Squad Leader Archive
Thread: NPC Recruitment
I think Squad Leaders (and only Squad Leaders) should be able to "recruit" certain types of NPC's, who start out weak with no skills. I think it should be a mid level ability called Recruit, that allows you to attempt to recruit these types of NPC's to your group. You could also make your chances of successfully recruiting an NPC based on a skill mod or something.
Then once you have him in your group, I think it'd be cool if you could train him like you would train your own fighting character. You equip him with weapons, armor, etc. and command him to fight stuff. He gains XP for the weapon he's using (or no weapon, if you want him to be a brawler) in the same way that a real playergains XP(proportionate to damage).
To make sure people don't have armies of supertroopers, I would propose that the number of NPC's you can have recruited into your group at one time should be either A) Limited. You can only have X number of NPC's recruited into your group at one time. or B) Limited relative to skill. The higher your skill in whatever, the more you can have. Secondly, I think they should be permakilled. Theoretically, if you played your cards right, you could train your NPC to be as goodor better than the average fighter. I don't think that's something that should be easy to get, nor difficult to lose.
I think currently, anyone on a battlefield with enough faction points or something can get an NPC soldier. I think this too should be limited to Squad Leaders. It's a perk for the profession, and just makes sense. Feel free to post your own little modifications to the idea, making it easier/harder as you see fit.
Orodias Des'sett
I think this is just a mechanism that would help a Squad Leader solo, and frown on it.
This game is founded on a strong conviction that people to people connections must be made. Replacing people with automatons just doesn't strike my fancy. Get out there, meet people. Build a friends list. There's your squad.
I think that players should be able to hire NPC mercenaries and bodyguards though. Basically neutral faction pets that cost around 50k per day to hire...if you don't pay them then they would "die" or leave your datapad. They would have the advantage of being neutral and not costing faction points, but there would have a steep upkeep cost and they would lose against stormtrooper-level faction pets or high level creatures. I would rather have them be too crappy than too powerful.
not getting off of topic, i like those ideas, but in my opinion, we should at least be able to use our Rally, and other commands on our selves, along with the group, we are a group oriented class.... but man.... rally is a decent skill, and its useless alone... we should be able to use it alone, and with the whole group, i like ot group, but these situations are just beginning to happen in the game as players get comfortable with playing.... honestly, how many peope have had a good group thta lasted more than 30 minutes, not often.... so our SL skills should be usable for us alone if solo, or the entire group, IMHO
Kaosares Kaotic-Blade - Squad Leader - Rifleman - Rebel for life
This is a very neat idea, and something that be a fun addition to Squad Leader once everything is nailed down, and we're a year+ down the line.
This is an absolutely transformational change to Squad Leader, and raises a ton of issues, as this thread points out.
A fine idea, but the world's just not quite ready for it yet.
When I first heard of the Squad Leader profession (way back), I assumed it would be related to controlling groups of (factional) NPC pets. I figured that if you wanted to control a couple of stormtroopers, for example, you'd need to be a squad leader to do so.
Not everyone is going to be interested in factional conflict, but the Smuggler profession has set the precedent for profession skills relating to faction perks. I think it would be neat, and within the scope of the profession, if Squad Leaders were able to receive a discount on certain faction perks (namely, faction pets).