Squad Leader Archive
Thread: Getting Ready for Round II...
the existing abilities are to broken to think of new abilities or even equipment like mentioned in 2 (this is a source for new bugs... first the existing abilites should be fixed or replaced)
I think rally or boostmoral should be higher in the priority than a new Weapon. But the idea of new weapon or equipment for a group is cool. Maybe such things like a combat turret would be cool: the SL can place little buildings like a wall or a automatic cannon on the field so he can realy support the group. But as I said... this is for the future!
IMHO, "fixing" the current abilities doesn't get us any closer to the real goal: Making SL's a valuable profession to SWG and a fun way to play.
The truth is, most of our skills are pretty much working as designed. /boostmorale doesn't do what it's supposed to do, but I have serious doubts that getting it fixed will suddenly make SL's the "flavor of the month". Additionally, that fix has already been requested.
HAM and failure reductions have also already been requested, and for the most part the upcoming HAM changes should address that to a great extent anyway. AFIK, /rally, /volleyfire, /retreat, and /steadyaim all are basically"working as designed" as are our current passive bonuses, if you like them or not.
I'm not saying this as a threat, but if all thatgets fixed with Squad Leader isthe current abilities... I will leave the profession simply because there isn't enough 'there' there to keep my interest.
I meant with fixing, that the existing abilities are of use!
So either we replace abilities with others or improve the existing. Just add new abilities which maybe improve our profession isn't the right way in my opinion.
And in relation to the statements of TH I think he will not completly redesign our broken profession or so it seems. Maybe he does, but for this it needs the not existing communication between the community and TH.
But after all let this point with the special weapon in the list so we receive with big luck a response from TH about such ideas.
As part of the announced Combat changes, the final phase is a complete pass over ALL professions in regard to overall balance. I can assure you that my predecessor and I have both made the need for a LOT of improvements to SL very clear to the developers, and they have acknowledged this need. It may be a while longer before we have any ideas about what changes we may be getting, but rest assured that there will be signifigant changes...That's why I crafted the top 5 in this way. I feel that CaptainVemnox did an excellent job of presenting the bugs and issues with our current abilities to the developers, and I will include any bugs that remain in my next report, but the focus is on moving forward rather than looking back....
1: I agree with your assessment of the weakness of this line, but I think that you should include a list of at least five of the suggested skills from these boards instead of the one skill /aimfor. There have been a lot of good suggestions by numerous persons which the devs should get a look at.
2: We all signed on to the class knowing it had no weapons. I would not put this as a top 5 issue, although I would include it as a potential improvement to the class. I think that there are other options which are truer to the original philosophy of the class though. We are a combat support class like combat medic, so it is not a stretch to use this line of thinking, but you might reconsider whether this is really a top 5 priority for us.
3: Right on. Again, rather than picking one suggested fix, state the problem clearly then provide a list of potential fixes from these boards so that if one fix is rejected another might take it's place.
4: Class potency is our main concern. Class specific missions are secondary or tertiary to the problems with the class and should wait until we have 5 fundamental fixes put in place first. New missions won't do anything to make us more effective leaders, or more directly helpful in combat situations which is what we really need.
5: Looks pretty good.
What I would like to see would be for you to modify this report somewhat by keeping your problem assessment as a single paragraph, but then adding a list of potential fixes under each problem taken from your wish list post responses. To be fair they should include as many potential fixes as you can gather, not just 1 or 2 favorites. Balance and coding issues which are invisible to us may make some excellent looking suggestions unworkable, but others may be implemented more easily making them more likely to actually get added to the game. Give them all of the possibilities that we have come up with so that they have a good amount of material to work with in case the favorite / best case scenarios don't come through. Looks good so far though, and anything you can get done can only be an improvement.
Those are all good points indicant and thanks for the support. This is a "rough draft" if I am correct, but it may have been submitted already. In point 1 I don't think it is too much of a problem to generalize if most of the other points have specific solutions.
