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Downtweak



Joined: 14 Mar 2003
Posts: 389
Location: West of October

 Post Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2004 6:18 pm    Post subject: Formations
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Because troopers could use some cool stuff:

Formations would be abilities somewhere between mercenary techniques, stances, and squad bonuses: they would allow troopers to modify various aspects of combat for all members of their group at the cost of a constant drain on focus.

The abilities of each formation would vary, but the bonuses and penalties alloted to each would typically balance out, but can be much more beneficial or detrimental depending on the circumstances and the skill/stats of the trooper. The 'power' of each formation would be based mainly on charisma, intelligence, mentality, and tactics skill in various combinations and amounts, while some would also have other skill/stat factors involved. As the 'power' (henceforth called leadership ability, for rhetoric purposes) of the formation increases, the length the formation can be held may increase, the bonuses given by the formation may increase, the penalties given by the formation may decrease, the formation may be allowed to be used on more people at once, or certain other factors for special formations may become more beneficial.

Just a few example of abilities that would fall under this umbrella.

Vanguard- The trooper takes the head of a V-like formation, leading his group into battle. This allows him to take the brunt of most of the blows felled upon his party; each attack directed at a member of his group has a percentage chance to be redirected towards him (indirectly related to the number of people in his group), however, he must defend against all attacks at a penalty directly related to the number of people in his group. Increased leadership ability increases his chances to protect his group while reducing the incurred defensive penalty. However, evading attacks while leading a vanguard is exceedingly difficult.

Escort- The trooper directs each member of his group to protect a single individual. Similar to vanguard, any attack directed at this individual has a chance to be redirected at random to a member of his group: the more people in the group, the higher chance for protection. However, this tightly-packed formation is a magnet for snipers, and all members face a penalty to defending against ranged weapons. In addition, if party members are injured, especially fatally, there is a chance the formation will break due to fear and the escortee will be susceptible to attack.

Protect- In this formation, anyone in the troopers group who becomes stunned, prone, or blind will have a random chance to have any attack towards them directed randomly towards another group member, following similar rules as Vanguard and Escort.

Entrench- The trooper instructs his group to take cover behind the nearest obstacle, allowing them maximum protection from ranged weapons. They also face a percentage penalty to perception due to their poor visibility, and a smaller penalty to melee combat.

Rally- The trooper rallies his party to make a final stand when faced with defeat. They will suffer less HP damage and have moderate bonuses to both offense and defense, but the formation will cause a constant, rapid drain on their stamina, making them succeptible to attack if they cannot overcome their enemies within a short period. Based heavily on charisma.

Etc.

More ideas are always welcome, unless they happen to suck.
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drainm2



Joined: 24 Jul 2003
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 Post Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2004 1:01 pm    Post subject:
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neifl....you rock my socks
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HR-Morrigan



Joined: 06 Sep 2002
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Location: Trooper Tower, Titan City

 Post Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2004 9:07 am    Post subject:
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Thanks for your suggestion. I do like the idea of different formations, although, I don't see Troopers using focus powers like that. I see formations more as something you'd learn in the course of your training (probably be a test/quest for it) and once you've learned them, you'd be able to execute them whenever, like stances. It would require more thought and, of course, something like this would certainly have to wait until live when we have a firm engagement system in place. I'll look at putting something together for the this instance of the game, maybe something like squad-bonus but for non-Troopers in your group, or maybe some type of guard ability, or maayyybe a band of lowly NPC Troopers that follow you around in formation and do your bidding, yeah! Twisted Evil

Anyway, keep those ideas coming!
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Mischeif



Joined: 26 Sep 2003
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 Post Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2004 2:50 pm    Post subject: Re: Formations
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Formations would be abilities somewhere between mercenary techniques, stances, and squad bonuses: they would allow troopers to modify various aspects of combat for all members of their group at the cost of a constant drain on focus.



i thought they were different professions.....here it goes again,,, nevermind. its proven pointless to resist, make it easier on everyone, combine the professions so the mercs and troops are the same just with options to train in a direction to specialize the individual. this way each profession can borrow from the other, without taking and not giving any back. if the merc techniques are to be "borrowed" or "copied" what would the mercs get in return?
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HR-Morrigan



Joined: 06 Sep 2002
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Location: Trooper Tower, Titan City

 Post Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2004 3:21 pm    Post subject:
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Quote:
i thought they were different professions.....here it goes again,,, nevermind. its proven pointless to resist, make it easier on everyone, combine the professions so the mercs and troops are the same just with options to train in a direction to specialize the individual. this way each profession can borrow from the other, without taking and not giving any back. if the merc techniques are to be "borrowed" or "copied" what would the mercs get in return?


First of all, the formations were just a suggestion and if you actually read my post you'd see that I'm not borrowing from the Mercs or have any plans to. I don't want to do focus powers for Troopers and if anyone would have formations/group tactics it would be Troopers. We are a group oriented profession (think teamwork and platoons and all that good stuff), dedicated to heavy armor and tactics. Mercs on the other hand are loners for the most part (think bounty hunter) dedicated to weaponry. In all honesty, think that you should have been a Trooper to begin with from what you've suggested for the Mercs. :shrug:

So your saying to combine the two professions and just make a super powerful fighter class that are the masters of weapons, armor and all things destructive? Yeah, that sounds balanced. Wink
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Downtweak



Joined: 14 Mar 2003
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 Post Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2004 4:14 pm    Post subject:
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Quote:
i thought they were different professions.....here it goes again,,, nevermind.


