Commando Archive
Thread: Updated Commando Status 8/28
1. Lack of definition.
STATUS: On TC it appears that we are going to be the bringer of the big boom. Still some depth lacking, but it's a good start.
2. Lack of Damage.
STATUS: It seems all but LP getting massive damage upgrade on TC.
3. Lack of Armor Piercing.
STATUS: Still no change here. Rocket launcher is pretty much it.
4. Lack of specials for Launcher Pistol.
STATUS: No change.
5. Misleading IDEAL ranges for Acid Rifle, Flamethrower, and Launcher Pistol.
STATUS: No change
6. Two Different Accuracies for Acid Rifle. The +10 given at Novice Commando does not stack with those given by the Acid Rifle line. You end up having a +10 and a +70.
STATUS: No change
7. Lack of use of unarmed line prerequisite.
STATUS: No change
8. NPC’s regarding Flamethrower as melee.
STATUS: No change
9. Questions about the knockdown given to Bounty Hunter in Carbine 3. Reading the description of it, well, read. “Fire Knockdown: This ranged attack blasts the target with a quick rush of flame aimed at their upper body, which can cause them bowled over by the sheer force directed at them, causing them to be dizzy as well.”
STATUS: No Change
10. Beam Rifle. No one seems to use this. Give cert to whomever it belongs to.
STATUS: No Change
11. Incorrect titles per column. These reflect beta idea of Commando which has since changed. Field Tactics: Artilleryman (?), Heavy Support Weapon: Expert Commando, Flamethrower Specialization: Grenadeer (?), Acid Rifle Specialization: Ordnance Manufacturer (?)
STATUS: No Change
UPCOMING IMPROVEMENTS
1. Added Purposes to the class
A. Commando class specifically needed to turn switch on faction bases for war (in addition to Bounty Hunter, Squad Leader, Bio-Engineer)
B. Useful against Turrets and At-St. We will be the answer to their destruction.
Turret Armor: Turrets have been given armor comparable to AT-ST armor & upgraded special protections vs. Energy damage types.
AT-ST, AT-AT, and Turret Armor Notes: AT-STs, AT-ATs, and turrets have all been given an armor vulnerability to Blast type damage. This means that rocket launcher, blast-type grenade, and mine damage is no longer blocked by any of these entities’ armors.
2. Improved damage on weapons (finally)
3. Improved specials on weapons - told that they work to max range now in addition to doing more damage
4. Improved availability of weapons.
5. All weapons & Grenades are sliceable. This has always been so, but keep seeing this question pop up.
So all in all some good new to report. Sure there's balancing to be had and further discussion about our weapons. (cough - no AP!!) But it's a good day.
Oh, might as well do this list as well. To defend any power given us.
Commando has the following cons and justifications:
1. More combat skills to fulfill than any other class. Yes BH has 33 skills free when done, but quite frankly Master Scout isn't about fighting is it?
2. This dedication to combat leaves 60 skills free. Yes it's technically 77, but are you really serious about not getting exploration 1?
3. Only class that has to earn xp that is useless making our journey to master even longer. The 400,000 xp of dmg of your choice is not ever used (unless you choose to). So when we redeem that 40k of combat xp to get novice commando, we don't then already have 400k of heavy weapons xp.
4. Novice Commando has accuracy/speed of a Novice Marksman. Master Commando is pretty much the same as Master Marksman. This means dabbling in this classes weapons (except LP) means suckage till top of skill tree.
5. Dancers/Musicians get more defenses than we do. We don't get any unless we do other classes.
Wishlist
1. Master Marksman and Master Commando be more rewarding. More accuracy, defenses, etc. This kinda goes for all classes actually.
I think that sums it up. Feel free to add for the next edition in two weeks.
Iv, still bucking for the correspondent slot? 
You and Pop get my vote. Why don't you split the job. 
Did you post this on TC as well? Devs are probably more likely to see it there.
Note to Devs if u are reading this. Please select a new correspondent for Commando and explore the issues raised in post with him/her.
