Ranger Archive

Review and comment. I will post the final copy, with any revisions,on Monday.

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Implementation Bugs

1. Camps Not Repelling Aggressive Creatures

• Highly irritating. The problem is most prelevant in the Field Base and High Tech Field Base, where even I have had low level creatures wander in a disturb my healing.
  
• Would it also be possible to suppress new aggressive spawns in the vicinity of the camp? Many Rangers have noted aggressive creatures spawning right on top of them while in camp.

2. Areatrack bugs

• Issue with the vertical plane. Namely problems using it on mountainous terrain.
  
• Issue with not locating creatures that are a certain distance away, namely around 100 to 130m.

3. Conceal and Humanoid NPCs

• Reports of some Gang Member NPCs ignoring /conceal entirely, and attacking concealed players without breaking concealment.
  
• forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=ranger&message.id=13682
  
• There are occurrences of Humanoids aggroing at a distance of 64m with or without the use of /conceal. Possibly the NPCs are aggroing before /conceal is being checked.

4. Traps bugs

• Issue with using a trap and not receiving any feedback at all (neither success nor failure mesages)
  
• Issue with the last trap in a stack tending to fail more often than the others.

5. /harvest bug

• Issue where you accidentally harvest a non-existing resource (hide off a Hermit Spider) by using /harvest hide, and after that you are not allowed to harvest the correct resource.
  
• This problem has also been noted with attempting to harvest from too far away from the corpse.

Design Requests

1. Usefulness of Traps

Once again traps are on the minds of Rangers. Being that they are our only physical addition to combat, traps (or lack thereof) weigh heavily on Rangers minds.

• More Traps
  
  
  
  • How are those new traps coming along?
    
    
    
    • We recognize you are busy with Player Cities, and soon Smugglers... But can we expect them this year at least?
    
    
  • Request for an Area Effect Root (stop completely) or Snare (slow down) trap for handling social lairs.
    
  • Request for a Tranquilizer Dart/Trap
    
    
    
    • The effect would stop the target creature from attacking for a certain period of time
      
    • The trap would also stop the creature from assisting other creatures
      
    • Attacking the creature would immediately drop the effect
      
    • If the trap fails to affect the target, aggro would ensue as normal
  
  
• Effectiveness of Traps
  
  
  
  • Many Rangers feel that traps don't ramp up in effectiveness against the more difficult creatures, as the player's skill improves.
    
    
    
    • Namely once a Ranger reaches Master, and begins fighting the really big critters, the traps become so ineffective that nobody bothers using them anymore
    
    
  • Request for a Trap Launcher
    
    
    
    • Item would propel traps a further 10m than simply throwing them (60m in total)
      
    • Item would increase the success rate of the trap (very useful against the larger creatures)
  
  
• Usage of Traps
  
  
  
  • A good contingent of forum posters don't really consider Ranger to live up to its "Elite" title.
    
  • There are several suggestions about allowing greater usage of Traps in combat:
    
    
    
    • Request to use traps on Creature Handler pets (possibly receiving no exp for doing so)
      
      
      
      • We are confused about why this ability is missing. Our traps would make a good foil to the Creature Handler pets.
      
      
    • Request to use traps on Humanoid NPCs at the Ranger level.
      
    • Request to have traps affect other Players at the Ranger level.

2. Usefulness of /areatrack

The Rangers like this skill, but if the command worked just a little better we would absolutely adore it...

• As a slight aside... How is /track coming along? We are awaiting the skill with bated breath.
  
• Now back to /areatrack:

• Issue with /areatrack not picking up lairs that have not yet spawned any creatures
  
  
  
  • This is a rather irritating issue that limits the commands usefulness away from the more travelled areas
    
  • Request for a Spawn Point tracking option. This way we can track lairs which haven't spawned any creatures yet.
  
