Ranger Archive

Greetings Rangers,

Just wanted to float an idea past you all that came up while I was discussing possible new droid modules. I'm a ranger myself and, although a little apprehensive when I first thought of the idea (note: I know I'm not the first to have thought of it, but I was hoping to refine it a little) I feel this could be a boon to both us, droid engineers and other non-rangers.

The idea itself is a module which could be added to an R-type droid and possibly a probot to enhance our tracking and maybe provide very minor tracking to non-rangers. Obviously it's this second part which may cause some grief amongst the community and one of the main reasons I bring it here.

The module is a Bio Sensor. When accompianied by a droid with a bio-sensor attached rangers would be privy to more specific information about the targets on our areatrack list. Things such as (but not necessarily limited to) faction affiliation of player targets (something I know many have asked for) and possibly a waypoint tothe last known location of acreature selected from the list. I'm not sure how much I like the waypoint idea (I find tracking a lot of fun myself) but do see it as a useful innovation.

To a non-ranger it would allow basic tracking of creatures only within a radius of, say 250m (half of what a ranger can accomplish). I field this suggestion mainly to give the module wider appeal, although possibly limiting it's use to just scouts may also be acceptable.

So what do you think? A good idea or a profession breaking ability?

Your thoughts and input please.

Many thanks.

Zebri Kharan - Big game hunter.

Lowca.

I think it would be an interesting add for non rangers if they got direction, and maybe distance but not what the creature or npc was. This gives some advantage to non rangers, I think, but still makes us very necessary. Or maybe let them pink one peramiter ot display like, bone type, meat type, aggro, assistive. This will give them very basic info but might be slightly useful. Because it is a scanner I think it may be able to do these things at range. Maybe for rangers it displays this info and possibly quality of resources pre kill. Maybe it could act as a database for rangers to refer to for info on creatures the bot scanned closely.

Actually that's a great idea!

I know that we've been asking for the ability to tell what quality/how many resources are on a creature before harvesting, this could be a great use for the bio-sensors!

With reference to the tracking, I was thinking more along the lines of showing what creatures are in the area but not giving direction or distance. Almost the same as the basic areatrack but with half the range.

Any more idea's/concerns? I'd love to hear them!

Thanks again.

ZK.

I think this is a great idea. It would actually get me to buy a droid. Here's what I'd like to see from a Bio-sensor Droid Module:

For Rangers:

• Ability to scan creatures from range to determine their resource type and quality.


• Boost to areatrack so the scanning radius is enlarged, perhaps even doubled.


• Make tracking work inside buildings.


• A small database that can hold an entry for each type of resource, storing its stats. Entries would be overwritten with new information every time a creature with that resource is scanned for the resource. (scanning a Womp Rat for meat would overwrite the 'Tattooine Wild Meat' entry).


• Provide a notification when organic resources shift, with an option to wipe all the entries in the droid's resource database (since they would be outdated).


• Add the ability tosearch fordungeons or poi's to the tracking list (the logic behind this being that the high concentrations of creatures around it make it detectable).


• The ability to scan people or creatures to get their ham bar stats, including secondary stats.

For Non-Rangers:

• Ability to scan creatures to see what their special attacks are (useful for Creature Handlers who don't have Ranger and want to know what specials a creature has).


• Limited tracking ability (about half the radius of our areatrack would do nicely, and only being able to track animals).


• The ability to scan people or creatures to get their ham bar stats, including secondary stats.

Thats all I can think of off the top of my head. Great idea!

Ack. I'm sorry I don't like this idea of Non-Rangers having track ability at all. We only get to track up to 500m at Master, so you're basically giving a Non-Ranger %50 of what a MASTER Ranger can do with no Ranger skill whatsoever.

Moreover, I don't feel Rangers are needed enough as it is, let alone having droids be able to grant abilities they don't have to get the skill for. This further dilutes our usefullness in my mind.

I respectfully disagree with this idea in all its forms.

