Ranger Archive
Thread: Survival xp question...
Also, for the rangers here, you can use the High Tech Field Base at Frontiering III even though you can't craft it yet. Find a ranger to craft you some HTFB and use them because you get more xp from each camp.
Rhysen wrote:
Creature Handler here. And I ground out the last3 boxes of Survival in the Scout line last night. Calling a creature does affect the camp. I called my Harvester Droid to max out xp on the basic campsite in 3 minutes, until I noticed I was wearing off the paint job on him (customization lifetime dropped 400). Then I called my Giant Veermok Baby for the remaining time.
With the first two camps in the Scout survival line, calling either the droid or the pet around 30 times in roughly 3 minutes maxed the camp xp to my knowledge. I was getting 658 Survival xp when disbanding the camp at the 3 minute mark. Occasionally I got 700 xp, but that seemed to trigger for unknown reasons.
And next time I think I'll just save the resources and make traps instead
I have two problems with this.
First, I am totally against grinding, especially in such a respectable profession. Three boxes of survival in one night is disgusting... in my opinion. I'm sure others would applaud you, though.
Second, calling a pet/droid/vehicle repeatedly to increase your visitor number is an exploit. It's a bug that needs to be taken care of and taking advantage of it is exploitative.
Entertainers do it too when they sit in salons all day and change their hair color, over and over and over and over again for the xp... I don't consider it cheating, just trying to quickly acquire better skills. Grinding to me is a natural part of the game, and after I'm done mastering whichever profession I'm doing, I'll probably try to master another one...
In any case, I'm having a blast, and hopefully I'll be mastering Ranger soon, and then it's MY turn to hunt BH!!! Hahaha... (sorry, read the "BH hunting Rangers" post before responding here).
See you out there,
Lunga.
p.s.: Try camping w/ vehicles and droids... great solo xp if you can't group.
I don't think that's a big deal. It's exploiting to call a pet, store it, recall, store, recall, etc. That is what I have a problem with. If you want to call 1 pet (or whatever your max number at one time is) and a droid and a vehicle, fine.
LangaNor wrote:
See, that's somethign I don't get about this game (or some people who play it)... If hunting incessently for xp and resources (and cash) isn't exploiting, then why is sitting in camp for survival xp exploiting?? I like to be able to call up bigger and better camps, and if it means sitting there for 10 minutes, disbanding, and recalling a new camp w/ 1 droid, 1 speeder bike, and 1 speeder to max out my xp, I don't think that's wrong.
See you out there,
Lunga.
p.s.: Try camping w/ vehicles and droids... great solo xp if you can't group.
Gooney wrote:
Id say that anyone that didnt grind survival by making campkits is a bit of a fool.
Sure you *can* sit around in a tent absorbing nature for an ungodly amount of time, in silence, cause you'll be alone...all the time...
Dont get me wrong I absolutly love camp kits, and it royally cheeses me off that no one uses them, back in the begining camps were necessary. Now theyre decorations...at best.
I long for the time when my camp would be full and utilized. Prior to each encounter the party would gather to call forth pets, a few words of strategy then go at it.
After the encounter a camp was called to heal up, call vehicles and laugh about what happened during the encounter.
Camps are well and dead these days. And I for one am very sorry for it.
-Gooney
You're only alone if you choose to be. I managed to do it and quite frequently I'd camp in the vicinity of where other members of my guild were grinding XP. They'd chew through a few lairs, and then hop over to my camp where I was crafting traps, or more camps, or just hanging out chatting with folks. They'd heal up, a few times a couple of the guild docs would come out and heal folks for the XP, a couple times I had people tumbling for our docs to speed THEIR run up their tree.... it was all good.
And it STILL took me months to get to Master Ranger, but it was loads offun. I did it "along the way", and actually finished up with the Frontiering branch doing it that way BEFORE I finished up wayfaring. Go figure.
anyway, in my opinion, people play the game as they wish and it's fine with me. i just wanted to know everyone's opinion about it.
Take care,
Lunga.
Piroa wrote:
Rhysen wrote:
Creature Handler here. And I ground out the last3 boxes of Survival in the Scout line last night. Calling a creature does affect the camp. I called my Harvester Droid to max out xp on the basic campsite in 3 minutes, until I noticed I was wearing off the paint job on him (customization lifetime dropped 400). Then I called my Giant Veermok Baby for the remaining time.
With the first two camps in the Scout survival line, calling either the droid or the pet around 30 times in roughly 3 minutes maxed the camp xp to my knowledge. I was getting 658 Survival xp when disbanding the camp at the 3 minute mark. Occasionally I got 700 xp, but that seemed to trigger for unknown reasons.