I reserve judgment on this stuff until it goes Live. And on that note, we were promised update to Live in less than one month from the date of Holo's post. We are two weeks closer to that month now.
If I want specials with a normal pistol I would go Pistoleer. Does pistoleer have to train Smuggler to do damage with their pistols? No. They CAN if they want, but do not HAVE to.
I'm holding a pistol that fires 4 mini rockets and gives heavy weapons experience. I HAVE to train pistoleer or other pistol special professions (bh and smuggler come to mind) to do damage with my pistol.
If it used all the specials I got as a master marksman under ranged support, that would be great.
Then like a version of AIM which locks on the missiles would be wonderful.
I'm just irritated that my 173 skill points AREN'T enough to do damage with one of my weapons. Considering the measly 92 that a Master Pistoleer had to use.
Ivoni,
Some of the things you are asking for, specifically about the Launcher Pistol and the Unarmed tree, are your personal views and do not represent the majority of the community. I would say that the community is split on the Launcher Pistol, with half wanting the weapon to be simply a gateway (so as not to force us into pistoleers), and the other half wanting it to simply be more powerful.
As for the Unarmed tree. Yes, it would be nice to have more points. No, it probably wont happen. The point of unarmed is to get us to "waste" points on it. Its the same thing for Combat Medics and "Ranged Support." The Unarmed tree is what makes us a hybrid. Asking for it to be removed, cheapens the real issues that we have...namely lack of our heavy weapons doing adequate damage.
I am all for you being correspondent, and you would get my vote, simply because you are dedicated to the class. My suggestion to you is to clean up the points (ie get rid of "bring the big boom" nonsense and replace with "high damage dealer" or some such thing), and to accurately represent the thoughts of the community, and not your own.
Good job on putting this together though.
Also, please amend "lack of armor piercing" to "inadequate armor piercing". I agree that our cannons should all be AP3, but its not correct to say they do not have it. They do, its just not AP3. Even this would not be a problem if the T21 did not have AP3.
Per our description, we are "anti-vehicles." We need AP3 to fill that role relative to riflemen.
MaDCoW8Me
I pretty much agree, although I think our accuracy should be enhanced with the LP since it does shoot 'target seeking' rockets according to the description of the LP in-game. That would help me to have the skill points for pistol specials,plus terrain management, and first aid 1..etc. Have you noticed any accuracy issues with the LP and how many skill points did you use on accuracy under pistoleer?
Other than that I agree simply because if they gave us pistol specials under commando then it would be too easy to make an impossible to defeat character. I think that's why its setup the way it is. I've gone through all the permutations for my final character onhttp://swg.allakhazam.com/db/charbuild.htmland its setup fairly well imo. We can't have everything we want, but we can chose which skills we think are most important. For me, the speed is critical and I wish there wasn't a whole extra +20 for speed at the very top of master pistoleer. We can get an extra +24 by going up the pistoleer combat XP tree, but that's significantly slower than a pistoleer, and the FWG5 is real closein damage to the LP.
I think a good, 'balanced' solution would be to make the LP more accurate, just like its described in game with the words 'target seeking'. Heck, the missles even turn in mid air to hit a moving target, yet I missed twice in a row yesterday from about 10 meters out.
Have our defensive bonuses changed on the test server. I know Holo stated that they were thinking about it. Your report states that we get no bonuses. If it has not changed on the test server, you should update your report to state that our bonuses are "not sufficient" instead of lacking.
Again, accuracy lendscredibility.
Thats like saying a smuggler should have to go chef to make better use of his spices.
The HAR does not get rifle specials. It's a rifle in name only. The launcher pistol is a pistol in name only; it fires four chemical-propelled self-guiding rockets, not projectile rounds or blaster bolts. Like the HAR it should not use pistol specials, but should have it's own.
There is NO other class in the game with a comparable issue. Smugglers' pistol line is effective without being overpowering, and is the closest direct in-game comparison. Therefore it's not unreasonable to believe we should be treated the same way.
