Commando Archive
Thread: Sandbox Announcement: And 5 Will Light The Way...
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garvin
Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:56 am
#1
TH made an announcement just before I left that is still a bit cryptic, but one thing seems set...Each Combat Correspondent will be allowed to pick 5 players to join them on the Sandbox for Combat Revamp testing when the time comes...
For those who don't know what the "Sandbox" is, it will be a special test server that will be set up to specifically TEST the Combat Revamp changes prior to them going to TC, then to Live...
What I don't know yet is if this 5 that I pick will be the sole testers or if they join other players on the Sandbox...TH did say awhile back that there was a plan to allow "Veteran" players on the Sandbox...maybe this"5" are those Veterans, or maybe these "5" join those Veterans...not sure yet...
Either way...I've got some picking to do...
To be honest...I've already got a few names in mind based off of their Forum interactions and their ingame testing Involvement...But I've definitely not picked all 5 yet...I will be checking with them later this week to make sure they want to join in...but the remaining positions I will use this thread to help decide (we'll get to the specifics of how I'll choose in a moment)...
ThePlayers I've already decided to include so far are:
- LordSeckmoth (our old Correspondent who is still VERY VERY involved)
- Hellshot (he is the person that helps me run most of my Commando tests on TC)
- Razorwolf (recently developed a very intrique DPS spreadsheet...that knowledge will come in very handy for comparision in the new Combat System and make for some good reports back).
So that leaves 2 slots left...if any of the 3 mentioned above can not or do now want to participate, I'll also open up those slots (so backup's will be collected as well)...
Now...how will I fill the last 2 slots?
I am going to ask those interested to answer a few questions:
1) What do feel is the biggest Strength of being a Commando in the Current System?
2) What do you feel is the biggest Weakness of being a Commando in the Current System?
3) What change do you hope to see most in the Commando Revamp that, if this one thing happens at least, will make for a better Commando?
4) Do you have a character on Test Center and if so, how long have you had that character? (does not disqualify you if you haven't had one)
So please answer those 4 questions above in the thread belowif you are interested...Also feel free to Nominate other players you feel should be added to the list (or endorse their posting in this thread)...I will make my selections based on the answers as well as involvement in our Community...And even if you've posted negative comments regarding our Profession, that will not disqualify you (Someone with a negative outlook may be a positive addition going into this...I'd like to see their attitude change...so who knows)...
TH hasn't set a deadline for my 5 picks yet, but did say he needed them "soonish"...I hope to make the actual picks later this week...
BravenIrish
Sat Aug 21, 2004 1:18 pm
#2
I'm gonna toss my hat in...all though I feel there are several others who I personally feel better. 
1) What do feel is the biggest Strength of being a Commando in the Current System?
There are several nice things about our trade. Wonderful graphics, nice frontloaded damage, respect in many cases, and potential! I think we have the best potential of being a wonderful and needed profession. I think our strenght is bound by that potential...and hope for this to be realized. In the current system, the true strength is in us on these forums. Us together with a common cause to be better. Our strenght is not the FT...it's our undying loyalty to our profession, respect fot others, and the desire to justify our investment. Our biggest Strength is our unity.
2) What do you feel is the biggest Weakness of being a Commando in the Current System?
I have alway felt that our biggest Weakness is our lack of the role we play in the GCW. Last year we could FlameCone2 and die. I guess back then we we're at least viable as suicide troops. I was upset with that back then...now, we really have no role. We are not anything except a joke in the GCW...That sit's bad. I think we need a role, a reason to be other then our FT tree. It was nice...it is nice...but I think the biggest weakness of Commando is the lack of justification of our SP invested. Bottom line is, our weakness is our lack of productive skill trees in relation to our investment. THAT'S our underlying weakness.
3) What change do you hope to see most in the Commando Revamp that, if this one thing happens at least, will make for a better Commando?
OK, very involved question. Commando Revamp? I want Commando to be able to fill the role of a Melee, Pistoleer, Carbineer, Rifleman, and do it "almost" effectively. I think the BIG BOOM is versitile from any range. I think Commando should be the do everything, kick butt at many things, and be the best at none of our pre-req skills. I think we should be good at the BOOM, but I think since we have the potential to advance in Elite skills...we should be specialized and the best at those skills.
Botttom line. Commandos should be very good at every range, not as good as Masters of thier special profession, and choose a specialty to be the BEST in.
4) Do you have a character on Test Center and if so, how long have you had that character? (does not disqualify you if you haven't had one)
Yes. He's a Master Medic and Novice Commando. He's been there since July and is geared to help us on hunts and have a controll Commando test.
***Side note
I'd like to endorse Raptor2k1, Soula' (on TC), and Vagrant.
Good luck GUYS!
SLAINTE!!!
