I have been planing to suggest it actually since RWR got into Steam, but was thinking if it is even worth mine time to write it down, and most importantly - Your time to read it and eventually answer. Afther moths of thinking about it I decided that it actually may be worth it, because why not?

First of all - there is many theards where people want some kind of commander mode when they have really big rank. I will not be speacking about this because of that reason - should there be not much of such suggestions it would be included here. But because there are already, I will just limit it to - I support!

Now... To the point. From begining of game, each time when player get promotion He become stronger and more important on battlefield. Stronger because He unlocks new equipment. More important because You get Your own squad, which You can command and use to advantage of Your faction. Also new and more powerfull support calls are opened with higher rank. However from the moment that player reaches 10 person squad (let's agree it is 10th rank in game. I know it is not, but let's imagine it is for the sake of simplicity) future promotions do not give Him anything apart from ability to take vehicles from lower ranked players and "steal" soldiers from their squads. Nothing apart from that. It is ok, as it is. Don't get me wrong - it can totaly stay that way. But what I would like to see is that with each further promotion players get some nice abilities which would affect not player himself, but His surrounding allies and other players.

Here I will present some ideas of mine for those abilities. It is important for all of You to understand that those ideas are not core element of mine suggestion!!! Most importan element of my suggestion is sole fact of geting benevits from geting higher ranks - benefits that have more impact on those who are nerby You, than on Yourself.

1. Mentor Aura (sorry for lame name - You can surely think of MUCH better name) - Every character (player or not) that is in certian radius (or same square/sector) as You will get + 1 EXP for each kill that they commit.
2. V.I.P. - Your high rank makes You really important for Your faction, and because of that You get 2 Honor Guards every time You respawn, providing that certian amount of time had elepsed since Your last respawn (to eliminate possible abuse - it would work kind of like RP reward from base capturing). Also You have some chances to respawn with free vest. Honor Guards would be soldiers which wield normal weapons, but have statisticks (accuracy for example) of those high ranking which wield unique weapons. Also some unique uniforms would be nice in long term.
3. Communication Officer - as long as somebody is in certian radious from You - cost of every support call is reduced by certian %.
4. Supply Officer - as long as somebody is in certian radious from You in moment of their death, they have to pay 1 RP less for every item they respawn with (or maybe 50% less from total price? Or maybe any other number? Not really important - numbers may be rebalanced)
5. I support idea of "being a commander" at high rank. Would fit here, don't You think? ^^

I am sure that You get now what about is mine suggestion, and if You like it or not. Like I said - if You do not like those 4 paticular abilities, that is not a problem - they are working mostly as a nice example.

your ideas are not bad Modest, thanks for sharing.
We decided to add higher ranks especially for multiplayer because some people reached the formerly max level (Colonel) in a few days of gameplay.
I am pretty sure we will give them some special abilities towards the final release. "Commanding" abilities to change the attacking target could pretty much be one of them.
Another thing would be to give them a special badass look so that players could brag a bit

Glad to hear it
Of course a badass look is a MUST! ^^ Btw - love current mini-boss look ^^ Subtle but recognizable

I like these ideas.
Perhaps add another aura/perk in there that reduces bullet damage done to your men. (Defense Specialist)
And one which allows you to reload slightly faster. (Gun Maintenance Expert)
And a perk for slightly increased chance to hit. (Expert Marksman)
Also giving simple bonuses like the ability to carry an extra rocket launcher around. (Strong Back)
Heck, maybe make a skill tree, so people can choose from certain skills as their soldier climbs the ranks.

Also, hi there, Modest.

Perks that passively increase stats is definitely nothing we'd want to see in RWR.

That's a pity. Is this something someone could mod in though? E.g. Is it technically possible?

Gotcha! I knew that if I will post those suggestions, than You will for sure notice and answer No way that Starsectorer would go next to them without noticing at all Nice to see You here... I guess that mine theard in off-topic about RWR did get some attention afther all, since You are here Hmm... Tell You what? Can't wait to find You on battlefield. Hope You sometimes hang arount on British Invasion server, hmm? Also - check Your private messeges. Yes, we do have them here in RWR forum

If You want to have bigger damage, You need to influence weapon. For example You could create clone of AK47 which would have better accuracy, better kill chance and better range and restrict it to certian XP treshold. I am no modder - I do not have intrest in mods at all in RWR (but I love Your Starsector Homeworld 2 mod) so I might be very wrong... But I guess I am not ^^

Gotcha: no this is not possible. It's written in the stars if we'll add this specific support at some point, but as for now I doubt it.

Equipped items have some support for basic character property modifiers, and only affecting the character who has those items so there's no logic for distributing modifiers to squad mates or anything.

It's currently pretty isolated to just the cases we've needed so far, movement speed, hit / blast / melee result transformation, hit success probability.

I'd prefer classes over CoD-style 'perks' any day. I like RWR for the fact that it DOESN'T have that.

Any bonuses should be purely aesthetic imo.

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