Ranger Archive
Thread: A little feedback from Holo on the /maskscent function
i humbly add this. If you feel mask scent is working fine, i must submit a vote of no confidence. Mask scent as a wayfairer is just sad. I can't say much other that what my fellow rangers have already detailed. I played a scout in beta, and since release, having moved up though most of my ranger line 4-4-3-3 at the moment, actually having those similar stats for the past few weeks, since i am seriously considering my path as a ranger.
a) mask scent is just sad. I like others have gone to not using it. Im not talking about wanting a skill that lets me walk up and tickle krat dragons. Feeling im traveling safer with out mask scent on is unacceptable. I dont understand why they fear stealth so much. Its a skill tree, that takes time and effort to work though, and thus should be a positive effect to what a class can do.
b) conceal in its form is half and half as far as im concered. I have had some relatively decent results, mixed with just awful ones. If i get the oportunity to have reds shown on my radar before they are 30m or closer to me, I can stop about 65-70m from them, go prone and crawl (like if im going to a harvister or something) and ive been able to aproach 10-15m of both npc's and mobs. Meanwhile ive had things unzip my fly at 65m and feel its in thier interest to come over and show me some incapasitation loving. Compleatly unaceptable.
My beef is with 2 things. Low reds that can unzip my perverbial fly when im running 20-30m from them and not moving though them, thus blowing a 100credit aplication of my camo just leaves an awful taste in my mouth. The cost of these kits are rediculous, for a 16minut average aplication. The number of aplications one can create with said resources needs to go up dramaticly, or the time duration needs to go up dramaticly. I catigoricly disagree with anyone that says a ranger should not have impunity in the stealth relm. Pardon me but this is a defining part of the class.
camps... they do have thier benifits
tracking... its a solid improvement
traps.. they have thier place (need to be made to effect npc and pc to give us a definition in pv humanoid)
mask scent, now conceal... um good for pulling? since it seems lots of reds now find me apatizing even when im not even in thier pestering them range.
In the end what do we want to be defined by... I sure as heck dont want to be an uber skin/meat/ bone dealer... i want this skill and others to define me, forget how many hides i can rip off a humbla.
The state of conceal right now is unaceeptable... im glad its working for a few, but there are some serious underlying issues here, that as you search though the ranger pages, are quite clearly outlined. That feed back shows that they dont know what people are complaining about.
Delta, i mean nothing personal by this, your time involved with everything is humbly apreciated. But I have to agree to disagree with you on this issue.
"If you feel mask scent is working fine, i must submit a vote of no confidence."
- Was this directed at myself? 
- If so... I have not suggested that maskscent is working properly in any regards.
- I have stated however, that DeltaXi65 and I have agreed that /maskscent issues be directed to the Scout forum rather than here.
- I will say, that /conceal concerns are definitely the perview of the Rangers.
- That said, you will find numerous issues have already been noted regarding /conceal in the State of the Profession thread at the top of this forum.
"Mask scent shouldnt be tossed aside. Doubly so with the prohibitive costs to the kits."
- I agree... /maskscent has its position in the grand scheme of things, even at the Ranger level.
- /conceal does have issues regarding cost versus effectiveness.
- Various suggestions have been made to rectify this problem...
- From the Top 5 Debate thread, this is the top issue with our profession.
- Therefore I will bring up the issue on the Coorespondent Forum, and hopefully learn what resolution is intended.
I have been playing since Day 1 (through the thick of the 1st day issues) and have never really thought that anything was wrong with /maskscent. I am a Ranger (3/2/3/2) now and what I think is that my game gets bigger (augmented by my Pistoleer abilities), the risks of /maskscent(ing) have increased. I rarely, if ever, have a non-aggro mob trip my mask and if it does its even more rare for it to attack me. Off the top of my head I get sniffed out roughly fairly often and of the red(aggro) mobs that detect me, maybe 50% turn to attack me. I usually get fair warning well before the creature is in range to do any damage (ie the music, the combat queue, etc). I'll look on my radar and/or Ctrl-M map and not even be able to see which red(aggro) mob detected me and is moving in to attack for a good 5-6 seconds.
I have never expected /maskscent to be a something for nothing type of skill. I like getting scouting XP for sneaking past otherwise aggro mobs. I also accept the fact that if that otherwise aggro mob detects me, its likely going to try to find me and attack me (which it usually does). Maybe those of us Rangers that are complaining about this ability aren't being true to the nature of a "ranger".
