Commando Archive
Thread: Commandos: What are your top 5 issues?
Thunderheart wrote:
While I still look at Correspondent Candidates, I need to get your Top 5 issues, so in your opinion, what are the top 5 issues for Commandos?
1) Getting Ivoni to be correspondent.
2) The Har speed and accuracy modifiers are broken. Additionally it does less damage the flame thrower, is AP0, and has no DOT. Even if it worked no one would use it except to supplement the FT. This weapon needs to either be completely redesigned or scrapped for something else, such as the beam rifle, the concussion cannon for jk2, or the e-web gun.
3)Greandes and HW are too expensive and too much ham to justify their use. I have been a master commando for a while now, and I NEVER use grenades and only use an hpbc or rl when I am goofing around. These weapons need to either do more damage, or have more chargers and faster speed. As it stands right now I can take on 5 stormtroopers solo with my ft just using flamesingle2. If these were more effective you would see more tactics and also have a better money sink. Also, the costs of these weapons are ridiculous atm, as has been previously addessed.
4)The melee penalty. Right now this is ridiculous that a class whos specials are essentially melee range, since any mob can close the 6-10m gap in a heartbeat, is taking an enormous penalty. I was goofing around a couple days ago and a corellian butterfly (a total newbie target) hit me for 100 pts of damage while I was holding my ft. I have taken 12,000 pt hits from high end mobs when holding my ft and using feign death. This seems a little outrageous to me considering we are the only true combat hybrid.
5)Lack of definition. What are commandoes supposed to be. Are we front line troops or are we support troops. All the descriptions of the class seem to indicate the former, but the recent changes to the profession (the melee penalty, the nerf on DOTs) seem to indicate otherwise. We want to have a role in the GCW, but we dont know what it should be.
Miscellaneous:
It would be nice to seem some terrain negotiation in the field tactics line so that we dont have to spend a 17 or 24 pts for explore 1 or 3. By the same token some basic med use would be nice, seeing as how we are supposed to be elite, self-sufficient soldiers. I realize people may whine about asking for these, but I figure it does not hurt to ask, and it would allow us to try other proffesions more easily, such as crafting so we can make some weapons when all the ws say no.
Commando missions. Right now, (well as soon as I get done mastering all the base proffesions anyway) I can pretty much take on any mission that I can get from a mission terminal with the confidence of knowing that I am going to win. Heck, I grouped with a ch that had a rancor and a few other pets out and pulled a level 88 mission. We then ungrouped and I went to the mission. It was a joke, it took me longer to get there then it did to polish off the stormtroopers. I can even take on 4 darktroopers if I use feign death. We commandoes need and crave a challenge. Give us commando terminals, let them spawn npcs that come in waves, or maybe spawn multiple very tough opponents. Just something.
GCW penalty. Right now we get fewer faction pts for killingan opposing faction npcif we have our flamethrower equipped. It would be nice to have this dropped, but I can live with switching weapons.
TH:
In keeping with the idea of offering positive input and constructive suggestions I would like to make an observation and a request:
Observation:
The last few times that the commandos have attempted to make positive suggestions to help either ourselves or other classes ( i.e. our attempt to help the riflemen with that ranged, melee damage thing ...ouch ) we have found ourselves the reciptients oflets say...."interesting, unexpected and unwelcomed" changes to our own well-being as a happy combat class.
We who actually play and have mastered commando do not feel that the class is either properly defined nor is it over powered. We have however been overly critisized as being just that and subjected to the nerf bat more than once based on the perception of others and not on the basis of fact.
This more than anything is the result of no clear definition of what the Commando is suppose to be. If you take a cursory look at the weapons we wield you would assume we are professional soldiers unsurpassed in the ability to create death and destruction by anyone except perhaps the Jedi.
It is just like real life...when perception or expectations and reality do notintersect the results arefrustration, misperception, and disappointment.
Suggestion:
First: Define us. Make it clear, concise, and definitive. Do not be afraid to make the class a professional warrior. Commandos have to spend inordinate xps on war craft. We do not have the option to be artisan in a meaningful way.The original idea of the commando was and is valid and should be pursued.
