So, I don't want to throw anymore hate under the piece itself, so I figured a topic on its own would suffice, and allow me to get all these quotes out there for people who don't like to read Wookiepedia.

First quote, in the first paragraph

"Due to Naboo's pacifistic nature, Olié's skills were rarely in use, although he saw military action during the Invasion of Naboo."

His skills made him the Queens personal pilot

He was so skilled, that, Quote

"Towards the beginning of the invasion, Olié, along with the rest of his pilots, were captured and arrested by Federation forces when they swept into Theed." He was so good outside of his ship, he was captured by Battle droids.


He was so oblivious to actual combat, that after he was rescued from his capture

"However, they did not anticipate the intervention of two Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, who were able to rescue the Queen, her entourage, Olié, and his pilots. Olié had no time to comprehend what was going on, as he was quickly ushered into the Queen's Royal Starship, and ordered to set a heading for Coruscant."

And, he was such a good pilot that

"Although he tried his best, the ship sustained heavy damage during the escape, and lost its shield generator. R2-D2, one of the ship's astromech droids, repaired the shields, which allowed Olié to pilot the ship through the blockade to safety."

Thank God R2 was there to save the day for him.

Oh and his prowess inside a ship... That must've been what this piece was about... Wait

"Only upon reaching the enemy ship did Olié realize that the deflector shield was too strong, and that the battle seemed hopeless. Just when it seemed as though the Naboo fighters would fail in their mission, the Control Ship started to explode from the inside to Olié's surprise as none of the Naboo fighters managed to hit it. "

Wow... He was so good, he lost all hope until it blew up, and then he was oblivious to how it blew up OH... And his Personality and Traits portion of Wookiepedia. You know, normally where you find out some info of their skills... I'll copy and paste the entire thing, don't worry its not long.

"Olié was a very vocally observant man, and had a reputation among his peers as the one most likely to point out the obvious. He was a naturally gifted pilot and could pilot any craft on Naboo. He was reverent towards his Queen and always respected her decisions"



So am I to understand this is how we got a piece, who is now the Face of the Republic Pilots... Wait... Was Ric Olie even part of the Republic? Answer is no, he was not at all. He was a Naboo security guard, who flew the Queen around when she commanded, then found himself in battle with droids, and was so overwelmed and outmatched, it took a 6year old kid to destroy the battle station for them.

I rest my case.



EDIT - Oh, and this is my favorite "Ric Olié is referred to by some fans as "Captain Obvious" due to dialogue that simply states well-observed facts, such as "There's the blockade!," "That's it… Tatooine," and "We didn't hit it!"


Now I rest my case.

Challenge for you Juiceman, show me something Ric Olie did in the movie that impressed you. In the slightest. And oh, in case you didn't know, he is a Disney character. Disney bought the rights to all Lucas material. I'm surprised you didn't know that. There may be more educating that needs to be done than I originally thought. Are you a designer? And you didn't know Disney purchased LucasFilms?


Wait maybe thats why you needed Ric Olie in Episode one... Otherwise you wouldn't of known that the planet was Tatooine... Or that none of the Pilots did anything in the space battle except Anakin.... Or maybe you didn't realize it was a blockade until Ric Olie told you it was?

Impressive... Every word in that sentence was wrong.

Hahaha I was hoping for someone else to speak up but for a proper discussion there needs to be two sides so for the sake of fun banter I'll reciprocate. Though disclaimer he wouldn't have been my first choice for such a role either before I did some research into the character. (Rhys Dallos anyone? #Starfighterislegendary Hahaha)

I think for me it comes down to a few things:

First I think you are giving ol Ric a rough go. For sure in the movie he wasn't a Poe Dameron. But you pulled from Wook so I popped over and got some stuff too.

"Ric Olié was a Human male starfighter and starship pilot who served in the Royal Naboo Security Forces. He was the commander of the Naboo Royal Space Fighter Corps, and the leader of Echo Flight, Alpha Flight and Bravo Squadron. An expert pilot, he was qualified to fly any vessel that was a part of Naboo's fleet."

