Squad Leader Archive

Both skill trees look absolutely fabulous to me. Look, Sony, they've laid it all out for you! Now all you have to do is copy it down and program it. Please, I'm begging you!!

Orodias Des'sett

I can't say I notice much difference with +25 Group Melee Defense as is...

It'd be nice if you got an "absorb" message or something, but that'd be a bit too spammy...

Fine, you're pickin' nits here... just scale it down, divide those numbers by whatever it takes to make the values seem right to you...

The numbers aren't all that important, its the concept as a whole!

I like it Volatris, I like it alot actually. But one thing I would add: In Formations 3 I would add a penalty to damage as well to the /formation column. If you get a bonus for it in Formations 4 skill, I think it should be a penalty for the opposing effect.

Good point.

The Master formation is meant to be low-penalty, while the others are meant to be 50/50 in terms of bonus/penalty.

Combine static formations with dynamic specials to either focus heavily on one thing, or bonus all things, its up to the SL todecide how to mix and match the two.

Very nice Vol.

Great ideas. The faction cost reduction is a good one as well. If not the minions, then the SL should at least get a reduction in the cost for a promotion(based off his skill of course). Speaking of SL and factions, they should have faction missions for SL. I mean, they have entertainer and artisian. Wouldn't be too difficult for a SL mission.

Something where they assign you a squad of low level troopers to go destroy something or merly escort them to safety. Just something where they'll temporarily group with you. To prevent explotaion, putting a time limit on the mission would be highly recomended, as well as the troopers instantl 'vanishaing' or ungrouping after the limit or mission completion. XP/mission success could also be aworded based on if your squad survived to the end or not.

It seems like a probable idea though. There are escort missions already I know.(And I know of people who've exploited them as well, using them as living shields or extra guns already.)

yes i really like Volatris idea... now now Sony.. hear our cries !! just made novice sl and had steadyaim and rally.. i really dont see any rewarding skill from sl.. just testing sl in my way to BH.. if there's confirmation they're going to give SL a tweak.. i might want to stick as SL...SL is definitely is an unfinished job... really..

Wow.....I've been thinking about trying out the Squad Leader tree for awhile, though some of your complaints about the current tree have sort of made me think twice. I must say that if it was reorganized into what Vol proposed, I'd definately give it a shot, might even decide to master it. Very good job.

Ok while I said I like Vol's idea(I really do) but all you who cant seem to find out how to use a SL effectively as is need to get out and try out what we have. I hate hearing how SL is gimp, that we need changed, that weneed a boost. "WE" as in the SL himself is not inteded to be uber, WE are inteanded to enhance the group, plain and simple, if you want uber play a BH/pistolier. Sure at novice we are gimp but like any green officer it takes time to become effective. I have to admire the CH out there, they complained about the nerf for about 6 hours, got it out of their systems and moved on. I dont want to see us in the same class as BH who always want, want, want. Why cant we learn to use what we have and become a shining example of the leaders that we are.

I like a lot of your ideas guys. They're fair additions, if anything I think you're even being a little too reasonable on demands, you could probably add a few more things and the class would still not be nearoverpowered at all.

They definately need to reward squad leaders with some more benefits. We all know that the real squad leaders who stick with it even tho the profession skills are pretty lacking, are the people who really WANT to lead groups. I'm probably the first person to even say that during beta. But.. there's no reason on earth they shouldn't be rewarded more for wasting SO many points in an ADVANCED profession. The group benefits right now are just completely lacking, and not worth the massive amounts of point you would spent on it. Even if you take just the columns you like in the profession, they just don't seem worth the point value to you or your groups.

I hope they at least read some of your ideas with adding more passive bonuses to things such as defense vs knockdown, and the additional xp bonus, that would be a nice start on filling out the profession better. Also I completely agree.. the base novice box should give you SOMETHING else, and the master box needs to be much more complete. That last master box is worthless, where most advanced professions are rewarded well for completing to master. Oh wow, another +5 defense and some hill climbing cause I'm a master.. gee thanks alot

- Z

I've been meaning to write but haven't had time (too busy playing). I like your ideas Vol, but I believe it's asking too much to change that many things. Here are my sudgestions which I think are more viable. There need not be so much in terms of renaming and adding skills though many would have to be changed. But before I go to the actuall skill tree a few additions:

Changes to Current Skills:

Most of these have already been heard but they need to be said.

