Ranger Archive

Hello everyone!

Been following this forum for a while and really like it compared to others. Even made me want to become a Ranger! And this is what I am aiming for. Almost there too! Woot!

Although presently a scout 3/4/3/3 I use /maskscent ALL the time. I rarely use any shuttle only for interplanetary. I run everywhere. Here is my experience with /maskscent and am wondering if others are experiencing the same? (Yes I did read the entire thread and others too about this.)

Since the patch a few weeks ago I have never had any type of yellow critter break my /maskscent, there is no message of getting xp for these either. The only time I see a xp message is for red critters. (these being yellow and reds on my radar. Many Yellows on my Radar have been RED when /consider). I go through low level radar red (per my skill lvl)without a hitch and only worry a little about the higher ones and this only breaks when I'm running relatively close to them, not if I'm walking. I have only had one experience of a break and warp.

Now, Mind you, I only play about 2 hours per night and a bit more on weekends. But like I say, I'm always traveling in the bush or outback.

So my experience with /maskscent has been really good!

Perhaps I missed something in all of those posts?

Since /maskscent is Scout feature, you may consider what I'm going to say a Scout issue. I think, it could (I have not tested it) as well be applicable to /conseal.

When you have /maskscent on and attack one of the pack/social creatures, the one you are attacking is confused and does not sense you. But its buddies are immediately on you without ever breaking /maskscent. Definitely an issue. Can somebody test it with /conseal ?

"If you try to harvest a resource off of a creature that does not happen to have that resource, it ruins any future attempt to harvest"

- Noted. Its been awhile since I did this myself, but it is annoying to say the least.

novamarine:

"(i.e. needing Dantooine meat rather than Datonooine Herbivore Meat)."

- Noted.

"Request to make harvesting high level creatures a certification. Similar to weapon certification or Creature Handler Taming bonus."

- An interesting idea. It could be based on Creature Level...

- Or perhaps they could add a new attribute to creatures stating their size (small, medium large, gigantic, super sized) and base it off that.

"Perhaps N'Raas you need to add a bug section to the report that is for long standing, or higher priority bugs."

- At the moment, the list is categorized by skill. I will see about using colors on particular items to highlight priority, or migrating higher priority issues to the tops of each of the subsections.

- As I said in my original post, I'm also interested in hearing what you all consider to be the priority of these issues as well.

"Reply to above: that is how pack creatures are supposed to work. Otherwise, maskscent would allow a huge exploit."

I believe that pack creatures shouldn't suddenly know where you are unless they break your maskscent or conceal. Instead I think your maskscent/conceal should be rolled against everytime you attack a creature (after the first 2 free hits you get for kneeling/prone). In the case of social creatures they ALL should get to roll even if only one of their number is attacked.

Social creatures auto-attacking you despite you being in cover, with scent masked and concealed is illogical and reduces my enjoyment of hunting. (I just can't hunt some creatures because you get swarmed and die in a few seconds).

As for the main post, excellent summation of the profession's problems.

/agree

Conceal and maskscent have the same code in the game. Conceal is just supposedly more effective. I think it works pretty good personally, but not well enough. At master level conceal should be unbreakable. I see no reason why it shouldn't be.

The problem with maskscent is that when using it you are running the risk of aggrevating a creature from outside the creature's normal attack range. This is meant as a balance for the game that will keep maskscent from making you uber. The only problem is that is makes using it a liability. Since you have 0% chance of aggravating an animal from outside its normal attack range, and large chance of getting a creature from attacking you outside the attack range, this puts the Ranger in a dilemna: she can use maskscent and get closer to mobs, but she increases the chances of being attacked by a random mob.

One Endor on Sept. 12 at about 11:00, I took a chance and used maskscent after succesfully negotiating mobs for an hour without it. About 5 minutes after I put it on I attracted a rock smasher from beyond my 64 meter radius radar menu. This is bad - you now have no maskscent and are being forced to fight in highly dangerous area, all because an animal sniffed you from 44 meters outside their normal attack range of 30 meters.

Later that day, from over 64 meters away I had a Borgle Life Sucker attack me when maskscent broke. That was the Endor of my field expedition.

Also, maskscent and concealare checked by all mobs, not just aggro mobs. This increases the number of times you're being checked, and increases the chances of mask scent breaking, even though you should only be concerned about aggressive creatures attacking.

If the developers could recode thisone rules I would have zero complaints about mask scent:

1. Make it so that an animal will not attack you if they suddenly smell you unless you are in their normal attack range. When you have a chance of pulling an animal from over 64 meters away you are more of a liability to your group than a benefit. It's also illogical. If the animal smells you from 64 meters but doesn't care when you DON'T have maskscent, why would it care if it suddenly smells you?

While it's really fun to have maskscent, it's a pain the rear that stuff will attack you for using it. It makes it a liability and it becomes like a toy that you can't use because you'll be hurt. Please fix this issue, I know you're trying to put risk-and-reward together, but if I use pistol enough to shoot better, where is the risk? We gain xp to use maskscent, and I see no reason why it should put you at higher risk of being attacked.

-- YP

Request to make harvesting high level creatures a certification. Similar to weapon certification or Creature Handler Taming bonus.

I agree with this suggestion wholeheartedly. Rangers must be given some ability that NO other profession can accomplish. And I don't mean a skill or buffthat helps you accomplish a task, like conceal. I mean a task (harvesting certs, ranger-only access to certain map areas, etc) that other players cannot accomplish at all.

Combat medics can throw heals in combat. No other profession can do this.

Armorers can make armor. No other profession can do this.

Architects can construct buildings. No other profession can do this.

What can rangers accomplish that no one else can?

