Ranger Archive
Thread: Conceal V2.0
"What other skills do we have that are useless on their own and HAVE to be combined with a combat profession?"
Creature-to-Hit bonus?
I presume you could use traps to kill an opponent, but really, they are only useful in support of a weapon.
And sure you can track the creature, but once you get there... Without a weapon it is difficult to kill it.
"Would Faction detectors / Covert detectors be defeated by /conceal?"
Well it would be extremely cool, and make us the ultimate sneak for the GCW, but it could be too powerful I think. I can think of a few ways to make the opposting factions life hell, right off the top of my head.
Bah, you didn't comment on my post of why /conceal needs to cancel if I use /friststrike. I guess it's not a real big deal, and if the main reasoning is for game balance, then I'll tolerate it.
NRaas, did you catch this? This is a for sure must on it. Only for game balace reasons. I can't imagine putting /firststrike x4 on top of say a weapon special that already does x3.5. Totally insane. But not being able to use it with a special is exactly why I proposed a high damage modifier on /firststrike, like at leat x4. I still like the idea of one early on that is like x2 or so, and then at master you get it with x4 or better.
"but it could be too powerful I think."
Aye, that was my thought on the matter.
Perhaps someone had a groovy idea about how toequalize the reward with a sufficient risk.
NRaas wrote:
"Thunderheart isn't even a developer! He's another player correspondent!"
He is far more than a Correspondent. He attends meetings with the producers and designers for which no player is privy. He knows far more about what is going on in the background than any of us.
If that's the case, then why isn't he more forthcoming with what's happening? For that matter, why are the developers so markedly silent about this? I still haven't recieved a satisfactory answer about whether this is all really happening or not. We got a bizarre message that /conceal was never supposed to work against NPCs and that they were going to 'fix' it and then nothing.
Again, these ideas for conceal and sneak attack and so forth are great, but we've had lots great ideas since August andfew if anyof them have been implemented and we've only recieved the barest of acknowlegement that we've even submitted design and theme changes. Even the changes promised by Raph Koster himself haven't been fully implemented and that was 5 months ago with no further communication on the matter.
If Thunderheart is so well-connected and knows so much about what's going on, then why isn't he communicating that knowledge to you, NRass? Isn't that his role?
"Bah, you didn't comment on my post of why /conceal needs to cancel if I use /friststrike."
Losing /conceal is the cost of using the skill. Otherwise there would be reason to not use it all the time.
"But not being able to use it with a special is exactly why I proposed a high damage modifier on /firststrike, like at leat x4."
Aye, someone else commented on just using the skill on an auto-attack. I'm hip to that.
"We got a bizarre message that /conceal was never supposed to work against NPCs and that they were going to 'fix' it and then nothing."
We did receive a visit from Thunderheart telling us to help shape the changes, and that is what we are doing.
"Even the changes promised by Raph Koster himself haven't been fully implemented and that was 5 months ago with no further communication on the matter."
Around that time, GreenMarine was pulled onto Player Cities in order to satisfy the Producers goal of "Mounts, Vehicles, and Cities within 6 months". That is the reason for the delay.
"If Thunderheart is so well-connected and knows so much about what's going on, then why isn't he communicating that knowledge to you, NRass? Isn't that his role?"
Thunderheart is simply another employee in the company. He is only allowed to tell me what his superiors okay beforehand. And then I am only able to tell you what he okies.
Blame it on the Powers That Be and leave it at that. That is what I do. 
NRaas wrote:
"It obviously has some way to read your mind."
The logic behindthe covert detector is that itis attached to a network list of all the known agents of the enemy. This list is stolen regularly from the other faction and has a list of all covert players along with identifying features.
That way, the detector simply scans you, matchs the features against its list and tags you an enemy.
Oooohhhhh, I see. In that case, Image Designers should be able to craft a Disguise Kit, and use it like we use a camo kit.
NRaas wrote:
"It obviously has some way to read your mind."
The logic behindthe covert detector is that itis attached to a network list of all the known agents of the enemy. This list is stolen regularly from the other faction and has a list of all covert players along with identifying features.
That way, the detector simply scans you, matchs the features against its list and tags you an enemy.
Maybe we should spend less time working on Ranger and more time securing our Factions NOC list
None of our traps can actually KILL, but some can injure, and all are considered attacks. You can't be a Ranger/Armorsmith/Image Designer and use traps, or you'll either do a lot of running away or a lot of dying/incapping.
shotoyan wrote:
I don't know of any traps we have that can kill an opponent. Which ones do you speak of?
"None of our traps can actually KILL, but some can injure, and all are considered attacks. You can't be a Ranger/Armorsmith/Image Designer and use traps, or you'll either do a lot of running away or a lot of dying/incapping."
Which ones can injure? They're all stat modifiers that leave the trapped more open to other types of attack, but none of them actually do any type of damage.
As a Ranger/enter-non-combat-prof-here, I would use my traps simply in a defensive fashion. Throw a slow or a snare trap and do a lot of running.
I know this profession combo seems unlikely, but imagine a crafter-centric player (like BE) that picked up Ranger to fill in a hole in their guild's skills. Maybe they needed a player for PvP raids that can throw up the higher end camps that NRaas has outlined for us in the other threads, or a player that has /areatrack simply for their guild hunts. A player that picked up Master Ranger simply to be able to /conceal their guild members for hunt parties on Dathomir. Or even a player that picked up Master Ranger simply to try to market crates of camo kits (yes I know, complete waste of skill points, but you'd be suprised how people seem to want to do things with a system that was never part of the original system design - NRaas can attest to that as a software developer).
According to the descriptions (I've never personally used them), the Lecepanine Dart, Sharp Bone Spur, and Noise Maker all cause damage. They also state that they can only damage, and are not fatal.
shotoyan wrote:
"None of our traps can actually KILL, but some can injure, and all are considered attacks. You can't be a Ranger/Armorsmith/Image Designer and use traps, or you'll either do a lot of running away or a lot of dying/incapping."
Which ones can injure? They're all stat modifiers that leave the trapped more open to other types of attack, but none of them actually do any type of damage.