really great, but some people still just prefer Public Community Zeus Servers.

 

If I wasn't clear somewhere, please ask me, as I am not the best guy at explaining. I also again hope that it will stay in this place of the forum, as official missions seem to be getting greater attention than the Zeus category. But, considering that these Public Community Servers are indeed official missions, I am not too woried about that, and instead hope that it will truly reach BI, and that they hopefully do listen to the small community that plays Public Zeus.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

(Quick Edit: Forgot the 2 at "16+2" in the title)