Ranger Archive
Thread: A concern for you NRaas
I have read through your state of the profession document and like most of what I have seen. I would suggest something though concerning permanent camping lodges for advanced planets. I agree that they should only be able to be destroyed instead of packed and moved. I would also suggest that you can have only 1 of them on a given planet. This will reduce the likelyhood of camps everywhere on a planet such as Dathomir. We already have a problem with Harvesters cluttering up everything and I would hate to see hunting lodges add to this issue.
I disagree with camp materials going back to polymer and metal except in the case of hunting lodges. The metal and poylmer componant would allow you to build a crafting station addition to your hunting lodge such as generic item or chemical crafting station. But, I believe these should be optional components only.
I would have to say that I disagree slightly with the resumption of large harvesting potential. I agree that groups need to have their harvesting potential reduced. I agree that solo you should be able to harvest more. But with large harvest being reintroduced back in to the scouting lines, we will once again see a reduction in the money we can obtain from our time and effort and will find a glut of hide,bone,meat on the bazaar such as we had near the beginning of the game.
I also think that Rangers as a Big Game hunting class should have a tie in with a combat profession such as riflemen. I think that the ranger line should offer more of a creature -to-hit bonus than is already being offered.
You will find that most riflemen concider themselves hunters along the ranger line than true combatants as the rifleman now stands. I notice that most of the combat professions have a complimentary skill enhancing line in atleast 1 other combat profession but this is not so with riflemen. I believe rangers should provide this bonus as it makes more sense for someone to be out hunting with a rifle than a pistol or rocket launcher.
I agree with the idea of /examine containing the information concerning pack vs. herd. Something interesting would be that at master level, if you have killed a certain amount of a given creature that you get a specific bonus to attacking that particular kind of creature. This would imply that you have experience hunting said creature enough that you can predict what it will most likely do in a given situation. You would also have a better understand of where to hit it for maximum damage after having harvested enough them to be completely familiar with it's anatomy. I think this bonus should not apply to varients of a creature, such as Merrics vs. Toxic Merric Lords. If you want to bonus for all types of Merrics you should have to kill all types of merrics to get bonuses for each varient. I also believe that if "qualifications" on each varient of breed are obtained then you would receive a third award to encompass your board knowledge of that type of creature. Maybe at this level of hunting expertise, the affore mentioned /examine for pack or herd or even what quality of resources could be provided.
I like the tie in idea (BH get on with Pistol, why not us with Rifle?) but you have to remember the hide glut was all those CHs and BHs basically "grinding" to their chosen profession all at once. I don't see this accuring again.
Tsalmaveth wrote:
...snip...
I would have to say that I disagree slightly with the resumption of large harvesting potential. I agree that groups need to have their harvesting potential reduced. I agree that solo you should be able to harvest more. But with large harvest being reintroduced back in to the scouting lines, we will once again see a reduction in the money we can obtain from our time and effort and will find a glut of hide,bone,meat on the bazaar such as we had near the beginning of the game.
...snip...
"I would also suggest that you can have only 1 of them on a given planet."
- Yes, we had decided this already... Just hadn't added it to the list. 
"hunting lodge such as generic item or chemical crafting station. But, I believe these should be optional components only."
- Excellent idea.
"if you have killed a certain amount of a given creature that you get a specific bonus to attacking that particular kind of creature."
- That would incur a massive database load storing amounts for each creatures, for each character.
- I doubt it would be feasible 
I like some of these ideas. The no disband camp thing is interesting. I have not read NRaas post since I replied on it, so I'm not familiar with the lodge idea going around. I personally am fine with the HQFB and the HTFB as they are. Massive, impressive, and functional.(other then maybe repel needs to be tweeked) In the past I said an idea about giving time limit for camps, after you have walked away, or a distance you can leave them before they disband. Now I'm thinking, you can only have one camp up at a time, which I think is already in the game. The HQFB and the HTFB let you wander as far as you like from them, AND enter combat. If you are out of it for 30 min it disbands. If you try to setup another one it won't let you. If you return to it before the 30min are up, the clock starts again when you leave it again.
As for the addition of some combat/hunting cross over stuff, here is my thoughts. I put this in another thread earlier too. The idea of giving rangers a higher creature to hit bonus is a really good idea. Simple to implement as well. I don't think it would put us out of balance at all. My idea was to give us a skill, such as /concealshot from the rifleman line. Most of us, are Rifleman/Rangers. We hunt from a distance using a rifle. We use out mask scent and conceal to help keep us from getting attacked when we don't want to be. The /concealshot is a great tool for hunting large game, especially the animals that Pack together, or are agros. It will help us stay concealed.
"The HQFB and the HTFB let you wander as far as you like from them, AND enter combat. If you are out of it for 30 min it disbands."
- Keep in mind how the game space handles structures not near any players. They are not even loaded.
- So it might not be possible to have the camp disband on its own if you wander too far off.
"I have not read NRaas post since I replied on it, so I'm not familiar with the lodge idea going around."
- Please note that the State of the Profession link below links to the most up-to-date list stored at my website.
Tsalmaveth wrote:I also think that Rangers as a Big Game hunting class should have a tie in with a combat profession such as riflemen. I think that the ranger line should offer more of a creature -to-hit bonus than is already being offered.
You will find that most riflemen concider themselves hunters along the ranger line than true combatants as the rifleman now stands. I notice that most of the combat professions have a complimentary skill enhancing line in atleast 1 other combat profession but this is not so with riflemen. I believe rangers should provide this bonus as it makes more sense for someone to be out hunting with a rifle than a pistol or rocket launcher.
Okay okay, perhaps I'm biased because I'm a pistoleer and a CH, but I think that although it may be logical for a hunter to have a long-range type of weapon in real life... I think it's a very bad idea to require a support profession (like Ranger) to conform to a specific weapon.
You're only supporting one group of people by making an advantage for a rifle-specific weapon within the ranger class: established riflemen. In order to take advantage of the benefit, then all the non-riflemen would have to switch their long-established weapon skills (by the time one reaches ranger, I suspect that one has close to the maximum of the starter profession skills, if not already in an elite profession). They would have to change their established preferred combat tactics.
As a pistoleer ranger that generally does not hunt big game (because I solo a lot), I've been using this tactic frequently on Tatooine:
1) Find a nest of creatures that are low-level that have the resource I want (in this case, reptilian meat... which means rills).
2) Kill all the creatures surrounding the lair and harvest.
3) Start blasting the lair until a whole bunch of light blue cons come out.
4) Target a nearby light blue con and use point blank area shot, killing 3 to 5 in one go and then harvesting all of those.
5) Move to the other side of the lair and lather, rinse, repeat until the lair is gone.
I kind of see myself like Christian Bale's character in Equilibrium. Fast, short-range weapon wielder that prefers small fast game instead of large big ones. In the end, I'm still a ranger, still hunting, and would prefer that title over the ones I receive for my combat skills... but I want to improve the profession for all rangers that use all manner of tactics and weapons that gets the job done.
I saw a ranger use a rocket launcher at a lair. I was laughing my butt off about it! But you know, kudos to him since he was able to get the job done.