Bio Engineer Archive

I've seen many complaining about how to use mask scent to sample the higher level creatures, and I never saw what the problem was. SO here it is a how-to guide

Well let me tell me something about myself first. I started playing this game to become a ranger. In other rp games I usually play a thief or a ranger because i like sneaking around. Ranger seemed the most obvious choice. After a while I picked up CH to control pets, and a month later i picked up BE to make my own.

MASK-SCENT.
Mask scent is a skill given to the scout. It hides you from animals and monsters. A master scout maxes at +100 mask scent, which he can further enhance by using BE clothing (+25) and/or Jawa Beer. I myself dropped ranger a while ago to get BE and I even dropped Mscout. I still sneak past every critter in the game.
The first thing you need to LEARN is patience. Playing for many years a thief in games has taught me to have patience, and taught me that rarely you'll succeed in something at the first try. Personally I keep mask-scented everytime I travel around, all the time. Sneaking up creatures isn't easy with just mask scent, and this is a great way to learn how to be patient. Just get off your swoop when detected (when you're in safety that is of course) and mask your scent again.
Okay, now on to the sampling. When you see the creature you want to sample, or know where he's at the patience you just learned will come right in effect. Say you want to sample a mutant rancor:
1) get to a safe place at about 60m away of any aggro's, and at least 70m of creatures with high ferocity (10+).
2) STORE your swoop or store it when at number 5. Creatures just seem to smell you when you're on a swoop/mount/vehicle of some sort.
3) walk up to the creature. For those who haven't found this great function: press shift while running.
4) if you get detected a lot, go prone, crawl (you're gonna wish you were a ranger) and stand up when you're about 15-20 meters away. If still get detected drink some jawa beer.
5) Call swoop. Get on your swoop. and ride till you're at the distance that you can start needle it to death. (I never got detected once I made it to 15-20 meters of the creature, it seems that this is a good distance to mount your swoop.)
6) Dismount, sample, mount, and rotate your vehicle away from the creature. This way you can get a good distance between you and the creature in a short time in case he aggro's you. If you're sampling a high level creature this is a real must as they can often kill you in one hit.
7) in case of aggro, ride away in one direction to shorten the time that he aggro's you. Repeat above steps.

Now I myself have nevr used jawa beer (there is a real shortage on lowca on that stuff), still I'm always able to pull it off. You just have to take time for it. Also the more aggro's there are, the higher the chance to be detected. Approach your sample target while trying to get away of other agro's (this is one of the hardest part, and can be very time consuming).

Personally I feel that detection is not bound to CL. A kreetle just seems to always now where you are. And IMO catlike creatures seem to also have a better ability at spotting you. Rancors and such seem to be much easier in my expierience (you want a test go sneak up a mire marauder or gps, they are around the same level as a rancor if i'm not mistaken, those gps just seem to smell you from a 100m). If you have any questions feel free to ask. I'll test it cuz i just love to sneak up on things (hehehe /evilgrin)

Message Edited by ArthurDentOnBria on 12-28-2004 04:06 PM

Message Edited by darkmeh on 12-28-2004 06:27 PM

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ArthurDentOnBria wrote:

Madhi,

thanks for sharing this. I'm a bit confused by the bit about walking to 15-20m, then getting on your swoop to get into sampling range. Can you explain what that is about? Everything else looks good.

Message Edited by ArthurDentOnBria on 12-28-2004 04:06 PM

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It seems that the creatures try to detect you according to their ferocity (at least that's what I've seen mostly). Most creatures try to detect you when you're about 25-40m away from them. If you're 15-20m away from the creature without detection, it has not noticed you. At that point you can call your swoop and ride it cuz it already made their 'check' at detecting you. That way you can leave quickly if needed (I have the feeling that after a time the creatures gets another 'check' to detect you, mostly i fail because i'm riding my swoop at that moment).

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darkmeh wrote:

...I'll repeat doing this until my buff runs out, and can get around 50 samples at least in a buff session without a problem. ...

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droid327 wrote:

I would advise strongly against storing and recalling your swoop - AFAICT, having your swoop called doesnt affect your mask breaking unless you're actually ON it - and if your mask gets broken and you get aggroed, you're gonna wish you still had your bike out to make a quick getaway.

Also, I'm surprised he didnt mention unequipping your weapon; IIRC, this gives a 25% bonus to your maskscent. Or was that going prone? I know unequipping helps to some extent though.

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Oh didn't know about the unequiping weapons. Pets are my weapons and when i go sampling I don't carry my heavy carbine, so yeah it might affect mask scent.
Also I mentioned storing swoop because i wrote down how I go to work. I always store my swoop because i call it when i'm close to the creature (otherwise i had to go back to 60-70m away from the creatures and ride my swoop back), this also gives least chance of being seen imo

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Sinhero wrote:

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darkmeh wrote:

...I'll repeat doing this until my buff runs out, and can get around 50 samples at least in a buff session without a problem. ...

