Squad Leader Archive

There is a squad leader profession?

Seriously, I think that the SOE approach to ignore lesser used professions to date because they affect less players and thus get pushed down the priority tree is a big mistake.

That is to say by not fixing the SLs and the Rangers you end up pushing the player base in the wrong direction, that is uniformity. That is unless the intention all along was to have every play the same profession?

I think that the producers need to change priorities away from the majority and actually spend time on the details to increase diversity. Giving the SL, or the Rangers, or whatever other forgotten profession a voice will help to redistribute players to more professions, increase the variety of gameplay, and actually encourage more players.

If the comment has not been beaten to death SWG has become more and more tightly focused around one or two professions. Just look at the last few hotfixes, all Jedi and BH changes. 60% is not 100%, and that 60% is based on a flawed premise that given the option those players would not just do something else.

SWG has been on a diversity slide for a long time and it is getting worse.

Making SL be a better profession by improving it, or even shrinking the tree to less branches (at fan fest we were told that works now) would encourage more people to pick up SL to augment their skills in a group.

Adding more group content (not solo Jedi play) to the game would also help and promote group professions like SL. We have had 2 group quests added, DWB and Corvette in the last 6 months and even then the quests are often solo oriented. I mean what do you call a dungeon that produces items that only can be used by one person in the group. There are no group benefits and this further re-inforces the solo by default nature of SWG. If people group at all is because they like to.

Aparently some FS quests are group oriented, but again, that assume you are persuing FS and probably Jedi.

Time to get back to diversity in SWG and changing focus from Jedi/JTL. Profession revamps should start from the bottom ie the least used, and work their way up. After all it is the least used that need the most help.

You might even see people shift to the redone professions and the majority may not actually be the majority.

People will gravitate to what is fun. Make SL, Ranger or whatever else fun, and people will spread out.

I don't care what they do, aslong I don't log on one day with no skills...

I refuse to REGRIND this game. If I have to regrind one day because SoE decided that they needed to delete Squad Leader and Carbiner, I will quit this game and never ever look or touch a SoE product, never will be children, children's children, etc.

FACE IT TIGGS.. All our commands are dirt.

The only reason my guild wants me to be the leader of the group because im a Squad Leader, if they knew how crappy my skills were.. the Guild Leader would simply be the group if we went out.

But it's the respect that allows me ot ulities my group members and to perform tactics (Well before the whole buff madness went in)

Why was I was squad Leader? Because I wanted to band players together to go hunting or on PvP raids, enhancing their abilities and utilizing my own to make us an elite killing machine, capable of killing even the highest level mobs.

I had grand visions of leading my squad into an imperial fortress, cutting down stormtroopers and other players left and right. Developing strategies and surprise ambushes in the wild that no one could defeat, until I eventually met my nemesis: An Imperial Master Squad Leader. We would wage epic battles that the entire server would hear of, hundreds dead and hundreds more wounded. We would single handedly keep entertainers and doctors in business. Sending soldiers to the front line, knowing they might not return, just hoping to push the lines a little bit further into enemy territory before they fall. And when things got too tough, I would die knowing I did all I could to protect and preserve the Rebellion, hoping I could hold the line while my squad escaped.

What did I get instead? Nobody wants anything to do with me, except to fill a hole in a "Solo Group", the most oxy-moronic thing to enter SWG. Any real groups would rather bring in an entertainer or Combat Medic over me, because at least they offer appreciable, noticable benefits. All anyone wants or expects me to do is to be a covert whiner, hiding in a nearby house, spamming "Form up, Slimeballs!!" once a second. And then what happens when I do? I get kicked for spamming.. Damned if I do, Bored to death if I don't...

The only part of my dream to come true is the part about single handedly keeping Doctors & Entertainers in business. It seems I live in the cantina, trying to work off some Combat Medic's Mind wounds.

Message Edited by Yeraze on 10-12-2004 08:31 PM

I always play combat support professions in multiplayer games. I don't care for the spotlight. I enjoy leading and teaching others FAR more than whooping their asses from one side of Tatooine to the other.

I played a Lumberjack/Healer in UO and a Paladin in Neverwinter Nights. I figured a Squad Leader was closest to those archetypes: someone who certainly sacrifices part of himself to help others, but still isn't offensively inept.

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Tiggs wrote:

Just popping in to say hello to all of the SL's! I have been reading your forum and I see many negative threads.

Welcome to the world of tomorrow. I think you'll see a mix within the community like any community. Some try to be constructive and positive, others more neutral being the culmination of a year of frustration, and some are just sourpusses.

So I want to ask you what is it about Squad Leader that attracted you to make one?

Chicks dig passive defensive bonuses. Seriously I wanted to be a leader type for base raiding. So I picked up the novice box. Ground to master because it was insanely easy. Dropped master and a good chunk to finish BH. And went back when I was allowed to master both. I find it works well with my playstyle of being a group leader. For my guild I am a combat strategy leader and this allows me to do that well(but it could be much much better)

And what is your motivation to continue with thisprofession?

