Ranger Archive

A friend of mine and myself were brainstorming about some better uses/types of camps for the ranger profession tonight. I apologize in advance if these are already posted as ideas, I haven't trolled the ranger board in months.

Workspace camp: Any camp graphic, preferably lower than the master ranger camp. Lasts as long as a normal ranger camp, but contains a mission terminal. Would allow players to group up with a ranger, who could take them to the edge of civilization or beyond, and allow them to grind/harvest/make money in peace. Options could include an 'increased payout' capacity.

Hunter's camp: Similar to workspace camp, but including a scouting terminal instead of a mission terminal. Ideal for Rangers, they could drop the camp, take their own monster-collection missions, and stay out in the wilderness.

Faction camp: Similar to a forward outpost, but exceedingly temporary. Would have more militant feel, and only be craftable in the faction of the ranger. Would include a Rebel or Imperial mission terminal, no NPC's.

Image Designer's camp: I know, I know, who cares about Image design? Well, they do. They already have the graphics for Image Design tents, why not allow a Ranger to deploy them in the wild? Not that it'd have a huge or instant appeal, but it might be worthwhile to let a ranger drop one near a player city, or out in the wild.

Field Hospital: Not the factional kind, just a camp (again, any graphic, but there are a couple more high-tech-bio looking ones) where Doctors and Medics can perform as if in a hospital or accompanied by a droid. I'd like to see one with a 21B surgical droid 'bound' to the center of the camp, with an in-city hospital's level of buff/medicine skill. Obviously, a player with a cheap droid could do this themselves, but it'd be cool.

Field Garage: While probably not the best mechanics in the world, I'm sure it'd be a very handy kind of camp to have on the no-build planets. Being able to repair vehicles would be outstanding, and I see no reason not to have that boon given to rangers. Perhaps include a artisan-craftable component in the kit assembly process to give a nod to the inherently mechanical nature of the camp.

Field Stage: I know they've always been 'supposed to' heal battle fatigue, but how about we actually get them working? Bind a small stage and entertainer area to the center or perimeter of a camp, and you could have much more hunting range in terms of time spent away from cities.

Creature Corral: A camp designed with a large fence around the outside, where the Ranger or a group member would have to herd animals. Instead of 'deliver me 25 hides', perhaps the scouting mission terminal could be reworked to give 'capture/herd' missions. Someone draws aggro, brings the animal into the corral, and after a random amount of time (so that the drawer has the chance to be actually attacked/killed) the creature becomes property, or at least an incremented count, for the mission.

Multi-function camps: Obviously, it'd be unbalancing to start allowing city-level benefits to a single camp, but I think it'd be neat to allow combinations of the above. They could be group-deployed only, meaning that you'd need a Master Ranger in the group, plus a certain raw level of camping points to deploy it. Ie, you have four master rangers, or one master ranger and eight novice scouts, or one master and a couple of master scouts... you get my drift. The multifunctions could have 2 terminal types, or two or more functions (like hospital/faction/stage), and be semi-permanent. Meaning: they'd last a few hours, or until the Ranger in charge of the camp leaves, whichever was sooner.


Again, I apologize if I'm going over already presented ideas, but we were trying to come up with ideas to make the profession cooler, and I wanted to get them down before I forgot them. I invite comments or criticism.

NPC cities on buildable planets I can understand. On adventure planets, we're not really challenging their atmosphere.
As for schematic number, there'd be either 'module' schematics as proposed in the Outdoorsman page (outstanding work, btw), or there'd be camp schematics in mine. I have no preference, but I don't see the present handful of tent schematics with the additions as being an overwhelming difficulty.

All deisriable features could be sought out by a player. Arguing that you don't want a feature because someone might ask you to use it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
In your hypothetical scenario, all you have to do is say no, /addignore, and the problem's solved. This seems a bit akin to a weaponsmith saying they don't want a new schematic because someone will want them to craft it for them.

