Ranger Archive

Color Reference

• Grey: New to List
  
• Yellow: Ranger Top Issue

Overview

• The concept of the Ranger has been quite contentious among the forum members.
  
  
  
  • There are those that wish a profession along the lines of the "Aragorn" Ranger: At one with nature and the ultimate outdoorsman
    
  • There are those that consider the profession to be in line with the "Park" Ranger: Wilderness enforcer
    
  • And There are those that want to pattern the profession on the "Military" Ranger: Survivalist and Combat specialist
  
  
• These views allow for a wide range of what should be the top priority for the profession. But most arguments boil down to two sides:
  
  
  
  • PvE: As the majority of players tend towards engaging the games creatures, a great many suggestions have been made to improve our proficiency in this area
    
  • PvP: But there is a vocal contingent that want far more effectiveness in the GCW, as once a player achieves Master, there is little available in the profession to directly aid in this end game.
  
  
• In the end however, we are all interested in fleshing out our quasi-complete profession with skills that benefit all sides.

Economics

• As most of the equipment we produce can only be sold to Master Scouts or other Rangers, there is little demand outside the profession.
  
• Our mainstay is the same as the Scouts: Harvested Resources. In this area, we would love to excel far beyond the Scouting profession, but at the moment most rangers don't feel the harvesting skill is sufficiently different from our Scouting brothers.
  
• With the addition of /areatrack, many have found a new avenue for income, though the skill still is still far too limiting to solely rely on.
  
• In general, there does not seem to be not much complaint regarding monetary issues.

Interdependence

• Being Rangers most of us enjoy our independence and fight fervently to ensure that we stay one of the most independent professions.
  
• However, it is in the best interest of game as a whole to have some interdependence, and several Rangers find it odd that polymer was removed from our camps, leaving only traps with resources that we can not supply using our own skills.
  
• On the whole though, we love our freedom from other professions, relying on others only for weapons, armor, and healing.

Bugs

Camps

• Issue with Ranger camps not actually repelling aggressive creatures
  
  
  
  • Request for deployed camps to inhibit new agressive spawn points from forming near the camp
  
  
• Issue with Field Base and High Tech Field Base healing radius not being large enough to contain all the chairs deployed

/areatrack

• Issue with not locating creatures that are a certain distance aways, namely around 100 to 130m.
  
  
  
  • We suspect this phenomena is the effect of the spawn system not adding creatures to the environment until a player approaches.
  
  
• Issue with the vertical plane. Namely problems using it on mountainous terrain
  
• Issue with Transport Shuttles and Droids being listed in the animal tracker
  
• Issue with extreme sparseness or complete absence of spawn outside of a certain radius around towns.
  
• Issue with /areatrack not picking up lairs that have not yet spawned any creatures
  
  
  
  • This is a rather irritating issue that limits the commands usefulness away from the more travelled areas

/conceal

• Reports of some Gang Member NPCs ignoring /conceal entirely, and attacking concealed players without breaking concealment.
  
  
  
  • There are occurrences where extremely poor faction rating with a gang may be impacting concealment.
    
  • forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=ranger&message.id=13682
    
  • There are occurrences of Humanoids aggroing at a distance of 64m with or without the use of /conceal. Possibly the NPCs are aggroing before /conceal is being checked.
  
  
• Issue with not receiving any Wilderness Survival Experience for crafting Camo Kits
  
• Issue with concealed group members being attacked during combat even if they succeeded in concealment and did not initiate attack
  
• Issue where a non-ranger can not remove /conceal that was applied to them, because they do not have the ability to use the /conceal command itself
  
• Several of the resources required by camoflauge kits are so rare, that no Ranger has yet to find them (Lok domesticated meat for instance).
  
• Issue with attempting to apply /maskscent after /conceal wears off normally. Rangers receive a message stating that /conceal is still active.
  
• Issue with immediately applying /maskscent after /conceal breaks. Apparently the /maskscent acts like /conceal (checking against humanoids) for the remainder of the session.
  
• Issue with travelling disabling /conceal, and once on the other side /maskscent can be used to reenable the /conceal functionality.
  
• The wrong message is displayed when /conceal wears off... You receive the /maskscent message.

Traps

• Issue with using a trap and not receiving any feedback at all (neither success nor failure mesages)
  
• Issue with the last trap in a stack tending to fail more often than the others.
  
• Issue with traps not working in Caves. We have no idea if this was intended or not.

