Ranger Archive

As most of you know, I have been a Master Ranger for a long time. However, I have recently started the LRC, therefore Im working on Merchant.

My current template is.
Master Pikeman
Merchant 0034
Carbineer 0003
Novice Scout 3000
Medic 1000

I went out hunting last night, I hadnt done it in a while, seeing that ive been really busy with the LRC.

I had an amazing time! Yesterday, with this template, I soloed both a Krayt and a Krayt Juvenile.
(granted: I have some amazing weapons and armor, and there was definately some luck involved)

What set me off was how little Scouting skills had to do with hunting and killing.

I have heard the argument that a combat stacked character with novice scout can out-harvest us... we all know that.

What hit me for the first time yesterday was how weak of a hunter, and a killer of animals we Rangers truly are.

I did not throw a trap
I did not miss /areatrack
I did not use a camp
I did harvest it
I used TN to my advantage

This is my problem and I belive the crux of the Ranger issue. I am far from negative, and I love being a Ranger, (read most of my other posts, I am almost always positive) but for the first time ever, I was a better HUNTER than I ever was. Being a Ranger has nothing to do with being a hunter.

Now, my question is...
How can we translate being a Ranger into actual, tangible hunting skills.

Weapons?
A ranger specific weapon would be nice, not good, not bad... just nice. I would still mainly use my main weapon to take down the beast.

Stealth?
Approaching beasts, NPC's, and (unlikely PC's) would be improved, but would a negative modifier to hit really be worth it? That may be fine for ranged Rangers who can lay down, kneel and not actually go face to face with the beasts, because movement theoretically cancels out camo but for melee rangers, is that something that we just have to deal with, grind through and never use?

Camps:
A lot of potential, but for right now, a dead horse

Traps:
same as camps...

So... with that said, how can Rangers actually become the hunters that we all really want to be?

1: Critical Strike (enhances by a factor of x4 at Master Ranger)
2: +Accuracy to melee and ranged vs. creatures
3: +Speed to melee and ranged vs. creatures
4: +DMG to melee and ranged vs. creatures
5: +to Melee & Ranged defense throughout the skill trees.
6: Creature Dodge
7: Survival Instinct (a pre-emptive ability that enables the Ranger to have heightened resists to poison/ disease/ state effects)
8: State effect dealing traps, dmg dealing traps (poison/ disease/ bleed)
9: Stationary Traps: lay the trap, engage the beast, as he crosses the laid trap, a claw snaps and immobilizes them (already proposed, but still very nice).
10: Creature Damage Mitigation.
11: Group Protection: Raises the group's Melee Defense
12: /rescue MUST CAUSE DAMAGE! It makes no sense that a rancor determined to have my friend for lunch, stop and think, wow, that ranger is much tastier.... Something must happen to draw it away from the target.
13: Group Camo command
14: This one is tough.. Creature Knowledge is most useful at novice scout, where you know what the resists and protections and vulnerabilies are. However, the ranger knows the vulnerabilities and can search for the weak spots. All protections are reduced 5% per level, and 10% at master ranger. The vulnerabilities become even more vulnerable to the Ranger.
15: Misdirection: This would make one creature engage in combat with another creature in the area... a failure means it attacks you.


Thats what i have so far.
I love being a Ranger... but im honestly sick of being more useful vs. animals as a combat stacked character than a Ranger.

(Im not leaving Ranger... btw)

My comments in this wonderful shade of red.

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AgonThalia wrote:
Weapons?
A ranger specific weapon would be nice, not good, not bad... just nice. I would still mainly use my main weapon to take down the beast.
I agree. A ranger-specific weapon would be cool. But to maintain the type of character we are now (which doesn't force a Ranger to be melee or ranged, it's important that we have TWO weapons.A melee option and a ranged one. As I've stated, the best way for these to help us is to have DoT and stance changing attacks. I.E., rather than having an "elephant gun" which does massive damage, I would rather have a weapon like a crossbow, which could be equiped with poison/ fire/ etc. heads and a melee weapon that could do the same. Again, this goes with my vision of a Ranger as a master of tactics over brute force. However, I DO think we should get damage bonuses with ALL weapons as we progress in skill.
Stealth?
Approaching beasts, NPC's, and (unlikely PC's) would be improved, but would a negative modifier to hit really be worth it? That may be fine for ranged Rangers who can lay down, kneel and not actually go face to face with the beasts, because movement theoretically cancels out camo but for melee rangers, is that something that we just have to deal with, grind through and never use?
Again, I think with camo/stealth, even when initiating combat, for a set number of combat rounds, the ranger wearing the camo should recieve a negative to-hit modifier (the creature/NPC/ PC can't properly see the Ranger, thus they can't attack effectively) as the Ranger increases in skill, the modifier grows until the Ranger is virtually unhitable during those rounds. Perhaps as a counter-balance for PvP, an opposing Ranger would be able to see through the camo, and would not recieve a negative to-hit modifier (a Ranger knows how to see through camo)

Camps:
A lot of potential, but for right now, a dead horse
NOT true. Modular camping would be AWESOME for PvP and GCW.Throw up a few rocket protected HTFB's and watch the enemy flee before your mighty rockets of DOOM!.
Traps:.
same as camps...
Give us the ability to trap pets and I'll be happy. This will at least give us some abilities in PvP and the GCW against Creature Handlers. I also want Ranger to get traps that affect certain electronic equipment. Being one with nature is cool, but a Ranger in the time of Star Wars would not only have access to technology but could find ways to affect it. As such: traps that affect droids (NPC droids AND player droids) and also affect the turrets at bases, effectively delaying or jamming them. Oh, and /camo should work against turrets and covert scanners, so Rangers can infiltrate a base and take out the turrets ahead of a larger strike team.
So... with that said, how can Rangers actually become the hunters that we all really want to be?

