Ranger Archive

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lammergeier wrote:
multiplayer ships take up one 'lot' from the character's 10 'lot' count, just as a small naboo round house.

BF can be healed in any player-placed structure (excepting factories and harvesters... there may be a few other exceptions that haven't occurred to me (merchant tents?)) which takes up lots.

multiplayer ships can be decorated, and they 'persist' between calls.

camps, however, don't persist. they don't take up a lot.

as it is, a player can carry a small generic house and deed it on any planet except yavin, endor, and dathomir... and while they can't carry it deeded with items in place, they CAN use it as a mobile base to heal BF.

whether or not camps should allow BF to be healed is a point of long contention, and needs to be looked at... but multiplayer ships allow BF healing because of their similarity to player structures (as far as I can see). to draw similiarities between an 'on demand' structure with no lot cost and no ability to persist... and a 'permanent' structure that costs a lot (or more) is somewhat flawed.

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I agree with you that multiplayer ships in most ways more similiar to houses than camps. However, I believe that is besides the point.

From my understanding the Devs never never objected to camps healing BF because they were temporary. Instead it had to do with things like player interaction and other behaviors. Their idea seemed to be that by allowing camps to heal damage and wounds that Scouts and Rangers could prolong a hunting or other "in the field" activity. However, not indefinately because high levels of BF would eventually impact the effectiveness of a Medic's/Doctor's ability to heal and a patients ability to be healed. This cause the fatigued players to eventually seek out cantinas, hotels, and NPC theaters; where Entertianers/Muscians/Dancers could heal their BF.

This down time was not inflicted on players just to complicate their play time. Instead it was to help support the relatively new concepts of socialization based classes, while exposing players to the social aspects of the game they might not otherwise know exisited. In short, it was supposed to, if anything, add to the enjoyment of the players involved. I was playing this game from the day after launch to the present, and in the beginning this type of dynamic actually seemed to work. The cantinas were generally lively places where you could talk, joke, trade, exchange information about the game, and get to know other players (in RP or other senses).

Unfortunately, this eventually changed for a number of reasons, none of which has to do with camping. Probably the first thing, but least impacting, change was the eventual availablity of houses. This allowed the truely anti-social a (very slow) option to get rid of BF without going to town. However, people that would actually use this method obivously didn't enjoy the "cantina scene" and wouldn't add to the experience. Another thing, at least in my estimation, that lead to a decline in people's acceptance of BF were doctor's buffs. Of course, they were not available at the start of the game and it took a while to understand how to make them as effective as they are today, but as significant proportion of people began to rely on them. With buffs people could shrug off previously crippling wounds, but there was no way to mitigate BF. These factors didn't help the situation but were nothing compared to another trend in player behavior.

The real sea change started when people found out about the ability to make unattended macros. It got much worse because of the (unlamented) holo-craze, but AFK "entertainers" exisited well before. I would guess by the end of the first month they were already in existence. Anyway, slowly BF healing, and later buffing, by AFK entertainers would become the norm rather than the exception. Whats more, the longer it persisted the more deeply entrenched it became. As new people entered the game, they didn't get to experience any alternative to the status quo of non-socialization the cantinas had become. So it is no surprise that they many wouldn't even consider if they would like things differently.

So what does this have to do with the discussion? A great deal actually, the Devs specifically chose to not allow BF healing in camps because they wanted to create natural gathering places in the NPC and later PC cities. It actually worked and for a while the for a long while most players either enjoyed it, or at least didn't mind it. However once other aspects of the game were made available to players, many choose ways to avoid creating the intended atmosphere. Some just because of expediency, others out of disillusionment with the who system, but in any case the results were the same. While the creators of MMORPGs have some very broad "social engineering" oppurtunities, the Devs need to understand (on a gut level) that you lead a player to a cantina but you can't make them socialize.

I actually believe it is possible for BF healing in high level camps to help the situation. If the Devs allow entertainers to heal BF in Ranger camps, I see two likely outcomes and either one would be an improvement. The first possibility is that Ranger camps let the non-AFK entertainers join other socialization-friendly players away from the spam and crowds of the present day cantina. I've seen some of this already with player owned cantinas, however, they are often empty when the citizens of their respective cities aren't on. A more ad hoc setting might be a welcome alternative. The second possibility is that the non-AFK entertianers don't completely abandon the cantinas, but instead a large portion of the AFKers do. What will probably happen is the more "anti-social" players will resort to entertianer bots in camps, and perhaps even novice Ranger bots to put up camps, so they will never have to put foot in a cantina again. While distasteful as the thought might sound, at least they will be off on their own, out of contact with others, as they wish to be. This might not get rid of all AFKers in the cantinas, but it would allow non-AFKers to restablish themselves.

The bottom line is that the cantinas (et,al) were intended to be places of social interaction, not the places of non-interaction they are now. In the past, there might have been some truth to the arguement that BF healing in camps would undermine the concept of centers for socialization. However, the original intent has all but disentigrated in practice. If anything, I believe that BF healing camps will help move the situation back to the initial intent.