Ranger Archive
Thread: Regarding BF and camps
In my opinion, all those ideas are excellent, except maybe being able to plonk down a mission term (isn't that what the GCW player HQ's are for?).
I'm fairly sure these idea's have already been put to the dev's (It's at the top of these boards I believe, I'll check in a minute).
Great idea's, I'm hoping we can make sure they balance well too. After all, that's what gives us our best chance of getting them implemented.
DK
A comment about specialization. Personally, I don't strive for people to be walled off as Master This or Master That. I prefer rounded characters that dabble in different skills. I makes for more interesting and realistice characters. In life, I'm not a classically trained guitarist. But, I can sit by a fire and entertain people, albeit poorly. 
I do, however, understand that people who pursue elite professions should get specific benefits for commiting that many skill points.
So, for the camp BF thing, why not allow lower end entertainers to heal BF at a very, very slow rate. Allow master dancers/musicians to heal at an extremely fast rate. This encourages parties to bring the more skilled professionals. Also, give the masters some other kind of skills, not sure what, but maybe the ability to craft tapes or cds that can be played in crafted radios. These could heal mind wounds only, but not BF. Something like that.
IMO, the rangers should not be given the skill to heal BF. That is something unique to the entertainers, and I think it should remain so (makes sense that way, as well). I think that rangers should, however, be given the option to create a camp where BF can be healed. That's just my opinion, and I think I justified it up above a bit. If not I'll go into it in some more detail when I wake up tomorrow
Sha'mad Conde.
There was a lot to read here. And someone may have already sugested this. But my idea that maintains and enhances Cantina life, while allowing BF to be healed in the field is this:
A) The HTFB should be able to have a video feed to a specific Cantina on world. This keeps the entertainers in the Cantina's. But allows healing in the field.
B) Master Entertainers should be able to video a play it once tape that is usable in either a residence home or in a HTFB. This gives the entertainers a marketable item (sink). The tapes could be crafted blank by an artisan (sink).
Just my 2 cents.
Regards,
Richard
I want the high end camps to be able to regen bf. But here is my concept.
EVERY camp in the ranger profession gets a modular component which can be crafted by other professions.
You can craft a stageor other modules:
Stage - crafted by Entertainer - allows BF healing in the presence of an Ent.
Semi permanent foundation - crafted by architect - increases duration of camp while you run out and fight
Reinforced fortifications - squad leader - allows fighting from within camp
Stables - Crafted by CH - allows pet regen
Droid Hanger - DE - regens/repairs damaged droids
Mining Platform - Surveyor/artisan - allows a surveyor to hand sample at an enhanced speed.
At low levels, these modulars are low power, and increase based on the level of the camp.
For instance now, a low level scout camp has a .65 healing base. I assume this means it's auto heal is 65% as fast as a med center. At the Highest, we get a 1.0.
Make the modulars similar. A stage on a novice ranger camp would be a wooden platform, healing bf at about 65% - increase this to a raised platform with speakers at 85%, or a full stage/lights/sound system at 100% at the HTFC level.
**only one modular unit should be allowed at any given time.
ANYone can benefit from this, ie a novice ent should heal bf in camps, since it's based on the ranger's ability to camp.
No one sits in cantinas - so the dancer argument is moot. Most dancers are afk'rs, or only part timers- ie a marksman with ent skills, etc.
Very few dancers have stayed dancers, since they realize the social aspect of SWG is in the field, not in town. So even the socializers need people to socialize with...bring 'em out with us.
Most of the dancers I know are also carbineers, or artisans, and during their active playtime, assume the crafting or combat role. The only time they shift gears is when they are done playing, they'll set up their macros to afk dance - which nets them exp and cash.
I must thank them for doing it as well..because there are so few really active dancers in cantinas, at least we have zombies... otherwise my bf would run around 500....all the time.
Kryibacca
Sorry - that is just a bad idea. Maybe for an architect though... that would be cool. I see where you are going but it does not fit a ranger IMHO.
What about a cantina xp mod? Let me explain. So, the game is changed to allow Rangers to build camps that permit BF healing. Add to this that the healer, I will concede, needs to be a novice musican or novice dancer (I still think master is too much). Ok, now the cantina xp comes in. Have a skill accumlation for Cantina xp. The more time you are in a cantina, the more cantina xp you get. Once you get a certain level of this, you can be healed by entertainers in BF "healable" camp. I guess it would be more accurate to describe this as cantina faction. That way, characters must put in their time at the cantinas but can break free of that chain after a certain point. The cantina faction/xp should not eat up any skill points to acquire. Rather, it should just be a threshold that, once passed, allows you to have you BF healed in a camp that allows BF healing.