As far as the unarmed requirement... the comparison made to combat medics needing ranged weapon support is specious. Ranged weapon support is: 1. Useful, and 2. Picked up as a sideline while acquiring regular weapons xp, not something that time needs to be devoted to. Neither of these items applies to the commando unarmed IV requirement.
I don't advocate removing the requirement. It's there as a point sink and we all know it. I'd -like- to see it changed to scout explore I-IV or a tree from the Medic profession (far more useful, and either is appropriate for a commando class), but I don't expect that to happen. Barring that, there -needs- to be some development of unarmed skills within the commando tree. Otherwise it's like telling a Doctor he can't get novice doctor unless he gets scout's Trapping IV first... a completely unrelated skill from an unrelated base profession that has no bearing on his performance of a single Doctor skill.
Well, most Commandos, no-- people I know have Scout and Explore to III for the terrain nav bonuses. The faster run speed up hills is almost a must in this game. Almost? Wait, it is a must.
Commando because of the high cost of specials, has to take medic and some first aid, and diagnostics to heal themselves and not drop dead cause of the weapons huge HAM costs.
Granted, most of the special weapons have a HAM cost, but no specials to drain it. I.e. Rocket Launcher.
HAR/LP does-- but they're comprable to a carbines. And yet, it does less damage then they do.
Yes, LP is the gate-way gun into Novice Commando. But, it does little to no damage from the get go. Unlike other elite profession classes.
If the class is meant to take a long time to Master, that's fine. I wouldn't mind that. It's that it's not all that effective, presently.
Perhaps with the TC changes, it will be. But, I'm not holding my breath for it.
I don't see any other profession that has to rely on another elite profession to actually do any damage.
BH don't need Pistoleer, or Carbineer to do damage. Their own lines give them specials to do damage with.
Riflemen, Carbineer, Pistoleer-- same thing.
We're anti-vehicular. No problem. I can deal with that. But how is a Flamethrower anti-vehicular? It isn't. It's anti-infantry. Acid-Rifle? What is it's purpose? Anti-shocktroop armor?
The Acid Rifle doesn't fit, or make sense. And neither does the flame thrower.
As I said before, many times. The profession truly needs to be gutted, re-drawn up in the think-tank and then tested internally, then thrown out into live server. Yes, it was the last one to be made. And it still needs to be reworked from the ground up. Conceptually, and real.
We should be elite infantry, right? I mean, Commando's-- and I'm thinking it should be more like, Heavy Weapons Experts-- should have the big guns. Rail guns, chain-guns, etc. But only blaster-like.
Heavy Repeating Blaster.
Light Repeating Blaster.
Heavy Rifles. Ion Cannons (mounted.)
The gunners / anti-vehicular chars, eh?
I don't mind not being able to pvp and kill everyone like BH's can.
I'd just like to have a role to fill-- and which people don't either laugh, or tell me no, we don't want you on our team because you'll lag us to death.
=)
Oh, and with the CM's pre-requisite of Ranged Support. That line is probably the most helpful line for Ranged characters. CM are a support class. They're in the field medics. They're not damage dishers. They make life horrible for other folks.
That line is needed. CM can use it to scare off adds that jump on them. They can use it to keep other adds off the other players. It fits, really into the CM's way. They're ranged healing. And they're ranged to keep monsters off of the ranged or melee fighters.
Unarmed for Commando has little use, or importance. I don't know many Commando's who switch from guns to unarmed to finish off a monsters. Oh, I know how many.
None.
It doesn't help the class out, save for a skill point sink. And we're already going to sink some into Scout anyways. And Medic. They are -needed-, truly.
I've not used unarmed at all, after I trained it up. I've used support to keep myself from dying-- all the time.
So, your debate that ranged support doesn't fit CM, isn't dead on. It supports and helps CM greatly. And any other ranged character.
Combat Medic? Support class!
Doctor? Support class!
Ranged? Fighter class!
Brawler? Fighter class!
Think in terms of grouping. Not just soloing. And you figure out where the Devs are heading.
They're heading for the game to become group oriented. Not Soloers.