Commando Archive

Thought I would post what I just put up on my home board (Eclipse) and on the general discussion board... I am trying to educate some of the people out there who have no experience with heavy weapons as to what our limitations are so they have some idea regarding the balance of our damage vs. limitations. Don't know if this is any good...let me know what i can improve on it or if I got anything out and out wrong =).

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I am starting to see the movement for a nerf of heavy weapons forming and thought people could use some more information on how exactly the heavy weapons work before this all gets out of hand. I have been tracking the TC changes for the last few weeks regarding heavy weapons for BH/Commando and as a commando have a vested interest in seeing these changes stick.

1. Range on commando non charged weapons is about 35m. If I am caught out inthe open with a flamethrower or an acid rifle I am a dead man. I was recently killed in PvP by carbeeners and pistoleers at60m range before I could even close the remaining distance. Those were not even riflemen... they are much worse. Range on charged weapons for commnados are higher but not 64m unless they implimented the change ot rocket launchers we were hoping for...since I don't own one I can't test that.

2. Specials are expensive in HAM and have a range of about 17m. At that range NPC's are already agro and so are any mobs that are red. Most TKA will have no trouble killing commandos...ditto for most other melee classes...one lunge and it is pretty much game over and we start pretty much in melee range. I know for a fact they can close the distance after a lunge and kill me easily... my other class is TKA. Now if I wantto use a special attack on some one like say...a smuggler... I will be dead before I get within 20m...or just knocked down. Knocked down is as good as dead when 3 stopping shots kill you and some one has both pistoleer and smuggler to make it happen. Against a critter or in a major battle a special move is suicide...why? Becuase there is a 10 to 15 second delay on our special moves. In that time there will be no healing or use of any weapon. Period. And once you shoot the first time every one will want a piece of you. If I hit a snorbal and don't kill it with a special i am already 5m inside their melee range...I either kill it or get incapped...nothing inbetween.

3. Commandos and BH don't get the kind of accuracy with a heavy weapon that almost any other class of weapon specialist gets...let alone the speed increases they get. We will not be firing as fast and if we use a special the timer is 10 to 15 seconds tops for the recycle. I miss right now about 2 out of ever 5 shots... that has in no way been changed in this patch. These things are not being considered in calculations of Damage per minute. A good Pistoleer/Carbeener is getting special moves off at a rate of almost one every second... I watched a imperial carbeener kill people in Anchorhead so fast no one could take him down in the time it took for him ot drop an armored target and DB it. He was swapping kills one for one...he killed some one for every time he was killed himself with a 90% success rate. We will never exceed that success rate as commandos for sure...we will be lucky to match it due to misses.

4. our heavyist damage weapons cant accept powerups so stop worrying about things like Acid Stream Launcher...they also don't get special moves of any kind. We may be able to kill people with one shot with them but the delay is high and we have to hit them first...with even less + accuracy modifiers then we get for flamethrower/acid rifle. We have about a 50/50 chance of hitting. Aim helps but gives us a firing delay that is long enough for a knock down easliy...or even to end up dead against say a rifleman.

5. Commandos are being built this way with the future in mind... there are going ot be more hardened targets going into hte game like the AT-ST. We have the ability to hurt these targets with a well placed shot. As you know an AT-ST can drop most people in 1 to 2 shots...our attacks have ot be powerful enough to inflict good damage with the first hit becuase we won't be gettng another shot do to the firepower of the target and our own built in speed limitations. Ditto for BH.

6. Our highest end weapons require a tremendious about of time and resources ot build...likethe rocket launcher. Your not going ot be seeing every commando running around with 100 of these any time soon.

To give you an idea...commandos on test were only moderatly happy with the changes to damage... several tested their flamethrowers/acidrifles then put them back into hte bank for safe keeping and wen't backto Pistoleer or whatever else they were doing. Please give the changes a chance ot sink in and give us a chance to test them more extensivly before you assume they need to be nerfed. And if it is deceided that they need changing please try to at least be somewhat constructive in your comments. We worked very hard in our forum to get some changes made and i would hate to see them just rolled back on us becuase of massive discontent from people who may not have all the facts before they judge. Heck i admit I don't even have all the facts yet =). But I want to wait and test this first before I assume anything...

Thank you for taking the time to read this =).

Aasch Housewares

"Hail to the King baby."