1)Volleyfire permanantly changes the target of all members (can be changed back if you wish)

2)Different color /sys

3)Group Terrain Negotiation is changed to Terrain Guidance which adds overall speed to the Party.

New Commands:

1)Fire Teams (or Team). New skill previously unmentioned in the threads. This would allow larger teams by letting the squad leader invite multiple pre-organized teams and designating them in a color. This makes squad leaders a definite must in teams as they can bring multiple teams together and give different effects to different teams. To invite a group you must invite the leader using /invite <leader> <groupname>. IE /invite Luke blue would specify that Luke and his team are in the blue fire team.

2)Decoy. One of the melee oriented skills (to compensate steady aim and volley fire). Target team or team member gets signfiicant boost to defensive skills but lower damage and acuracy. Decoy team/member automatically taunts their targets. Further taunts may change the victim of the target.

3)Ambush. Second Melee oriented skill. Similar to volley fire.

4)gsearch. searches and returns names of characters in groups which meet certain conditions. IE searching for anyone 25% health or lower to say who needs healing.

5)gsay <team> tells particular team a message.

Changes to Skill Tree:

Novice:

No change except color of /sys.

Mobility I:

Remove Group Terrain Negotiation and add Terrain Guidance as mentionedmentioned

Terrain Guidance +25

Mobilit II:

New skill/command: Decoy

Group Burst Run Efficinecy +25

Decoy skill: +10

Mobility III:

Decoy Skill +

Terrain Guidance +25

Ambush skill + 10

New skill/command: Ambush

Mobility IV:

Decoy Skill + 10

Group Burst Run Eff+ 25

Ambush skill +15

Strategy: Same but raise % of success.

Leadership I:

Commands: Formup (same but higher accuracy)

Commands: Fireteam

FIreteam skill +1

Leadership II: same

Leadership III:

Fireteam skill +1

Group Melee Def +15

Leadership IV:

Command: Boost Moral (same but higher accuracy)

Tactics I:

Command: Rally (same but higher accuracy)

Tactics II:

Group Raned Def +10

Tactics III:

Command Retreat (same but higher accuracy)

Tactics IV:

Group Ranged Def +15

Master Squad Leader

Group Burst Run Eff +10

Group Melee Def +5

Group Ranged Def +5

Terrain Guidance +10

Firesquad +1

Decoy +5

Vol's reforms are right in-line with how I envision this profession. I agree that we are lacking in active abilities, and our passive abilities do not create a large enough impact on the group.

One thing that I would like to see changed is the SL's access to pets. When I first heard about SWG years ago, I was excited to learn that you could become an Imperial officer and command your own squad of stormtroopers. While this is possible in the game, I think the SL should excel at this, having access to pets not available to other professions, able to purchase pets at a reduced cost, and/or receiving pets at certain levels of advancement. Think of the SL as an NPC CH, who also gains abilities that provide group bonuses. Adding this to Vol's skill tree would require some tweaking, which I lack the requisite knowledge of the game mechanics at this point to do, but I don't think giving SLs better access to better pets would unbalance anything, especially after they nerf pets, which they will probably do once more faction pets make it into the game.

I haven't read this entire forum yet, so if this idea has already been suggested, then I apologize, and you can ignore me, I won't cry.

Vol, SOE should hire you. YourSquad Leader skill treeideas would not only make the profession usefull, but would also serve to make the profession an intregal part of the game that would add to everyone's experience (and not just us SL's). I thought that was the original intent of the profession, as well as the concept behind it, but that is currently hardly accomplished with the current skill tree and setup. As a result, we can only hope that the Dev's and our SL representative have the foresight to listen and take advantage of serious and experiencedplayers like Vol. Great ideas!