Squad Leader Archive
Thread: Squad Leader Top 5 Issues & Response
It's difficult to state exactly how the new HAM system will impact Squad Leaders until all the kinks are worked out. When it first appeared on Test Center, the system would regen the HAM from any special in 25 seconds--regardless of the HAM cost. If the special used 25 mind, it would regen 1/sec, if it used 250 it would regen 10/sec, etc.
They original plan was to release this HAM system with the vehicle publish, but the system was found to be too overpowering and was pushed back a month for more testing. So the specifics of the new HAM system are unclear at this point, but what remains is the fact that specific HAM costs (low or high) will become less relevant with the new system. Our costs will likely need to be tweaked, but we can't really know until the new system is in place.
The failure rates, however, are still an issue and I'm trying to get that hotfixed if possible.
LOL jodokai
Your are not even a squad leader and yet you are telling those of us who have been for months and manyof us masters before the exponential xp gain that we are crying about our profession.
Play squad leader in its current state for a few months and then come and tell us to stop whining
we are not whining just being skeptical of the new promises.
Please speak from experience not ignorance
TH, and Thulium:
Personally, this is my favorate idea: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=squad_leader&message.id=10384
This is the post about the SL gunner. however it gets implimented, I'd like to see something done like this. It would not only give the SL more purpose, but allow us to have more fun. As it is right now, you're spending alot of points, some of which on ranged support, and you get nothing for it. Also, see OmegusNeo's thread about the SL fortification ideas. they're are some great Ideas there.
Hmm...I am a little worried about this with current failure rates intact. Sure, I will regen my points in the same time as others, but the amount of damage I am taking is much larger, and leaving me much more open to a lucky shot from an enemy. If a special takes 3 seconds to recycle, I can use it 8 times before I have regened from the first use. With a 25 point special, this is okay. with a 250 point special, this is by no means okay.
I understand that the effects of the specials needs consideration, but at this point, we cannot really even get to that point, as the failure rates are too high. I have failed on rally up to 7 times in a row, and average at least two failures before it succeeds. With the high cost of rally, this is prohibitive. I am not sure if this has been stated better elsewhere, just wanted to make sure it was stated here where the issue seems to have some attention focused.
I have an idea on how to handle multiple squad leaders in a hunt. It's a bit of a major system change so I won't even comment on feasibility...
Instead of having one huge party of 2-20 characters led by a squad leader, why not give us the option to break it down a bit. Why not have 2-7 person squads who are all a part of a 1-3 squad platoon? Graphical representation of your party on the side of the screen can remain the same but you could color other members of your squad slightly differently and each squad could have a squad leader.
As a former Tarq SL and a soon to be Starsider SL, I'm working on a system of creating 3-7 man squads (separate parties with separate squad leaders) and have each of the squad leaders communicate via teamspeak. Sounds nice on paper...
Unfortunately under this system the healers in each squad have a hard time seeing people who are hurt in other squads and are forced to concentrate mostly on their own troops. If we could have multiple squads but still all be in the same 'party' or 'platoon' then we could share resources (such as medics) more easily.
Dunno... just an idea. Let me know what you think.
First DL I wasn't "flaming" anyone, I simply told people to do what you did to me and be constructive, by your defintion you flamed as much as I did.
Second, you are not the only one posting on this board soeverything someone says isn't directed at you. If the shoe DOESN'T fit, don't try to force it on. When I made the statement 4 different people had complained about what the devs had said, and in a thread as small as it was at the time that was a lot.
Third, to person who said I was "ignorant" because I just started being a SL, let me let you in on a little secret, SL isn't the only profession broken. I have two characters one was a Bio-Eng BEFORE the patch, the other is a Droid Eng. I know all about broken professions. As a bio-eng I was a crafter that had schematics that required resources that weren't even included in the game, and this hasn't changed even after the patch. So to hear someone say their profession is broken and the devs don't care about them because it takes too much HAM for one of thier special abilities sounds a bit like whining to me. At least the core functionality of the profession works which is more than some could say.
Fourth, I may have come across too strongly with my opening statements, but when I started to become a SL this is first thread I came to, and at the time 1/4 of the posts were complaints becasue the devs didn't say "We will fix all your problems tomorrow so don't worry". Instead of telling the Dev what changes and suggestions they had, they were too busy compaing that they didn't hear what they wanted to hear.
Bah...
this thread is a perfect example of why Devs and corespondents pay so little attention to anything we say.
3/4 of this thread is non-constructive and stating how ignorant everyone else is and how bright "you" are for pointing out "Their" short comings...
Its sad really.
And if you havent realized it by now, this post is constructive criticism. 
My appologies for further drawing out the off topic-nessness of this thread.
Message Edited by DarthMaximillian on 11-11-2004 04:48 AM
Do you think that I'm not reading this thread?!? I started it and I stickied itfor "Maker's" sake, why wouldn't I read it? As for the amount of non-constructive negativity, I only count one or twoas non-constructive. Flaming me, the devs, orfellow Squad Leaders is non-constructive but having a negative opinion of the dev response is still on-topic...considering that thetopicIS the dev response
My personal opinion of the response isn't entirely positive either, and we are ALL frustrated with the lack of substantive changes to the profession, but rather than miring in disillusionment, I look at the positive aspects of this on the whole: An official statement and rough ETA of the long-awaited changes. We could choose to wallow in self-pity and cynically refuse to believe that the revamp is in process...and accomplish NOTHING. ...OR, we can set aside the frustration and work together to make suggestions for the improvements.
I too was mildly disappointed with devs not giving a solid response to the question of Fail rates, but I'm still discussing this with them. As far as HAM costs go, the point is that with the HAM system changes, the current HAM costs are likely irrelevent anyway, so we're spinning our wheels to worry about HAM costs from a system that will be obsolete in a few weeks.
I just had a new idea for the Squad Leader profession,which I also posted in a thread in the GCW forum. It is part Squad Leader, and part GCW. A lot of people hope that the rank system when you are faction aligned, will have something more to offer than giving you the opportunity to store more faction points, and to delegate faction points cheaper. They want something else to happen when you gain new ranks. I myself hope for this, and as a MSL, I thought of why not combine the SL into being the only one who can gain the highest rank as imperial or rebel. When you get the highest rank as a Squad Leader, you should according to the new hope of improvementsof therank system, gain a feature that no others can gain. What do you guys think about this, and what would you want this gain to be?
Regards/
Slater
At the current failure rates HAM costs will still be an issue, even with the proposed changes. Maybe not for you squad leaders who do not participate in the GCW, but draining your mind pool, a pool that can only be healed by a combat medic, will get you killed very quickly. It matters not for me now though. After seeing the non-answers presented here, and the uselessness of my squad leader abilities in our last defence of our bases. I have decided to move on to a more combat effective profession and take up commando and pistoleer. I saw squad leader as the enchanter of swg. I would buff my group and work croud control.
There are great ideas here, I have lent some of my own, but I will not waste any more of my time until this profession is worthwhile, which form the response above will not be for months still. It should not take much time to change the failure rate or the HAM costs, something positive for the profession, but instead what was changed was the EXP system. I will still monitor this board, and watch for changes. Some will think I'm a quiter, but some of us learn as a child, if you run headlong into a brick wall it hurts, so stop doing it.