/forage

• Issue with receiving a "Inventory Full" message when your inventory still has space available

/examine

• Issue with certain animals not displaying all the examine data available at the viewers skill level. Posts regarding Resistances being missing for instance

/harvest

• Issue where you accidentally harvest a non-existing resource (hide off a Hermit Spider) by using /harvest hide, and after that you are not allowed to harvest the correct resource.
  
  
  
  • This problem has also been noted with attempting to harvest from too far away from the corpse.
  
  
• Issue of creatures with skinny resources appearing for 24 hours after the resource has shifted

/takecover

• Issues with moving after performing the /takecover command. Reduced running speed and other more serious symptoms have been reported.

Skill Experience

• The experience caps are apparently still set to pre-patch values, and were not adjusted with the increased Scout experience requirements

Posture Change warping

• Several Rangers have noted that the warping while going prone seems to be more pronounced when a player has Ranger skills

Gameplay

Traps

• Many Rangers feel that traps don't ramp up in effectiveness against the more difficult creatures, as the player's skill improves.
  
  
  
  • Namely once a Ranger reaches Master, and begins fighting the really big critters, the traps become so ineffective that nobody bothers using them anymore
  
  
• Request to use traps on Creature Handler pets (possibly receiving no exp for doing so)
  
  
  
  • We are confused about why this ability is missing. Our traps would make a good foil to the Creature Handler pets.
  
  
• Request to use traps on Humanoid NPCs at the Ranger level.
  
• Request to have traps affect other Players at the Ranger level.
  
• Request to experiment on the effectiveness of a trap
  
• Request to experiment on the duration of effect of a trap
  
• Request for a macro command for throwing traps, such as /throwtrap bonespur
  
• Request to experiment on the number of charges per trap
  
• Request for all traps to have HAM icons, so other group members can see what is currently in effect.
  
• Request to be able to throw traps while moving, with an appropiate reduction in Chance-to-Hit
  
• Request to display the effective ranges and duration of effects for traps on the /examine window for the items
  
• It was noted that Combat Medics can throw their Poisons up to 80m. Would it possible to implement such distances for our traps as well?

/areatrack

• Request for a Spawn Point tracking option. This way we can track lairs which haven't spawned any creatures yet.
  
• Request for /areatrack to force the first wave of spawns for all existing lairs in the vicinity, so that the creatures will appear in the list
  
• Request for the command to allow the user to input the target type on the command line
  
  
  
  • The command would work like /areatrack animal, /areatrack people, /areatrack players, /areatrack all
  
  
• Request to increase the range of the command to 1000m
  
  
  
  • There are also requests to make the range incremental based on skill level. 500,750,1000,1250, and up to 1500 for Master.
    
  • However in order for this to be useful, a greater increase in the dynamic spawn rate would need to occur at a greater radius around the player
  
  
• Request for the /areatrack results to be display in a Sortable List Window
  
  
  
  • The List window would have separate columns for Name, Direction, Distance
    
  • Clicking on the header for the column would toggle between ascending / descending sort order
    
  • Resizing the window would increase the size of the List portion of the window, rather than the height of the Mesage portion
  
  
• Request for a Refresh button on the list window, so once a player has traversed a bit of distance they don't need to reselect their choice of track.

Creature-to-Hit

• Many melee based Rangers have requested that this bonus be applied to melee weapons as well
  
  
  
  • If the bonus is already being applied to meleers, kindly change the text description to reflect such
  
  
• Request for bonus to apply to special moves
  
• Request for bonus to apply to the trap success rate
  
• Request for bonus to affect Creature Handler pets (if it doesn't already)

Camps

• Request that the healing modifier of camps be applied to natural HAM damage recovery on Creature Handler pets and Faction pets.
  
• Request for High Tech Field Base:
  
  
  
  • To not disband during combat. The name of the camp is Field "Base" is it not?
    
    
    
    • Many rangers would enjoy it acting as a center of operations without having to sit on their duff and watch the others in the group fight
    
    
  • To heal Battle Fatigue with the help of a Dancer or Musician
  
  
• Request for the foliage to be removed for the duration of a camp deployment. Large shrubs and such can occassionally obscure the control box or campfire
  
• Request for some form of experimentation on Camps

/harvest

• Request for the ability to harvest multiple resources off a single corpse (up to all 3 types at Master Ranger)
  
  
  
  • Many Rangers consider the inability to fully utilize the corpse to be wasteful and unrangerlike
  
  
• Request that the 60% group harvesting value be improved if a Ranger is in the group
  
  
  
  • The improvement could be based on the Ranger's skill level... (62.5% with Skill I, 65%, 67.5%, 70% with Skill IV)
  
  
• Request for a /group harvest off to turn off the 60% harvesting rule and revert to the earlier rule set

/track

• How is progress coming along in the implementation of this command?

