Ranger Archive
Thread: The State of Rangers Report -- 09/06/2003
Page 4 of 4
DFH
Tue Sep 09, 2003 12:45 am
#40
The entire "the market will flood with organics!" argument is a canard, because the rate at which resources are added to the world is determined by the rate at which they spawn. That spawn rate is infinite, because creatures spawn on demand.
Yes, 20 Scouts can now get a hundred hides off one critter. They could have gotten two hundred between them if they'd all run separate missions. The Scout Army will have a marginal advantage because it will spend less time running back to town for missions than the soloists, but this is more than offset by the logistical concerns of keeping a group together. Either force could pass up missions and just kill what's spawned nearby, too. This isn't EverQuest, where if you go to get hides in EK and there are already three Druids in the zone you'd might as well leave. In SWG, everyone gets all they can eat.
All 20 Scouts in the army could give their harvests to one person. So could all 20 soloists.
An RL friend started playing two days ago, and I made a new character to join him on a new server. Between the increased costs, reduced harvests and the group penalty, I have found it very difficult to even just get enough hides and bones for my camps and traps, and will probably log in early today to do some solo hunting so I can have some resources on hand. For a change that was supposed to assist us in grouping, it sure seems to be doing a good job of making Scouts and Rangers go solo. Macroeconomic arguments notwithstanding, this game is played by individuals and a change that makes it difficult for individuals to function is not good for the game.
As for the rest:
Mask Scent: I crawled about 2500 meters or so on Yavin last night with my Wayfaring II Ranger (who had the experience for III but couldn't find a trainer) in order to service my Vegetable Fungus harvester. A few times I got a message saying it broke, but didn't draw any agro...I just stopped moving, waited for it to time up and reapplied. Twice I was agroed and /burstran like hell. I don't feel I can really complain about the performance. YMMV, and it seems for many, it does.
Camo: I'm building the kits, but frankly, in its current form this looks like a total loss. The ability is too unreliable, and not even close to worth the cost in resources. The flora requirment, forcing outdoorsmen trained in foraging to depend on city-dwelling technicians for common plants, is a joke in bad taste. I picked up Artisan so I could survey for my own flora, and I intend to harvest enough for factory runs of 5-charge kits. Then I'll drop Artisan. If this inanity is not fixed when those run out, I'll just not use this ability. This will just be one more reason for me to continue to solo, as I'll be able to get in and out of places a group with non-Scouts couldn't even think of going. I do not appreciate the fact that I have been dragged into this game's abysmal crafting system. I do not play games to take on virtual jobs, but between the need to maintain harvesters and the changes to Survival experience (which basically require grinding out products to advance the skill now), I guess I have one now.
Tracking: as it stands this skill is essentially useless, between short range, unsorted list, spurious entries, and the dynamic spawn system. I had hoped that I would be able to run concurrent hunting missions without having to return to town to spawn lairs, it looks like hunt/destroy is still the way to to.
Traps: between the increased crafting costs, diminished harvests and increased experience requirements, I truly pity new Scouts. Phecnocine Darts are still the only ones with a worthwhile effect. (Adhesive Mesh would be worthwhile if the duration wasn't both random and laughingly short at best in any case.)
Yes, 20 Scouts can now get a hundred hides off one critter. They could have gotten two hundred between them if they'd all run separate missions. The Scout Army will have a marginal advantage because it will spend less time running back to town for missions than the soloists, but this is more than offset by the logistical concerns of keeping a group together. Either force could pass up missions and just kill what's spawned nearby, too. This isn't EverQuest, where if you go to get hides in EK and there are already three Druids in the zone you'd might as well leave. In SWG, everyone gets all they can eat.
All 20 Scouts in the army could give their harvests to one person. So could all 20 soloists.
An RL friend started playing two days ago, and I made a new character to join him on a new server. Between the increased costs, reduced harvests and the group penalty, I have found it very difficult to even just get enough hides and bones for my camps and traps, and will probably log in early today to do some solo hunting so I can have some resources on hand. For a change that was supposed to assist us in grouping, it sure seems to be doing a good job of making Scouts and Rangers go solo. Macroeconomic arguments notwithstanding, this game is played by individuals and a change that makes it difficult for individuals to function is not good for the game.
As for the rest:
Mask Scent: I crawled about 2500 meters or so on Yavin last night with my Wayfaring II Ranger (who had the experience for III but couldn't find a trainer) in order to service my Vegetable Fungus harvester. A few times I got a message saying it broke, but didn't draw any agro...I just stopped moving, waited for it to time up and reapplied. Twice I was agroed and /burstran like hell. I don't feel I can really complain about the performance. YMMV, and it seems for many, it does.
Camo: I'm building the kits, but frankly, in its current form this looks like a total loss. The ability is too unreliable, and not even close to worth the cost in resources. The flora requirment, forcing outdoorsmen trained in foraging to depend on city-dwelling technicians for common plants, is a joke in bad taste. I picked up Artisan so I could survey for my own flora, and I intend to harvest enough for factory runs of 5-charge kits. Then I'll drop Artisan. If this inanity is not fixed when those run out, I'll just not use this ability. This will just be one more reason for me to continue to solo, as I'll be able to get in and out of places a group with non-Scouts couldn't even think of going. I do not appreciate the fact that I have been dragged into this game's abysmal crafting system. I do not play games to take on virtual jobs, but between the need to maintain harvesters and the changes to Survival experience (which basically require grinding out products to advance the skill now), I guess I have one now.
Tracking: as it stands this skill is essentially useless, between short range, unsorted list, spurious entries, and the dynamic spawn system. I had hoped that I would be able to run concurrent hunting missions without having to return to town to spawn lairs, it looks like hunt/destroy is still the way to to.
Traps: between the increased crafting costs, diminished harvests and increased experience requirements, I truly pity new Scouts. Phecnocine Darts are still the only ones with a worthwhile effect. (Adhesive Mesh would be worthwhile if the duration wasn't both random and laughingly short at best in any case.)
Page 4 of 4