Squad Leader Archive

One suggestion I'd have to SL is to add more tactical abilities when in a group. Specifically:

1. Allow Squad Leaders to gain more information on the radar and overhead map.

2. The painted target now days is pretty nice, give us the ability to set WPs and marks for our squad, so we could do something along the lines of ... "Ranged, take point here (painted mark) and provide cover fire". "Melee approach slowly from this point (painted mark) and engage the enemy here (painted mark)." When it comes time to run, you should be able to set a rally point for everyone to meet up at.

Just some basic ideas of how I'd like to see SL used and the abilities I'm missing when I'm running a squad. Will post more as information comes to me.

/salute

Ok I dont know if this idea has been passed around but this would make Squad leader the bomb in my book and I would certainly go back to it !!!!!!

1) Revivable FACTION PETS ... Meaning they dont die just like Creature Handler ....

2) Squad Leaders control multiple Faction pets worth 120 level points Meaning up to 3 storm troopers level 40 or 2 level 60.

3) Faction pets damage all go to squad leader exp and none is taken from the Squad leaders weapon exp.

4) The pets enter the squad leaders vehicle with form up or the have speeders that they follow him with...

Basicly turn the squad leader into a class like the creature handler with the most of the same group benefits..

Also make faction rank important meaning a colonel master squad leader has 120 level points and a low ranking master squad leader only has 80 points....

That would revive the class in my opinion and make it a better and funner choice for players....

Squad Leaders in the world of a better tomorrow. Biggest Alterations in green.

Novice Squad Leader - /ability SystemMessage to Group. /ability "Paint Target" with colorful easily identifiable FX that last for at least 30 seconds. +15 General Ranged Accuracy, +5 General Ranged Speed, +10 Melee Defense, +10 Ranged Defense.

Mobility Row (X000) - Either create some camps for this row or change the prereq to Explore 4 scout. One way or another make a little sense of the scout requirements.

1000 - /ability Rally, +25 Group Terrain Neg.

2000 - +25 Grouped Burst Run

3000 - /ability Retreat, +25 Grouped Terrain Negotiation

4000 - /schematic Command Outpost - includes NPC faction recruiter and accelerated cooldown timers when withing camp, must be placed beyond 1000m from nearest Town Hall structure. +25 Group Burst Run.

Strategy Row (0X00)

0100 - +10 Grouped Ranged Defense, +5 Ranged Defense

0200 - /ability Volley Fire, +10 Grouped Ranged Defense, +5 Ranged Defense

0300 - +10 Grouped Ranged Defense, +10 Ranged Defense

0400 - /ability Boost Morale (now gives 10% boost to all three Regen levels for brief period, countering briefly the effects of drains). +10 Grouped Ranged Defense, +10 Ranged Defense

Leadership Row (00X0)

0010 - +10 Grouped Melee Defense, +5 Melee Defense

0020 - /ability Composure (works like /firearm strike but is used on group members and breaks a +Root+ effect) +10 Groued Melee Defense, +5 Melee Defense

0030 - +10 Grouped Melee Defense, +10 Melee Defense

0040 - /ability Form Up (now breaks Daze, Stun, and Dizzy on all so affected group members within 15-25m) +10 Grouped Melee Defense, +10 Melee Defense

Tactics Row (000X)

0001 - /ability Steady Aim, +10 Grouped Ranged Accuracy

0002 - +10 Grouped Ranged Accuracy, +5 Grouped Ranged Speed.

0003 - /ability AoE conical Root shot (a single profession identifying special that allows the squad leader the respites in combat to make better use of all their other commands), +15 Grouped Ranged Accuracy

0004 - +15 Grouped Ranged Accuracy, +10 Grouped Ranged Speed

Master Squad Leader - /ability Improved Leadership (combines the two abilities of the leadership row into a 20m breaking of Root, Daze, Stun, and/or Dizzy on all so afflicted group members), /ability Elite Ranged Profession Characteristic High Damage Shot (this only need be equivalent to Marksmans "lethal shot" or "Overcharge shot" and should only be usable against a "painted target", but it would be nice for there to be a master shot to intermix with the basic marksman shots that is SL Specific.) /ability AlterFaction Status (want life in the GCW? Start with this simple widely desired change!) +30 General Ranged Accuracy, +15 General Ranged Speed, +20 Ranged Defense, +15 Melee Defense.

Base abilities at Master would be: +45 General Ranged Accuracy, +15 General Ranged Speed, +60 Ranged Defense, +55 Melee Defense (and base Terrain Negotiation and Burst Run Efficiency only if prereq was changed to actually make sense {make BHs learn the 0400 of scout instead })

Group Passive Enhancements at Master would be: +50 Group Ranged Accuracy, +15 Group Ranged Speed, +40 Group Ranged Accuracy, +40 Group Melee Accuracy, +50 Group Terrain Negotiation, +50 Burst Run Efficiency.