And next time I think I'll just save the resources and make traps instead
I have two problems with this.
First, I am totally against grinding, especially in such a respectable profession. Three boxes of survival in one night is disgusting... in my opinion. I'm sure others would applaud you, though.
Second, calling a pet/droid/vehicle repeatedly to increase your visitor number is an exploit. It's a bug that needs to be taken care of and taking advantage of it is exploitative.
I think you need to get off your high horse beforebefore the altitude (and your attitude) causesa fatal nosebleed. If you want to take another person's actions that in no manner affect you personally, I suggest you keep it personal. IE to yourself.
Have you even played the game at the newbie level recently? Camping in the Scout boxes will do nothing but force unnecessary downtime on you and your group. Novice Medic and Stimpack-A's are more than sufficient to keep an unbuffed/unarmoredsolo person alive and combat ready throughout the fight. Even after finishing a lair if the person isn't topped off on Health and Action, they will regenerate by the time they travel to the next mission lair. And if for some strange reason they actually decide to pull up a camp before heading to the next lair, they can heal themselves fast enough that they won't generate any Survival XP in the camp. I know this because I've done it.
Doing group missions, the situation is similiar. I've done the squill hunting in a group thing on Tatooine. Even in a totally unorganized group with nobody attempting to tank for the group or the group concentrating on a single target, there's simply not enough damage to be healed to merit the downtime. Stopping for 3-6 minutes doing nothing for no reason forces downtime onto the group members that they wouldn't encounter solo. What incentive is there to be in a group if you're encountering annoyances and speed bumps that you don't encounter when solo?
If it's an exploit, I didn't know about it and there's no worries about me repeating it. But from a newbie perspective, I'll tell you something:
A Novice Artisan can grind out Engineering/Domestic ArtsI-IV faster even if the Scout repeatedly called pets. The XP required for the Engineering/DA skill boxes are significantly lower than the XP requirements for the Survival skill boxes. And the Artisan gets access to significantly higher XP generating items to craft at Engineer III, Wind Power Generators for 440ish xp per item. I don't imagine camps gain any additional usefulness even in the Ranger boxes. Again, there's insufficient damage requiring healingto merit the downtime of the camp if the player is unbuffed (sufficient damage will have long killed the player before they could stop to take a break). And any Doctors/Combat Medic in the group can easily keep up with damage during the battle.
Your 'respectable' profession has an entire branch of wasted skillpoints. The only bigger and more annoying waste of skillpoints I've encountered so far is requiring Smugglers to have Unarmed Combat IV. And even that's debateable as the Smuggler can build off that foundation to go TKA. I'm not going to sit there and pay SOE for the priveledge of having the ability to choose to unnecesarily waste time. At least grinding skills in the other professions has the justification of needing X skill as a foundation for better skills. Survival just means you can build more elaborate scenery to accent the downtime you choose to force on yourself.
Phenix1050 wrote:
Hey Rhysen-- All Piroa said was that he's against grinding and that repeatedly calling pets is an exploit. High horse? I'm sorry but if that's what you consider to be a high horse, you're really looking at this the wrong way.
He even said "I'm sure others will applaud you too" showing that he wasn't citing his opinion as gospel. He simply was expressing his opinion is what I consider a respectful manner. YOU on the other hand resorted to pettyinsults like the nosebleed comment.
and there IS a call for camps if you don't go buffed and fully armored. I remember when I first went through Ranger without buffs or armor and the first line I got in Ranger was survival. Mastering survival is not that big a deal. If you have to grind your way through it, that's fine. But there's no great reward in being a Master Ranger, except to say that you're one of the elites. There isn't an uber weapon cert or a new attack at Master Ranger. So grinding through survival gets you...what? a badge? a slight increase in harvesting?
You insult Rangers as a whole and then put 'respectable' in quotes as if to imply that we're not respectable. Well maybe we don't have an uber attack. Maybe we're not a power-player profession. But where we ARE respectful is on the forums. There are times in this post I could've called you names. Or insulted you,like you insulted us. but I didn't. I chose to express myself respectfully, like Piroa did. I'm sorry you don't enjoy the survival skill tree. But to insult it as useles is a matter of how you play. If you go out fully buffed and armored,then yeah, you won't get too many wounds or anything, so you may not get wounds.
Try playing the game without buffs or armor. Try it for one week. I guarantee you that you'll be using camps more often to heal up. and the great thing is, you can bring a bunch of new players out and teach them how to play the game with some respect, not just getting fully buffed up and plowing through the novice trees. That way, you get XP, they get XP and they learn that sometimes, getting everything handed to you on a silver platter isn't the best way to go through a game.