1: Critical Strike (enhances by a factor of x4 at Master Ranger)
2: +Accuracy to melee and ranged vs. creatures absolutely! this is MUST!
3: +Speed to melee and ranged vs. creatures difficult to code, I think, but I agree
4: +DMG to melee and ranged vs. creatures This is the biggie. We need this NOW.
5: +to Melee & Ranged defense throughout the skill trees. yes.
6: Creature Dodge one question: would this be an "active" skill? Meaning would you haveto push a button or type a command. I think something like that would be cool too. A "counterstrike" against creatures that, with a successful roll, would allow us to dodge their next attack (no damage taken) and then dish out an unblockable high powered attack.
7: Survival Instinct (a pre-emptive ability that enables the Ranger to have heightened resists to poison/ disease/ state effects) That, or the ability to /forage up items that cure those states (and the ablitly to /forage stackable items, so you would be able to have multiple cures, but they would only take up one inventory slot.
8: State effect dealing traps, dmg dealing traps (poison/ disease/ bleed) that, or a weapon that does the same thing.
9: Stationary Traps: lay the trap, engage the beast, as he crosses the laid trap, a claw snaps and immobilizes them (already proposed, but still very nice).
10: Creature Damage Mitigation.
11: Group Protection: Raises the group's Melee Defense i don't see how/why we would get this skill (unless it's given under the /camo thing. I just don't know how we would do this? can you explain why WE would get this (as opposed maybe to the SLs?)
12: /rescue MUST CAUSE DAMAGE! It makes no sense that a rancor determined to have my friend for lunch, stop and think, wow, that ranger is much tastier.... Something must happen to draw it away from the target. I think their reasoning is that we're yelling as distracting it...but I like the idea. Perhaps if not damage...at least it should cause confusion...making it more vulnerable to knockdown, posture changes and status changes
13: Group Camo command would this use up one camo charge or would it use one charge per person in the group? would there be a radius of effect (i've been in groups where people don't work together (i.e. groups to get Enraged Rancors) and it would be weird to be able to camoflage someone who's 2000m away on their own mission.
14: This one is tough.. Creature Knowledge is most useful at novice scout, where you know what the resists and protections and vulnerabilies are. However, the ranger knows the vulnerabilities and can search for the weak spots. All protections are reduced 5% per level, and 10% at master ranger. The vulnerabilities become even more vulnerable to the Ranger.
I'd like to see a "vulnerability strike" which takes into account our knowledge of creatures. If we know their weak spots, it makes sense that a Ranger could aim at a weak spot and cause massive damage and bleeding. That, and for goodness sake, I'd really like to see a "history" of the creatures when you /examine them. As you gain skill, you can see the history of higher creature level creatures. This wouldn't be a great skill, but it'd be fun. You know the little histories they give of creatures when you're loading? That's the type of thing I want to see when I /examine creatures.
15: Misdirection: This would make one creature engage in combat with another creature in the area... a failure means it attacks you.
I agree with this. The other possible implementation (as someone else posted a few days ago) is the addition of a trap with attracts other creatures to the creature you hit. I.E. a "pheremone bomb" with makes the other creatures want to eat it (this, or course would only work on aggressive creatures)

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Okay, there were my two cents. Enjoy.

My Intention regarding Camps and Traps is not to ignore,

I think that the outdoorsman and the several other threads regarding those have done a sufficient job in describing their potential use.

I said "dead horse" not to say that theyre useless, but to imply that those ideas have been done, and been done well enough not for me to beat them up again

Ok.. on to my responses.

Phenix... awesome response... thanks for taking the time to do that.
1st
For a creature dodge, it would be similar to the melee professions' ability "center of being" It would not be passive, but a representation of a Rangers' focus and skill when dealing with a familiar beast. Before and during combat, the ranger would "focus on evading" the creatures attacks, It would use HAM (or in the CB use something else)

2nd
Group camo would use up an equal amount of camo charges for people in the group

3rd
The group defense represents the ranger's ability to share their hard won knowledge to the group of hunters, this (upon further reflection) may be more in the SL's purvey.

Message Edited by AgonThalia on 06-14-2004 10:54 AM

Instead of Ranger specific weapons (not that I don't like the idea), how about Ranger-made weapon powerups? Both melee and ranged ones can be made, so no one is left out.

- DoT poison or other effects
- State effects
- Critical hit chance or massive wound bonus
- Bonuse damage or to-hit versus creatures
- Tranquilizer modification

(I'm sure we can come up with a huge list if we like the idea.)

So instead of making new art assets, we use an existing system to add more functionality. This gives Rangers a market to other professions and keeps with the devs desire to use resources. It gives more versitility in that you can swap out depending on the situation.

If we get Ranger specific weapons later on, then the powerups can apply to them as well. (Or they get some of these things innately, which would still be a bonus.)

good ideas

/thumbsup