  
• Request for /areatrack to force the first wave of spawns for all existing lairs in the vicinity, so that the creatures will appear in the list
  
• Request to increase the range of the command to 1000m
  
  
  
  • There are also requests to make the range incremental based on skill level. 500,750,1000,1250, and up to 1500 for Master.
    
  • However in order for this to be useful, a greater increase in the dynamic spawn rate would need to occur at a greater radius around the player
  
  
• Request for the command to allow the user to input the target type on the command line
  
  
  
  • The command would work like /areatrack animal, /areatrack people, /areatrack players, /areatrack all
  
  
• Request for /areatrack all at the Master Ranger level
  
  
  
  • The tracking option would list both Animals and Humanoids in the same list for easy lookup
  
  
• Request for the /areatrack results to be display in a Sortable List Window
  
  
  
  • The List window would have separate columns for Name, Direction, Distance
    
  • Clicking on the header for the column would toggle between ascending / descending sort order
    
  • Resizing the window would increase the size of the List portion of the window, rather than the height of the Mesage portion
  
  
• Request for a Refresh button on the list window, so once a player has traversed a bit of distance they don't need to reselect their choice of track.

3. Creature Combat Bonuses

Rangers are the penultimate outdoorsman. They know a creatures anatomy and their weak spots allowing for improved damage. They also know how a creature will react and how to best avoid damage from them.

• Suggestions for Offensive abilities (not all items are obviously required)
  
  
  
  • Request for an innate damage increase against creatures. The increase in damage would be based on some skill modifier.
    
  • Request for a random Critical Hit on occassion, with a frequency based on the some skill modifier, that deals a larger amount of damage than normal.
    
  • Request for a command that can be used to increase damage against creatures for a certain duration.
  
  
• Suggestions for Defensive abilities (not all items are obviously required)
  
  
  
  • Request for a Creature-to-Dodge bonus.
    
  • Request for a Creature Toughness skill modifier
    
    
    
    • The skill would work like Unarmed Toughness, reducing the overall damage inflicted by creatures

4. Usefulness of Camps

Ah, camps. The pride of the Scouting line. However apparently simply an obstacle on the way to Master for Rangers.

• Most forum posters agree that Ranger camps need more "bang for the buck", as many (including myself) never make another Ranger camp again upon reaching Frontiering IV
  
• So we ask with the patience of a Frenzied Graul... How are those new camps coming along?
  
• Here are some suggestions for you to ponder while we wait:

• Request that the healing modifier of camps be applied to natural HAM damage recovery on Creature Handler pets and Faction pets.
  
• Request to be able to use a camoflauge kit in camp crafting to produce a planet specific camp with improved creature repelling capabilities
  
• Request for High Tech Field Base:
  
  
  
  • To not disband during combat. The name of the camp is Field "Base" is it not?
    
    
    
    • Many rangers would enjoy it acting as a center of operations without having to sit on their duff and watch the others in the group fight
    
    
  • To not disband in a set time, rather only when the Ranger leaves the planet or logs out.
    
  • To heal Battle Fatigue with the help of a Dancer or Musician
    
  • To have a terminal whice provides Explore missions.
  
  
• Request for a permanent, planet specifc, hunting cabin:
  
  
  
  • Creatable and deployable only by a Master Ranger
    
  • Can not be redeeded and moved, only demolished
    
  • Should be buildable on Advanced planets
    
  • Should heal Battle Fatigue like a regular house
    
  • Requires Maintenance and the use of a lot, like a regular house
    
  • Allows for storage of items, and the possible placement of a Vendor
    
  • Only one of these buildings could be deployed at any one time
    
  • The schematic could require some subcomponent made by architect to promote class interdependence
  
  
• Request for a stash
  
  
  
  • The concept is a buried container that can be used to store items while away from your bank
    
  • The structure would probably require the use of a lot
    
  • A player could have as many as they have lots available
    
  • In order to compensate for being able to have any number of stashes, the storage limit should be minimal... Perhaps a volume of 25
    
  • The stash should be deployable on an advanced planet
    
  • The graphic in the game space could be a dirt mound with a flag to mark the location

5. Harvesting Bonus

Beyond the simple increase in quantity, there is very little difference between the Scout and Ranger portions of the Harvest Skill. So we have some suggestions regarding adding some flair to the skill.