When a group of players confront a master commando it should by virtue of the commandos dedication to his or her class be an absolute necessity to have to team up to beat him. The only exception should be master BH or a Jedi. I know this flys in the face of the current discussion and concerns about "balance" but the commando should either be the professional soldier that it was designed to be or it should be eliminated as an character class.
Second: Please don't break our stuff. Don't break what works just to make what doesn't work seem like a better option than it is. Please make all our weapons work properly.
There should be no middle ground with this class IMHO. I am not crying for uber ( obligatory disclaimer ) but I am asking for a honest definition of who and what we are as commandos. Our class frightens people and makes them what to hunt us down in our forums to cry nerf. What does this tell you? It tells me you are on the right track. Next to Jedi and along with the BH we should frighten people. It adds spice to the game. We are and should be the "Elite" fighting class. It is up to you to make that distinction and make it stick.
Just my humble opinion
short and sweet
1) LP specials and mods (they don't need to stack with other pistol mods)
2) Tags (the tags we get for reaching level 4 of something are all wrong, one is misspelled)
3) Fire DOT still incaps (if you are hit with a good flame DOT hope no one heals you because you willburnand be incaped the second you stand up, I'm sure you are reading the "nerf the flamethrower"post from the other classes as I type this)
4) HAR (it's a rifle either let us pick up rifleman to get some specials to use with it or give us a long range special to use with it)
5) gernade blast radius messed up (shows damage to targers in the radius but their ham bars don't always move, also gernades can incap user from outside of blast radius)
1) Heavy acid rifle: Completely bugged, and if it did work, we wouldnt use it. It is, for the most part supposed to be excatly the same as a flamethrower, but doing acid damage without a DoT. As it is, it is bugged because the accuracy and speed mods dont stack. Also the animations for some of the specials (acidcone2) are non existant. It also looks like your firing the occasional brown stick in default fire.
People want to see this weapon reworked to give us some range and at the very least debugged.
2) Launcher pistol: Without taking any skill points in pistoleer, this weapon is of no use. It is a lot of fun to fire, but we would like to see it have its own specials specific to the commando tree and not use pistol specials. There are various examples of desired specials on the boards such as "missile lock" and knockdown.
3) The melee damage modifier: This is currently WAY to high and almost impossible to live with. As commandos we have a prerequisite of mastering unarmed in the brawler tree to even qualify for the profession. In order to be effective we have to get within melee range to use the specials of our only effective weapon and the moment we do this we take an HUGE beating. Two meatlump buffoons can beat down a master commando such as myself, seriously its THAT bad.
4) Grenades (or the field tactics line in general): The ranges of grenades are completely barking mad. Take our most powerful grenade - the proton grenade - for example. It has a usual ideal range of 10 meters but a damage radius of 10 meters, so it is quite possible to incap yourself with these (I have done it often). Grenade ranges and accuraciesneed to be seriously improved upon (can you throw a baseball more than 10 meters?) The field tactics line in general has absolutely nothing to do with field tactics, and everything to do with throwing grenades (badly.) Some commando abilities would be nice here -duck and cover, camouflage, sneak, stealth, demolition, ambush to name a few.
5) Master commando: To reach the title of master commando requires a huge investment in time and effort, yet yields little reward. The art of "dabbling" in the flamethrower line only of the commando tree has left us with a bad reputation, but as it is currently the only viable tree of the profession it has tarred us all with the same brush. A master commando should be a varied, effective, efficient and fun combat class and not the horrid "one trick pony" it is at present. I, like may of us, tire of using the same moves time and time again with no variety in our playstyle (I even picked up carbineer to give me a bit of reach and variety.) In short, master commando needs to be worthwhile. and while your about it, put "flamesingle2" in the master box to close down the dabblers that give us a bad name.
Misc Stuff: I know Ive had the 5, but heres other various bits of triv: The expendable weapons are so expensive and hard to get hold of its not even funny, and when we do get our hands on say, a rocket launcher, it has 30 charges that may or may not be effective against it intended target, depending on luck and that it. Same goes for grenades. How much? For HOW many????