Man as someone who spent some time in the military, I can promise you that most of the higher ups have seen some crazy stuff. There is a reason they have a rack full of medals. Because they are a veteran of a ton of things. And this guy is literally the boss of them. So all of the previous conflicts or skirmishes they got into, his skill in those is what got him promoted. Not to mention he's no doubt been a flight instructor for a good chunk of that time. Something reflected in his CE. He's not handing out damage abilities, and he himself isn't able to mobile out and put out Dash Render or Poe type of destruction, but he does stay alive, and teaches others too as well. He's talented enough to not get shot down when a massive swarm of Vulture Droids are assaulting them and many others die instead. So survival expert, evade, GMA and a CE to help other pilots defensively actually work for me. And fits his more pacifist planet's ideology. And that's just going off of the movie.

But if we are just going movie appearances, why the heck are any of the Rebel pilots good at all? What's Wedge Antilles skill? Getting shot up and having to leave the Death Star Run? Or maybe it's pointing out the obvious and filling up the comms on Hoth? Or is it just following Lando around. The rest of the rebel pilots don't fare much better:
-Dutch Vander, so you give out close range targeting but couldn't hit the Death Star if you tried?
-Biggs trained luke how to be a pilot and is some sort of GMAing super fighter? His evade and bravado sure didn't do him well against Vader.
-porkins... ok porkins is close, except he should really have 0 damage and a built in timer that causes him to auto die, or maybe a minus to saves.

But alas you may eventually say "Grievous my insane Cybernetic friend, it's the EU? Or the stories beyond the films that makes these laser fodder characters into interesting and powerful pilots"
Alright cool so what does it say about Ric outside of the movie:
"Olié was prone to being a bit of a show-off. He participated in many minor skirmishes with Chommell sector pirates and would often escort dignitaries to Coruscant and back. During such missions, he would attempt to demonstrate his considerable skills"

So this guy has fought in MANY battles against cutthroat pilots and lived to tell the tale. And would show off to other pilots because he was that good? Interesting.

"Because he was unique among Naboo's fighter pilots in that he had actually seen combat, Olié was promoted to captain and placed in command of Theed's main fighter squadron, Bravo."

So again he's apparently the best and most qualified pilot on his entire planet for fighting in space battles and war.

"Olié's skills, combined with a lessened Trade Federation space presence, allowed them to land on the planet with enough time for Amidala to contact the native Gungans to enlist their help."

So Ric actually broke the blockade when they were flying back into the planet. And he was so good and GMAing, evading and survival expert-ing that they didn't even have to film a sequence of them fighting past ships because he was such a boss pilot.


"After a few days, they returned with both the parts and a new member of the group—nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker, an aspiring pilot. Olié took to the boy and offered him a few short lessons in starship piloting. "
Also:
"Olié's actions during the Clone Wars are not known, but his one-time protégé, Anakin Skywalker, went on to become a skilled pilot"

So another point here is that he was the one who initially taught Anakin Skywalker, arguably one of the best pilots of all Star Wars, his initial flying lessons. And we see it a bunch in the movie but how much more he must have done throughout their space travels. So in that comparison one could say he is the wise old skilled Sensei that made Anakin who he is. For all we know Ric was the one that taught Anakin everything and is the reason he's such an amazing pilot. Perhaps he even taught Anakin, that spinning is indeed a good trick. Spinning = GMA = epic realization.


Final point Jen'ari my friend, you missed the most critical aspect of all, it's not just Ric. Unlike all of the other pilots in the game, this guy comes with an astromech. Why is that significant? Let's take a look at his entry:

"R2-A6 was a fearless and bold droid, and was capable of operating many systems including defense grids, starship systems or communication systems.[5] It had green and white panels."

So you see green AND white! Hahaha no seriously though we know how crazy tough R2 units are and this guy is literally R2-D2s immediate family and as such can be assumed to share some traits with the greatest and most powerful Star was character in the saga, R2-D2. That combined with the guy that trained Darth Vader how to fly and it makes them quite a deadly combo.