/conceal

• Request for /conceal to not break during combat until damage is incurred
  
• Request for concealed players to not be listed on the /areatrack listing
  
• Request that the HAM icon for /conceal be changed to something other than the /maskscent icon
  
• Request to have /conceal work against Creature Handler pets and Faction pets (but not necessarily their handlers)
  
• Request to have /group conceal added. The command would conceal everyone in a group while using still using a charge for each group member.
  
• Request for /conceal to re-enable 60 seconds after combat completes automatically, without a need to reapply the kit
  
• Request when another player concealed by the Ranger is revealed that a System Message is sent to the applier stating such

/examine

• Request to display the bone resource
  
• Request to display the Social Assistiveness of a creature
  
• Request for information regarding what exactly Ferocity actually represents
  
• Request to list the Health/Action/Mind values (we can see the values via the Target Window, so why not list them)

/rescue

• There are concerns it does not work often enough to be useful. Perhaps a better chance of success, or lower mind drain so it can be tried more often.
  
• Request for a system message to be displayed to the target of /rescue, so they know when to /peace and run away from their aggressors

Terrain Negotiation

• Several Rangers consider the ability to crawl faster not sufficient enough improvement for such an elite profession such as Ranger
  
• Apparently we only receive +95 of the skill at the master level.

Misc.

• Many Rangers have noticed a reduction in the number of random (non-mission) spawns when travelling far away from any towns, was this intentional?
  
• Request for the Hunt Master title to be changed to Tracker
  
• Request option to toggle off the Stalking message

Color Reference

• Grey: New to List
  
• Yellow: Ranger Top Issue

Wishlist

Traps

• Request for an Area Effect Root (stop completely) or Snare (slow down) trap for handling social lairs.
  
• Request for a Tranquilizer Dart/Trap
  
  
  
  • The effect would stop the target creature from attacking for a certain period of time
    
  • The trap would also stop the creature from assisting other creatures
    
  • Attacking the creature would immediately drop the effect
    
  • If the trap fails to affect the target, aggro would ensue as normal
  
  
• Modular Traps
  
  
  
  • A generic trap schematic with multiple optional component slots
    
  • A crafter could produce a trap that produces multiple effects in a single throw
    
  • Each optional component item would provide a single effect
    
    
    
    • Effects such as Blind, Stun, Dizzy, Bleed, Poison, Disease
      
    • Effects that reduce the armor resistance of the target (such as Kinetic, Lightning, Acid, etc.)
    
    
  • The components could be experimented for duration of effect, and effectiveness
  
  
• Request for a Trap Launcher
  
  
  
  • Item would propel traps further than simply throwing them (perhaps up to 80m)
    
  • Item would increase the Chance-to-Hit of the trap (very useful against the larger creatures)
  
  
• Request for a Damage over Time trap

/areatrack

• Request for /areatrack all at the Master Ranger level
  
  
  
  • The tracking option would list both Animals and Humanoids in the same list for easy lookup
  
  
• Request for Opposing Faction members listed by /areatrack to have a different colored listing to differentiate them
  
• Request for a Pet tracking option
  
• Request for a Droid tracking option

Creature Combat

• Request for a random Creature Critical Hit on occassion, with a frequency based on the some skill modifier, that deals a larger amount of damage than normal.
  
• Request for a Creature Toughness skill modifier
  
  
  
  • The skill would work like Unarmed Toughness, reducing the overall damage inflicted by creatures
  
  
• Request for an innate damage increase against creatures. The increase in damage would be based on some skill modifier.
  
• Request for a command that can be used to increase damage against creatures for a certain duration.
  
• Request for a Creature-to-Dodge bonus.
  
• Request for a group Creature combat bonus

Camps

• Request for High Tech Field Base:
  
  
  
  • To have a terminal whice provides Explore missions.
    