• Request for the ability to harvest multiple resources off a single corpse (up to all 3 types at Master Ranger)
  
  
  
  • Many Rangers consider the inability to fully utilize the corpse to be wasteful and unrangerlike
  
  
• Request that the 60% group harvesting value be improved if a Ranger is in the group
  
  
  
  • The improvement could be based on the Ranger's skill level... (62.5% with Skill I, 65%, 67.5%, 70% with Skill IV)
  
  
• Request for ability to determine resource attributes on a corpse before harvesting with a command /AssessResource
  
  
  
  • The ability would provide a list window with the appropiate resource selections available on the targeted corpse (meat / hide / bone)
    
  • Once a selection is made, a player would receive the /examine window for the chosen resource
    
  • The player would not receive a physical resource, only the information regarding its attributes
    
  • The ability could be used multiple times to receive the data on the other available resources
    
  • The information could also contain whether harvesting the resource would produce a Fat, Medium, Skinny result
    
  • The attributes consist of items such as Overall Quality, Unit Toughness, Potential Energy, etc
  
  
• Request for a /group harvest off to turn off the 60% harvesting rule and revert to the earlier rule set
  
• Request for the harvesting skill mod to increase the amount of fish meat filleted off caught fish

"Except perhaps a progress report, or some more information on new camps."

I do have an item under the Traps, AreaTrack, and Camps listing asking about the progress of the new implementation.

• Should I makethem stand out more?

I agree with everything except:

5. /harvest bug

• Issue where you accidentally harvest a non-existing resource (hide off a Hermit Spider) by using /harvest hide, and after that you are not allowed to harvest the correct resource.
  
• This problem has also been noted with attempting to harvest from too far away from the corpse.

This bug only affects those that use the /harvest command (vice the radial menu) - so there is a work around for this. I would tend to think the "inventory full" bug when foraging is more of an issue since there is no work around and it affects us all - preventing us from actually foraging rare items. [Personally, I think its a "tool" being used by the devs to cover up the fact that there arent really any "rare" foraged items] ( and yes the statement in brackets was meant in jest) Of course, i have no way of knowing if rare items are worth the trouble of even bringing it up.

Thanks for spending time being the Ranger correspondent.

V/R,

SpitN Yereye, Trandoshan Master Ranger

Bloodfin Galaxy- Mos Eisley, Tatooine

Everything looks pretty good. I'd say it's good to go.

Fine work as always NRaas

000000000000000000Dyrwen Sy-X
000000000000000000
000000000000000000Imperial Master Ranger.
000000000000000000Meat Manager
000000000000000000Hide Heretic.
000000000000000000Bone Busybody.
000000000000000000
000000000000000000General PAC Man 
000000000000000000Penny Arcade Clan 
000000000000000000

"This bug only affects those that use the /harvest command"

I concede this one...

• There were two votes for both bugs, I simply chose the one that I had the most experience in, as I never use /forage for anything.

I willreplacethe /harvest bug with the /forage bug in the final version.

"I was disappointed not to see camps be a higher priority."

Note that camps did make it onto the Top 5:

• It beat out many other choices for priority (/conceal was only 5 votes behind)

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There was no cut and dry winner this time around...

• In the previous debate /conceal was declared winner half way through, as nothing was even close.

Most the top issues were only 1 or 2 votes from each other (except for Traps which had a 5 vote lead).

"last night that I could requisition faction weapons and other things"

This is apparently intended functionality, and will be remaining...

• Though I think it snuck out to Liveearlier thanthe developers actually expected.