Message Edited by BravenIrish on 08-21-2004 03:54 PM
RazerWolf
Sat Aug 21, 2004 2:23 pm
#3
I'm absolutely up for it. I can definitely get in a few hours a day, inc. weekends. I'm in the UK, but work odd hours, so I'm pretty much always online from 4PM EST onwards.
UttiniDaKilrJawa
Sat Aug 21, 2004 2:26 pm
#4
Hey Garvin I think ya forgot to add one more question....
'How much should SOE pay the players for doing SOE's jobs ?'
'How much should SOE pay the players for doing SOE's jobs ?'
DiLune
Sat Aug 21, 2004 2:38 pm
#5
UttiniDaKilrJawa wrote:
Hey Garvin I think ya forgot to add one more question....
'How much should SOE pay the players for doing SOE's jobs ?'
SOE can do this just fine themselves. In that case the players get no input on the balance, we just get what they shove at us. In this case we get to play the changes and give them our input on what rocks and what sucks. How much is that worth to you? Cause it doesn't cost us any extra.
StarNick
Sat Aug 21, 2004 3:40 pm
#6
Welcome back you old space pirate....of all days to take a break off from swg
1) What do feel is the biggest Strength of being a Commando in the Current System?
A)Our Pride....B) The DoTs most definately...
2) What do you feel is the biggest Weakness of being a Commando in the Current System?
A) Nearly Everything heh....lack of defenses + Power/AP for the SP investment, as well as lack of true purpose
3) What change do you hope to see most in the Commando Revamp that, if this one thing happens at least, will make for a better Commando?
A) The very least...the +30 FT Speed in MC box...the -very- least......behind this are: introduction of Melee specials (such as that Rifle butt idea i had)...introduction of more defenses (as well as toughness to compensate our UA IV pre-req)...etc...but the single most important change would most likely be upping our speed...
4) Do you have a character on Test Center and if so, how long have you had that character? (does not disqualify you if you haven't had one)
A) Yes...my wookiee Kelan...its older than my Valcyn character which I had since November, but only been using it for 3-4 months (slowly lvling up...testing here and there)
Oh btw...on hours...after Sept. 1st, anytime after 3:00 pm Est. On Weekends, entire day if need be...
Edit: Btw thanks for all the love guys 
Message Edited by StarNick on 08-22-2004 02:27 AM
nbd9k
Sat Aug 21, 2004 3:47 pm
#7
hey i might as well take a shot at this. having come from a military background, im feel very strongly about getting the commando profession working again, and would really like a chance to feed input and ideas:
1) What do feel is the biggest Strength of being a Commando in the Current System?
our biggest untapped strength as commandos is our weapons versatility: we truely are the only profession with access to such a wide array of weapony and techniques. unfortunately, this is undone by our slow weapons change speed.
2) What do you feel is the biggest Weakness of being a Commando in the Current System?
our biggest weekness is our inability to properly employ our heavy weaponry. its not that our weapons are bad, they just have alot of errors to them. grenades are ineffective and shortranged, the launchers are expensive and rarely hit, the FT keeps getting nerfed, and the HAR is too slow and inneffective. the launcher pistol isnt a half bad weapon, but is only effective when employed with the specials gained from mastering pistoleer, a combination i tried while TC2 was still up. as such, all we really need to do is tweak our current equipment, as opposed to revamping the whole tree.
3) What change do you hope to see most in the Commando Revamp that, if this one thing happens at least, will make for a better Commando?
as stated above, i would like to see our skill tree retooled to make the weaponry a bit more effective.
4) Do you have a character on Test Center and if so, how long have you had that character? (does not disqualify you if you haven't had one)
I have had a few, off and on, but dropped it mostly to focus on my bria character. with the introduction of TC2, i took the opertunity not only to test the jedi trials, but to examine the effectiveness of commando in conjunction with a few other professions, something alot of other dedicated commandos also tried.
I would really appreciate the chance to give a bit more feedback. ive watched all of my friends quit SWG for better games due to lack of progress, and recently even a few jedi. i wish i had been a bit more active on the forums earlier in the year, but this is something i believe we need, not only as commandos, but as a whole game. i realise the DEVS want the shape of the game to really advance and progress (im boycotting JTLand i still cant wait for it to come out), but they need to fix the old stuff before adding the new. This is a wave ALL COMMANDOS can ride, even if we arent selected for the sandbox, to try and push towards a better game all around. one that will continue to be entertaining for years to come.
-kyle
BravenIrish
Sat Aug 21, 2004 4:35 pm
#8
Holy Smokes!
I did the last on the fly....StarNick is an obviouse choise! I assumed he was in! My bad...
Slainte'
MichailArris
Sat Aug 21, 2004 5:40 pm
#9
garvin wrote:
I am going to ask those interested to answer a few questions:
1) What do feel is the biggest Strength of being a Commando in the Current System?
High Damage dealing on first shots, Can be at times an asset to groups for dealing out high amounts of speciific damage.
