Ranger Archive
Thread: To Macro Or Not The Evil Wilderness XP Rant
Cheers
/amen to that...
I'm in for the long haul.. I'm not trying to powergame up to the highest level I can then call it quits... I'm just trying to get my character to the skills I want him to have from the beginning so I can enjoy roleplaying a character who's skills match his biography....
So save your flames for the campfire brother.... this isn't about l33t power... its about drawing attention to something that imho is not designed for benefit or enjoyment.If they would make camping more useful to the person who set up the camp, then I would have more reason to actually camp instead of just grinding for xp.
Thats the gist of my argument... if the first level camp as a novice scout is all you really need... why grind camp xp in the first place?? why do we need 200,000 camp xp as rangers? There is no real need for the average run of the mill ranger other than that the higher level camps look cool ... so its a pure pride issue... not a real benefit.
I'm waiting for some Master Ranger to sit here and tell me.. oh yes.. the resources and benefits of the ubercamp are so much more important than camp level 1... this camp is XXXX more useful than Camp number 1... when in truth.. its really not for average everyday gameplay. It just looks badass.
- Zarn
Not that I'm trying to keep this topic alive, but here's a tip for camping. you get better XP while you are healing,so i find a partner looking to grind some XP. We duel(of course I win). We camp for 10 mins and recieve 600 XP. Then we simply take turns switching camps. This essentially generates 3600 wilderness XP per hour, which we split down the middle. Simple enough and we make small talk and invite others to join us. I'd use the macro except I don't think my client would be able to stay up that long. It always seems to crash. *shrug* no matter. Enjoy the game.
PS. just need Wilderness III and IV for Mater Ranger
:strangles Wilderness XP
Anyone know of a good way to train mobs on AFK campers? I saw some guy on Kettemoor AFK camping and I saw some aggro mobs right nearby that could deathblow. I very badly wanted to train this guy, but the mobs don't work like in EQ, where training people is easy. So, I ran this mob by this guy and had to kill it myself as it ignored him. Too bad.
Seriously, though. What happens when you guys get bored of combat? Are you going to macro combat somehow? Why not program the game to play itself so you come back in a week and you are Master level? To me, camping is a group thing and isn't meant for solo, or else they would make the xp gather quickly for being the only one in the camp. Therefore, the best way to actually PLAY the game and get camping xp is to group with people. If camping doesn't appeal to you, don't use the tree and go put those points in something else you actually like. Afterall, no sense putting points in skills you won't want to use. I won't tell you NOT to macro camp, though, because you will soon reach the top of the profession, get bored, and leave. I think the devs made a great mistake by allowing commands associated with xp to be included in macros. Hopefully they will recify this one day as I am sure their original intent was not for people to play the game without actually having to PLAY the game.
To the original poster, you only have to sit for 182 hours if you never group with anyone. Get out there and meet some poeople. Set up camps at static spawns where people will populate your camps. Set up Faction mission parties and provide the tent for healers and entertainers. There is more to do than just sit around for 182 hours and still build your camp XP and the variety allows you to do it in less time.
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DiscoJason wrote:
Anyone know of a good way to train mobs on AFK campers? I saw some guy on Kettemoor AFK camping and I saw some aggro mobs right nearby that could deathblow. I very badly wanted to train this guy, but the mobs don't work like in EQ, where training people is easy. So, I ran this mob by this guy and had to kill it myself as it ignored him. Too bad.
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Try /warningShot followed by /peace. Haven't used it, but that might work.
Alternatively, if the pause on his macro isn't perfect, you could wait around and ninja-camp on him when his camp disbands, depriving him of XP and doubling your gain.
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DiscoJason wrote:
Seriously, though. What happens when you guys get bored of combat? Are you going to macro combat somehow? Why not program the game to play itself so you come back in a week and you are Master level? To me, camping is a group thing and isn't meant for solo, or else they would make the xp gather quickly for being the only one in the camp. Therefore, the best way to actually PLAY the game and get camping xp is to group with people. If camping doesn't appeal to you, don't use the tree and go put those points in something else you actually like. Afterall, no sense putting points in skills you won't want to use. I won't tell you NOT to macro camp, though, because you will soon reach the top of the profession, get bored, and leave. I think the devs made a great mistake by allowing commands associated with xp to be included in macros. Hopefully they will recify this one day as I am sure their original intent was not for people to play the game without actually having to PLAY the game.
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Several problems with this.
One: I hate people.
Ok, that's a little extreme. I don't really hate people, I just don't like interacting with them. I can handle strictly defined interactions (such as "enter cantina, listen to entertainers, when BF is gone tip entertainer 3 x BF healed, more or less if actually entertained or entertainer was AFK."). I can group only if someone else invites me; I'll never try to get a group together to go do something, the best I can do is to offer to group if I run into someone else running the same dungeon as me. I get very uncomfortable doing anything more.
I don't know if anyone remembers this, but when they put up the list of all the professions before release, RANGER WAS LISTED AS THE SOLO CLASS! I'm becoming a ranger specifically because I DON'T want to interact with people!
