Commando Archive

Nice, Ivoni, you haven't lost the touch! =)

Dogg

IF we are so vulnerable to a melee attack (and we are), Then why are all of our specials melee range and why did we have to train "unarmed" to become a Commando?

I love being a commando... but, if only one skill tree is REALLY usable, then why bother becoming a Master? Flameclone2? Certification for uber-grenades that noone even makes or sells?

Why would I use grenades or heavy weapons when I can use my FT with better results and much less credits spent?

What's the point of the Launcher pistol (execpt for novice use) besides just annoying the crap out of people and eating your HAM up with pistoleer specials?

But, you gotta admit the sound of FlameSingle2 kinda makes it all worth it.

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning"

Once again Ivoni hits it on the head. Case closed. Very good series of observations and very positive suggestions to improve our class. The self defense moves would be awesome. I hold a black belt rank in Aikido in real life myself (sho-dan) and have squirmed in my seat many times in front of the computer wishing i could defend my self this way in the game lol. I think the abiltiy to knock down an enemy combatant and then finish them with my weapon of choice would be anawesome and logical addition to the commando tree.

I agree with everything except the launcher pistol special changes. Im a smuggler/commando, and I love lowblows/panicshots and especially last ditches with my launcher pistol. Making the lp have its own specials and excluding pistoleer, and smuggler specials would make it even harder to have a uniquecharacter. Not to mention that a ranged dizzy/kd would make us waaaaay too uber, the other guy who posted about this had it exactly right, we could dizzy/kd someone and waltz right up to em and kill them. But everything else was very well put, especially the grenades, Ive quickslotted 2 sets of em and they still run out fast. And a 1 second timer would be nice for grenades too, Id love to be able to throw em like they were actually a grenade and not a cannonball. And if they wanted to fix the nades and not nerf em, they could just lower the damage a bit to compensate for the faster speed...

What a trooper... Even after the holocrons told you to abandon your commando ways you're still thinking about it.

Well Ivoni you have put forward a good post but there are some points I have to disagree with you the points I agree with I have not mentioned below and here they are.

General stuff: Giving us posture change woud be a bad idea since we can easily get these from other professions i.e.Pistoleer, TKA, Brawler.

Like you said we are about dmg and it should be just dmg not other funky stuff.

Heavy weapons: 200 charges is way too many. I am thinking more like 50 would be enough cause really when you use these things is on the'phat' mobs and at-sts or to try and take out guys quickly in pvp which can be very difficult. Not all the hvy weapons should have a radius let alone a 16m radius, something more like 10m would be better for some select few of the disposable heavies.

Grenades: 20 charges would be more realistic as the grenades can still pack quite a punch. 1 sec delay is too quick3 to 5sec would be more reasonable. 48m is a bit much something like 30m would be better for max range as it fills a niche that the other weapons do not cover. Again the 16m radius is too much 10m would be better. As above we should not get posture change as we are about straight up dmg, maybe giving some of the grenades a small wound or dmg dot would be better.

Master Commando: We are not about speed we are about using all the weapons we have at our disposal and if you get the right weapon your special speed is fast enough. The unarmed tree is not useless it is the tree that you need for TKA which has in fact a knockdown tree which you could use with out too much sacrifice to stay effective.

As you can see I am 50/50 with what you have to say and it is nice to see some good points being made but some things you have said would just get nerfed if implemented in game.

As for what a commando is supose to be I see them more and more being a support class to the other guys i.e. running with your meleers when they do a charge against a fortified area as the meleers go in you would acidcone or flamecone to help bring down the bad guys faster. Other aspect to stay as defenders and assist for the ranged guys as you can use the expendable weapons and if enemy meleers come in you can flame or acid single them, switch weapons and use other skills to finish them off. we have many weapons for a reason the flamer is not the only weapon we have and also I do not see commandos as an exclusive solo class but it can be done if implemented and used smartly (not using the flamer all the time)

I love it all except one thing... my changesare listed below.

Launcher Pistol

LockOn - +100 accuracy + 2x damage. OR

LockOn - 3 LockOn specials that allow the weapon to hit any of the 3 pools + 2x damage + delay (4 seconds)

Ok. Here are my thoughts as to the ranged knockdown.

BH gets it.
Carbine gets it.
Smuggler gets it.

So in essence, it would not be very hard for a master commando to get the knockdown from either smuggler or carbine.

Perhaps only give the knockdown attack to a master commando?

Not to mention, grenades having status effects would just make sense. I would be happy if they all did blind.