As for relevance to a survival skill, half the suggestions in the outdoorsman plan weren't directly related to survival, in the same way speeder repair or entertainer camps aren't directly related.
I proposed mission terminals for 2 reasons: They don't seem like a big investment of code, and they do seem like a way to make a camp a useful item.
Further, the mission terminal was only one of many suggestions. It is a seperable entity, and removal or inclusion of it does not negate nor promote the other aspects of the post.

If your disapproval is all you have to add, consider it duly noted. If you've got something more constructive, I'm happy to hear it.

Phen'ix is right. He just described the conversation that we have to endure when it comes to tracking. Usually its more like "I pay u $$$." Sad but true. I think the mission terminal isnt a bad idea but make it without payout. That would change the issue slightly. Its especially bad when people are grinding/solo grouping. /shudders at the thought. Granted I would stop what I was doing and drop a camp for 100k each camp. So, sure..

We have put alot of thought into how to make camps useful. Granted I dont think the ID idea has made it around much but the modular camp idea has many great applications in the Outdoorsman Proposal.

But til we finish with the RotW beta, the expansion, the publish for bug fixes, prolly another GCW update, Smuggler revamp, squad leader revamp, then we might see a Ranger revamp in the near 6-8 months. So, we can debate it all a lil more til then.

Hmmmm... now it is hard to respond with my ideas without seeming to support you anger with Phen. I am going to trust he knows me well enough to guess I respect his viewpoint even though I am disagreeing with him.

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Phenix1050 wrote:
I'd say no to any type of mission terminal in our camps. It unneccesary, really, and makes both NPC citites and player cities less usefull, which is really a shame in my opinion.

As for the rest-- too many schematics in my opinion. Check out the Outdoorsman proposal for the Modular Camping approach. offers the same benefits as your ideas, but without the need for tons of different camp schmatics.

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I actually really like the idea of a mission terminal in a camp. This is an idea that has come up a lot. Mostly I'd love to just head out to an unpopulated corner of Dathomir or Dant or one of the other adventure planets (Kash? ) and run my (or my group's) own missions without running into 50 other people, especially on Dathomir. Similar in concept to the /track ability, suggested so long ago by Holocron, that would lead us on a mini-mission for a specific creature. I'll have to re-visit Owen's updated proposal to remember if it is similar. 5am and my brain is a little foggy.

The creature corral idea is interesting. I have heard a lot of herding/farming ideas but I don't remember seeing one like this. It reminds me a little of missions available in WoW where you place down a trap that "soothes" and animal and need to lead it back to the quest giver.

I like your ideas, but I think I still prefer the modular camp proposal (plus feedback from Thundeheart is that the developers liked it too /crossfingers), which allows you to customize many of these options into a camp at will.

And I like the fact that camp ideas are still coming up.

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Vorpaks wrote:

I actually really like the idea of a mission terminal in a camp. This is an idea that has come up a lot. Mostly I'd love to just head out to an unpopulated corner of Dathomir or Dant or one of the other adventure planets (Kash? ) and run my (or my group's) own missions without running into 50 other people, especially on Dathomir. Similar in concept to the /track ability, suggested so long ago by Holocron, that would lead us on a mini-mission for a specific creature.

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actually, that's exacly why I don'tlike it. it's exactly like an idea that, in my opinion, is much more in tune with what a Ranger is. why settle for something that's already in the game (mission terminals) when we can ask for something unique and ultimately, more "Ranger-y"? And yes, the two do seem mutually exclusive. Why would they give us both?

It just seems to me that mission terminals out in the field will:

• bring more credits into a system already flooded with them


• decrease the money sink because you won't have to have your bike be destroyed going back to town


• make Ranger a FOTM companion when grinding out a profession, and even more of an "alt" profession (imagine someone with a ranger alt set on auto-follow)


• increase the liklihood of getting hassled.

there's no real benefit in my mind, unless you take away the credits, in which case, it's exactly like the idea for /track, except it's a worse interface than the one Owen proposedand it's not unique. so why settle for that when we can push the /track idea instead?

Firstly Frank:

Thanks for the ideas!!