So please, don't insult our profession or another person simply because you disagree. if that's the only way you can express yourself, I feel very sorry for you.
Hey Phenix1050-- I can read the underlying words as well as the next person. "Being against grinding and repeatedly calling pets is an exploit" isn't all Piroa said. He felt he could preach to me about the 'proper' way to play a Ranger. Nobody preaches to me. If you think that reaction was bad, you should see what I do to actual preachers. If you feel your profession was insulted, look to him. By directing his reply to me, publicallyimplying my actions were not respectable (not for them possibly being an exploit, which I didn't know and was given the idea to do in this very forum but because they offend his sensibilities) by contrast, he became the representative for your profession to me. And find nothing respectable about the attitude beneath his words in the slightest. Because he has absolutely no authority to lecture me on how to 'be a Ranger' in the slightest. However I play my character, within the rules of the game, is my business. That's why preachers have such a hard go with me. They generally don't know when to leave well enough alone (my moral compass usually steering a far better course than theirs).
And now for you. What part of
Have you even played the game at the newbie level recently? Camping in the Scout boxes will do nothing but force unnecessary downtime on you and your group. Novice Medic and Stimpack-A's are more than sufficient to keep an unbuffed/unarmoredsolo person alive and combat ready throughout the fight. Even after finishing a lair if the person isn't topped off on Health and Action, they will regenerate by the time they travel to the next mission lair. And if for some strange reason they actually decide to pull up a camp before heading to the next lair, they can heal themselves fast enough that they won't generate any Survival XP in the camp. I know this because I've done it.
Implies I haven't tried playing the game without buffs or armor? The part that says "Novice Medic and Stimpack-A's are more than sufficient to keep an unbuffed/unarmored solo person alive and combat ready throughout the fight"? I have 4 sets of +melee defense/+Defense vs Stun clothes and a set of +melee defense/+taming wild/vicious creatures clothes, thank you very much. That's my normal, everyday wear. I'll buff/armor when I'm running solo missions for credits (which I do less of nowadays not because of the group mission nerf but due to cutting down on my expenditures via going creature handler to specifically drop buffs/armor). So thank you for providing yet another great example of such a 'respectable' profession with your lectures on "The Right Way To Play a Game". That's the high horse I was referring to, in case it wasn't apparent. Nice to see you share the same saddle. I already know "The Right Way To Play a Game". Whatever way makes me feel its worth my time.
Issuing lectures to people because the way they choose to enjoy a game offends your sensibilities generally makes me want to be a hooker. That's more respectable than believing one can tell someone else the right way to enjoy themselves.
Message Edited by Rhysen on 12-09-2004 07:10 PM
Phenix1050 wrote:
You're right Rhysen-- no one can tell you how to play. Just like because of the security and anonymity of the forums, no one can tell you how to treat other people. But we CAN comment. You'll notice that Piroa never said-- nor did I-- that you HAVE to go through camps the regular way. But we are entitled to our opinions about people who grind through a profession that there's no benefit to grinding though.
Piroa never said-- nor did he imply-- that you HAVE to deploy camps only when neccesary. He never said you can't grind. There was no insistance that you play the way that he plays. So you're wrong-- he never told you how to play. He insinuated that he looks down on people who grind survival. He said that 'proper' way to play was to go through and play it. But that's an opinion, not a fact. No matter how many people like me or him tell you that grinding survival is the most pointless grind in the world, you have every right to do it.
If you consider "preaching" to be expressing an opinion, then you yourself are a preacher. you express more opinions than he does. In fact, you should really hate yourself. Because Piroa never expresses an emotion about people who grind. You, on the other hand offer a vaugue generality about what you "do to actual Preachers". If you're so against people telling others what to do, what right do you have to tell us not to preach? That's telling someone what to do, right?
Basically, you choose how to play, and how to live. That's something we both agree upon. But that doesn't mean I have to respect it. In fact, i don't respect how you play OR how you treat people you disagree with. Again, you fling generic insults by comparing us to hookers, and that's fine. If that's how you want to be remembered as a person, fine. If you want to be a person who grinds through a profession that offers no benefit to grinders, that's fine. But I reserve my right to think whatever I want about you, and to post accordingly. If that's what you consider preaching, then the forums is full of preachers. Expressing opinons is a large part of communications.
i'm sorry you have such hostility to people who express their opinions, and I'm sorry you feel the need to grind survival XP. Hopefully, now that you know that the pet-calling trick is actually an exploit, you won't do that anymore. But no one can tell you whether or not to do it-- you are fully responsible for any actions you take.