These were just thoughts mind you to improve the LP and grenades.

I also have many thoughts on how to improve upon the other classes, like smuggler & bh, which need some fleshing out to make them unique. Again, not this forum.

As for the 200 max charges. I was thinking that as a max. So dependent on the quality of materials, luck in experimentation, etc. So you would see 100 to 200 in charges.

Considering I can pop off 15 shots on one nightsister this seems fair to me.

As for the 16m radius range, I like the downside. I mean that's a fair size area. You will get some serious aggro, not to mention things you weren't fighting in the first place.

As for the speed on the grenades. If their range was upped to 48m, their speed will be ok. But too many times the npc runs out of range before I can get a toss off.

Also, please think of this. Each tree should have its use and value. Currently we have one. The rest are either novelty or broken.

No matter what Thunderheart says this game is about dabbling. Each tree should have something to it, and mastery should have something to reward all four trees.

And I'm firm on the slight speed increase for a Master Commando. That's 43 skill points to get from flame4 to master. In addition to missing less, a master should shoot a bit faster. A bit mind you, say +10.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

Oh, and Squad Leader is the saddest profession in game. Simply amazing to have an entire class STILL completely and utterly useless. Nothing works in the class. Like this game, so much potential, so many bugs.

I'm almost with ya on those. The HAR would be my only variance. I'd prefer the HAR was our long range orrdinance. The Heavys have the range, true, but we need a un-charged alternative. Also, if done correctly, it would target HAM. Say, Heatlh and Action shots at Tier 1, Mind at tier 2, H2 and A2 at tier 3, and Mind 2 at Tier 4. If that was done, the sprays would need to be removed, and the range increased to that of a rifle. Also a slow "bleed-like" dot would be nice - nothing like the flame, but, hell, acid corrodes. Speaking of corrosion,yes, AP is needed on this gun. I'm also with ya on the LP. My thought has always been to add it to the Nades tree. As for how it would work, I'm in 100% agreement as you've stated. Way to put it together Ivoni. GL with that squad leader... I'm up to 500 or so kills and no holo. doh.

Ivoni I do like your post I do have some things to add and some things to diagree with.

Grenades if they get things like Knockdown which would be the best thing to happen to them then the delay on using them should be about 5 -6 secs. I say this because it seems the Devs want us in a support role for massive damge not solo hero's like the BH and Pistoleer. So with the delay and knockdown on grenades @48m would make us true support personal. We lob a grenade knockdown the mob and the rest charge in and clean up the mess. Alot like what combat medics can do with poisons.

I say these things after comming to grips that the devs do not want commandos as a solo proffesion. So i am working from the perspective of helping out groups and being the massive damage support in the game.

So ranged knockdown wont be needed with the grenades doing ranged knockdown.

Launcher pistol should have lockon with heavy HAM cost and Heavy damage to target and a long delay. It should have 100% accuracy but after being fired the commando is basically vulnerable to counter attacks. This would balance the power behind the shot. Or the lockon could do a bleed attack like other pistols in the game and keep it relative to other pistols HAM cost, damage, accuracy,and speed for the same bleeds. I would like to see mind bleed on it but that wont happen.

It would be nice if grenades were a sort of GTAE attack, where we lob a grenade ata ground target location we specify and anyone standing there when the grenade hits would take radius damage(more or less depending how close to the ground target they were when the grenade hit).

Right on Ivoni! Always you have great comments to make us of equivalent power with the other combat professions. Right, so I'm quite unclear on how a KD or Dizzy, I say one or the other at master isn't asking to much, would make us completely uber? I mean I've seen Pistoleer's and BH's dish out more damage with Eye Shot and Stopping shot than I do with Flame Single 2...How does that work? And they can knockdown so why can't we? Right and I know this is a video game but still, toss a grenade at your feet, when it goes off, if there is anything left of you, it will definitely be knocked down somewhere...Maybe add a new type of grenade? Like a concussion grenade that does damage equal to a C12 but will knockdown and give it a speed of like 8-10. Let it take the place of the Imp Det, that thing is completely useless. I like the blast radius idea and the AP enhancements for some of the weapons. You know what would get people to stop screaming nerf at us? Have Resists apply to DOT's, this is the single thing that is responsible for us being considered uber. But anyway great job Ivoni!

Pleasing words Ivoni

The only thing I would like to see different is changing the HAR so its actually a ranged weapon.

As it stands, its just a useless version of the flamer and is used the same. It would be nice if we could have a bit of reach. Either that or give us the beam rifle with its own specials too.