Squad Leader Archive
Thread: Squad Leader: Fan Fest Info Dump
Sadly, no matter how useful they make us in groups, or how super-scoutish they make Rangers, I doubt either profession will ever be truely popular, or even moderately widespread, for the simple reason that the vast majority of players would rather not weaken their own abilities to enhance the abilities of others.
This is off topic, but I saw it mentioned, and I'd like to reflect.
To fix the badge listing in a characters bio would be easy.
I've noticed this game loves tabs.
Why not for both the characters, and players, have the profile screen pop up the same.
The core of the page would list a characters written bio, and how many badges they currently posess. 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 100 whatever..
On the side or top of frame,have a tab for professions, locations, and other; which can be selected to view specific badge types by page..
Clutter managed.
You would be able to see a bio (yours or anothers) easy, and clear.
You would be able to keep track of what you do have, and are yet to get.
For the user, each tab would also have the badges in white, under those completed, that they do not posess. (sorta like how it is now, just grouped per tab)
(Mastered) Professions could be listed by alphabet and show a tally at the top. ie; 6 of 37.
Locations (POI / Hidden) should be listed by alphabet, by planet.
Other (Exploration badges, Honor badges, Live Events, etc..) should also be listed by alphabet, and by planet.
For the core of the bio, through the character sheet, have blanks that will appear filled in, in the visible bio to others, once filled out.
ie;
Name: (Auto generates)
Homeworld: (player fill-in)
Species: (Auto generates)
Gender: (player fill-in)
Age: (player fill-in)
Faction: (Auto generates)
Rank: (Auto generates)
Squadron: (Auto generates)
Guild: (Auto generates)
Guild Rank: (player fill-in)
And leave the rest of the page for personal (player fill-in) bio.
I suggest this cause that info takes up a lot of alotted space.
Leave the option to show bio, or not the same.
* * *
I Think that would make a lot of people happy including myself. I know I like to have things in order, and these badges are suppost to be honorific, but are all cluttered together and become a big blur that no one wants to try to read through as is.
Message Edited by JadaKraden on 06-22-2005 09:02 PM
Message Edited by JadaKraden on 06-22-2005 09:03 PM
First off, I must admit that up until I had no real idea what squad leaders did... No, having read this thread, it is apparent that nobody really has a clue what squad leaders are for...
The devs say that SL should be independant of the GCW. Not only does this not make sense, but I think that this is a BAD idea! Squad leaders, by definition,are dedicated to a group of troops in a military-like structure are they not? Well the only two militaries I know of are the Empire and the Rebellion. With that said, I see precious little imp vs. reb battles and according to the timeline (and dev intentions) the game should be loaded with it. What better way to facilitate these battles than to have squad leaders gain faction grouping perks!? I have yet to see a battleeven remotely similar to the likes of which we seeinany one of the movies.
Heck, why not even giveSL'sa level tree that allows them someprogressively more powerfulnpc followers? This would certainly help create the massive land strikes I think we are all dying to experience.
I really like thefaction recruiterperk as well. The other day on Corellia, I had to goall the way from Cnetcity to thehidden rebel base justto go overt! Talk about wasted gameminutes...
I understand that this a just a video game but what I dont understand is why weapon design wasn't made more like rl experiances? Rifles are great at distances and accuracy, but are gereraly slower and become less accurate and inefectul at close range. Carbines, are great medium range weapons that are faster and generaly harder hitting than rifles but suffer from a lack of accuracy. (rifles can be devistating when the shot is set up but after that first shot, good luck). Pistols arequickest andmost accurate at close range.
Now there is one very significant factor that seems to be marginalized in this game. That would be the use of the term "automatic". The term is actually mis-used greatly here. ALL weapons today are considered "automatic". A bow and arrow would not be. The terms that are being ignored are "semi-automatic" and "fully automatic". Semi Automatic is the term used for firing one shot at a time. Full automatic would be what a machine gun does. Fires a crap load of rounds at once. Semi automatic weapons are much more accurate and do damage based on the notion that you will aim and take your time to pick your shots. With fully automatic weapons, your basically firing in the gereral direction of your intended target and trying to destroy it with as many shots as possible.