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Until I read your post I also thought I'd be among the more successful MR-samplers... but 50 samples per buff session breaks every record I've ever heard of. I might get as many if the fail rate wasn't as high - but it seems to me that the fail rate is inversely proportional to your MR-approach skill - to balance things out

Hmmm.. how do you do this? Maybe you want to share your tactics...? Any new chef food to reduce fail rates discovered recently?

Sinero DaSilva

Master Bio-Engineer - Infinity

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Well I haven't actually gotten 50 in a sample session. I've only gone sampling for MR DNA a few times (maybe 5), but every time has been without too many problems. I've never really done a whole buff session of MR sampling. The latest expedition I went on yielded about 30 samples in the hour to an hour and a half that I was sampling before I died. I think I'll wear more armor next time

My fail rate is more than what it normally is when compared to other creatures, but it doesn't give me too hard of a time. I think the longest fail streak I've had on an MR was about 12 in a row, and that is rare. I don't know if this is a higher success rate than others, but in case it is, here are my stats:

Exploration IV

BE Clothes w/ +25 mask scent

Jawa beer with~+12 mask scent

Race: Human

Stats: 400/400/400 Health 400/400/400Action 800/1100/1100 Mind

Ihave one jawa beer and one brandy in me at all times whilesampling, andI may eat a canape or two here and there as well.It's possible that my mind stats are affecting my sampling, but it's doubtful.

That's pretty much it. Hope that helps

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Sinhero wrote:

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darkmeh wrote:

...I'll repeat doing this until my buff runs out, and can get around 50 samples at least in a buff session without a problem. ...

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Until I read your post I also thought I'd be among the more successful MR-samplers... but 50 samples per buff session breaks every record I've ever heard of. I might get as many if the fail rate wasn't as high - but it seems to me that the fail rate is inversely proportional to your MR-approach skill - to balance things out

Hmmm.. how do you do this? Maybe you want to share your tactics...? Any new chef food to reduce fail rates discovered recently?

Sinero DaSilva

Master Bio-Engineer - Infinity

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Same here. I use similar techniques, except they can usually catch me unless I burst run. I typically get about one sample per 1-3 deaths, buffed, and about 4 samples per session. I go with a master doctor who resurrects and rebuffs me. The best technique I found is to have her draw them on a vehicle while I stand about the distance away that they can reach before they stop aggroing her.

Even so, the individual breaks my scent frequently. I always use maximally scent-enhanced clothing and Jawa beer. I'm always buffed. And I have all the mask scent skill points I can have without being a master scout. It will break my scent, even though I am not moving at all.

I can't approach a group of mutantrancors under any condition without the scent being broken. They usually all aggro me at once when that happens. I have tried crawling, behind trees,belowa cliff, and every combinationto no avail. If an enraged rancor is in the area, I don't even bother. Enraged break scent without fail.

I'm a Zabrak, which may have an effect, but I don't know. Some species are supposed to make better scouts than others.

I have heard that the more combat skills a player has, the less likely he is to get aggroed. Perhaps that is important, too.

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Hylidex wrote:

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Sinhero wrote:

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darkmeh wrote:

I have heard that the more combat skills a player has, the less likely he is to get aggroed. Perhaps that is important, too.

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I have found this to be pretty much true, except that it seems to be scaled to the difference between the reletive creature power and your reletive power. This might be tied to fierceness, level, ham, or a mystic "I detect you" number.

I did an experiment with flits on Lok. I had a toon with no combat skills walk up to the flits a bunch of times to try and figure out the average distance they argo. It turned out to be about 40m. Then I had a swords, brawler, tka walk up to them. Sometimes they didn't agro the combat monster until he passed through them. It kinda skewed the stats. We called this the scared sh*tless factor. Anyhoo, it was a good illustration of this whole thing.

Corbis
Kauri
Ex-Master Bio-Engineer

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PlainWhiteSocks wrote:

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Hylidex wrote:

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Sinhero wrote:

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darkmeh wrote:

I have heard that the more combat skills a player has, the less likely he is to get aggroed. Perhaps that is important, too.

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I have found this to be pretty much true, except that it seems to be scaled to the difference between the reletive creature power and your reletive power. This might be tied to fierceness, level, ham, or a mystic "I detect you" number.

I did an experiment with flits on Lok. I had a toon with no combat skills walk up to the flits a bunch of times to try and figure out the average distance they argo. It turned out to be about 40m. Then I had a swords, brawler, tka walk up to them. Sometimes they didn't agro the combat monster until he passed through them. It kinda skewed the stats. We called this the scared sh*tless factor. Anyhoo, it was a good illustration of this whole thing.

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I never heard of these things before, though I remember on the ranger forum a discussion about the 'hidden animal faction'. Seems like critters have their own faction standing although not visible (and rangers would get a lot of negative points). Might have to do with this...

Madhi Starstrider
Master Bio Engineer/Creature Handler/Marauder
Specialzing in genetical mutated critters
Visit at 6523, 6008 Naboo