Oppma

Any droid-use tracking skills should be added to the BH investigation line. Or you could add ranger NPC tracking to the BH investigation line and free up the skill points I've spent on ranger tracking.

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NRaas wrote:

Klif_Hangar... Some darn fine ideas in that list.

• But I don't know if this should be a DE thing or a Ranger thing...

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Thanks, NRaas. I was just thinking of ways a droid module could enhance our skills. I'm not sure if we should just get these skills without a droid or not. I think it might be better to make the module a Ranger-use only device, like the medical module is for medics.

Speaking of which, I thought of another one for Rangers only:

The droid module should enhance our foraging skills, possibly allowing us to select what type of item we want to forage for (fishing bait, food, rare items) and giving us an increased chance at successfully finding something.

I like this idea also, and some of the expanded suggestions. I would like them to also allow Rangers to use animals we have as pets who have stealth to be trained to track.

Jolandir

Well, certainly an interesting idea. It doesnt bother me to share a portion of my skill tree with a non-member of my proffesion in the iterest of fostering a market for an artisan. The only thingI would add to this discussion is-

With the possible (almost certain) changes coming with respect to droids/ch pets it might not be as practical as it sounds right now. With the potential for combat droids,I doubt the devs will allow the extra fluff (in the form of extra modules) - I wouldnt, were I in their shoes. So it follows - how much would this actually get used?

A good discussion to keep in mind once the classes get fixed, but for nowI cant even make an educated guess...

Not intended to be a slam on the post in any way, shape, or form. Just sharing the questions that popped to mind. As I said - definitely an interesting idea.

I understand the concern, being the reason I brought the idea to these boards in the first place.

I know it's been mentioned often that we'd like an increased range on areatrack as we go up the tracking tree and I know there may be programming concerns as to whether this is viable. However, I've two things I'd like to throw into the mix.

Firstly, how about if this same unit could be used to double (or at least significantly increase) our tracking range. Would you feel any better about this?

Also bear in mind that any new droid modules would only be likely to come into being after existing droid bugs are fixed and number/types of modules are actually limited to specific droid type's. This would mean that people would have to make careful choices about what types of droids they would want in their datapads, there wouldn't be a proliferation of these droids around.

As a side note, I respectfully disagree with rangers not being wanted often enough. Before I finally joined a guild I had numerous invitations to join PA's and am often asked out for hunts, etc because of my tracking abilities. In addition, whenever Ithrow up a camp I love the responses I get from the group! (And I've not even got the HTFB yet!)

Just my experience.

Regardless, how would you think of the modified proposal in the context that it would occur? (It's not gonna happen anytime soon, that's for certain!)

ZK.

Klif_Hangar... Some darn fine ideas in that list.

• But I don't know if this should be a DE thing or a Ranger thing...

I'm not trying to be the proverbial fly in the ointment here however here is my take. Note this less implementation or feasability, but rather how I see a Ranger.

We don't need droids to track. Rangers are wilderness/nature/survivalist type characters. Why would we bring a droid into that? I just dont see Rangers as leaning on technology for anything, much less an enhancement of their natural abilities.

I also don't like it from a gameplay perspective, as I'd rather see our existing maximum range double for a Master and then descend from there down the tracking tree. This gives more of "prize" for reaching Master Ranger if you will. Lastly I am just not in agreement with Non-Rangers (i.e. no Ranger skills whatsoever) having tracking ability of any sort. My personal feeling for what its worth.

If you're idea were to be implemented and I had no say and had to live with it, I think you're proposal would best handle the situation. I just hope it doesn't.

Respectfully,

Oppma Hamus

Im not sure I agree with the idea of 'Ranger Droids.' Its just not right thinking about a ranger who is 'one with his/her surrounding' having a droid tagging along so they can do their job.

I would not mind seeing some Bio-Engineered skill tapes or something like that that affects the tracking skill.

The tapes add enough to a Master Ranger to give them special abilities (extended range, more stats, faction) and adds just enough to a non-ranger to just give them basic track. (no range, direction)

Anyway... I dont see a problem with the idea, just the method of delivery.