Squad Leader Archive

"The Squad Leader Family Tree"

First of all think of Squad Leader as a support role. Any good leader can help out in a fight because the combat experience is usually there. But their main job is to support and lead the squad. Novices and Veterans of combat should always be able to look to their leader for not only wisdom but support and encouragement.

Now the Squad leader in SWG has 3 requirements. Ranged weapon from the marksman tree and Exploration Training and Survival Techniques from the scout line. Do these in anyway contribute to the squad leader’s ability to lead? Sure they do but therein lies the problem, SL relies on its prerequisites for some of its best skills. The ability to make camps, negotiate terrain, mask scent from creatures... they are useful out in the field but quite a few players already have these skills. One branch that not many people complete is the ranged weapon support line which is full of great skills. Threaten/Warning shot is great for when the creatures get too close for comfort. The ranged/melee defenses are nice, the aiming helps quite a bit, and the tumbles give pretty good defenses. Suppression fire is one of the best skills next to knockdown for ranged weapons in my opinion. Suppression fire is a great crowd control skill which, for a squad leader, is a good way to handle certain situations.

But does any of this get expanded in the SL line? Nope... Carbineer gets suppression fire 2 (I wouldn’t dream of taking anything away from these guys, I feel bad enough for them already), ranger gets expanded camps and extended terrain negotiation (anything over 50 is just prone crawl speed though). SL does take a few things such as group terrain/burst run bonuses and group ranged/melee defense but most players have so many bonuses from their other skills that it isn’t noticeable.

So in addition to the somewhat useful skills that we already have, what could make Squad Leader better? Let’s draw upon its requirements: Ranged weapon support and the exploration/survival training. First lets go off of the ranged weapon support. Threaten shot and warning shot work pretty good so how about area effect versions of them? And since carbineer gets suppression fire 2 we could give SL a more crowd control related skill such as cover fire. This could work the same way as suppression in that it changes the stance but it would also (stun, dizzy, whatever would keep the ranged mobs from firing while kneeling or prone). Although to prevent spamming its use it would have a high HAM cost (mind most likely) and the mob would then become invulnerable to damage. That’s right INVULNERABLE, well at least while it is down. This way it gives the SL the ability to incapacitate a mob while the player(s) that are near it are able to get away. Its not a knockdown and its not a suppression fire but a little of both with the chance to retreat and regroup.

Now I know that coverfire conflicts with /retreat but /retreat gives the group burst run so everyone can run away. This to a leader is only a last resort.... LAST RESORT! Coverfire just gets the group out of a tight spot for the time being. Then everyone can get back into the fight once the mob is up again (sans dizzy or stun or whatever). Now how I see it is that suppression fire works how it is supposed to stopping the mob in its tracks as it charges towards you. You can keep firing and they can too if they are ranged attackers. But specials like threaten shot and warning shot should be a one use command. They shouldn’t go into the combat queue. If you use either of theses commands you will keep firing after you use it and end up negating its effect. These should work the same as the tumble specials where they can be used in the middle of combat but if used by themselves will no longer continue the combat queue. Cover fire would need to work the same way, just one hit and then no more firing.

On to the scout side of the SL family tree. Survival gives us camping and foraging skills, not much to go off of there since foraging can't get much more advanced and rangers got the better camps so we can leave that one alone for now. Exploration gives terrain negotiation, and SL get group terrain negotiation so that fits, but it also gives mask scent. Now a group mask scent might be nice since some people draw aggros like flies, but on the other hand mask scent is not break proof and it gives scouting xp now for ever creature that doesn’t break it. Also rangers might already, or will soon, have the ability to apply conceal to other players. So this might be a conflicting issue. The only idea I could think to add would be a field of view increase. Not a visual field of view since we can do that with the client, but increase the range at what mobs are loaded. So instead of the current distance of (60m?) they could load at further distances. It could add +5 at novice, mobility 1, mobility 3, and master. You would end up with +20 FOV where for every 2 points you have will add 1m to your loading radius giving an extra 10m to see mobs. Although this skill wouldn't affect the group directly it would be a good skill in the SL toolbox, since he could provide information to the rest of the squad about the area earning him the title "Field Commander". The only restriction I could think of is have it active only when grouped with other players. The FOV could also be applied to Rangers since that seems like a skill they could use, even though they have areatrack. This SL ability could use some work though.

The current skills we have are useful, when they are working that is, so I don't see much point in changing them. One suggestion I remember was the ability to paint targets. This would be a great addition since when SL types a "/sysgroup Everyone attack %TT", he could be telling everyone to attack "a womp rat" when there are over 5 womp rats in view. Being able to designate a target, that doesn’t have a specific name like most humanoid mobs do, would be a great asset.

The following is my prototype skill tree:

Key: (Blue) - current; (Red) - Additions; (Green) - current but moved

I have played around with the idea of changing the melee defense in Tactics I and group ranged defense in Tactics II to +5. And to change the defenses in Tactics III to +10 thus changing the group defenses in Master to +15. It doesn't change the end amount but it gives more of an incentive to get master. This leads me to my conclusion, for this edition at least. Master SL gives no extra ability, no extra skill, only a few bonuses that most people don't notice anyway. How about an area intimidate command like /battlecry (not related to warcry) or something like that. It could gain more effectiveness with more people in the group.

Squad Leader deserves some respect, not just from the devs, but from the game community. Captain Vem has done a great job mucking through the SL swamp and he is our mouth to pass along our ideas. Luckily this mouth has a brain and can keep all the junk from getting through. Let’s stick together and we can work towards the profession with the greatest potential. Feel free to comment, amend, share your thoughts and feelings about this post. I tried to search through all the old ideas that everyone had but it was hard to find anything so I am sorry if these ideas have already been brought up.

Thank you for your time and support.