Ranger skills are no more than a fancy means to an end, an end that everyone else in the game can accomplish, just with a little more work. Any day-one noob can take his game given CDEF, run 20 meters outside of town and usurp our spot in the economy.

Please, please, please give us a place in the economy that not everyone else can step on.

Great list NRaas.

The things I might mention are the one about traps working against NPC. In one of the dev reponsces to Rangers, they said there would be a trap or two that we can use against NPC's, it would be like a trip wire though. Where you lay it and get the NPC to step over it. Not a thrown one. This was said in the same post where they said they were going to put in the /conceal and camo kits, and the /areatrack and /track skills. I'm thinking since the /track sounds complicated, it and the NPC traps are still in development.

Do we really need experimentation on camps? I mean, if they are working properly and repeling creatures as they should, what quality can we really get more use out of it?

Experimentation for traps should be doable with a general crafting tool. The rangers and scouts spend more time in the wild then in town. If we run out of traps in the wild (happens to me all the time) we should still be able to make quality traps in the field, with out running back to town.

I'm not sure if mask scent is really lessened as a ranger. But I have posted several times both here and on scout forum, that mine doesn't work as well as novice scouts. Here is the exact example you might be looking for to tell the devs. I have been grouped with a few novice level scouts, who have low level mask scent. I'm the only ranger. We are all using our mask scent, traveling through deep desert with lots of agros around. Every single time someone mask scent broke, it was mine. The creatures would of course attack me and the group has to rescue me. Never did any of the novice scouts mask scent break, and not mine. It was always either, mine broke and MAYBE someone elses,or only mine broke. With master scout I have 100 in mask scent. The novice scouts do not have it this high. As I said, this happened SEVERAL times over a few days of group hunting. Not just once.

We definately should be able to /mask scent again after /conceal wears off. The example would be if it wore off and you're out of camo kits. Well if you're still out in the wild you want some protection so you use mask scent.

/conceal should work better then mask scent, hands down. Mask scent is a scout(starting)profession skill, and /conceal is a Ranger(advanced)profession skill. Now obviously, if you are novice ranger and only have say +20 to camo, then yea your mask scent with +100 might still be working better. But at master ranger the /conceal should be working A LOT better then mask scent. That is a lot of skill points and xp used up to get master ranger. Along these lines, do we know if you are a bothan master ranger, does your camo bonus go over 100 as it should? Does this actually make it better in the mathmatics of the game? What I mean is, does the formula for /conceal even recognize a camo skill over 100? It needs to, otherwise the bothan bonus is pointless. That is one of the reasons I made a Bothan scout/ranger. They took it away from mask scent, fine, but it needs to be calculated into camo properly. Don't know yet myself.

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jmatt wrote:

Request to make harvesting high level creatures a certification. Similar to weapon certification or Creature Handler Taming bonus.

I agree with this suggestion wholeheartedly. Rangers must be given some ability that NO other profession can accomplish. And I don't mean a skill or buffthat helps you accomplish a task, like conceal. I mean a task (harvesting certs, ranger-only access to certain map areas, etc) that other players cannot accomplish at all.

---

Think, how that will affect groups. Grouping is means to hunt high level/size creatures. So, only rangers will be able to harvest these creatures in groups. Although it may solve the dreaded 60% harvest issue by replacing it, in the end it will piss everybody off, especially scouts. Scouts will have to look for "newbie" groups hunting "newbie" creatures or forget about harvesting while grouped.

On the other hand, group hunting krayt dragon for pieces to be included into armor/weapons will absolutely have to include master ranger (who might then set an exorbitant price on what he/she just harvested).

Not good.

So, while overall the idea is good, the consequences can be devastating.

I saw a mention of being able to experiment on traps and camps, which I agree with. However, there was no mention of being able to experiment on camo kits and I think we should be able to.

To go along with the experimentation, traps, camps, and camo kits should all have some sort of properties that show their individual quality. As a weapon hasAttack Speed, Minimum Damage and Maximum damage, a camo kit should have Effectiveness and Duration. You should be able to see the affect of your experimentation. In addition, the only quality that shows as important for crafting all of these items is Overall Quality. However, it doesn't seem to make any difference if you use low OQ materials or high OQ materials and there isn't any way that I know of to determine if OQ makes any difference or not, since your crafted items have no properties.

As was mentioned earlier, Ranger's need to have a place in the economy somehow. We have way too much competition for selling Hide, Bones and Meat because every noob in the game is doing the same. Camo Kits could become a source of income if implemented properly. It would be nice if Camo Kits could be applied by non-Ranger's but at a cost to their effectiveness. Stims are like this, Stim-Bs can be used with low level medical skills, but their effectivenss is much lower than if they are applied by a Doctor. Still, stims sell on the market, particularly the good ones where the crafter has taken the time to acquire the absolute best resources for crafting them. Rangers could distance themselves from Scouts by being able to sell these camo kits. Rangers that are willing to acquire the best possible resources for their camo kits will be able to sell their kits at a higher price, so those who work the hardest will reap the most benefit.

NRaas, I appreciate your work. The list that is compiled looks really good. Ranger is getting better by the day. There are obviously bugs and other changes that need to be made before what I have suggested here, but this would make the profession a lot more fun for me. As far as prioritization of the list, it sounds like the Mask Scent/Conceal problem is one of the biggest issues. Particularly getting aggro'd by creatures outside of their normal attack radius.

Someone mentioned not being able to experiment on traps, camp kits and other items items in the field because theywouldn't have a crafting station. When you get to Frontier IV, you WILL have one in your camp kit, so that really isn't a problem. If you don't have Frontier IV, then you need to get it

I have to agree with Un4tun8 against the Harvesting Cert idea.