Squad Leader Archive

I took a look at the top 5 list we previously submitted.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=squad_leader&message.id=1134

At the TIME it look pretty good. From reading the replies that the various professions received, I think it was a big mistake. We compiled a bullet list of bugs/problems. We were trying to 'improve' what the Squad Leaders were given. After reading the replies from Holo it's clear to me that we needed to express that we got nothing to begin with and what we WERE given is of little value or doesn't work. Ranger and Scouts that simply expressed they got nothing have changes coming. Other professions which talked about specific item problems, got told that it all was working as intended or glossed over.

(CaptainVemnox did a awesome job don't get me wrong, this is all in retrospect.) We need to communicate to the devs the LACK of special skills or differentiation that our professions has. E.G.:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=squad_leader&message.id=2816

Also we responsibly inserted a lot of items that would change or reduce Squad Leader abilities because the current implementation made little sense. I think that was in retrospect and error. My suggestion for future submissions would be:

#1) Make general statements/description of the problem.
#2) Don't suggest corrections, the Devs want the believe they invented the answer.
#3) Don't self nerf us in the name of sensibility, SWG is way past any sensibility.

Still our previous top 5 was missing the ONE crystallized point:

======================================================================================================
Squad leader has no special skills that significantly differ us from any other profession and nothing that makes us particularly valuable to a Squad.
======================================================================================================

In retrospect I think this is the kind of thing the Devs are looking to correct now.

Is there any way to insert this simple idea into the current dev exchange stream ?

====================================================================================================== Squad leader has no special skills that significantly differ us from any other profession and nothing that makes us particularly valuable to a Squad. ======================================================================================================

I think the skill that the SL currently has (when working properly) DO differ us from any other profession

I think this is just a little too negitive to be considered useful Criticism

That's right, we can pop a /sys message up on their screens. Novice CH can train creatures, Novice Pistoleer can use the DX2 and do Healthshot2. Architect can build buildings. Dancers get a more "powerful" dance. We get an ability that has 0.5% practical use. Okay, climb the trees. We can redistribute wounds on the primary stats amongst the party. A doctor canraise you from the dead. (comparing two IV level abilities here.)We give the entire group a +60 to terrain negotiation while everyone with Explore IV only gives themself +40. We get +10 to terrain negotiation, +10 to burst run +5 to group melee defense and +5 to group range defense (the latter two not even working.) At Master a CH can pull out three GSP or a Rancor. A pistoleer gets a ranged AOE KD effect. Architects can make PA, Weaponsmiths make the best guns in the game. The list goes on and on. We are distinct from other classes in that ours is almost entirely useless. It isn't broken, its useless. I could take any of those other classes instead of remaining Master Squad Leader and contribute more at the Novice level than I do at the master level of SL. I guess you are right, we ARE distinct.

Agreed. We need to make it clear to the devs that our abilities are useless. Perhaps we should start calling for ranger nerfs because we can't compete with their camp kits and suicide ability.

I assume you're being sarcastic, but...

Let's not call for the nerfing of anything. Don't screw with another class just because ours has no major ability modifications.

Two relatively minor tweaks would fix squad leader right up in my opinion.

1) Give some noticable bonus or ability for Novice Squad Leader besides /sys. System Message is a valuable utility - last night leading a group of ~20 against a AT-ST it was critical for communication. But give us something else - could be as simple as a /morale action to give people a 5% bonus to HAM for a duration or a slight bonus to attack/damage/whatever - just give us a noticable benefit for the novice level.

2) Revamp our current abilities with minor tweaks across the board. Make our abilities succeed more often and when they do succed make them more powerful. This is not as big a deal as it sounds. Just adjust existing percentages (chance to suceed, duration, amount of effect, etc). Increase the success percentage of our actions such as Volley Fire and Steady Aim. Make these abilities a little more powerful - longer duration or increased effective % on Steady aim for example. Possibly tweak Mobility tree to provide movement tweaks on top of other tweaks, so that the squad leader gives a +40 bonus to everyone on top of Scout bonus - because the Mobility tree is much less valuable given that most people i've seen have some scouting abilities already.

While this may seem like a lot, I don't see the same high-level of "this entire profession is worthless" type feedback coming from other high-level combat-based professions. I understand there are separate issues with some of the non-combat professions, but fixing Squad Leader could be as simple as adjusting some percentage numbers on the existing stats and adding one extra ability to the novice level.

Borion
Squad Leader and Rifleman
Corellia, Sunrunner

I agree with the original post, the top five list was nearly perfect with the exception of the pet XP debacle when it first came out, but after looking at all the other profession responses I see that it was sorely lacking to no fault of anyone.

After reading this forum for a long time now it has become exceedingly clear to me that what we were intended to have not only needs to be fixed, but we need to have more.

don't forget an ability at master level. There should be SOME reason to master a class. SL has none (disregarding that the class itself is worthless when other non-gimped classes are taken into consideration.)