Ranger Archive

as far as misreading your post and thinking that they were proposals in stead of just ideas to get us thinking, that's 100% my bad. The main point of my ideas was to try and give a simpler way to improve our profession. When reading some other posts, I always see people giving extravagent ideas on how to improve the profession. Although they are pretty cool ideas, they would require a lot of work from the dev's point of view in order to implement, let alone debug.

I know that my ideas posted above aren't as good as some others that are out there. That was kind of the point. The point of this was to give some ideas that would probably be easy to implement with the existing framework of thegame, without adding too many additional features (I do admit though, my trap list is kinda long). I figured that the first step towards improving our profession wasn't something huge or extravagent, but a collection of simple improvements in order to make our profession a little more unique; if the first steps are decent enough, we can worry about adding some of the cooler suggestions afterwards.

Basically, my view on improving our profession is this: there are a lot of professions out there that the devs would need to revamp besides us, so if we think of a few suggestions that could be easily implemented the devs could improve the Ranger profession and then move on to help the other professions with their issues and conerns.

I think a few things should be addressed for the combat sandbox, probably fewer then this. But when the REAL reavamp comes (a year from now *sigh*) we should be going bigger then this.

Frederick Skinner
Antarian Ranger, Ranger(0030), Master Rifleman, CH(4214)
Ranger is not a profession. It's a lifestyle.

great ideas... some of what you have posted is a reiteration of ideas that have been the lifeblood of our hope for the profession.

a basic rule of thumb i use is (in no particular order):

1: does the idea promote interdependancy with other professions

2: does the idea enhance gameplay for rangers

3: does the idea fit with a sci-fi interpretation of rangers

4: does the idea add new ideas, rather than takeskills from other professions, and then force them into a ranger role (ie: meditation for rangers.... )

5: where on the priority list should the idea be placed?

6: does the idea help with solo successes?

7: does the idea help with group successes?

I enjoyed the post immensly, and think that you are definately in the right direction... any ranger revamp should be well thought out with massive ranger communtiy support... I appreciate your addition to the process.

Draknev
The Last Ranger Correspondent
Subterfuge and Sabotage, Concealment and Camouflage:
Colonel: Rebel Alliance

Hey AgonThalia, I like your list. I didn't even think of addressing some of these issues, so I will try and do so now.

My view of the Ranger is that he/she can survive in the wild alone, but helps signifigantly in a support capacity to a hunting group. The PvP abilities won't be a great with the Ranger, but the Ranger's abilities should enhance any other combat profession in PvP (i.e. a player's Ranger skills should enhance that same player's Rifleman abilities).

The Terrain Negotiation and Camo Kits (assuming that they act more like buffs) should assist any profession in combat, allowing them to avoid fire while getting into the needed position during PvP.

I belive that my ideas would. Although there aren't any ideas that I wrote that would be off-the-wall cool, I still think that it would enhance the experience for people who would like to become Rangers. Most people would rather choose a combat profession over being a Ranger, because the Ranger is a niche profession.

The purpose of my ideas was so that, as Fred_Skinner mentioned, being a 0/0/3/0 Ranger isn't the same thing as being a Master Ranger (I took this from the "Possible solution to the camp vs. Droid & Buff problem" thread; I hope I quoted your intentions correctly). I'd like to see the day when each step up the Ranger trees is more than being one step closer to getting the Master Ranger tag; it would open a new set of options that would further to enhance the experience for the Ranger and those that are in his/her group.

Other than the more advanced traps that I suggested, it really doesn't. Shouldn't a Ranger be more about working with the wilderness than relying on high-tech gear? I know that a Ranger has to use the high-tech laser weapons of the time in order to hunt, but it seems to me that most of a Ranger's abilities would rely on more low-tech methods.

Don't get me wrong though, giving the Rangers some high-tech abilities that would make them rely more on other professions and have them go into town a bit more often (if they want to use the abilities) would be awesome. I just can't think of any right now, but I'll get back to you on this one

I have to admit that my "Hunter Shot" idea is similar to the Rifleman's "Conceal Shot". I suggested that it could go here as well be cause I found it very useful in hunting, and that a well-concealed hunter would be able to pull off an attack without the creature knowing where the attack came from. It woud not be the same as the Rifleman's ability, since it would not work on players and npc's.

Again I am at fault at making the Camo Kits act like buffs as well as their current use. I figured that this would make us worth more in the GCW (like how buffs make Doctors useful), since we can add a "covert buff" that doesn't necessarilly make the player stronger, but gives him/her more optoins on the battlefield.

The thing is though, that when I first chose to become a scout, I remembered reading somewhere that Scouts were supposed to be the most vercatile and self-sufficent of the professions. I believe that our unique role in the game is that we are the most versatile profession in the game, and therefore would have a few abilities from various professions (with a Ranger spin on them, of course). My "Hunter Shot" ability is an example of this.

Since I am the person who suggested these ideas, I don't believe it is my place to decide where on the priority list these ideas should go; that desicion is up to all of you. However, I do believe that the ideas that are simpler to implement should be given priority over the more extravagent ideas, because the simpler ideas would both enhance the game for Rangers and be more likely to be added by the devs.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "solo successes", but just having things like better traps, better tents, and being able to harvest more resources per creature than a Ranger can currenlty harvest would give immense bonuses to solo successes.

Again, I'm not sure what you mean by group successes, but they should be able to help any group they are with as far as hunting is concerned. I view the Ranger's eventual effectiveness in PvE as this: on a difficult planet non-Rangers would have to be in a group of 5-10 in order to survive in the wild for a long period of time, a group of 3-6 players with a Ranger in it shoud have the same chances of survival as the larger group without the Ranger in it.

Basically my ideas about the Camo Kit "buffs", the additional traps, and the hunter abilities, coupled with the fact that the tents are good at repelling agressive creatures, should help a lot with the success of any group that has at least one Ranger in it.

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The one question that I have not addressed yet is what I think the Ranger's role should be in the game as a whole. To answer this, I will refrence a very old game: Final Fantasy 1 for the NES. That game, for those of you not familiar with it, allowed a player to pick the professions of his/her party. The only professions that I need to mention are the Fighter, Black Mage, and White mage. The Fighter is good at physical attacks, the Black Mage had attack magic, and the White Mage had healing magic.

There was another profession, the Red Mage, that combined the aspects of these professions into one. Although the Red mage wasn't as good at any one profession like the Fighter, Black Mage, or White Mage were, he could still do most of the things that the other professions could.

In my party, I had a Fighter, a White Mage, a Black Mage, and a Red Mage. If the situation called for me needing two black mages, my red mage could do just that. If I needed two healers, I could again rely on my red mage to pull me through the battle. If I needed two physical fighters, the red mage could still help out. This versatility is what made the Red Mage my favourite and most useful character, regardless of who was in my party.

Like the Red Mage, the Ranger's strength should lie in its versatility. If a creatures needs to be weakened with status effects, people should turn to the Ranger. If another hand at offense is needed, a Ranger should still be able to hold his/her own.

What I am proposing might be read as that I think that the Ranger should suck at doing a little bit of what every other profession can do; I'm not. I'm proposing that they can be decent at what most (or some) of the professions can do, and be unequaled in PvE. The Ranger's shouldn't replace the other professions, just be able to enhance them a bit if an additional part of that profession is needed.