Ranger Archive

Once again, I must reiterate that this latest proposal is fantastic, however I am deeply conceared that the profession is being looked at two-dimensionally. The "Outdoorsman" is only one aspect of how rangers are depicted in the Star Wars Universe, so I honestly would like to know why it is that you want to concentrate on it? Ranagers in SW are high-tech. They operate in the cities, the wilderness and space equally and just as effectively as each other. They are a combat based class who's stealth tactics go unparalled by any other. So with that said, here are examples of the primary types of Rangers seen in the Star Wars Universe:

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  Antarian Rangers: A para-military group based on several planets. The Antarian Rangers were formed by Marus Timpel and Kaskutal on Antar 4, some 600 years before the Battle of Yavin. The mission of the Antarian Rangers was simply to assist and aid the Jedi Knights in any way possible, although they were most often employed as front-line troops in battlezones. They were trained to be masters of any environment, in order to meet the various challenges assigned to them. The Jedi Council refused to comment on their position toward the Antarian Rangers, although they allowed it to continute to grow and expand over the years. Many individual Jedi valued their assistance and dedication, especially in situations where military force was needed. In the coming centuries, as the Jedi Order became more conservative and insular, they began to turn away from the use of separate organizations like the Antarian Rangers. This meant that the amount of work available to the Rangers began to diminish, and the organization was forced to drastically reduce its manpower. During the Clone Wars, the Antarian Rangers were able to briefly expand their efforts in support of the Jedi involvement in the war. Unfortunately, whole groups of Antarian Rangers were killed off, and many of the survivors scattered and went underground. Those that remained loyal to the Jedi found themselves hunted down as part of Emperor Palpatine's Jedi Purge, further reducing the organization's size and scope. Only a few groups managed to survive the Galactic Civil War, but they were openly sought out by Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. In the years following the Battle of Endor, the organization grew slowly, but proved to be invaluable during the formation and protection of the Great River during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the galaxy.

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  Kilian Rangers: This was the term used to describe the small band of elite warriors which was established to protect the noble houses of Kilia IV. All members of the Kilian Rangers were sensitive to the Force, and were chosen for their skills in using it. The development of an individual Ranger was much different than that of a Jedi student, but there was similar emphasis on the development of their attunement to the Force. The Kilian Rangers were also similar to the Jedi Knights in that some of their membership fell prey to the Dark Side of the Force. These fallen Rangers became members of the Renegades.

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  Dark Rangers: This was another name for the Renegades, those Kilian Rangers who succumbed to the Dark Side of the Force.

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  Nebulon Rangers: This group of space pirates, led by Ssurussk, ambushed many cargo convoys in the Expansion Region of the galaxy during the early years of the New Order.

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  Sector Rangers:A loose association of local system police forces which filled the gaps in the galactic law enforcement system, the Sector Rangers were created by the planetary governors of the Old Republic. The Senate authorized the formation of the Sector Rangers in an effort to bring law enforcement to newly colonied worlds quickly and efficiently. The Jedi Knights couldn't be everywhere, so the Sector Rangers held sway in their own systems. When the Empire overthrew the Old Republic, many of the larger forces were usurped into the Imperial machine as the Imperial Sector Rangers. Others simply fell through the cracks, and remained separate enforcement agencies. After the Battle of Endor, the Sector Rangers continued to bring Imperial law to the worlds of the Outer Rim. The motto of the Sector Rangers read, "What others abandon, we protect."

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  Imperial Sector Rangers: This law enforcement agency was used by the Empire on various worlds where it could not extend full military force. Formed from the ranks of the original Sector Rangers, the Imperial Sector Rangers were sent in to establish order by eliminating rebellious activity.

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  Solonar Rangers: This was a group of para-military mercenaries who were active during the Galactic Civil War. They were easily distinguished by the blue-and-yellow coloration of their armor and vehicles.

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  Tasariq Rangers: Originally formed by Imperial Governor Dem Keval, this was a mercenary police force used to maintain control of the Tasar System during the Galactic Civil War. Governor Keval was given little in the way of resources to keep the system in line, so he hired a group of Iotran mercenaries to patrol the system. He named the group the Tasariq Rangers to give them a measure of legitimacy.

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  Trianii Rangers: An elite army of Trianii which is a highly-skilled legion of law enforcement officials. They are excellent marksmen, and can move with incredible stealth.

I must make it clear that I am not trying to beat a dead horse here, however there is much more to being a Ranger than hunting game or living in the wild. We need to concentrate on these aspects just as much. While everyone has their own ideas of what a Ranger should be, be it like Aragorn or like a US Army Ranger, the truth of the matter is in the SWU it's a bit of both. So can we please start working on the technical aspects of this class before the SE has been finished so that we are not left with an unbalanced proffession.

Regards,

Gov

"Creatures and NPC's or anything that is attackable. I thought of this too, but don't you think any player who sees a yellow dotcoming their way will be very suspicious of it?"

There is another problem with this as well...

The info sent from the server containing the fact that a player is well... a player, and not some creature would differ from those of creatures.