Point 2 has a big discussion going on and there is a debate on whether this "team" weapon will be specific to the SL or will be opperated by the rest of the squad. I am pushing for the latter with a system that requires one of 3 types of weapons operated by the corresponding elite marksman branches (rifleman, carbineer, pistoleer). Pop in and give your thoughts and ideas: Here
I really appreciate this feedback Indicant--exactly the type I'm looking for. 
Irott, you are also correct that this is a "rough draft". I'm still piecing together a full State of the Profession report and this won't be the official "top 5" until I've completed that report...and not until the first round of Top 5 is completed and everyone has been given the official dev responses.
I will post the full report here before (though probably just a few moments before) I post it to the Correspondent forum, so you'll know when the next top five are active.
Sounds like a good top 5 to me. Squad leaders need alot of lovin. Having gotten into major battles between 2-10 times a day. I'd like to add things that I've noticed are major pains when in the middle of combat.
*****/aimfor = excellent idea, I hate having a rifleman target mind while someone else is working on health etc.
*****add a /declare command, that would allow you to make everyone in your group an overt memeber of their faction (possibly for an hour or until they reach a recruiter either would be fine) that way yeh don't see covert members running around unable to shoot at overts right in the middle of a battle. Plus yeh don't haveta run through hostile cities while being declared waiting for anyone to kill yeh while you're loading.
*****/share abilities Either you're group can share abilites and bonuses for awhile, or you can give all the bonuses to one person or squad leader to make them uber for a short period of time.
Yay for artillary and fortifications. Make them a master Squad leader ability.Enough said.
/charge sometimes yeh just wanna be reckless. Maybe like a better berserk or warcry.
/mounted charge We should have an ability that allows us to have a calvalry charge. Maybe squad leaders could add a bonus to their group to hit or damage for a limited time if they are mounted. It would make mounts usefull after vehicles come out. And how cool would it be to see a horde of carrion spats thundering down on your base?
Squad leaders should have an area of attack ability and a dot or two (like every other combat class).
-Make an AOE that would allow the squad leaderto cover a huge area with a spray of fire. Maybe each member of the group could have a range (15 meters for melee 50 meters for ranged) and they could hit each hit everything within that range. Time cost should be quick for the group members, probably longer for the squad leader. (limiting factor) You'd have to be careful when using this command so as not to agro everything around your group.
- /targetofgroup damage over time that would work like any other dot.
Add a /scoutarea command that would work like the ranger ability, maybe would only work for pc's.
Add a /disguisegroup that would make them invisible to radar until they actually attack something (pauses to have fond dreams of something like this).
One more thing I would like to see (whether sl or not) is an ability to either view other pc's rank in their faction like a title, or possibly /command npc's and/or pc's if they are of a lower rank. Having rank visible seems to be an intention of the designers (in the manual) but I don't think its in the game at all. (apologies if it is, haven't seen any info on it).
OK, tried to keep this post rant free. Good Luck to all of you squad leaders out there. We all need it.
Elilyn Sol'erion
Corbantis -HH-
Squad Leader since launch.
P.S. Most of these ideas are not mine and from the boards. Hope yeh don't mind.
Squadleader should not get heavy weapons that should be the realm of commandos. Only way i would agree on keeping #2 if it was a combined into #5. Where a squad leader can assign a command to special weapon. So only being under a squad leader and designated could that person use the special weapons. Or dump the designation side of it and be just the regular old unlock special ability idea.
Message Edited by DiLune on 12-10-2003 09:16 PM
I just wish that SL's had some way of an overall battle coordination, like an overhead view where they could paint targets and such for certain teammates. Remember, this is not just a support character like the CM, this is a squad leader. This is the guy/girl giving the orders, the one that is supposed to know what to do. Since this isn't exactly real life, and situational awareness is based on little triangles on a big map, or red circles on a little radar, I think that battle field awareness should somehow be augmented.
Just a thought.
Rifleman, Squad Leader, boy, I just pick the right ones don't i?