In the real world, would a hunter splash musk all over him/herself and then go running (SWGs default movement speed) straight into the den of a lion (or some other earth animal that could potentially kill you)? I think not. Hunters use the musk and hunt from the fringes of their prey. Just outside that zone of detection. Do they get detected? Sure..sometimes...Thats when its time to pack up move to a different position and start the game of cat and mouse all over again.
As to the comment that /maskscent gets worse the more experienced Rangers get. I can't say that I agree or have experienced this. Just because you are able to rack up a trillion Scouting XP doesn't make you a master scout (or Ranger). Having the title of Master Scout only tells the rest of the SWG community that you were able to allocate X amount of experience through whatever means and find a trainer to train them. Is there any REAL scouting/rangering skill being employed? I propose that if you are complaining that /maskscent sucks then you are probably not playing as a scout/ranger/hunter/whatever should.
Anyhoot its 4am here at work and I am way tired. Just wanted to add my 2 cents. Hope it halfway made sense.
Marenek
Guys,
I don't get this- why are you continually discussing a basic, starting profession skill 1.) In the Ranger forum when your levels of Ranger don't have anything to do with how it works AND 2.) Like it should be an amazing, profession defining skill?
That would be like people complainging that health shot 1 doesn't kill everything instantly.
Please - for my benefit, take your discussion of maskscent over to the Scout forums where I can follow it better.
And please, recognize that the way that maskscent was working after the "big update" was a BUG. It was working too well - it was never designed to work as well as it did. That being said, I feel that the way that it worked should be the way that /conceal should be working.
There are a handful of threads on maskscent over on the Scout boards. Go check them out. Then vote me out of office or whatever.
B
I'm not saying its a profession defining skill (Ranger), but I do think that it is a skill that is fundamental to the Ranger profession. Since maskscent HAS TO BE MASTERED to become a Ranger, how is it not integral?
just my 2 cents
Marenek
Marenek wrote:
I'm not saying its a profession defining skill (Ranger), but I do think that it is a skill that is fundamental to the Ranger profession. Since maskscent HAS TO BE MASTERED to become a Ranger, how is it not integral?
But you don't need to be ranger to MASTER maskscent.
just my 2 cents 
"Guys,
I don't get this- why are you continually discussing a basic, starting profession skill 1.) In the Ranger forum when your levels of Ranger don't have anything to do with how it works AND 2.) Like it should be an amazing, profession defining skill?
That would be like people complainging that health shot 1 doesn't kill everything instantly.
Please - for my benefit, take your discussion of maskscent over to the Scout forums where I can follow it better.
And please, recognize that the way that maskscent was working after the "big update" was a BUG. It was working too well - it was never designed to work as well as it did. That being said, I feel that the way that it worked should be the way that /conceal should be working.
There are a handful of threads on maskscent over on the Scout boards. Go check them out. Then vote me out of office or whatever."
Delta,
What I don't think you are comprehending from our thread is that a lot of us Rangers feel that /maskscent is being REDUCED FOR RANGERS due to a conflict with conceal (maybe?). Since it appears that Scouts (at any level) have better chances of staying masked thenRangers currently do (even though we are Master Scouts and have maxxed mask scent). So in this case IT IS NOT just a scout issue since this conflict only appears to effect Rangers
I'm sorry Delta, but this does appear to be a Ranger problem and while it can and should be discussed on the Scout forums, it can and will be discussed among us here as well.
"it can and will be discussed among us here as well"
- I encourage all discussion regarding the scouting skills our Profession is based upon.
- Just expect more discussion in the Scouting profession.
-If DeltaXi65 escalates any /maskscent issues, I'm surehe will include a note regarding how it is not working properly for Rangers...
My own opinion is that we should concentrate on them getting the skill to work first, then we can worry about the graphics.
MrWraith wrote:
As a side note, I was hoping when I got the camo kit there would be a graphical change to my avatar. Grease paint, a few branches, something. Maybe it can be looked into.
"My own opinion is that we should concentrate on them getting the skill to work first, then we can worry about the graphics."
I agree, but since the Art and Coding departments are separate entities, we might as well request both at the same time.
The Art department I'm sure is up their elbows in Bantha fur working on the graphics for mounts and vehicles, as well as Player cities.
But... It never hurts to suggest the idea.