2) What do you feel is the biggest Weakness of being a Commando in the Current System?
High HAM Cost and difficulty in producing the Commando specific Consumable weapons. And the possibility of incapping ourselves using grenades, where other professions using bomb droids or tossing poisons don't worry about incapping or poisoning themselves.
3) What change do you hope to see most in the Commando Revamp that, if this one thing happens at least, will make for a better Commando?
Get Armor Piercing on our Primary weapons (Flame Thrower and HAR) At least AP1 on the Flame Thrower and AP2 on the Heavy Acid Rifle.
4) Do you have a character on Test Center and if so, how long have you had that character? (does not disqualify you if you haven't had one)
I've been active on the Test Center since the beginning of the year, with having both a Master Weaponsmith and another character thats a Master Commando.
Daker-Naritus
Sat Aug 21, 2004 5:48 pm
#10
garvin wrote:
I am going to ask those interested to answer a few questions:
I really wanthelpmake commando viable againso I will throw my name into the hat....
1) What do feel is the biggest Strength of being a Commando in the Current System?
I tend to think of advantages and disadvantages comparatively, so I will put this in terms of advantages over other classes...
I don't think I can pick a single advantage overall, so I will have to separate PvE and PvP.
For PvE I think the biggest advantage commandos currently have is high initial damage. Although over time (DPS) other classes win out, sometimes that intial hit kills the mob or does enough damage to cripple it. I wouldn't choose the dot, because it ticks slow enough that you usually kill the mob before the dot makes any difference. I also wouldn't call our heavy weapons an advantage because of the expense, accuracy, and other obvious reasons.
For PvP I would choose the DOT. The only reason I say that is that with the 80% heat resistant composite running around, our damage is slow, low, and our lack of defenses allows other to status effect us to death and kill us before we do any good. Our DOT sticks around even after we die, however, and we can apply it to multiple people at once. Combine that with the facts that our dot usually sticks, has to be healed by a doc, and does would damage, and we have effect over time on pvp (by gradually wearing people down with wounds). I wouldn't choose blast damage for this, because until the GCW is fixed we have few opportunities to use it (people have totally stopped placing bases on my server, and I haven't seen an AT-ST for months). I also wouldn't choose our heavy weapons for obvious reasons.
2) What do you feel is the biggest Weakness of being a Commando in the Current System?
DPSand Defenses. Developers failed to give us defenses because we are supposed to be a high damage class. I agree with that rationale. However, our DPS is lower than most other elite classes, even though we spend twice as many skill points on skills. The combination of deficiencies in both of these areas makes us weak (although I would mmuch rather get high damage than defenses...we need something to make us different from every other class).
3) What change do you hope to see most in the Commando Revamp that, if this one thing happens at least, will make for a better Commando?
Most? The one thing I would like to see is for us to get a Launcher Pistol Tree. Sure, I want our stats on our weapons fixed (and some given AP), and I know that will happen eventually. However, Blast is our baby, and it has been stolen by several other classes lately. We need a renewable (as in no charges) source of good (as in high damage) blast specials to reassert our dominance. This will be incredibly important in the upcoming GCW fixes, which will hopefully blow some life back into bases and AT-STs.
4) Do you have a character on Test Center and if so, how long have you had that character? (does not disqualify you if you haven't had one)
I have had a character on TC for several months, but I have to admit I haven't played it much...I usually log on TC when I want totrynew changes out. Lately I have been engrossed in completing my hologrind before Publish 10 (recently unlocked on 31 and did 32 for fun), and have just finished regrinding commando on my real main.
Vagrantprodigy
Sat Aug 21, 2004 7:07 pm
#11
BravenIrish wrote:
I'd like to endorse Raptor2k1, Soula' (on TC), and Vagrant.
I don't really have enough time to properly test, and wouldn't wanna take up a slot, but I'd like torecommend Braven, Soula', and of course Starnick. Nice choices so far Garvin.
I'll go ahead and answer the questions though.
1) What do feel is the biggest Strength of being a Commando in the Current System?
Our DOT. It makes us effective against high ham/resist enemies we would otherwise not be able to scratch.
2) What do you feel is the biggest Weakness of being a Commando in the Current System?
AP. We are heavy weapons specialists, but have no AP on our nondisposable weapons. We need AP.
3) What change do you hope to see most in the Commando Revamp that, if this one thing happens at least, will make for a better Commando?
A nondisposable weapons revamp. The HAR needsheavy AP, in fitting with it's name, the lag pistol needs skill mods, and we need an AP2 assult type weapon.
4) Do you have a character on Test Center and if so, how long have you had that character? (does not disqualify you if you haven't had one)
I have a Swordsman/BE character dating from september, and a novice Commando dating from about a month and a half ago.
Message Edited by Vagrantprodigy on 08-22-2004 02:36 PM
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