Two things. It does allow me to provide an edge to the players I group with. BH allows me to hold my own if I play smart, but the SL makes my group much stronger and they all appreciate it. And secondly because I see this as an underdeveloped profession with lots of potential that can and should be developed. The key to the GCW revamp is going to start right here.

Be nice in your replies

Never.

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Fanboi signing off.

I originally did it as a hologrind prof. And I must say, it was THE most hilarious couple of hours I have spent in the game. I laughed the whole time.

I led a group on Dantooine, and one of the members was a SL who needed apprentice points to master, so I was able to get trained as I went along.

It was great!

I had a full group of unbuffed ultra-goobers who did EVERYTHING wrong!

One would always shoot at lairs and eventually got about half the group killed just by making voritors spawn while everyone else was standing around healing and harvesting.

Another was a novice TK who would, without fail, be the first to rush in, and immediately get incapped, then spent the rest of his time shouting, "MEDIC!". He did this over and over and over and over. The guy just never learned!

Then there was the, "shoot at everything" contingent. These dorks would shoot at anything that got in range - other people's missions, Force Sensitives, Seething Ball Crushers - you name it. if it came in range, they shot at it. This ended up several times pissing off people who weren't in our group and didn't want us shooting at their missions and stealing their xp. The shouting matches, insults and death threats were hot and heavy and just got more and more funny (at least to me they did).

Ahh, the memories...


I learned one important thing, NEVER...EVER, boost morale. It has exactly the OPPOSITE effect. By taking the wounds from the one fool who just kept getting himself killed and then transferring them to eveyone who had half a brain and very few or no wounds, all I did was piss off everyone except that one wounded goober.

When I first started in this game, I used to lead hunting groups on Talus. That was my starting planet and there were plenty of noobs back then. It was actually fun to put togehter a pickup group of people who, like me, had never even heard of buffs. I became known for it and every day had many people asking me if I was taking out a group that day. I really enjoyed those times, and everyone had a great deal of FUN doing the hunts. Of course, I wasn't grinding then, so I could enforce order by booting anyone out of the group who screwed around too much.

When I finally got around to doing SL, I anticipated much the same thing, but the reality was that by grinding it, I just didn't CARE if anyone screwed around.

And man was it funny.


As one person said, with buffs, there isn't really any need for a SL since everyone solos. I have many characters on many servers, and I have a jedi. I have done just about everything in the game.

You know what gives me FUN in this game now?

Being a noob again...

I go to a server I've never been on, and I create a new character, and I just play the way I did when I first started. I get enjoyment from learning the new cities, and meeting the new people. I have fun hunting things like dewbacks and having to actually worry about getting killed by swoopers or pirates or...jawas. No buffs. No ultra-armor. Just me and the best weapons I can afford, which aren't all that great to begin with. The game is challenging and fun if you are a noob. The game is challenging and fun if you can forget about being an uber-leeter loot-whore for a while and just play.

I might do SL again on one of those noob chars, just for fun, but I don't see any -reason- to do it with one of my elite characters. It provides little to no tangible benefit to a buffed and armored elite player.

I've been an SL since last August cause I always like playing a support class. I figured the passives and abilities would help out a bunch. SL has so much potential, it needs more depth to it. Like others say it should be the class people group with to enchance them. The useful skills in SL are easily macroed to make bot leaders. The XP system is just plain sad, its way to easy to master this profession now, another reason why even our conversion rate for Force Combat XP is 90 to 1. Squad Leaders should have special tactics, like

1. Rally - Defensive tactic which boosts your defense against state effects and boosts melee/ranged accuracy more then it currently is.

2. Charge - Offensive tactic which boosts defense slightly, increases movement speed and melee/ranged weapon speed.

Also there needs to be some way to make multiple SL groups gain addional benefits. Perhaps a small bonus to counter attack, dodge and block. Also better commnunication, a way to link up all the SLs into there own chat channel. We could use a radio/comlink and make our group go undetected for a sort time on the radar. SL should also tie into the GCW more like how Smuggler does. We should get discounts on perks like armor and weapons, make people overt and give FP bonuses to the group.

There is just so much more SL should be, and I hope it does eventually cause i've been wanting a revamp for a long time.

Message Edited by Stratta on 10-12-2004 11:35 PM

I liked the idea of directing peoples fire and helping others. But I have learned I can do that more with any profession than this one. As you can see I dropped SL for something new after 1 year of putting up with the delays and broken promises to fix it.

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Tiggs wrote:

Just popping in to say hello to all of the SL's! I have been reading your forum and I see many negative threads. So I want to ask you what is it about Squad Leader that attracted you to make one? And what is your motivation to continue with thisprofession? Be nice in your replies

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05 % I am no FOTM, I dont like grinding.

15% because it fits to my role as a guild leader

80% just hope for improvements