Kneeling is more accurate than prone.
The beam rifle (which looks the same as an acid rifle) is uncertified. In fact no-one has the cert for it. And even if we did it would be weak and without specials.
Well I think I would likt to jump in here and add my 2 cents for what it is worth.
I think that as a "support" person in a group of other players the commando (yes I am one) is a great benefit and a good fit. I do not in any way believe that the flame thrower needs to be changed except to keep dabblers from obtaining the "burn" part of it. I say this because compared to other combat classes everyone has a special thing...Forgive me if I say these wrong, not trying to be technically correct here, eyeshot, chargeshot, ect ect....when I can be knocked down and kept down by another player repeatedly I am not complaining about it, that is a part of their specialties. To many people want to think of only "me" and not "us" in this game so they look or want or expect everything to be about a single player perspective rather than a group perspective. There are some changes that would help clean up the class but to nerf the flamethrower is kinda goofy other than maybe to make the "burn" part master level or something along those lines to help keep out the dabblers.
As for fire not being able to burn things? Fire can burn anything if used right. Soviet tanks discovered this in the Hungarian revolution when gasoline was dropped onto the tanks aflame..did not hurt the metal much but everything else got hurt as it heated uo and crept inside....so the 100% resistance does not mean 100% no damage and shouldn't. And a funny side note to that is that Acid would continue to "burn" for a period of time also just like napalm would. I think to many people want to be the "best class" or the toughest or whatever and I think no one should be that or almost everyone will be that. (kinda like the jedi sheep currently trying to become jedi)
So after all that here are my top 5:
1). Heavy Acid Rifle - its all been said already by the time you get to this post...I rarely use it because of the issues mentioned by many others.
2). Grenades - same as above
3), Launcher Pistol - never use it now except just goofing off for reasons mentioned...
4). Flamethrower dabblers - I mentioned it above, a dabbler should not be able to obtain the "best" benefits of the class without mastering the class.
5). Heavy Weapons - If I read it right, commando's are the guys who you call to take out the vehicles and such of the enemy...it should apply here and maybe even more if more comabt vehicles are added in the future..(I personally enjoy fighting ATST's).
Again, I do not think the class in unbalanced, I think the way people "LOOK" at it is unbalanced. I know that a Combat medic with good rifleman skills is a very wicked fighting force yet I do not think it is unbalanced. (for those who dont get this, disease hitting your mind for 400 after they inflict it on you then they shoot you with mind shots..its very nasty) I think that the GROUP concept should be empashized more if this the idea (and it seems to me that it is) that SWG is built around. I dont know of any class, even now, that is by itself self-reliant totally (though I think CH is close in many ways) and this is good. Anyway sorry for the babbling, that is my 2 cents worth and hope it helps somewhere.
tacwraith wrote:
Solutions:
Leave the damage the way it is, but add EFFECTS to grenades. Make them a truesupport weapon. C12=stun, C22=blind,Cryo=10 second warcry effect, Glop=dizzy, imperial=action bleed, thermal=fire dot (50% effective as flamer dot), proton=knockdown
While I agree that grenades should have added states to them, I think this list needs to be tweaked. As someone who makes these, I know what's going into them. For instances, glops shouldn't dizzy you. Glops take a Chemical Dispersion Mechanism and I believe they do acid damage. Therefore, it makes sense that some acid would spray you giving you a DOT.
Cryobans do cold damage, so I think a stun or something like that would be more appropriate.
C12's and C22's should do some sort of KD, perhaps a short one (shorter and less often on C12s) whilt he larger grenades (Protons, IMP Detonators and Thermal Detonators) might be able to do mutliple state changes.
Grenades would REALLY be feared then. I'm not saying they should really do any more initial damage then they do now, and they shouldn't neccessarily be faster (excpet for IMP Detonators which are painfully slow - to the thrower). It's just that they should leave the target more vulnerable to future attacks.