  • Be able to play HoloChess (Dejarik) on the High Tech Field Base's chess board
    
  • To sit/lay down on the cots in the High Tech Field Base
    
  • For the roof of the base to stop rain
  
  
• Request for a permanent, planet specific, hunting cabin:
  
  
  
  • Creatable and deployable only by a Master Ranger
    
  • Can not be redeeded and moved, only demolished
    
  • Should be buildable on Advanced planets
    
  • Should heal Battle Fatigue like a regular house
    
  • Requires Maintenance and the use of a lot, like a regular house
    
  • Allows for storage of items, and the possible placement of a Vendor
    
  • Only one of these buildings could be deployed at any one time
    
  • The schematic could require some subcomponent made by architect to promote class interdependence
  
  
• Request for a stash
  
  
  
  • The concept is a buried container that can be used to store items while away from your bank
    
  • The structure would probably require the use of a lot
    
  • A player could have as many as they have lots available
    
  • In order to compensate for being able to have any number of stashes, the storage limit should be minimal... Perhaps a volume of 25
    
  • The stash should be deployable on an advanced planet
    
  • The graphic in the game space could be a dirt mound with a flag to mark the location
  
  
• Request for an Evac Camp
  
  
  
  • The camp would deploy with a shuttle service that could transport people back to a city port
    
  • It would not be necessary to have people able to go to the camp, though that would a welcome addition if possible
  
  
• Request for some resources to be recovered upon manually disbanding camps (automatic disbands will lose all resources)
  
• Request for a more modular approach to camp crafting
  
  
  
  • This idea might be a little ambitious, but many Rangers like the idea.
    
  • forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=ranger&message.id=2705
    
  • For the interim, the idea could be implemented by adding a couple optional components to the High Tech Field Base schematic
  
  
• Request for the ability to experiment on Ease of Use on camps to allow lesser skilled Scouts to use them
  
• Request to be able to use a camoflauge kit in camp crafting to produce a planet specific camp with improved creature repelling capabilities
  
• Request for bigger campfire in the higher level ranger camps. The current one is apparently not impressive enough.
  
• Request for the direction your character is facing to determine the direction of a deployed camp

/harvest

• Request for ability to determine resource attributes on a corpse before harvesting with a command /AssessResource
  
  
  
  • The ability would provide a list window with the appropiate resource selections available on the targeted corpse (meat / hide / bone)
    
  • Once a selection is made, a player would receive the /examine window for the chosen resource
    
  • The player would not receive a physical resource, only the information regarding its attributes
    
  • The ability could be used multiple times to receive the data on the other available resources
    
  • The information could also contain whether harvesting the resource would produce a Fat, Medium, Skinny result
    
  • The attributes consist of items such as Overall Quality, Unit Toughness, Potential Energy, etc
  
  
• Request for a greater chance of higher quality resources spawning on the more advanced planets.
  
  
  
  • The Starter worlds would still get their fair share of high quality material, but there would be a larger chance of better material on the Advanced worlds.
  
  
• Request to add rare loot to creatures that only Rangers can find.
  
  
  
  • Schematics that create Teeth necklaces, Trophy Heads, Hide Rugs, Skulls have been suggested
  
  
• Request for poison components to be harvested off poisonous creatures.
  
  
  
  • These items could then be applied to existing weapons to produce a Damage Over Time effect.
  
  
• Request to change corpse harvesting to a fixed amount per corpse, rather than the variable method currently being used
  
  
  
  • forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=ranger&message.id=12261
  
  
• Request for Creature Harvesters in the form of traps
  
  
  
  • Work like Mineral harvesters.
    
  • Possibly have a large footprint to keep from having large farms of them around hot spots.
    
  • Would use a lot, like a personal harvester
    
  • A small hopper, perhaps max of 2000
    
  • A slower harvesting rate than a regular harvester
    
  • Schematic is available at a high level in Trapping, perhaps Trapping IV or Master Ranger
    
  • Players would use an innate ability to locate animal migration patterns, much like the Survey interface.
    
  • Request for the "migration patterns" (hot spots) to change on a regular basis (more often than the resource itself). Possibly every 2-3 days.

Fishing

• Request for the harvesting skill mod to increase the amount of fish meat filleted off caught fish
  
• Request the ability to craft fishing lures that can used in place of bait.
  
• Request for a Fishing skill mod that improves a players chance of catching a fish
  
• Request for a Fishing Net that would "net" more fish per use, but still require user interaction just like the fishing pole.
  
• Request for fish traps available at Trapping II
  
  
  
  • These would operate like mineral harvesters

/conceal

• Request for the ability to /conceal self with out a camo kit once a Player achieves Master
  
• Request for /conceal to work against other players
  
  
  
  • One idea is to require the player to be in a prone position, and once they you move or attack, they are instantly revealed to all players.
    
  • An alternative is for the player to impersonate one of the local aggressive creatures.
    
    
    
    • The player would still display as red radar point to the opposing faction and still targetable.
      
    • However they would appear as a creature on the main window.
  