Now for how this applies to the different types of weapons used in SWG. All weapons come in semi-automatic and fully automatic versions. Yes, that right, there are pistols that are fully automatic. For sake of confusing many gamers that would not know all this, it seems to be implied here that pistols and rifles are semi automatic and carbines are fully automatic. This being the case carbines, through the shear numbers of rounds fired,shoulddo more damage than rifles (dps wise). A rifleman gets one chance to deal a devistating blow (sniper shot). After that, the target knows your there and would be moving around or covering up to protect themselves. Carbines, because they can spray rounds would have an easier time hitting moving targets and also penitrate any cover the target may be behind. From there we get into range. Rifles win there hands down. Being able to take cover and set up your shot goes along way for range.
The best way to fix the balance here would be to make the carbine and rifle specials, weapon specific. No fully automatic weapon should be able to line up and excute a sniper shot and no rifleman should be able to sit 65m (or 85m in some cases)out and spray their target with roundsaccuratly. Rifles should be generaly slower than carbines. After all, it takes more time to line up a shot then to simply squeeze the trigger and spray rounds everywhere.
So now where do the poor pistoleers fall into all of this? Easy, they are the true middle ground. Sure they wont have the range either of the other 2 do. OK, so for aguments sake, they dont have fully automatic weapons. They do however, have the ability to get up close and personal with their target and blow their brains out. They have much better mobility, and because of the low weight and compactness of their chosen weapon, they can shot it accuratly at a medium to close distances at a moving targets. They can go from one target to the next with much less setup time than rifles. A good quiet pistol can easily take out a target without alertingothers near by. Pistol specials could actually used by both carbineers and rifleman. Both would point their weapons at their tragets legs to "stop" them. A pistoleer couldn't however use carbine or rifle specials. How do you truy take cover and or sniper shot someone your 5 feet away from? (thats where sneaking up and a good shot to the back of the head comes in)
Pistoleers are in no way ment to be front line combantants. Most riflemen lean how to use a pistol for when the fight gets close. Many spec ops people use em because they can get up close and personal without being dected. BHs use em because sometimes they have to get close so the target cant get away. Commandos use em when blowing up everything in site just wont work. Carbineers, well, theyd use a pistol if they couldnt switch to semi automatic which would apply here (ever try to unload a machine gun on someone 2 feet away?) (me neither but it cant be pretty)
All in all, I think some more thought needed to be made in the specific roles each of these 3 would play on the battlefield and in realtion to the specials allowed to be used by each. You can have a rifle that is weaker than a carbine but with a special like sniper shot, out damage the carbineer. The carbineer would have a much higher dps, but would suffer at range. This would translate into more carbineers than rifleman on the battlefield but doesn't that make sense anyway? Just how many snipers do you thnk are out there as opposed to your basic soilder?
DarkHelmet-TIO wrote:
Maybe if we were fixed there would actually BE more of us.
Sorry excuse devs.
Exactly what I said in another thread. The reason there aren't any SL's is because nobody wants to be one...
I'd just like to say that before the CU they had a large group of motivated intelligent articulate dedicated people ready to take what they gave us and deliberately test it into the dirt by acting as powergamers would. It was a great plan, it would have worked, and they blew it.
They let us sit idle for months. Stonewalled us, forced us to uphold their NDA (which I guess I might be breaking now by saying this all, but since it's been said by many others already, I'll take my chances), they tested inhouse, made changes similar to what Sushi said (based on what they expected peopel to do) they didn't let us see a darn thing until the same time anyone else saw it. Not only did they have to pull our comments out of the huge whitenoise that was the CU Beta, we ourselves had to fight the trolls, find places and ways to try and get a few constructive tests done. It was all incredibly discouraging, and I almost quit the game due to the way the CU Alpha people were treated.
Can I say for sure it would have been better? No, but im 99.99% sure it would have, and along the way they wouldn't have alienated some of the smartest most dedicated players. This is my only real statement on the subject, and I'll probably never make another, but we endured a lot of hate from the rest of the playerbase, in addition to the treatment we got "on the inside" All I'll say is it should have gone differently, and it didn't have to be the way it is today.