Pistoleer Archive

Hello fellow pistoleers. I am sorry to say that I am resigning as Pistoleer Correspondent. I feel that this is a good time to do this, so that someone else can lead you through the ups and downs of Post RotW and CU pathces and changes.

Our profession has taken a huge turn in its function and design. Some may say its good some may not like it. I always belived that pistoleers have been a stepping stone for other professions. Meaning people took pistoleer, but only to enhance their main profession...mainly it was Bounty Hunter before the Combat Upgrade. Pistoleer could not survive with having BH...I was hoping this would change after the CU.

When I was first shown the pistoleer tree I could not tell how it would affect us until I actually saw the code in action. And when pistoleer was finally shown to me in test I have to say I was still not happy with our ability to put "steel on target" as it goes. In accordance with the Main plan which you all saw we were becoming a "mezzer" in a way. We were able to mess with our target to debuff them and make them less able to harm us and our team mates. I guess all MMORPGS need this type of support character, but that is the opposite direction of where I thought we should go. Our damage output was still subpar from what I thought it should be. And one of our strengths listed was close range defense. The level system unfortunately threw that out the window. Melee and Ranged defense mods not only dont mean as much...but we had about the same levels as our rifle and carbine counterparts. So our defenses were not what would make us stand apart. So it had to be our abilities.

One of the unfortunate aspects in my opinion of the Combat Upgrade is the fact that ANY profession could use our abilities. So once again we become the stepping stone for the true masters...why would a group need a master pistoleer if their Rifleman/BH has stopping shot and warning shot...as a backup mezzer? And master pistoleer holds no benefit in my eyes, since the weapons of a master pistoleer are the same if not worst than master weapons or CL 54 weapons that anyone can pick up.

There are still changes to be made. but Im sorry that I will not be here to see them done. Please understand I gave SWG everything I could, but I just see it as my time to move on.

Thank you pistoleers, and for whomever follows me, please keep up the fight. Make our profession strong in its own right instead of just a small addon for other professions.

At least you tried. Thank you for that.

/pourliquor;
/pause 30;
/say thanks for all that you have done for us pistoleers;

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LordMaxx wrote:
Hello fellow pistoleers. I am sorry to say that I am resigning as Pistoleer Correspondent. I feel that this is a good time to do this, so that someone else can lead you through the ups and downs of Post RotW and CU pathces and changes.
One of the unfortunate aspects in my opinion of the Combat Upgrade is the fact that ANY profession could use our abilities. SoAnd master pistoleer holds no benefit in my eyes, since the weapons of a master pistoleer are the same if not worst than master weapons or CL 54 weapons that anyone can pick up.
There are still changes to be made. but Im sorry that I will not be here to see them done. Please understand I gave SWG everything I could, but I just see it as my time to move on.
Thank you pistoleers, and for whomever follows me, please keep up the fight. Make our profession strong in its own right instead of just a small addon for other professions.

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What I am going to write now isn't what I would like to write, but what time allows me. I'm sorry to see you go. It is always sad to see acorrespondent leave.And I saw, if memory doesn't fail, three going. None of them truely happy with his consulate as correspondent or with the changes/fixes.

From all of them, I truely think , you are the one that should feel better. Since game launch until the CU, pistoleer was a plagued profession, For almost 2 years, we had the same broken or buggedspecial abilities. Currently, altough we might ended up getting the short end of the stick, at least we got a stick.

And yes, I do know that probably, if you are reading this,your mind wouldrun to the idea that whatever fixes we have now are a result of the combat update, not really the fruit of your work. But results are what matter. When you started as a correspondent we were much worst than we are now. Hold on to that idea.

"One of the unfortunate aspects in my opinion of the Combat Upgrade is the fact that ANY profession could use our abilities. SoAnd master pistoleer holds no benefit in my eyes, since the weapons of a master pistoleer are the same if not worst than master weapons or CL 54 weapons that anyone can pick up."

It is true, 100% agreement with you there... but one of the most fortunate aspects of the combat upgrade was the end of the armor piercing vs armor ratting system. A wonderfull change I might add, since finally allowed us, pistol users ( notice that i didn't write pistoleers) to finally use the weapon we like in whatever situation with considerable sucess. Let us not forget that before the CU most high content of the game was , in practice, above the pistoleer potential. Any creature or NPC with somehigh resists and medium or , even worst, heavy armor was beyond our reach.

Ispistoleer alone aviable profession? No it itsn't. I suspect that is your greatest frustration.

But , at the moment, are any of the other ranged proffession viable alone?Are not Bounty Hunter skills being used by carbineer and rifleman, in the same way pistoleers used them for so long?

You did good. No matter who will follow you on the position, by far he will have a easier time.

best regards and thanks.

Your efforts were unrewarded ... but not unrecognized. Happy trails.

Thanks for all of your hard work! I'm sorry to see a long time player go, but I hope you have fun in whatever you do!

/bowrespectfully

/salute

I agree with your post on the whole stepping stone part, but for me it works both ways, BH and pistols go hand in hand for me, BH is a stepping stone for my pistoleer and pistolleer is a stepping stone for my BH.

I'm sorry to see you go, Maxx...

I don't really see any stand-alone professions in the CU. You have to master another profession or two to really build the defensive and offensive mods that you need to be viable in high-level combat, and to build up your combat level rating. I guess the real question is, is Pistoleer plus some other combat profession really worse than some other combination of two combat professions? I tried out several ranged templates in respec (including the formerly-hallowed Rifleman), and I really couldn't see myself dropping Pistoleer for any of them. I seem to do just fine in most high-level combat now, as long as I'm careful not to pull more than one target at a time.

Anyway, that being said, I can completely understand your frustrations, Maxx, and your desire for Pistoleer to have taken a different direction. There are things about our profession that I would have definitely like to have seen develop differently. I definitely appreciate your efforts to steer the devs in a more stand-alone self-sufficient direction, and I think we all realize that you did all you could to make our concerns known to the devs. You have my respect and deserve a place in the Pistoleer Hall of Fame.

Good luck wherever you head, and thanks for all the hard work.

Message Edited by Sebo on 05-16-2005 07:46 PM