Squad Leader Archive

Good afternoon, everyone! I'm setting a deadline for submissions by Friday night, because that's when I'm going to send in the list to SOE every week. Let me open here with the SOE quote:

"Once per week, send an email to [address private] detailing the Top 5 issues of the profession. Please be as objective as possible with these issues and include links to relevant threads if you wish."

This is where you all come in. Let's keep this thread in order and start a new thread for any further discussion. In this thread, simple list 5 simple things that are issues with the proffession. Please do not go into massive elaboration or mention 10 things in one line. This is only one week of many thousands more to come in the future, so please only include the most vital concerns. The format should be simply:

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

...and as I said elaboration should be taken on other threads where I can link to for SOE's use. I will combine the most frequent and recourring themes into a final list by this Friday night. Please do not hesitate to list something that someone has already said, as that is the main way things will end up on the final list.

Thanks!

I am not a SL but here is a good one.

1) If the devs feel it is right for Mind damage to be healed you guys should be the class. Some sort of Battle Speach to get people's heads back in the game so to speak.

1) Lack of special abilites per the class. We get very few per other advanced classes, especially at novice and lower trees.
2) Lack of benefits actually working or showing an improvement. Rally doesnt show to have any effect as with most of the skills.
3) XP granted based on how much damage is done.
4) Specials failing to often.
5) Group commands do not work.

1. Abilities and overall-profession is too altruistic and self-sacrificial. Need more personally beneficial abilities to make it worthwhile.

2. Group Bonuses are too ineffective.

3. Some abilities do not work well.

4. Abilities take up too much from the Mind pool.

5.Basically littleincentive to become a Squad Leader.

I am still only a beginning SL... so I can't offer too much feedback from experience other than the frustration of getting no real skills at novice.

One thing that REALLY makes me sad is that I picked Human as my race for the bonus to leadership thinking it would help with SL, only to find out later that it was taken out of the game. Now I have an underpowered race in an underpowered profession. They made it seem like Humans would be a perfect fit for SL... but now it seems both choices are subpar. So it'd be nice if they put Leadership back in the game in some form.

1) There are no commands or abilities that make squad leader worth training in. Squad leaders get few abilities compared to all professions, even basic ones. The abilities squad leaders do get, are almost all of questionable worth. This combines to a situation where the simple fact is... this profession simply has no reason to exist as a game profession; indeed a team lead by a squad leader is no better off than one without... and in fact, may bebetter off without. See 1a and 1b for specific details:

1a) The squad leader skill tree is seriously lacking in content. There arefew abilities (off-hand I remember 6: sysgroup, rally, steady aim, volley fire, boost morale, retreat) andzero schematics andcertifications for 18 skill boxes - this is probably the leastraw skill tree content of any advanced profession. You gain very little compared to all other advanced professions, many of which gain multiple bonuses, certs and commands with skill boxes, but advancement is difficult due to the squadleader xp formula.

1b)Most of the squad leader abilities are of questionable utility and/or desirability. Sysgroup is not any more useful than group chat or even shout. Steady aim is not helpful. Retreat can effectively kill the squad leader. Rally prevents group members from engaging in noncombat tasks until it expires, and has no obvious bonuses or effects. Volley fire is of limited utility and interrupts people's attack cycles, adding time in between their attacks. So actually using the SL specials, aside from boost morale, can be counterproductive!

I think 2, 3, 4, and 5 won't matter until 1 is addressed. Squad leaders don't bring anything to the table. I've decided not to train in it at this point, and use my skill points on getting some medical training - because that actually is a help to my teams.

1. Squad Leader needs more passive upgrade abilities. A team with a SL at the head should be able to (a) run faster, (b) take less melee/ranged damage, and (c) resist combat skills more (dizzy/knockdown).

2. Squad Leaders should have skills for increasingalmost everything, including those already passively upgraded, that are a lot more effective than the passive upgrades. Examples include lowering health wounding, lowering action drain from special moves, lowering mind damage, increasing attack speed, increasing wound chance, and a permutations of all the others. More options never hurt, and there's always at least one utility for moves like that. SLs should be handy in all group situations. Additional abilities to think of (that might be too overpowering even) would be directing a volleyat a specific pool and a mind heal-over-time or direct heal(Pep Talkor something). Caps for skills should always be set at Maximum non-Squad Leader + Passive Squad Leader + Active Squad Leader + Armor/Clothing Attachments. There should never be a skill that can't be augmented by a Squad Leader.

3. Amount of HAM spent should vary on amount of people affected. A small group of people should use a relatively small amount of HAM for a group effect, whereas a group of 20 would take the full amount of HAM (as it stands now).

4. Squad Leaders should have more options with the grouping interface. They should be able to form sub-teams who they can target their skills on (i.e. put your melee in a group, your rifles in a group, and your carbineers in a group so you can direct them seperately). Also, profession oriented skills might help. Perhaps a "ranged volley fire," a "rifle volley fire," or a "melee group attack." They should be able to form temporary mini-WPs for different members of the group, and their current target should be highlighted in a special color on every group member's screen.

5. I agree, melees are at a distinct disadvantage in the SW universe, but they're 1/6 of the basic professions, and need to be factored into the only group leader class. Whether this be through different melee targeted skills or melee effective bonuses, I have no idea, but there needs to be some movement in that direction.

>"Amount of HAM spent should vary on amount of people affected. A small group of people should use a relatively small amount of HAM for a group effect, whereas a group of 20 would take the full amount of HAM (as it stands now)."

I love that!

Volatris summed up my feelings on it except for please add that you cannot kicj one person from group without it dumping everyone to #5.

I agree 100% with Volatris and also the idea of cost based on group size.

My #1 issuce (besides failure rate of skills) is the ranged centric viewpoint. Squad leader is designed to lead combat squads into battle correct? Then why aren't there any melee type /abilities or /commands? Andbefore people chime in that ranged takes precedence over melee and why should there be melee/squad leaders then why are the classes in the game? If melee has no advantage then it should be removed. Since there are Swordsmen, Pikemen, Fencers and Teras Kasi I believe that they should have some type of input on squad leader. Melee/squad leader should be viable.

1) Add in Melee type of /skills to compensate for the ranged type of skills.

2) Lower Failure rates of /skills

3) Lower Mind Costs of skills (Currently only way to get mind points back fast is to meditate)

4) Add in bonuses to +dizzy, stun, knockdown, blind, etc Defense. Spread them over 1 line.

5) Make mobility line worth it with a speed bonus i.e. +2% speed bonus for each box obtained and +5% for master.

1) Squad Leader XP based solely on combat damage and group size.

2) Lack of tangible benefits at Novice Squad Leader

3) Entire Mobility line provides only minimal benefit, as most combat characters will have trained in Exploration.

4) Risk vs. Reward for SL specials. High failure rate plus High HAM cost (plus XP disincentive) make using these abilities less worthwhile than they should be.

5) Ranged comabt focus: Lack of melee equivalents to /volleyfire and /steadyaim.

I think we're all pretty much in agreement here what the main focus should be so I'll just through in my three cents:

1. SL xp needs to be reworked

2. Novice SL box needs something more than Sysgroup

3. Mobility line needs more work. We don't even really benefit from it. Only one in five group members probably will. (yeah, pulling that number out of the air but it seems about right for my groups)