Squad Leader Archive

"I soloed sooooo many things with my faction pets (non AT-STs btw)... I should not have been able to."

That is an issue dealing with faction pet strength and viability, not of the SL ability to control them.

Actualy it was because I had three pets out at once.... not because they were strong. Well they are kinda strong. And you are right that its not really the issue here. But I still stand behind not turning SL into a pet handler profession.

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in essence, you could have a stormtrooper and a criminal faction pets out , order them to kill a durni , the stormtrooper will just look at you with a sneer while the criminal happily shoots the critter.

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Which is why the devs changed it so faction pets could not be used for hunting. It gives TOO much of an advantage. Humanoid NPC pets are not able to be used in non factional PvE. They are trying to balance this game not give SL's all the power because we have been without it for so long.

I soloed sooooo many things with my faction pets (non AT-STs btw)... I should not have been able to. For example I did the entire Imperial act II by myself.. and I was only a low level pistoleer.All I had was pistol whip and body shot 3. I did use strategy with my three troopers but still I soloed a large group of hard NPCs.. that is just wrong.

irott, you are not 'hunting' when doing act2 stuff. you are fighting humanoids which are ranged fights for the most part. npc's will react with guns when shot at with guns, or go melee when approached with melee.

you cannot harvest humanoids, you can loot them, although you wont have a single of your factional SL pets survive a fight with a high level, loot dropping humanoid (aka, NS elders or force types). But yeah, you could murder chunkers and imp/rebel (not high level ones). just like you can kill vynocks and gnorts.

the concept of the humanoid creature handler being the SL is to have the SL be able to provide additional firepower and capability to a group..not much, but enough to make a difference.

utility wise those npc pets could function as low level replacements for other classes. For example, if you ever played Dark Age of Camelot, theres a pet class called the Enchanter. they have one pet which is crap in combat but is useful because it throws little heals to group members that are like 5% life. and many times that saves their lives as the group healer heals their life bars to near full a second after.

an SL having a medic npc would be able to do this. the medic wont replace the player medic, but in a group it could seriously aid the medic player in keeping the players alive. theres many other types of pets that the sl could have ,both combat and non-combat, all being no better than a combat class with a single box4 in marskman/brawler weapon and noncombat being no better than novice medic/entertainer types using stima's and such.

Ok, Ok, Act II was a bad example. But my point was that multiple pets enabled me to solo something I shouldnt have. Now I am all for the rank based faction pet system which in its basic outline would allow a high ranking officer to do the same thing. Any more than three pets is overkill reguardless of their "CL" or how strong they are.

The devs are doing a whole combat system revamp which includes the creature rebalance (factional NPCs count as creatures... sorta.) This is why all the CH pets are getting screwed around with and the pet amount for everyone, except CH's, was changed to 1.

Now there is a debate on whether factional pets are tools or perks. The same can be said about the factional armor but thats another issue. Some people are adamant to one side but honestly any faction requesition is both a tool and a perk. You can use this pet or whatever in your war against the opposing faction, it gives you a bonus.

This really isnt the place to post this... but since we are on the topic anyway ill list the following rank proposal.

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  Private - No pet


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  Lance Corporal - No pet


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  Corporal - No pet


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  Sergeant - 1 pet: Command security Guard


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  Staff Sergeant - 1 pet: Private


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  Staff Corporal - 1 pet: Gunner


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  Warrant Officer II - 1 pet: Bombardier


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  Master Sergeant - 1 pet: Trooper


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  Warrant Officer I - 1 pet: Compforce Trooper


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  First Lieutenant - 1 pet: Assault Trooper


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  Second Lieutenant - 1 pet: Stormtrooper


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  Army Captain - 2 pet: Scout Trooper


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  Major - 2 pet: Sand Trooper


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  Lieutenant Colonel - 2 pet: Stormtrooper Medic


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  Colonel - 2 pet: Stormtrooper Bombardier


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  High Colonel - 2 pet: Stormtrooper Rifleman


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  Brigadier General - 2 pet: Stormtrooper Sniper


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  Major General - 2 pet: Swamp Trooper


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  Lieutenant General - 2 pet: Stormtrooper Commando


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  General - 2 pet: Dark Trooper


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  High General - 2 pet: AT-ST (still limited to 1)


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  Surface Marshal - 3 pets

Now this is all based of of the Imperial list... and its just a quick draft. But the point is you have to work hard to get your faction points and as you go up the ranks you get access to better faction pets (right now most of those are almost exactly the same in stats and effectivness, so hopfully they will change that.) and the amount you can control.

The best option I see for Squad Leaders in this area is maybe give them access to the Pets Special attacks or choosing their equipment (say a pistol over a carbine or something like that). This would give us a related bonus to our Faction Pets but would not push us over the edge as Pet Handlers.

Any SL who would try to solo with the proposed SL pets would not only be slaughtered, but would be humiliated by his peers. No one is arguing for a pet that can take the place of a Toxic Merek Battlelord. We want something that can just provide that visible edge in combat, like the medic trooper idea.

I played an enchanter in DAoC, that game is a perfect example of a pet and pvp system that works.

"The devs are doing a whole combat system revamp which includes the creature rebalance (factional NPCs count as creatures... sorta.) This is why all the CH pets are getting screwed around with and the pet amount for everyone, except CH's, was changed to 1."

Are you sure? I thought that idea was canned after the uproar on the forums...

Are they still gonna implement that idea where Creature Handlers were gonna be the only ones able to call 3 faction pets?

I'm still very strongly against making SLs faction pets handlers.

I want my skills to effect my group of players, not a group of pets.

If using DAoC examples is something you can relate to then I would rather have group skills like the Paladin chants, Skald chants, Bard and Minstrel songs.

These would all boost the effectiveness of the group whilst they were active and you could only have one active at a time. (ignoring twisting)
They would give skills likes..
Increased group movement speed
Increased group armour rating
Increased group damage
Increased group regeneration

These skills are of more interest to me then controling NPC pets.

Yeah Im so against being handlers at all. If you really want something like this.. push for a new profession.

Squad Commander... where you command your pets instead of leading people.

I don't know where that rumor started.

It is untrue. The fact is CHs are able to have 3 creature pets, which is related to their profession. I think it was just miswording by TH which created this misconception.

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GamerProX wrote:

Im going for SL now, with an Imperial Char I made a few days ago. My main reason for doing this is the hope of controling a Squad of Stromtroopers. I think Rank should allow you to control maybe 3 tops at the highest rank, then you get more based on Master Squad Leader. (Troop Handler is a great idea) I support this and look forward to more idea from this.

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Have all the players in your group wear their ST armor...