Ranger Archive
Thread: Ranger correspondent feedback
Here are the question answers from the dev working on it:
> 1. Will conceal work vs. NPCs?
I'm not sure yet, it depends on how it plays. I want to have it work against NPCs and I may code it that way. We'll have to see how it plays out on test server. I may make it so that NPCs have a slightly higher than normal chance of breaking conceal.
It will not hide you from other players (currently). You can, however, apply the camouflage to members of your group, to give them a chance to sneak against creatures, etc.
> 2. What is the status of fixing the rare item forage bug, where it tells you inventory full, when inventory is nowhere near full?
I haven't looked into this yet, but I can soon. We need more rare forage items to go into the table as well. This bug may be a problem with one of the items in the rare forage table.
> 3. will /scanarea show everything, or just mobs/NPCs?
I've renamed this /areatrack, since that makes more sense. The ability of this skill increases as you go up the tracking skill tree. The range increases, as well as what you can scan for:
Novice Ranger - Area Track: Animals, you can search for animals in the area.
Tracking I - Area Track: Direction, you get an approximation of the direction of the target.
Tracking II - Area Track: People, you can search the area for NPCs.
Tracking III - Area Track: Players, you can search the area for players.
Tracking IV - Area Track: Distance, you get an approximation of the distance of the target.
Maybe players will come in Tracking IV instead, since distance can be approximated from the radial map.
> 4. will the ranger camps still disband when the ranger enters combat (aside from/over and above the new camps).
Currently yes, the camps will still disband. The hunting blind would not, but its meant to be used with combat.
Message Edited by Holocron on 08-20-2003 05:01 PM
Message Edited by Holocron on 08-20-2003 05:02 PM
Wow this is all really sweet.
Threeother things I would like to see though:
- Speed. We should be able to run faster than anyone else. Not just in hills.
- Burst run. At Master this should last really long, and it should take very little HAM. Maybe decrease the period you have to wait to burst run again too. After all, we are MASTER Rangers.
- Some Master Ranger-only things. Maybe a new, big nice camp (with a shuttle ..?). It would be nice, so we can stand out from those who just take Wayfaring I-IV etc.
I love Ranger, and now I will love it even more 
Thanks again Holo and Ranger Dev.
Holocron wrote:
Here are the question answers from the dev working on it:
> 1. Will conceal work vs. NPCs?
I'm not sure yet, it depends on how it plays. I want to have it work against NPCs and I may code it that way. We'll have to see how it plays out on test server. I may make it so that NPCs have a slightly higher than normal chance of breaking conceal.
This seems counter-intuitive. Should't a human, or humanoid, have less of a chance of sniffing out a sneaky person in a woodland area than an indiginous animal?
> 4. will the ranger camps still disband when the ranger enters combat (aside from/over and above the new camps).
Currently yes, the camps will still disband. The hunting blind would not, but its meant to be used with combat.
This is one that I really wish you would consider changing. For scout camps, fine. But, It would be so nice if a ranger could throw up a camp and use it as a sort of "base of operations".
Right now, it is downright infuriating, with the repel aggressive feature broken, because red cons stroll into my camp, attack me, AND break my camp. But even after this feature is fixed, it would be nice to be able to implement it and have it hold as a sort of "base".
Also, have you considered doing anything with the way exp is divided? I know that just like scouts, rangers often don't like to group with other rangers because they don't want to fight for the camping exp. It would be nice if all of the camp making characters in a party could pool their skills, thereby increasing the power of the resulting camp, and divide the exp for the camp.
Message Edited by Holocron on 08-20-2003 05:01 PM
Message Edited by Holocron on 08-20-2003 05:02 PM
Holocron wrote:
Here are the question answers from the dev working on it:
> 1. Will conceal work vs. NPCs?
I'm not sure yet, it depends on how it plays. I want to have it work against NPCs and I may code it that way. We'll have to see how it plays out on test server. I may make it so that NPCs have a slightly higher than normal chance of breaking conceal.
It will not hide you from other players (currently). You can, however, apply the camouflage to members of your group, to give them a chance to sneak against creatures, etc.
> 2. What is the status of fixing the rare item forage bug, where it tells you inventory full, when inventory is nowhere near full?
I haven't looked into this yet, but I can soon. We need more rare forage items to go into the table as well. This bug may be a problem with one of the items in the rare forage table.
> 3. will /scanarea show everything, or just mobs/NPCs?
I've renamed this /areatrack, since that makes more sense. The ability of this skill increases as you go up the tracking skill tree. The range increases, as well as what you can scan for:
Novice Ranger - Area Track: Animals, you can search for animals in the area.
Tracking I - Area Track: Direction, you get an approximation of the direction of the target.
