Ranger Archive

This probably has been mentioned before, but I don't have a lot of time to search the boards for Camo threads (there are a lot of them)

My idea is simple. If an Overt Ranger was using Camo while in a PvP situation, would it be possible that he show on the radar as a blue blip, instead of a red blip, until his Camo has either been compromised or wears off.

When viewing the radar all Covert and Neutral Players appear as blue blips. The only difference in the color is when a fellow faction member or an Overt member of the opposite faction is near. Could Camo have the ability to make the Overt player appear as a blue?

From my experience, when Covert are grouped with an Overt theyappear as a blue blip, until the Overt is attacked, and then they appear as a red blip. Would my ideause some of the same coding?

I was once grouped with a friendwho was on his last 20 minutes until he went Covert. We were hunting some small game out in the desert. He was attacked by a member of the opposite faction. Upon the surprise attack, I was granted targeting abilities against the aggressor. To me it appeared that he did not know we were grouped as he rushedpast me to attack my partner. If this is how it is supposed to happen (and not a bug, which I don't think it is) then some of the code snippets should be transferrable to this ability.

Any ideas as to the possibility of this being workable? And again sorry if this idea has been posted before.

Thank you for your time,

"If an Overt Ranger was using Camo while in a PvP situation, would it be possible that he show on the radar as a blue blip, instead of a red blip, until his Camo has either been compromised or wears off."

- You're suggesting that a camo kit make a person appear as covert, yet still be able to attack as an Overt?

- It's an interesting idea... It would only work however if the concealed player were attackable as well.

- However: As soon as the client knows the concealed person is attackable, it would be possible for someone to hack the client and use that information to see through the concealment and defeat the purpose.

- On the other hand, if the player were not attackable himself, yet could still attack any other Overts, it would be considered a loop hole around the Overt/Covert system.

"I've always believed Ranger's should be invisible in PvP and unable to be targeted."

- Yes... Through that darn balance out the window.

- I can it now: "Ranger the new uber PvP profession". Don't go to war without it.

"I can it now"

- I doth miss a word... You can't see it, it has l33t ranger skills

I would be happy if camo worked in PvP just on the stupid pets running around.

If I am prone, camo'd, scentmasked, not laying in the middle of the road but out in the weeds... I should be able to target pets without them automatically knowing where I am. Only if the owner specifically targets me, I mean specifically in that he starts shooting at me and then orders the pets to attack should I be visible to the pets.

The "Guard" command would be useless in this case, as the pets (to include STs, ATSTs, Commandos, beasties) would be clueless where I am shooting from.

This is balanced - I can attack from a concealed position at the risk the player will target me or I can do nothing, and risk the player targeting me. The upside is the pets won't see me til the owner targets me, the downside is I am targetable. Food for thought.

JB

snooping and pooping is the name of the game

To your statement NRaas of "Don't go to war without it". Since the Camo packs can be applied to non Rangers by a Ranger then it makes the Ranger very desirable in a PvP situation, not just for the camps.

I can see it now, 40 Rebels walking into every corner of Bestine, all ready to take on the Imperials. The Overt Rebels attack the outpost outside town, all the Imperials rush to defend. Just as the Rebels start to retreat and the Imperials think they have a victory from behind all the blue blips open fire and decimate them. This would allow a greater use of skills and tactics in PvP, instead of I have the biggest gun or pet and I am going to walk straight into town and destroy everything.

It would also allow for a great defense. I have seen Imperials walk into Anchor and since only 5 or so people are Overt they kill them all, while the Coverts cannot do anything but sit there or try to get to a recruiter only to get gunned down once they go Overt. The Rebel Rangers (I like the sound of that) could be sitting in the basement of the tavern or along the walls. To the Imps they appear as nuetral. Then at once they all decide to counter-attack. Pushing the Imps back out the West side of town, only to have a bunch of Imperial Rangers hit from behind by walking through undetected on the East side. And by the groups of Rangers I mean who the Rangers have Camo'ed. Wow, if this went into effect, our Materials to build these kits would become gold.

Off to work, enjoy the day all,

"I know there is the possibility of the client side hack, but what is in place to keep them from doing that now?"

- But what would you hack on the client right now?

- The development team have kept the client pretty solid so far, restricting the amount of information that is send to it, so really there has been no good reason up until now to actually bother hacking.

- But you're right of course, there is nothing stopping someone from hacking the client to do whatever (perhaps set up an autotarget on any nearby aggressive), beyond the normal safeguards that most resourceful people can get around anyways.

- Once there is reason enough to bother, someone will do it... So lets keep the reasons to a minimum.

"I would be happy if camo worked in PvP just on the stupid pets running around."

- I like the idea as well (though it might confuse those poor Creature Handlers to no end... )

- I have added it to the list (which you can find in my signature under State of the Profession).

To avoid the possibility of the client side hack to detect concealed players, couldn't the server resolve who was concealed and who was not before it sent out the position data to the clients. That way concealed players positions would not be sent to the clients at all and therefore could not be hacked.

Not saying that I am necessarily in favor of PvP conceal. In order for it to be balanced there would have to be a ton of limitations on it to prevent griefing. All i am saying is i think there is a way around the argument that "hackers would be able to see concealed players so thereforePvP concealwon't work"

"That way concealed players positions would not be sent to the clients at all and therefore could not be hacked."

- Yes that is a possibility. That is the concept of pure invisibility.

- Because the location of the character is required for you to target them, you would not be able to attack them (or see them at all), until they either their conceal broke or they attacked you.

- The developers vetoed this option... They didn't want invisible assassins in the system, and I don't blame them.

You don't have to fool the game, you have to fool the player...

Is there some way that a concealed player could have his radar blip concealed as a whitedot and have his name tag removed or changed to NPC-white above his head?

I know this would go along way towards fooling a player during PvP. Most of the time PvP combatants are looking for red names and red radar blips. If an enemy players blip was white and his name white or not shown at all, I would probably overlook them during a battle.