*sigh*
Anyway. There are other, more general problems with gaining camp XP than my inability to handle large groups of people.
The first is that everyone and their brother has Novice Scout, and everybody likes XP. You can't just join a group and expect to make all the camps for them. That'd be like saying "Hey, guys, could I get all the loot from the stuff we kill?" Aside from being a pre-req for Bounty Hunter, being able to harvest creatures gives players a better sense of reward for combat. If you're not getting any loot from killing womp rats, why are you killing womp rats? Seriously? And since most of the NPCs are insanely overpowered compared to starting players, low-level and slow creatures are the only option.
So...most people in a combat group will be capable of making their own camps, making camps is a rewarded activity, and a group only needs one camp-maker. You wind up rotating who makes the camps, and since groups don't really need to make camp all that often (HAM bars regenerate fine on their own, and wounds accumulate so slowly that unless you got DB'd you'll only need to heal wounds once or twice a trip), you'd probably be better off grinding.
It's possible that setting up a random camp outside a player hotspot and waiting for people to visit would work, but on my server, at least, I haven't seen players congregating anywhere other than the cities...perhaps I'm just not on at the right time or I'm not visiting the right spot. I still don't see why anyone with the ability to build their own camp (i.e.,everyone) would bother visiting yours, when they could go off on their own for the same healing factor and gain XP. Maybe if you've got Medic skills or an exclusive contract with a Medic; I'd try this myself, but as I said before, I don't think I've seen more than 2-3 players in the same place outside of cities.
Finally, regardless of what must be done to gain Survival XP, the rate of gain is severely out-of-whack with that of Scouting XP. From standard play (no /maskscent gains, no hunting baby red cons...not even any deliberate hunting for XP, just running between towns and POIs and doing missions), I had Hunting IV, Survival IV, and the max of 30,000 Scouting XP about halfway between Survival II and III. I probably wasted at least another 30-40k Scouting before I got Survival IV, because I was resisting grinding and didn't want to macro. Essentially, the message was "You can't advance any more by doing fun activities until you've ground out this Wilderness Survival XP."
Heck, they could fix this by lowering the Scout XP to match twice the Wilderness Survival gain rate. It would have been much more fun had I reached Hunting IV /Exploration IV a few days later, at the same time as I reached Wilderness Survival IV. The rates of advancement just made that impossible, though.
Why is it that most every time the camping discussion comes up, that the people that say keep camping and camping xp the way it is very often have afk at or near the top of the list of things to do while camped? Does anyone else see anything *wrong* with this mentality? And yes, I ground out the scout camping xp while AFK (certainly wasn't going to do it any other way). One of the perks of working at home a day a week.
I think the whole camping grind was the stupidest thing in the scout line, and is the stupidest thing in the ranger line.
Sure, it's easy to get xp, if you've got a group of 20 at Fort Tusken. That's providing that no one else in your group pops a camp before you do. And that you actually like grouping. I'm not particularly adverse to it - but my play style/time leads me to often solo or duo with a buddy.
I still and always will maintain that trap making, fishing (not too useful for me, since I'm mostly out of Tatooine currently - but a good idea), camp making, and foraging should all give some camping xp. Raise the xp caps (which're already the highest of the scout/ranger line) for all I care. Just for the love of everything, give us *something* to do besides sitting on our asses to get XP.
Joedash
Flurry
I tried (emphasize tried) going to Dantooine to fill an order of 10,000 scaley hides of a particular type for an order that paid 6 credits per unit. I thought, I will go out, hunt for a few weeks, come back. Buy new house, new armor, weapons, the whole nine yards.
Got my butt handed to me on a silver platter. This planet doesn't seem like it is suited for solo play. That's a bummer too because exp would be great here. Maybe I am just not tough enough.
I like to camp, but it will take a long time. What I do when hunting is follow the planet's timeline. When it gets dark, I pitch a tent and then watch some tv or listen to MP3's or something else. I am not in a hurry, I like being a ranger. But, that said, I agree with many that there is no benefit to being a ranger.
Once I got Master Scout, I ran fast enough over steep cliffs to suit me. Once I got the Phenc.... dart and the bone dart, I was fine. That's all I use as they are my favorites. I like the idea of getting more skins but completely agree with the points that more options for all resources should be gathered (Since I am solo 90% of the time).
Anyway. I like it so far. Just wish it was more defining as an elite skill class.
For those who are MISSING THE POINT....
Sitting in a fricken camp for any reason... is BOGUS if you are not allowed to enter combat, or leave the surrounding area...
The only reason I and many others camp macro is because I don't have the play hours to sit in a boring-as-all-get camp even if it is populated by the entire population of Naboo... Besides.. even if the entire population of Naboo was in the camp, I'd get the same max amount of XP... so who cares....
SOE obviously realizes that camping XP is BS and thus their propsed xp fixes....
Why even bother trying to get Camp XP when a basic scout tent does the same thing as a high quality ranger one... the ONLY reason you need to is just so you can get the skills you need for Master Ranger which is one of my gaming goals...
So don't give me grief about macroing pal... why do you even care... Wilderness XP is bogus and needs to be fixed... end of story.
- Zarn