  
• Request for grease paint graphic on your character when /conceal is active
  
• Request to be use a camoflauge kit on a tailor made overcoat to produce a Ghillie Suit
  
  
  
  • The suit would last longer than a regular camo kit
    
  • The condition of the coat could be used to regulate the duration of the outfit
    
  • The coat would need to be worn to utilize the camoflauge enhancement
    
  • When damage is incurred during combat, the coat could reduce in condition as a balance to being able to retain /conceal during combat
    
  • forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=ranger&message.id=12983

Yes, I know there are still grammatical errors in the list...

• I copy and paste this off the master list, but I must be at home to update that list.

Thought it best to get the list out as soon as Thunderheart gave the go ahead, rather than wait any longer.

----

Comments are welcome and actually expected.

• Several of you may have noticed Thunderheart posting on the DE State post, so that should be a clue that he intends to read the replies to this post.

1st reply lol

Fantastic N'Raas. Is this the final, approved by Thunderheart, version? Are all of the State of the Profession reports (not that this is a bad thing) this long?

Keep up the good work, and thanks to the rest of the Rangers out there for continuing to submit such great ideas.

"Is this the final, approved by Thunderheart, version?"

Well...Ibelieve Thunderheart just wanted to get the ball rolling on the remaining reports.

I suspect he is leaving it to the forum to ensure that what I have said matches most of your expectations, we are the experts in our Profession after all.

"Are all of the State of the Profession reports (not that this is a bad thing) this long?"

Hey... I am just thorough that way.

• We have also been keeping a record of the issues for quite awhile now, so we have a lot to report.

Have a look see at the other Professions reports for yourselves and compare.

this is similar to the S.O.P. recently, but tis fun to read anyway

I have a question... say the ranger "hunting cabins" get implemented.. what is the desired effect of this idea? it sounds cool though it seems a little vague as to what benefits i could get. also, these lists have soo many changes (thought every single one is awesome), is there a chance they ALL get implemented? i have a bad/good feeling about too many new changes... good being that we will be so much better thanw e are now which is needed... but bad because i personaly like being one of perhaps only a handful of masters on my server (it makes me feel special! duurrrr) and Im afraid that there will be a massive profession migration to rangers and that our class will be overpopulated. am I paranoid or does anyone elseagree?

All looks good to me. Thanxz for the hard work.

"Im afraid that there will be a massive profession migration to rangers and that our class will be overpopulated. am I paranoid or does anyone elseagree?"

There is always the chance that once the developers add something new, that our profession will become the "In Thing".

The same thing happened after /areatrack and /conceal were added.

There was a brief influx... We kept some newcomers, and others drifted away to other professions.

----

Is Ranger the next l33t class? I can only hope.

my suggestion on this would be to have all 3, pick the one that best suits just being a plain ranger( i personaly think the park ranger should be that one), and take the other 2( like the military one and aragorn one becasue the would have more combat skills involved) and make it a elite elite profession, an extention off master ranger

Where is the /takecover skill? Am I just blind?

"Where is the /takecover skill?"

The /takecover skill is from the Rifleman skill set.

• There appears to be some improper interaction with that skill and our Terrain Negotiation skill which causes problems for the Rifleman in our profession.

---

Gage_BlackDawn wrote:

There are those that wish a profession along the lines of the "Aragorn" Ranger: At one with nature and the ultimate outdoorsman

There are those that consider the profession to be in line with the "Park" Ranger: Wilderness enforcer

---

I think that making ranger into another combat profession like the Bounty Hunters would be a little misguided. The military rangers that we're comparing ourselves to are not rangers because they shoot guns real good and do other soldiering skills well - that's what makes them soldiers. What makes them different from other soldiers is that they are trained to survive alone (or more appropriately, in small groups) in the wilderness, and fight from the wilderness. In real life, a ranger squad would be made up of a couple riflemen, a couple heavy weapons guys, a medic, a radio operator, a squad leader, etc.. and by all means there should be more of those different combinations, possibly working in tandem, than just rifleman/ranger (bearing much resemblence to the BH/pistoleer phenomenon), or whatever. the point is that we as rangers should have skills that enhance our combat effectiveness in the wilderness, but we shouldn't be a combat class - ie no ranger weapons like they have BH weapons, or other abilities that would earmark us as a combat class.

At the same time, I hope they up the skillpoints a little because someone who's a master ranger and master combat medic ain't gonna have many hobbies with such a low SP max... perhaps they should just lower the ridiculous 15-SP cost of novice professions.

Ademantus Terinati

Chairman, Ordo Fidei Aeterni

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
- Edmund Burke