Pistoleer Archive
Thread: How did you imagine Pistoleer (more importantly, most of the classes?)
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RenKesson
Wed Nov 24, 2004 12:37 pm
#14
Okay, this is really long, I know. Please, do me the courtesy to read it out and give me your opinion. 
The fact is that, in spite of what the movies state, riflemen (yes, yes, I know that laser rifles aren't technically "rifles" because they have no rifling) do NOT go charging through corridors, or across battlefields screaming at their targets as they one-shot them one after another. The recoil (kickback) force of a rifle is fairly significant, and even the best rifleman know that a stable firing position and a firm grip on your butt and barrel are essential for controlling your aim. Rifle shots not properly braced are going to go astray, not to mention the possibility of knocking an unprepared marksman on his back.
I remember the first time I fired a 20 gauge shotgun... OUCH! Granted, I was only twelve years old, but even now, after a few hours of shooting away at wild chickens, my shoulder's pretty sore. I'd imagine that even a trained military rifleman, packing a high-calibre firearm would eventually tire of consistent shooting with his M16 or AK47. They're not light weapons, and their recoil makes for tender shoulders (although, granted, with much experience you dobecome calloused and less sensitive to recoil discomfort.)
Point is, while it doesn't take anymore time to pull the trigger on a rifle than it does on a pistol, a good rifleman knows that making sure every shot counts is the way to stay alive. A little time, a lot of concentration, and you hit your target the way you want. Besides, even at a couple dozen yards, you don't just point'n'shoot, and nail someone for a Head Shot, do you?
The way I see Pistoleers in Star Warsis as the brash, eccentric, and slightly crazy desperado-gunfighter you find in western movies. They're good at drawing fire, making noise, getting the enemy's attention... basically being tanks. Maybe pistoleers aren't the most accuracte gunsmen, but where the rifleman tends to make each careful, deliberate shot count, and the carbineer releases an infernal barrage with every twitch of his trigger-finger, the pistoleer-gunfighter is dancing amidst a hail of blaster fire, dodging and weaving himself amongst his opponents, taunting and jeering at his opponents' futile attempts to train their sights onto his fast-moving body.
My vision of melee and ranged combatants has always been that Meleers should be more effective at avoiding and handling more damage than ranged combatants. They (Melee-ers) are tougher, and better conditioned to deal with pain and hardship, so they should make the best tanks. However, we all know that, whilea vibroblade across the gugular is just as deadly as a blaster bolt to the face, generally a blaster is more effective at straight-up damage output than a melee weapon. So, I've always thought that melee-ers should be more defensively attuned, while ranged players should be the more effective damage dealers.
Myview of pistoleer has similarly been the culminating hybrid of both ranged and melee. Since Pistoleers often find themselves in close quarters with their opponents, and may easily be forced to go toe to toe with amelee opponent, they should have the best defense abilities of all ranged profs. Not as good as meleers, but enough that, when combined with their more damaging skills and weapons, they can be an effective threat to a melee-er even at close range (10 meters or less). A pistoleer doesn't have the ideal advantage of carbineers and riflemen that comes with shooting from 20+ meters away (distance accuracy mods should, imo, play a greater role than they do in combat), so their defenses would help them in close range, where hopefully a carbineer or rifleman wouldn't need to fight that close at all.
The Devs seem to think along these lines as well, as they've given Pistoleers some really good defense mods (+40 Blind, Dizzy, Stun, +50 KD, +20 PD, Dodge -- the most effective defensive skill in the game, and a focus on melee defense). An all ranged group should find their pistoleers to be their best weapons against TKMs, Swordsmen, Fencers and Pikemen. A Pistoleer weaving through a swarm of opponents, not dealing the most damage, but also taking less damage than other ranged profs would, smacking his opponents with the butt of his pistol, using a combination of gustshots, groin hits, and other assorted melee and ranged attacks is what I envision a master Pistoleer being capable of.
To this effect, if I were the Devs, I'd balance the Pistoleer's generally lower damage output with some limited Toughness skills, and maybe eve Melee Mitigation 1 and 2. The fact that Pistoleers have to be within 20 meters to effectively use their weapons means that they will find themselves facing a melee opponent face to face more than a carbineer or rifleman, and so I think they should be equipped to handle such encounters. Also, an ability that functions like Taunt would also be appropriate.
Disarming Shot, rather than actually damaging an opponent's weapon, should instead force the character to unequip his weapon (it still stays in his inventory, undamaged) and fight unarmed until he equips it or another weapon again. With the new delays on equipping and unequipping weapons and armor in the combat system, this would make Disarming Shot a very effective delay tool indeed. Again, it wouldn't be effective as the Brawler's Warcry since, if the opponent he's fighting is also a TKA, he could find himself in another dangerous position, but it would be effective for limiting carbineers and riflemen who have a distance advantage over Pistoleers from just kiting them to death. How cool would it be to fire a shot at your enemy rifleman's rifle, force him to "drop" (unequip) it, and then charge the gap and close the distance to him as he wastes precious seconds to re-equip his rifle, which, by the time you get within 20 meters of him, is next significantly less effective?
Thoughts on this?
On an aside regarding weapon speed and refire rates...
... If you're really concerned with Star Wars technological consistency, higher-powered energy weapons do have a slower refire rate than lighter weapons. Firing your weapon too fast can cause the power cell (oh yes, you forgot that you weapons actually have "batteries" which they draw energy off of?) to overheat and possibly explode. For example, in Star Wars lore (yes movies, not EU), the DL-44 "heavy" blaster pistol, while releasing a more potent and damaging blaster bolt (blaster bolts, unlike lasers,are actually blasts of superheated spin-sealed gases that explode when they hit their target -- tibanna gas is used for higher-output blasters, like starship weapons and heavy artillery), but the time it takes its capacitor (yes, energy weapons, whether blaster or laser have, capacitors, just like your starship weapons) to recharge from such a powerful blast causes it to have a slower refire rate than a lighter, less potent D17 blaster pistol.
For this reason, a more damaging laser or blaster rifle (while it would presumably have a higher-capacity capacitor), would most likely have a slower refire rate because of the significantly increased energy output of its laser or blaster bolt.
Message Edited by RenKesson on 11-24-2004 11:39 AM
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