Tracking II - Area Track: People, you can search the area for NPCs.
Tracking III - Area Track: Players, you can search the area for players.
Tracking IV - Area Track: Distance, you get an approximation of the distance of the target.
Maybe players will come in Tracking IV instead, since distance can be approximated from the radial map.
> 4. will the ranger camps still disband when the ranger enters combat (aside from/over and above the new camps).
Currently yes, the camps will still disband. The hunting blind would not, but its meant to be used with combat.
Message Edited by Holocron on 08-20-2003 05:01 PM
Message Edited by Holocron on 08-20-2003 05:02 PM
Why not just have the radar NOT show NPC's/players or creatures unless they're in 360 line of sight?Meaning,if one is behind me, it should appear on my radar. But if he's behindme BUT behind a wall or amountain and I could not seehim (even if I were to turn around), his dot would NOT appear. Then this /areatrack might have some real use. And maybe help in the ranged vs melee issue for the brawlers/TKA's. Would make for better combat that would require thinking and tactics.
ChooChoo
In regards to the question about conceal, actually it sort of depends, some creatures, yes they would pick you out more than a humanoid, but in some cases the human will be better....for example, some creatures might not find it odd seeing a shrubbery sprinting across the desert...I, on the other hand, would shoot at it lol.
And regarding the camps not staying active in combat....pause and think for a second why having the High Tech Field base not disband when you enter combat would be a bad thing. Once repel creatures is in place and working...basically, that would turn the camp into a portable home. In other words, you could exit the camp, attack a critter, then retreat into the camp to safety, thus repeat over and over again exploiting the heck out of the system.
Now, I know you are saying, well just make it so if you attack a creature it can follow you into camp...but, as a programmer myself, and speaking from a programmer's perspective, coding something like that in would not only require much more time, it would add *that* much more overhead to the system...and right now its pretty obvious they are trying to streamline all their systems as much as possible.
The better choice, and one the dev may have already thought of and have in the works, would be to create a new camp that would act as a permenant base, perhaps something you'd have available to you at Master Ranger. A camp like this might not repel creatures, but perhaps would have a built in defense system in case a creature did attack....thus making it not tax the system with even more rules and accomplishing our request as well.
Holocron wrote:
Here are the question answers from the dev working on it:
> 1. Will conceal work vs. NPCs?
I'm not sure yet, it depends on how it plays. I want to have it work against NPCs and I may code it that way. We'll have to see how it plays out on test server. I may make it so that NPCs have a slightly higher than normal chance of breaking conceal.
It will not hide you from other players (currently). You can, however, apply the camouflage to members of your group, to give them a chance to sneak against creatures, etc.
> 2. What is the status of fixing the rare item forage bug, where it tells you inventory full, when inventory is nowhere near full?
I haven't looked into this yet, but I can soon. We need more rare forage items to go into the table as well. This bug may be a problem with one of the items in the rare forage table.
> 3. will /scanarea show everything, or just mobs/NPCs?
I've renamed this /areatrack, since that makes more sense. The ability of this skill increases as you go up the tracking skill tree. The range increases, as well as what you can scan for:
Novice Ranger - Area Track: Animals, you can search for animals in the area.
Tracking I - Area Track: Direction, you get an approximation of the direction of the target.
Tracking II - Area Track: People, you can search the area for NPCs.
Tracking III - Area Track: Players, you can search the area for players.
Tracking IV - Area Track: Distance, you get an approximation of the distance of the target.
Maybe players will come in Tracking IV instead, since distance can be approximated from the radial map.
> 4. will the ranger camps still disband when the ranger enters combat (aside from/over and above the new camps).
Currently yes, the camps will still disband. The hunting blind would not, but its meant to be used with combat.
Message Edited by Holocron on 08-20-2003 05:01 PM
Message Edited by Holocron on 08-20-2003 05:02 PM
I'm going to say again, tracking is a bad idea. You'll regret it. Yes, rangers will love it. I, in fact, will love it, but there are many ways in which it can be abused.
How's this, for example? Grief PVP'ers pick up novice ranger and tracking 1-3 or 1-4. Now they can track for specific people and gank them over and over even though they run away and try to hide. Heck, you don't even need to be PVP to use this to grief someone repeatedly even though they try to hide from you.
You're opening up such a can of worms with this...
DShanKaen wrote:
Griefing? In PvP, tracking skills would be very effective in hunting overt operatives of an opposing faction. That sounds like a very valuable skill to independent and faction aligned Rangers alike.
I agree. You simply cannot remove something from the game because griefers can use it. Griefers can use EVERYTHING. Heck we wouldn't even have /tells and emotes if we were worried about griefers