These changes and modifications would in my opinion place Squad Leader closer to the High End Elite Professional Role that its other "Assault" profile contemporaries enjoy (namely Bounty Hunter and Commando - but to a lesser extent Smuggler, Rifle, Pistoleer, and Carbineer too) The numbers and abilities are just not currently analogous, hopefully things can be improved upon soon.

Message Edited by erli on 07-04-2005 07:56 PM

Message Edited by erli on 07-04-2005 08:09 PM

• Still think we need more group melee and ranged def should be betweeen 100 - 250.


• The ability to formup and remove roots while a nice powerful ability.... would make roots useless and SL a must have. Though i think SL should have some powerful stuff i just dont think thats it.


• More group accuracy and speed


• My favorite of all SL ideas is the one where a SL can land a group ANYWHERE on the map i would like to see that at master


• I think volley fire is nice but needs a boost

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Matheaue wrote:

A major point of the CU was eliminating the overlap between different professions. It doesn't seem very likely that they would turn Squad Leaders into Creature Handlers with different pets, especially since Squad Leaders already have their own unique position within a group. Besides it just doesn't work, Neutral players would be completely screwed over if the role of Squad Leader was just to use factional pets, and there is no reason why Squad Leader should be the only profession where you have to be a member of a faction in order to use it to its fullest abilities.

In fact, I think the faction pets idea, even as just an option, would create a lot of Squad Leaders that could not handle performing the role a Squad Leader is intended for. Multiple Stormtroopers is enough of a selling point that you would end up with people doing the job, just for that aspect of the job. In addition to using the abilities of the job, Squad Leaders need to be able to know how to deal with actual living people and getting them to work more efficiently. That is the major purpose of Squad Leaders, the profession itself just gives abilities and skill mods that better cement people within that role, but there still needs to be that aspect of the profession. If someone spends all their time dealing with pets, they aren't going to know how to handle real players from that experience, in fact, many might get frustrated because people don't act exactly as expected like a pet would.

Anyways here are some thoughts I have about Squad Leader, and what would be helpful:

A unique role identifier (melee, advanced melee, ranged, medic, utility, etc), Squad Leaders are significantly different in terms of role that a unique identifier would be appreciated, the generic Utility you get with Novice Scout is the closest thing to the Squad Leader in terms of role.

Squad Leader abilities with shouts should go into the system message rather than spacial, it just makes more sense to me that it gets displayed in that way.

Maybe have the /sys messages still show up under the group filter rather than the system. It is easy to sometimes lose things like that within the spatial message unless you have them set for a different color or something along those lines, especially when xp text is showing up.

Abilities should work every time you use them, even if that means putting longer timers on them. Right now it is almost better to use them as often as possible and hope they stick to the rest of your groupmates occassionally (it always sticks to the Squad Leader though). Being able to use them more strategically and knowing that they will work when you use them would definitely be something I would think would be favorable for the job, even if it means having longer refresh timers.

Steady Fire probably should last for a few shots to be really viable as an ability, it is alright before a battle, but once you are fighting it really isn't worthwhile.

Boost Morale is pretty much useless now. Maybe instead of wounds it could redistribute damage, or just get a new function altogether.

Just some thoughts, there are probably a ton of different ways to make Squad Leader more worthwhile than just those, and still have it fulfill its intended role. Though I would deeply disagree if the role was changed, such as just making them factional Creature Handelers.

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Master Squad Leader ability

Artillery Bombardment: The squad leader issues this command which would bring up the overhead map of the surrounding area with a target. Once the squad leader has selected the area, it will be marked by flags like how the housing thing works. This would be followed by a system message to all group members:

"Warning, artillery strike in your area, stay clear of theblast radius!!"

Once the artillery has been deployed, it will 10 seconds before it hits the target area. Anyone including party members caught in the blast radius will be affected.

An example of how damage could be determined

Have a standard base Energy damage value eg 2500 followed by a random heat damage. AoE damage would be 50% of the base damage in the surrounding areas. The more group members in your party the bigger the bonus to the heat elemental damage.

Once used a squad leader wouldn't be able to call another artillery strike for 30-60mins.

Well, I have not read all five pages in this thread, but there are definitely some good ideas here.

I would only add one thing that a true squad leader has in the real world...access to intelligence. When a SEAL or Green Beret squad leader gets called in by his superiors to get their mission, they also get an intel dump. In other words, they get information on their target location, strength, weaponry, etc.

To make this applicable to this game, there are certainly some interesting bits of information that would make SLs very useful to a group. For instance, in PVP, SLs should have the ability to target a player and get his current template. This would be very useful in coordinating attacks. Also, SLs should have some sort of ability to find opposing overt PVP players within a certain range, or should have the ability to find out if a certain starport has overts nearby before traveling to that location. Or maybe SLs could have theirmulti-group chat tab, for better coordination between groups.

These are just some ideas that would make an SL more usefull in its group support role.