It info would contain what clothes you are wearing, whether to display the Overt symbol over your head, your name, things like that.

A person with enough know howcanlook for that info as it comes off your internet connection and display that data in a seperate window, bypassing the radar completely.

The only way to make this work would be to disguise the player as a creature competely. Meaning that if a player were to look at the concealed player, they would look like a creature on the main window.

Now... If the creature that a player was hiding as, had to always be an aggressive variety,other players would know to be wary of it. That way, a Ranger could not use the ability to sneak up on someone, but rather tail an opponent.

Hmmm...

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NRaas wrote:

"Creatures and NPC's or anything that is attackable. I thought of this too, but don't you think any player who sees a yellow dotcoming their way will be very suspicious of it?"

There is another problem with this as well...

The info sent from the server containing the fact that a player is well... a player, and not some creature would differ from those of creatures.

It info would contain what clothes you are wearing, whether to display the Overt symbol over your head, your name, things like that.

A person with enough know howcanlook for that info as it comes off your internet connection and display that data in a seperate window, bypassing the radar completely.

The only way to make this work would be to disguise the player as a creature competely. Meaning that if a player were to look at the concealed player, they would look like a creature on the main window.

Now... If the creature that a player was hiding as, had to always be an aggressive variety,other players would know to be wary of it. That way, a Ranger could not use the ability to sneak up on someone, but rather tail an opponent.

Hmmm...

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"anyone see princess mononoke?"

Excellent flick, a worthy addition to my video collection.

"But this would almost be a completely different ability from /maskscent and /conceal."

Yes, it would indeed. Should I write it up as such anyways?

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DarthMercilous wrote:

Once again, I must reiterate that this latest proposal is fantastic, however I am deeply conceared that the profession is being looked at two-dimensionally. The "Outdoorsman" is only one aspect of how rangers are depicted in the Star Wars Universe, so I honestly would like to know why it is that you want to concentrate on it? Ranagers in SW are high-tech. They operate in the cities, the wilderness and space equally and just as effectively as each other. They are a combat based class who's stealth tactics go unparalled by any other. So with that said, here are examples of the primary types of Rangers seen in the Star Wars Universe:

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"So in that way, we have taken a very narrow path and are trying to widen it by offering the outdoorsman concept. "

Exactly so. We are in the awkward position of having a profession initially designed as a creature profession, but with a name that has different connotations in the Star Wars Universe.

We really should think about asking the developers to change the name of our profession to something more akin to what the developers initially envisioned.

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NRaas wrote:

"anyone see princess mononoke?"

Excellent flick, a worthy addition to my video collection.

"But this would almost be a completely different ability from /maskscent and /conceal."

Yes, it would indeed. Should I write it up as such anyways?

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"or a different type of conceal kit could be created such as /creatureconceal."

I was thinking more along those lines...

"but it could get annoying seeing a bunch of people running around looking like gurrcats."

I know what you mean...

I can't tell if such a request is star warsy enough, or if we are delving too far from the continuity of it all.

The proposal is in the SotP, I think it will remain there for the moment, unless there is a massive upwelling of support for the idea.

Looks good, NRaas. My only suggestion would be to makea clear statement of the result we are shooting for in each of the areas. That way, we ensure that the dev's understand what we want. So if they don't like our suggested implementation, we can at least hope they keep the key goal in mind for whatever implementation they decide is achievable.

Also, in the case of the modular camps, would it be beneficial to put a priority on the functionality? Shuttles are an interesting idea, but I think it's safe to say it takes a backseat to BF healing. So if the dev's like the idea, but can't do the full breadth of the proposal, they'll have a means of down selecting what they implement and stay in synch with the ranger community.

"My only suggestion would be to makea clear statement of the result we are shooting for in each of the areas."

I was thinking about that as well... Especially in the case of the camping system. Something that states they should think about why we choose some of the modules we did, and need behind them.

The other sections have a little intro paragraph, I will add one to camping as well.

The Outdoorsman proposal available in the first post has been updated to include a hybrid system of the "to-hit" modifier for PvP andinvisibility for PvE.

There is also a note in the Tracking section about added difficulty while tracking concealed players.

Well, as the "utlimate outdoorsman," I spend a ton of time in places lightyears away from my residence. Things like pick-up hunts on Lok or Endor, or galaxy wide organic collecting missions would require me to bring the kitchen sink in order to be able to react properly to given situations. Having these new abilities are supposed to enhance our desireability. Due to the number of variants with respect to the types of camps we would be able to assemble, it would be a liability if you couldn't tote the whole pallet of modules. There will also be types of camps that are always welcome (BF types come to mind) so that the pressure to always have these modules on hand would be a disincentive to carry the other "nice to have" modules. Modules in the house or bank do diddly for me if the group needs them now. One of the nice things about being able to make anything that goes into a camp is that you can always craft as you go, out of a smaller set of raw materials. I know part of the appeal of the system is that it adds cross-profession ties, but there is an inherent penalty.

I guess the good news is that the DE's will be getting more demand for droids with storage modules....Perhaps the load lifters will come into vogue.