Suggestions for improvements

[inductile]

Hello, here are my mixed suggestions for improvements to this game. I suggest both simple changes and complex additions, influenced by my experience with similar games over a long time, such as Blitzkrieg, Company of Heroes, Close Combat 1-5, Theatre of War, etc, all good games in their own right... I like Men of War Assault Squad though and I can see it possibly becoming the the most fun game of them all for me! Anyways, here's what I have to suggest so far, in no particular order, and apologies if I'm repeating known issues or misunderstanding game mechanics:

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Change the default position of the inventory or the mini map so that they don't overlap when opened.

Change transfer of inventory so it doesn't have to be "one-at-a-time or everything at once". Clicking a stack of ammunition should transfer enough to fill one slot in the inventory, or 1 shell for vechicles. Make the amount multiply when the player is holding a modifier key such as SHIFT or CTRL. Alternatively, when there's a large stack of ammunition, there could be a small pop-up slider for how much ammunition you want to transfer, when you double-click the stack (see how common role playing games handle inventory).

Add a visible weapon range / field of fire. (Also possibly red / yellow / green zones on the ground based on lethality vs highlighted target). Enabling the "manual mode" in the game kind of works for figuring ranges out but it's not user friendly enough for that purpose. Also add a hotkey for weapon range radius (I suggest it's a press and hold type of feature).

Add an ambush mode for units (don't fire until the enemy is in the green zone, or until you're spotted or fired upon).

Add a "don't change ammunition or weapon" toggle for units.

Add some kind of toggleable on/off overhead icons for soldiers so it's easier to keep track of who's got which weapon or item, without having to zoom in close or click on each soldier. I mean it should be an icon for the primary item class based on what's carried - assault rifle, rifle, sniper, AT, medic kit etc. Company of Heroes has a nice system for that. I know Men of War is different since soldiers can carry any combo of weapons, but you could make a priority list so that the most valuable item carried is displayed as an overhead icon.

Example, from highest to lowest priority icons:
1. Medic kit
2. Sniper rifle
3. AT rifle / bazooka / panzerschreck etc
4. Machine gun
5. Assault rifle
6. Rifle
etc...

Add overhead warning icons for units out of ammo or without a weapon.

Add overhead warning icons for damaged vehicles (in case you miss the floating text).

Add hotkey for repair.

Add hotkey for attack ground.

Actually, allow hotkeys to be configured for every type of action you can click (am I just missing something?). If there are sub-menus such as "use item", you can have the same hotkeys for multiple things, but in different sub-menus. For an example, look at Starcraft 2's ability/build menu system.

Change the menu hotkey from ESC to something else, I suggest F10 as in many other games. As it is now, bringing up the game menu closes the unit inventory because it's the same hotkey...

The default key settings are somewhat unconventional, such as shift being used for control groups and arrow keys instead of WASD. I know it can be reconfigured (except the menu key can't), but new players might try to play with the default settings. If you make the default keys more intuitive by basing them on de facto RTS/shooter standards, then maybe the game will be more accessible to new players?

Change the medic to automatically revive nearby bleeding soldiers? Maybe that could make the medic kind of suicidal though...

Larger control groups are needed for those skirmishes - not limited to 10 soldiers. If you need to show the status icons representing soldiers in the group, make the status icon list more scalable or implement a "multiple pages" system like in Starcraft 2.

Adding a kill counter for each unit would be cool (vehicle/infantry kills counted separately). That would help me know better which units have actually been worth their cost, as well as which positions and weapons are the most effective.

Resupplying ammunition must be made automatic somehow. Here's my suggestion:

Soldiers in supply trucks could distribute ammunition to nearby units automatically (like in the game Blitzkrieg?). You could make the supply truck soldiers carry a few shells from the truck with each trip. Adding more soldiers to the trucks could make the process faster. Also the truck could go and pick up more ammunition at the start location, where there could be infinite ammo available for trucks to pick up. That way you have a kind of supply line to defend. The trucks become fairly useless as they are now, after you've grabbed the ammunition you want to use (which usually for me is at most 10% of all the ammunition types in the truck).

Maybe you should also abstract the supply truck's inventory so that it has less ammo but is more flexible with the quantities of each ammunition type it can provide. For example make it carry 200 "shells" total but they may be any type depending on what you are resupplying. Let's just imagine we ordered those exact shells we needed, so that the truck doesn't have to bring a little bit of everything and the kitchen sink every time.

If you change the supply system, then I guess we also need a maximum ammunition value (other than what fits in the inventory) for vehicles and infantry for each weapon so that the supply system knows when to stop supplying them.

Make carry weight affect speed? Then we can choose between lightly equipped and fast or heavily equipped and slow or something in between.

[BaronBonBaron]

Very good list you got there!
I agree with almost everything in it.
I Defiantly think that the Medics should be able to heal people without being told to every time; the kill counter idea, and a "don't change ammunition or weapon" toggle are great too!