Thanks Ellias. It sounds like you have official answers. Are you an admin?
I have quite a few other questions about some NPC skill functions if you don't mind. I do realize that your answers are in no way binding, but I want to have some idea whether training NPC's with specific skills will most likely have beneficial results. This effects daily gameplay now since I play an Infantry Commander and I work full-time at training NPC's.
Lets say you have Infantry Command 4, so you are able to command your own party, plus 5 squads. Unlike the party that always moves with you, the indirectly controlled squads can be released in a sense in at least two ways: they can be set to guard, or to patrol. In order for them to remain under their player's control, the player needs to stay in the same terrain grid, city grid, building, or ship. At least that's as much as I think I understand. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Now for some questions on this. . .
If a squad is set to patrol, will it move around the terrain, city or ship it's in? Seems it would need to in order to do something other than guarding. Do patrolling squads accumulate exp pts in the same way as when they're marched around by a PC? Do patrolling squads move from room to room in ships and buildings? If a squad is patrolling and its PC Commander leaves the grid or ship, will the squad simply go inert, but stay in the PC's squad list? If so, will it automatically go active should the PC re-enter that grid or ship?
If a squad is set to guard, will it remain in place until it is given new orders or the player leaves the grid or ship?
If NPC's are on a grid or ship but not squaded, does this mean they will not defend? Attacking parties can simply walk by unsquaded NPC's in terrain, city , buildings or ships without fighting them?
Is there an allowance made to have more than the max number of NPC's allowed on a ship when it is being boarded? If not, seems the obvious way to stop ships from being boarded is fill them with box-stackers so that attacking troops can't enter. That would be terrible.
If a player is in control of multiple squads that are guarding or patrolling a grid, building, or ship, and an enemy enters and attacks a squad, will the patrolling squads respond or does the PC need to inform them? Do patrolling squads automatically try to arrest enemy PC's or does this require a PC present?
In avoiding arrest, you implied that party members aid in defense of an arrest. Is this true and do squads likewise aid in resisting arrest? What is the group formula for arrest/resisting arrest?
Finally on this issue, can the Infantry Command skill be used to remotely control droids in the same way? Do droids in a party or squad aid in arrest/resisting arrest?
On the other skills I'm curious about: does the Leadership skill in an NPC effect a squad? For example, suppose I want to form NPC squads to guard a city. Is there value in having at least 1 NPC in each squad with the Leadership skill in order to give a higher functionality to the squad when not connected directly to its PC? Likewise, does the Infantry Command skill raise the functionality of a squad if held by an NPC?
Finally, is the Naval Tactics skill expected to be useful in NPC's? Would it be worthwhile to raise an NPC's Naval Tactics and Leadership and leave that NPC on the bridge of a ship, in order to have it available once entity combat comes out? If yes, would that NPC need to be partied with a PC in order for the ship to gain that benefit?
Sorry for the too may questions. Please take your time. I have hunted for these answers for some time and the fact I can't find them seems reason enough to hope to get some here in the questions forum. I'm sure there are many people with the same questions since the answers are not in the rules. It might seem many of these questions could be answered by simple experimentation but this is not true. Fact is, squading is all kinds of buggy. I'll be able to identify the bugs once I know for sure how squading is intended to work, but for sure; try to board a ship for an hour and you'll be convinced--squading is not functioning properly yet. It creates all kinds of whacky behavior.
Thanks!
Edited By: Gort Horth on Year 12 Day 337 1:43____________
My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said I want a second opinion. He said okay, you're ugly too.