Does this make any sense. If not, let me know and I'll try to clarify.
Sorry to keep posting, but I had to get out the response to the first criticism which will pop up concerning my prior post on cantina faction/xp.
The obvious criticism, "won't this just delay the death of cantinas? people will rush out, sit in cantinas, get past the threshold, and never look back."
My response, good point.
My solution, have this faction gradually reduce. So, say the threshold is 5000 cantina faction. You achieve this level and can now be healed in camps. Great. Well, the game should automatically roll back like 100 cantina faction a day. Players should be allowed to accumlate more faction than the threshhold so that they can have a couple of days in a row without going to the cantina. But, this way, everyone must still visit the cantina now and then. There, we get to heal our BF in the wild. The cantina lives on.
What do you think?
thetick: yeah you are right, as I posted that I was just on my way to bed and misread what you had written. While you pointed out it was the dancers that were doing the BF healing, I read it as the rangers. My bad.
I like your ideas about the cantina xp bar, but I'm not sure it's really necessary? I think we all agree the main problem is that if camps are allowed to heal BF, it might take away business from the cantinas. And your idea proposes a solution to this. However, if the devs allow only the upper end camps, and only the elite entertainers this opportunity - then realistically it is going to be a fairly rare occurance. As it is, there are few high end rangers (that is, rangers that arent just in it for the tracking skill 
) and even fewer elite entertainers that come out hunting (on my server, Valcyn, that is). Sure, after implimenting this idea there might be a few more rangers and adventuring entertainers, but I dont think enough to really damage the numbers cantinas are seeing at the moment.
However, I do like your idea. Whether it's necessary or easy enough to be quickly implimented might cause problems, though.
Sorry again for the mixup last post 
Sha'mad Conde.
No problem about the mixup, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't be misinterpreted I also wrote that before I went to sleep. I agree there are few high end healers and few high end rangers. But, if camps could heal BF, there might be more high end rangers. That being said, glad you like my idea. Unfortunately, I toothink it would take forever to implement this type of solution. Just throwing the idea out there off the top of my head.
In response to a previous question regarding keeping a house deed: Yes it is a work-around. I still keep a crate of HTFBs and a crate of Basic camps on me. The HTFBs just look cool. And I don't "think" that all planets can have houses on them so keeping a few camps in the pack is helpful.
The Tape idea is wonderful. I want a big-screen plasma display for the HTFB though - hehe. If an entertainer can craft these (or place a program on a crafted blank as suggested) then that entertainer should be able to name the item and get entertainment exp from it's usage (much like novice artisan usage exp). I think that would be great even if the amount of BF that is healed is very small and/or amount of usage exp for the entertainer is small, it still helps and does not damage the value of cantinas.
The Camp-BF-heal faction idea is also a very good one. Althoug I might take it a step farther and suggest that entertainers have the ability to create a sort of chit or coupon that allows it. This way the entertainers could recieve healing exp for it's use and participate in the economy more. In any case, reducing the "faction" over time or by use, or using up the coupon is a good way to keep the community going back to the cantina.
Excellent debate here and I hope the devs see this one. It is so nice to be a master ranger and know that our boards are civil and readable. Thank you.
ShamadConde, I think everyone that has posted agrees that rangers should not be given the ability to heal BF. Was that ever an issue? It seems this thread has been a discussion of whether camps should be able to allow BF healing from entertainers and if yes, what level of entertainer should be allowed to heal BF in a camp.
I am all for allowing entertainer to record tapes that can be played to heal BF. I think that is a great idea.
The holo-recording is also something I've seen the entertainer community asking for and it's a good one. Infact, I believe they have specified that thosetapeswould heal BF as well (I think).
The suggestions we've got coming in here are great, let's keep this going and see if we can find a realistic and deployable solution to getting what we want. You never know, if we and the entertainer community can agree on how to implement this, it might actually happen! I've seen a lot of people say that the only reason BF is in the game is to give the cantina's purpose and while I agree that we are a self-dependant profession, with only this one tie - I can't see the developers giving us the ability unless they wished to scrapcantina's altogether. (Ok, this isn't completely the case, but it's close). That's why I believe we need to continue to think about the balance as we move these ideas forward.
I said it on the dancers forum and I'll say it here. Entertainers and rangers are about as far apart on the spectrum as you can get. Most entertainers live the city life, while we do our best to stay away from it. If the two sides can work together to get all the issues resolved, then I think we stand a good chance of getting what we want.
Just my thoughts...
DK.