How on earth does giving troopers the ability to better lead groups into combat somehow copy mercenaries? This kind of blind reactionism really doesn't get anyone anywhere.

Quote:
I don't want to do focus powers for Troopers and if anyone would have formations/group tactics it would be Troopers.


Can I ask what you have against focus abilities for troopers? Honestly, it simply seemed to me that it would simply be:

A> A way to implement a power scale for such an ability, not only in terms of ability strength, but duration, etc.

B> A way to make some of the stats that are not directly combat oriented (i.e. charisma, intellect, and mentality) more attractive training choices for troopers.

C> A way to balance the fact that, under certain conditions and with high enough skill, formations would, unlike stances, provide more bonuses than penalties.

Is focus supposed to be some kind of magical power which can only be tapped through spells or psionics? I certainly never saw it as such.

I believe it's simply the mental fortitude/concentration to perform acts that are beyond the reach of most individuals (read: either mundane, non-PC civilians or those not of a specific profession/race), whether it be blinding something with your mind, calling lightning from the sky, performing a dance which makes you more alluring, using the power of meditation to better control your body, or projecting your will on your party in order to better lead them into combat. The fact that something uses focus should not indicate that it is in some way supernatural, only that it puts undo strain on whatever it is that allows adventurers to perform feats such as these, whether it be mana for spells, ki for meditations, or simple mental fortitude and rigorous training in the case of troopers and mercenaries.
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Brokyn
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Joined: 19 Oct 2002
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 Post Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2004 7:42 pm    Post subject:
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I thought her not wanting Focus to be a factor in Formations (or whatever they end up being in Live) was that Troopers are pretty much going to be Robocops.. or at least have the potential to be. And cyberwear affects either the amount of available focus or how effective focus-requiring abilities are, I can never remember. So.

--William
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Downtweak



Joined: 14 Mar 2003
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Location: West of October

 Post Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2004 7:47 pm    Post subject:
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Brokyn wrote:
I thought her not wanting Focus to be a factor in Formations (or whatever they end up being in Live) was that Troopers are pretty much going to be Robocops.. or at least have the potential to be. And cyberwear affects either the amount of available focus or how effective focus-requiring abilities are, I can never remember. So.

--William


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Troopers are strong fighters, skilled in a variety of weapons and combat tactics. They typically choose to rely more on their own bodies and skills than technology or magic, but may choose to enhance their abilities with either.

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HR-Morrigan



Joined: 06 Sep 2002
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 Post Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2004 8:25 pm    Post subject:
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Quote:
Can I ask what you have against focus abilities for troopers?


Cyberware certainly plays a part in it. Granted it's not a requirement, but Troopers do get a bonus to using it. Also, I was thinking of focus as having more of a spiritual/magical nature to it, which I was trying to avoid since I don't see the profession giving out those types of abilities. In live, perhaps we'll have willpower type thing that works like mental stamina.
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Downtweak



Joined: 14 Mar 2003
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 Post Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2004 8:38 pm    Post subject:
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Quote:
Also, I was thinking of focus as having more of a spiritual/magical nature to it, which I was trying to avoid since I don't see the profession giving out those types of abilities. In live, perhaps we'll have willpower type thing that works like mental stamina.


This is half of what I was asking... what makes focus have to be spiritual/magical?

Honestly, this is something I wouldn't mind Trevor weighing in on, as it applies across the board.
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HR-Morrigan



Joined: 06 Sep 2002
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 Post Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:53 am    Post subject:
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Quote:
This is half of what I was asking... what makes focus have to be spiritual/magical?

Honestly, this is something I wouldn't mind Trevor weighing in on, as it applies across the board.


Guess I wasn't clear in what I was saying.... I, me in my personal thoughts, always perceived it as having a magical/spiritual nature when I posted before. I asked Trevor about it and he said it's more of a inner power type thing like you described. Personally, I still don't like that magic/psi/meditations/merc stuff all uses the same thing, I don't really see it as the same, but guess that's something I'll learn to live with.
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HR-Trevor
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Joined: 04 Oct 2002
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 Post Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2004 9:05 am    Post subject:
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Time for a history lesson!

In the beginning (heh) we had mana and psi points instead of focus. We later realized that having separate pools was bad because you could train both magic and psi and have an endless supply of power by emptying one and then another. Hence, focus. Focus has honestly never been well defined however, and this causes confusion.

Focus is one's personal ability to draw into themselves and harness power they possess to accomplish a task. You see, it's not a magic power however! A mage uses his or her SKILL TRAINING -- i.e. years of academic study -- to channel that power into a spell. A mercenary uses their combat training to harness that power into fortitude and concentration to enhance the gifts they already possess.

Certainly one can look on these things and feel they have a tinge of magic to them but in reality, it's quite a plausible concept and it's a great one for gaming purposes. I don't know that I'd go around writing spellcasting 101 self-help books based on it tho. Wink
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