These are some great ideas, and i agree with JBMat, rather than making seperate craftable camps, these options that you describe would easily fit into the modular ideas that we've come up with.

As for the requests, if someone i dont know asks me to track rudely, then i just /addignore. No harm, no foul. Conversely, if someone i dont know asks me nicely and im not in the middle of something, i usually do it.

We shouldnt restrict ideas based upon what a few jerks would do, in the words of John Crichton, Frell Them.

The modular camps, (if you do a quick search) would seem to add the freedom to create whatever type of camp the situation warrants.

Thanks again, and keep the ideas coming.

I fail to see how this is any different than the modular camp ideas, but you poo poo this... Does this mean that modular camping is an idea that should be poo pooed (try saying that with a straight face ) or do y'all dislike this becuase it ISN'T the modular camp idea? I really like some of your ideas Frank (some are new and some are rehashes of previous ideas). I will just throw out a couple of bullet points with my comments:

• Healing camps. As far asI am concerned, the only way a camp will be viable for healing is if if gives the player city specialization healing bonus. As it stands droids are completely portable and heal better than a city hospital, so the next step up would be the level of the of the city specialization (or Bivoli).


• Mission terminals...heck yeah! I would disagree that they would have an effect on the economies. If the missions were like they are now, you would still have to travel to them and you would still have to kill them before you get paid. The only variable you remove is the trip back to the city to get more missions. I love this idea, and still hope we get a camp with a mission terminal.


• Creature Corral? Ugggg...I don't like the sound of that at all.


• Boy, oh boy. Y'all want to have a revamp that makes us more viable, but you don't want to have any skills that someone else doesn't want to utilize? You can't have it both ways. There will always be people that demand other profs use their skills for them and there will be those who ask nicely. If you say 'no' and someone continues to press it, they get the old addignore. If they continue to press you, the asshats get a /report. I can not and will not support anyone who wants us to have a revamp, but doesn't want us to have viable skills (i.e. skill that people will demand we use for them).

Thanks for the ideas Frank and don't let the initial reaction to your post discourage you, there are those of us out there that agree with you!

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Phenix1050 wrote:

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Vorpaks wrote:

I actually really like the idea of a mission terminal in a camp. This is an idea that has come up a lot. Mostly I'd love to just head out to an unpopulated corner of Dathomir or Dant or one of the other adventure planets (Kash? ) and run my (or my group's) own missions without running into 50 other people, especially on Dathomir. Similar in concept to the /track ability, suggested so long ago by Holocron, that would lead us on a mini-mission for a specific creature.

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actually, that's exacly why I don'tlike it. it's exactly like an idea that, in my opinion, is much more in tune with what a Ranger is. why settle for something that's already in the game (mission terminals) when we can ask for something unique and ultimately, more "Ranger-y"? And yes, the two do seem mutually exclusive. Why would they give us both?

Why wouldn't they? /track could be geared toward the game you can't get on a mission terminal. Just saying.

It just seems to me that mission terminals out in the field will:

• bring more credits into a system already flooded with them I covered this in my previous post


• decrease the money sink because you won't have to have your bike be destroyed going back to town FWIW, I drive my AV21 on every planet, admittedly, I don't travel to Dath that often, and I still have the one I got a week after the vette came out. I also have my original speederbike. I think most bike losses come from Nightsisters and PvP, which is relatively minimal.


• make Ranger a FOTM companion when grinding out a profession, and even more of an "alt" profession (imagine someone with a ranger alt set on auto-follow) If we ever get a useful skill (i.e. /track) this will happen. You have to choose between useful and FOTM or useless and undesirable.


• increase the liklihood of getting hassled. I covered this in my previous post.

there's no real benefit in my mind, unless you take away the credits, in which case, it's exactly like the idea for /track, except it's a worse interface than the one Owen proposedand it's not unique. so why settle for that when we can push the /track idea instead?

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Well, when we get /track, I might lay off of mission terms in camps. Until then, why put all our eggs in one basket?