In closing, I counter ask, who would have made a better Republic flight instructor commander pilot than Ric? Oddball who just sort of flew around. Any of the Jedi characters that basically fly using aimbots and cheat codes (aka the Force, foolish Jedi dogs!) or a guy was a fairly major character, actually filled a role as an instructor and helped keep other pilots alive, and lastly initially trained Anakin, one of the galaxy's greatest pilots.

I think they probably could have toned him up, but I'm ok with underpowering him for game simplicities sake. Hahaha, anyways food for thought and respect and peace always brother.

It would be sweet if it did brother, you may have noticed I'm a huge huge fan hahaha. Snowspeeders, walking Droid starfighters are some of my favorite non-unique pieces. And I hope to see more. How sick would a N1 Starfighter be in our game! But I have to take other people's opinions into consideration and I know many don't like vehicles. That's why we have custom contests! More starfighters! Haha.

I also appreciate your passion for Star Wars and the game and desire for accuracy. I know it's always tricky getting things exactly right but in my opinion the designers have generally done a pretty solid job of it. Though we do have to tone down on the ability count especially for cheap characters or we are going to keep exponentially magnifying complexity haha.

The way I look at it is how many notable Republic pilots that are not Jedi are there? It's a pretty short list (I can think of Ric, Oddball, and that's it). So, Ric got a boost that maybe wasn't deserved by the character as much, but a boost that was needed by the pilot's subfaction.

Sure, one of the Jedi could've filled that role instead, but that character'd wind up costing a lot more and also would run the risk of working better in a Jedi squad than a Pilot squad, negating the mini's entire point.

Just to clarify for future discussion: I mentioned on Ric Olie's page that pilots are often represented with the capabilities of their fighter. That was a personal observation on my part, and not something that I've interviewed designers about.

Ok, find something other than an assumption on his history, that tells you Ric Olie was great pilot. The only positive thing you can say, is he was old, and was promoted to fly Queen Amidala around, and was in charge of their security forces. Find me an Eu story I don't know of. Its possible it exists, I don't know it, and if it does, I will admit my ignorance.


Some battle he was good in. Something spectacular he did. Anything. Find anything and I will concede and admit this is a good piece.

The only battle I can think of that anyone can recall, is he was captured off screen by Battle Droids. And then flew through the blockade ( which really wasn't anything he did, it was R2) And he was present at the Battle over Naboo, that he had no significant role in whatsoever, other than letting his pilots know "We didn't hit it."

My complaint over this piece is its all assumptions. Its not accurate on anything, its just, "we need a Pilot to do something like this, so were gonna use this guys name." If were getting that lazy with designs then stop designing. Its a complete joke.

Might is an understatement. Its not my issue with play testing, its I would say this exact same thing about this character during PT that I am now, and the response would be the same.

" Your just complaining"

"This is what we want"

Blah blah blah. PTing is a waste of time for me. Because no one listens to me during PT. I could go through the list, but I have done that so many times I don't want to anymore

I'll believe the listening when I see it happen. But I don't want my point to be lost in this PT conversation. So still, I am waiting for someone to show me this. I will BOLD the portion I am referring to

I did play test. and to be honest the accuracy part is not as hard as the costing part in giving thoughts back to the designers.
And I can say that all my points were addressed. There were two or three points that I thought would be a better route, but the design team definitely discussed it and in 2 of the 3 made a very good (in my opinion) change.
I can have no complaints over being heard in that process for set 15. I feel secure that they were listening and wanting to hear thoughts and wanting to make proper changes for accuracy and gameplay.

I have my own misgivings in giving some pieces more time than others, something that I wish I did not do but I am so excited about 3-6 pieces haha. I would even write that it is hard to not fanboy over a certain piece or a certain new ability.
I had access to all pieces and did not give Ric Olie much time in my head or research the piece. I know that is not exactly my job, but I had a lot of time to think about it and did not do it.

I think Shmi15 would be a fantastic piece of the committee. He does not have the "bias" that I have and would give each piece assigned a lot of time.