Squad Leader Archive

To prevent confusion, I'm a bit hesitant to post this, so I won't be floating this thread. However, I am anxious to hear everyone's reaction to this list so I'll go ahead and show you what I have in mind for the next round of "Top 5". Keep in mind that the current first round of "Top 5" has not completed, so this is by no means official and is subject to change until submitted to the developers.

The following is admittedly ambitious, but in anticipation of the promised profession rebalances coming with the announced Combat changes I've targeted the next Top 5 to new abilities we'd like to see added to the Squad Leader profession. The devs may summarilly reject any or all of these suggestions, but at least the Squad Leaders will have spoken on what we want.

I am still assemblinga full "State of the Profession" report which will go into much greater detail, but on the presumption that the devs may want more information on any of these suggestions, I would like some volunteers to "Take the Point" to manage the minutiae of these requests so that I can be armed with as much information as possible if and when the developers challenge them. OmegusNeo has already emailed me his proposal for Squad Leader Fortifications. If anyone else would like to help out, send me a PM and let me know. Again, there is no guarantee that any of these ideas will actually be implemented, but I'd like to be as prepared as possible to defend them on your behalf.

Anyway, without further ado...

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Squad Leader Top 5 Requests (Round II)

1) The Strategy and Tactics lines are severly lacking in effective active combat abilities. /VolleyFire is less than helpful, but this type of ability should be the core of the Squad Leader profession. Suggested Fix: Add new and improved tactical combat maneuvers such as the /AimFor ability to allow the Squad Leader to target a weak point in the enemy and the next group volley of unaltered damage focus on a specificHAM pool.

2) Squad Leader is currently the only combat profession that is not afforded a new weapon. Tactical high-powered weaponry could require multiple players to operate and draw upon their collective abilities for effective attacks on high-end content. Suggested Weapons: The E-Web Blaster (as seen in Episode V by StormTroopers trying to prevent the escape of the Millennium Falcon) and the M60 artillery cannon.

3) The pre-requisite skills for becoming a Squad Leader are not well represented in the final skill template. Squad Leaders learn survival and exploration skills from the Scout profession, but there are no new Survival skills used by Squad Leaders and terrain negotiation has lost a great deal of value with the advent of weapons and vehicles. Suggested Fix: Add Squad Leader Fortifications as outlined by OmegusNeo, and add speed boosting abilities to benefit Melee combatants led by an SL.

4) Squad Leader’s inherent “group mentality” is an untapped resource for improving high content missions and we are a Hybrid profession that could benefit all players by having access to special Squad Leader missions. Additionally, there are currently no in-game mechanics for Squad Leaders to earn money based on their chosen profession. Suggested Fix: Create Squad Leader Terminals or add a tab to existing mission terminals that have missions that require multiple players and professions to complete multiple-goal and utilize the Squad Leader’s Leadership, Tactics, and Strategy, as well as our ability to form a group appropriate to the task.

5) A Squad Leader’s Leadership abilities should include more skills that allow us to better manage the group dynamics. Shared waypoints, more commands like /formup, the ability to “tag players”, and improved systems for group communication would allow us to truly Lead players into effective combat instead of just going along for the ride. The current base of players who choose the Squad Leader profession rely on their natural leadership abilities, and though the “Squad Leader” title does a lot to describe these abilities, there is currently very little that actually supports them. Suggested Fixes: The ability to /DesignateRole such as “Point” to allow a member of the Squad to scout ahead and share their radar data with the group, improvements to commands such as /FormUp, improved passive abilities such as “Equilibrium”, an EQ-style Raid system, etc. Finally, an ability to give your Squad a name like “Rogue Squadron” would just be fun for everybody.

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Message Edited by Thulium on 12-07-2003 05:23 AM

(shrugs) So far, so good... At the moment anything would be an improvment, so I'll throw my hat into the ring with ya..

Ya this ain't a bad top 5 at all, u pretty much gave me all my requests.Just should put it something for the master level.

i like this top 5, all very good additions to SL assuming that all of our current issues and broken skills get fixed.

and i agree that something should be added at amster level

also if anyone has any thing else they would like to sugguest for the fortifications proposal please send me an IM. i will not be posting the newest version until it gets reviewed a few more times.

good ideas but you said a specific mind pool not a specific HAM pool

i bet i can do more typos than you can!!

I'm thinking the team weapons will go in Master. Those things are going to pack a whollop and that shouldnt be left to inexperienced SL's.

All in all, a good top 5. Still got to put that +10 leadership bonus in there.. ^_^

Agreed that these are a good start for fixes. I like the fortification idea, I think that fortifications, a SL weapon, and more game content geared towards SL's i.e. mission terms, would be fun.

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DarthLithic wrote:
Agreed that these are a good start for fixes. I like the fortification idea, I think that fortifications, a SL weapon, and more game content geared towards SL's i.e. mission terms, would be fun.

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/concur

Good list. I would like to add an idea I floated a few months ago. A /recon ability. This would force the SL to unequip any weapons (maybe equip binoculars or something) and approach a target without being detected on the enemies radar. This would allow the SL to perform a recon of a target, get enemy size and numbers, etc. without risking detection. (No closer than 30m or so). By putting distance restriction and unequiping weapons, it should reduce exploiting the ability to be invisible to radar.

Knowledge is power. This is a way to give the SL some knowledge in order to plan an appropriate attack.

Personally I think the /boostMorale skill should have been on it as well.

A skill the spreads wounds, instead of damageis not a good skill. No one uses it at all because it doesn't do what its supposed to.

That should have been on the Top % List personally

"May the Rally be with you, as the Devs aren't"

It was in the first Top 5 that was submitted.

Great ideas, i hope some of these go through with the DEVs.

I'd like to see the ability to call more than one faction-NPC added (and make their stats and/or HAM dependant on the respective rank of the player) as outlined in some other posts. I know that some fellow SLs don't agree but I want at least to have the ability... May be inserted in your second statement. I'll give you a "go" with everything else!
CU
Mille