There is only one main issue and it deals with all combat professions.
Fix Combat Spam so that the actual damage is displayed not the potential damage. For Example When I use my Flamethrower against a Kiwi that has 100% Heat Resistence the combat spam says 3000+ damage, however We know that this is not possible beacuse it still has 100% HAM. Make the spam be the damage after all the modifiers are calculated. This also affects Heavy Weapons such the Rocket Launcher because we have trouble seeing the damage after its AP mod is added to the equation. I have read all the work ivoni did on calculating damage but did she write down the Combat spam or the numbers that float over the targets heads. How can we truly know how powerful we are if COmbat spam does not reflect the damage caused.
1) Make the HAR worth using
2) Give me something as a commando that justifies having unarmed IV as a pre-req. The 2.5x melee multiplier is such a slap in the face.
3) Make heavy weapons worth using.
4) Make grenades worth using.
5) Make Ivoni the new correspondant.
yesh finally TH comes..and when im not on! 
Top Five Issues:
2.5X modifer on hvy weapons
All hvy weapons (disposable, including..greatly..the RL) are NOT balanced in components/resources (meaning the price of the hvy weapon) to the weapon charges:
bring back the old charge rate of 200, (for AT LEAST the RL) it is a GREAT pain for MWS to craft RLs and they normally sell for 30k+..for ONLY 30 charges!! for RL at the min ive seen its 1k per shot..that is WAY to high - same goes for the other weapons; most of the hvy weapons cost more than a good Fwg5 or scatter, or even an FT..yet are useless in PvP (the anti-personal weapons, the anti-vech ones we dont know..since there are no vechs!!) and usually in PvE unless grouped with a pet or other PC's -- having high cost weapons that are NOT practical, is NOT logical
HAR utterly useless & broken & freakishly annoying to boot
No LP mods, bonuses, specials, etc
All hvy weapons (disposable, not the RL) still have VERY poor accuracy..
Sadius wrote:
Is the 2.5x still in effect? Maybe I'm not noticing it because of my 60% armor but I thought they took it out with the last patch.
Take your armor off and find out
I don't even wear armor against melee when I'm using commando weapons because it decays so fast. That multiplier pisses me off so much! It wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't wasted all that time getting unarmed IV.
1) Uselessness of the Heavy Acid Rifle. It has its own branch devoted to it, but it has the exact same special moves and range modifiers as the Flamethrower, yet it does less damage on all counts. There is absolutely no reason to use it instead of the Flamethrower. Since its name is "Rifle" make its special moves and regular moves distance attacks so that it can be balanced wtih the rest of our profession.
2) melee modifier the same as Rifles. I know that this is changing, but its worth mentioning anyway. We're giving the same damage modifier as Riflemen, yet our weapons are designed to be used within melee range, which doesnt' seem to make sense. Its instant death now without a pet.
3) Uselessness of the Launcher Pistol. Orignally we were told it was to be our day to day commando weapon, yet we get no special moves with it (unless we go pistoleer) and its weaker than pistols we can get as Master Marksman (a n00b profession). Suggested Solution: Combine the Acid Rifle and Flamethrower into one tree, and give us a Launcher Pistol one with its own moves, to make this an attractive weapon, and resuce the amount of Flamthrower dabblers.
4) The point of a hybrid profession? We (along with Bounty Hunter) take more skill points to master than any other profession. The manual even says that we're supposed to be the best combatants out there, yet the devs seem to think every profession should be exactly equal. If this is so, lower the pre-reqs so we can have as many free skill points to dabble with as other, more effective,combat professions.
5) (pet issue) The rapid flame burst effect when prone. This was a great affect that was removed two publishes ago for some reason. The Light Lightning Cannon still has a similar affect, but the flame thrower lost its. Please fix this.
Also, how exactly are you selecting candidates for correspondant? You never asked for new applications when our latest one quit. Are you just using the old ones and not considering anyone else? Alot of people have quit the profession over the past few months, and some have joined it. It might be time to ask who all is interested in the spot, instead of just guessing.