Ranger Archive

I have been ranger since this game was in beta, I have always had one and will (yes I have other characters that are not becasue I like to be involved in Star WARS as well).

The problem is so huge that SOE doesn't know how to get out of it. You are suppose to be the greatest, toughest hunters on any planet. (Nope ain't true). Since we are classified as a non-combat professeon (It is Star WARS), I suppose indevs minds we are park rangers, you can't kill any animal better then a fighter of any branch. In order to be able to kill as well as other professions you end up seeing just about anyone who is a ranger only dables in it for camo or area track, but if you M Ranger (which I have a couple of times) you end up very limited in what you can do to truly be a real hunter or to be involved in WARS aspect of Star Wars. I have seen TKM's, Swordsmen, even Pikemen devestate Rancors of all levels with 5 or 6 on them at one time. Rangers should be able to out do these guys without a sweet. Instead we mustfigure a way to have three full professions or at least close to that to be able tohunt like most of theso called miliatry professions.

Rangers, whether wilderness oriented or military oriented, are and have alwayss been extremely good survivialists, they can use any trap they have on creatures or satient beings and with very deadly effect. Every war has had these specialists use traps of every kind on small or large scale to hamper and destroy the enemy. Heavens in "The Return of the Jedi" primative Ewoks trap and destory AT-STs, Luke in his snow speeder uses traps (snares and entanglement) to bring down AT-ATs, but we who are masters of trapping supposedly the most deadly creatures (when they actually work on high end creatures) can notbring down one being or vehicle with a trap. OK, how does that make any sense.

Camo is supposed to make you nearly invisibleto just aboutanyone if you are an expert at tracking, stealth and concealment (it is funny the Rifleman gets a conceal shot but we don't get one even though we are camoed). Instead most animals even break it (obviously the devs have never been hunters nor military Rangers) and just about any moderately high NPC breaks it before you even get within 70 meters of them and can effectively use your weapons (interesting that every military in the world has developed high capabilities in camo and concealmeant and have special forces Rangers that are very deadly. Clothes that we purchase that aid us in camo/maskscent should make us with the use of those skills invisible on radar and we should actually blend in to the our surroundings (yes I would even be willing to have to buy special camo clothes designed with our help specifically for that planet like camo kits). Only during movement might someone have the slight possibility of picking up a blurr of movement. Appropriately designed clothes should help not only mask our scent but heat signatures as well (but you would have to be Ranger and you would have to go up to master to be able to just about eliminate any detection at all). In the second episode (the fifth movie) we find a this person using a clocking device that totally alters their appearance and can hide them, yes I know there is a cost to using these and they are outlawed, but so is the rebellion outlawed that has never stopped anyone. If such things and their technology is known and existed then it is no stretch of the imagination to see the ability to hide your signature on radar and to totally blend into to your surroundings (clothing of this material should be such that they adapt to the planets variation that they are a tuned to, such as Dath).

We are suppose to be the greatest trackers of creatures, NPCs or even players if you go high enough. It does work fairly well for creatures, and I use it a lot, and do get paid pretty nicely when Jedi need to use us lowly Rangers to find those very rare (Well the Ancient Krayt isn't any more but there are others still) animals they need to find and kill.

In truth there should not be much in the way of creatrues or satient beings that we can't track, hunt and kill better then most do, and especially on our own or with a small group of us (us meaning fellow Rangers). When Rangers are grouped together our abilities should be enhanced even more. When we have pets unlike anyone else we should be able to train and use our animals to use "stalking" to become extended additions to our tracking abilities sensing abilities.

We can harvest more than anyone else. Ok that is nice, but why are we limited to only meat, bone and skins. If an animal has poison we should be masters at extracting it and applying it to our weapons or other players weapons or even to our creatures that are our pets (fangs, claws, talons etc). I don't mind limited uses, but we should be able to extract poisons, diseases, acids, and plagues (you get the idea), and making very efficient use of them.

There was discussion at one time of being able to single out and track specific creatures, npcs or even players (heavens if a droid can do it certainly people who are suppose to be masters at tracking should be able to do it, no I don't want to become a bounty hunter, I already had one character that was and didn't like it, so I am not trying to get into their turf), and why in the world would we be able to tell our troops where just about any military or civilian vehicle is a blind man should be able to follow the tracks of an AT-AT and AT-ST. Nowa swoop or such isa different story, there your creatures who have stalking and good senses are what would help us track because they can easily identify their chemical trails(with the possible benefit of Wookies and transdosians having some of this sensing ability naturally but not to the degree of the creatures we use), but otherwise we wouldn't be able to tell you if something flew over the ground. We should be able to use flyers such as any flying creature to go "high" and observe and with DE's help who makes devices we use to communicate with them and see what they are seeing to observer long range and something like our current radar but would also give some indication of what it is we are seeing out there (good for evading unwanted attention or following it even more undetected then might happen otherwise). Again this all falls within the concepts of skills they even give us now, only they are assisted by tailors, DEs, BE's, and CH (which helps the entire economy and all of us working together as a team).

We should have weapons that are specific to Rangers (yes and are also effective against persons as well - tell me of a hunters rifle, bow or other device that won't kill you as dead as a military weapon). This just like in the movies when a smuggler's ship (smugglers are not a combat profession either technically) can be turned easily into one powerful attack vessel in combat (happened all the time).

But this would mean making the Ranger profession truly deadly as a hunter or combatant as they should be. With this talk about the combat upgrade rebalancing everything so no one can go out and take out a Rancor (or Rancors) by themselves or for that matter makea template that can take out military installations or groups by ones self. Then Rangers should become very vital people to the economy, to anyones hunt and to the GCW, otherwise why have them in the game? Yes I love being a Ranger, but it would be nice to really be needed and special to the entire game.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Jolandir