Ranger Archive

Simple, and I am not being a smart a**. Its broke....it should be fixed.

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Starson wrote:
Simple, and I am not being a smart a**. Its broke....it should be fixed.

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The problem with that answer is to fix us costs more then not fixing us. So that unfortunately can not be the answer. Fixing us must make economic sense or the fix will likelynever come especially when deleting or ignoring this profession has no apparent net effect anyone can show on subscription rates which is what matters.

Message Edited by Serraphin on 08-24-2005 02:45 PM

The only reason other professions meet, or exceed, our role is because we are broken. If the profession actually worked, the question would then be, "How could we ever do without those Rangers?" There would then be plenty of Rangers paying the monthly fee.

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Serraphin wrote:

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Starson wrote:
Simple, and I am not being a smart a**. Its broke....it should be fixed.

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The problem with that answer is to fix us costs more then not fixing us. So that unfortunately can not be the answer. Fixing us must make economic sense or the fix will likely never come especially when deleting or ignoring this profession has no apparent net effect anyone can show on subscription rates which is what matters.

Message Edited by Serraphin on 08-24-2005 02:45 PM

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It has no perceived affect on subscription rates, but that can be hard to determine when you are looking at the absence of something. How many people might choose to play a Ranger if they were seen as more effective? How many people would play longer for the chance to play differently? These are probably impossible to answer as questions.

How many people would have more confidence in the developers if they saw them beginning to fix ages old issues and more obscure classes because they had promised to ages ago and never did? How many people might this added confidence retain? Again, impossible to answer.

The answer is - in my opinion - that the Ranger class deserves to have its bugs fixed just as much as any other profession, and in fact arguably sooner than most others. The only reason certain classes are more popular than others - Jedi excepted of course - is because they have less bugs or more effective design. They became popular because they worked, and by fixing the more "obscure" classes they to may become popular because they are effective. By only focusing on fixing the remaining bugs in those classes which are working well enough to be popular, you only ensure that the population shifts to a narrower set of professions. I am sure that much of the unpopularity of Ranger is also not only due to the fact that its broken in many ways, but the fact that it requires more points to be a Master Ranger than any other class in the game. It is thus more difficult to make a viable and flexible template with Ranger in it. That might be entirely justified if everything worked, but since it doesn't it might behoove the Devs to either fix the profession or change its requirements I think.

We are the 4th least dense profession. If you count a Jedi class. Not good.

Yet, two Master Rangers harvesting hide can keep four tailors in business almost indefinately. I myself have sold about 3 million units of hide with the 4th million units ready to go as we speak. How many factory runs is that? And this is with a broken profession.

Can y'all imagine what we could do if fixed? Prices would drop across the board as we finally could harvest like the Dev's first envisioned. The insane economics of several servers could be fixed without external intervention.

But, as short-sighted and as money driven as the Devs (read that the Dev's bosses, Devs have no say in this) seem to be, I reckon we will be fixed about the time the newest Rangers qualify for their non-existant social security checks.

JB

Its funny, but I can barely remember the reasons, in my opinion, Ranger should be fixed, I've been so focused on just "IT SHOULD BE FIXED" for so long.

One reason is that Ranger is one of the more diverse classes in the game. Our four lines do vastly different things - they are not just another line of special attacks. Carbineer, Pistoleer, Rifleman all do the same basic thing in different ways. The hybrids like BH and Commando are a little different - but not much. Ranger is useful both in combat (trapping, to hit bonus) and out of combat (camo, camps, creature knowledge). It has combat aspects, crafting aspects, and healing aspects. It offers a wide range of activites for every game session.

Having different options in an MMORPG is important - or else things become static and boring, a monoculture of player types. Professions like Ranger, that offer a fun gameply that breaks the normal mold, are important to the health and to maintaining the interest level in an MMORPG (again, in my opinion). Having four different types of gameplay: Combat, Crafting, Healing, Entertaining is great, but what really piques the interest of a lot of players are the professions that don't really fit in any of those categories. Scout, Ranger, ID, Bio Engineer and perhaps Creature Handler are a few I consider mold breaking, and therefore interesting. Even if you don't choose to play one of these characters you know they're there and you can some day try them out if you want. This creates a deeper game.

Now I will modify this by saying I think Ranger has the potential to be everything I listed above. It was the potential that had so many people jumping in the profession at first, potential that caused the sudden rush after Holocrons post, and the fact that Ranger never lived up to its potential that had them all leaving and is keeping many away now. A lot of people think Ranger sounds "cool" and maybe have always wanted to try it, but it is just not very useful right now.

So when I think of why Ranger should be fixed, I think "because it has so much potential." We all joined this game after all on the potential it would be great. Whether or not it lives up to that potential keeps us here or causes us to leave disappointed. The more fully fleshed Ranger is, the more fully fleshed the game is. And that much more interesting.

Sneev , i agree 100% with your analysis, but its in fact equally true for any profession in the game. The fact we have potentialy , as said vorpaks, one of the best overall diversified gameplay (but for the moment only as a potential) is probably why the devs or the designers take such a long time to fix our profession (andwhy theywill probably never fix it). They must absolutetly be careful not to give us this potential that couldruin their effort in developping the game around , essentialy , the jedi and the BHs . I'm ironising a bit but i thinkthats not very far of what they think from a general design point of vue. SWG is definitively geared toward the jedi because thats where is the money (trial of obiwan powaaa).

I'm "potentialy" better than a jedi , thats why i'm a ranger

Message Edited by alphane on 08-25-2005 03:03 AM

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Taquito wrote:

Iam not yet a master ranger iam 4220 and i think this would be an awesome profession and it would be so much easier to acheive if my traps would actually work. My biggest concern is the traps not working. I was lured into this profession wen i saw a master ranger solo an ancient krayt but with traps that dont work its no longer possible. I also wish i could get some extra skill points. This profession takes so many skill points that i find myself having to drop almost everything i have just so i can lvl up.

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It is still very possible for a Ranger to solo a Krayt. Not likely an Ancient but a Krayt non the less. Many of the fine Rangers here could instruct you on it as well just find one on your Galaxy but it will depend on the combat class you chose.