Ranger Archive

*Tips his hat*

I'm not a Ranger. I have, actually, nothing to do with rangers, or even hunting in any way, shape or form. I'm a Smuggler, and a Droid Engineer, and inbetween my days running from the authorities with a beeping MSE to distract them, and my nights spent faking my apparant death, I have a plethora of time on which to contemplate.

And, as usual, I gather many ideas to my attention.

As I used to always play the role of the Hunter, or the Silent Sniper, or the Ranger in any fantasy game I played, I grew accustomed to a certain timeless weapon: The Bow and Arrow.

Now, before I'm told that this is Star Wars Galaxies, let me remind you that there are four elite professions designed for melee, arguably barbaric face-to-face combat. One uses swords and hammers. One uses faster swords. One uses gigantic pikes, and one uses his fists and feet (and face, if you're a wookie, or just wookie-at-heart). So, all though in a galaxy populated with energy weapons, there still finds a place for the more... aged forms of combat.

Now, during one of my many trips to the dunes of Tatooine where I decided a nice, comfortable sunsoak was appealing, I started to think on crafting in general. I thought about my harvesters, grinding up thousands of units of steel and fiberplast, and how I was going to use those resources to build the most awesome droids ever (naturally). And then I broadened my contemplation to organics, and how they were attained. They're grown, right? In farms, and what not. Well, that falls under harvesters too. But then, what of bone and hide and meat? You can't rightly expect to grow those (quite, you silly bio-engineers), right? No. As we all know, they're hunted.

That got me to thinking. Who's the best qualified to hunt?

That would be Rangers, of course, of course!

But... Don't rangers fry their prey with bolts of superheated gas? Don't blinding streaks of light have the annoying tendency of bringing unwanted attention toward your general direction?

You'd think.

Then, the roots of my fantasy-filled youth (I'm only 19, but whatever) struck the waters of creativity in the soil science calls my brain, and I thunked up the most crazy notion of bringing a Bow and Arrow to Star Wars Galaxies.

I'd much rather eat meat, or work with bone and hide that hadn't been burnt to a cinder.

In a galaxy that caters to both the technological blaster, and the vibro-enhanced blade, why couldn't such a weapon work?

So, here's my proposition to kindle a nearly dead profession. Give the Rangers a Bow and Arrow.

"But, if my blaster has a hard time killing it, what would a measly arrow do!?"

Ah! That's where we electronically enhance the bow, and install tiny vibro motors in to the arrowhead.

Personally, I think this would rock. A ranger-only weapon, certed in Novice Ranger (with perhaps stronger varations of the weapon certed throughout the profession, with, perhaps, even arrow certs, which would be crafted by weaponsmiths). Along with this weapon, which would totally kick arse, I propose giving Rangers who down a beast with the Bow and Arrow be given a plus modifier to his harvest skill. It makes sense, after all. An arrow hardly damages the bone, hide, or meat of the animal, where an array of blaster bolts most definately would.

This would make the Rangers most sought after by crafters as suppliers of organics. This would be a good thing because, lets face it, right now the Ranger is nothing more than a glorified scout. I reiterate: any beast killed with the bow (and only the bow) would boast larger quantities of meat, bone, and hide, and the aforementioned resources would be of a higher quality than if, say, a Rifleman hunted them (going back to the singing of the animal and all that; blaster bolts are very hot).

I also propose that these said resources be of lower quality than they are now when harvested by a player who uses blaster weapons, or anything explosive. This would definately make the Ranger very, very valuable to Medics, Doctors, Combat Medics, Bio-Engineers, ect.

Whatta y'all think?

(I've never read this forum before, so if this has been propose, and shot down, or whatever, or you just don't like the idea, please post why.)

A trap launcher...cool.

Be nice if there was s set of new Ranger Hunting weapons you got certified on at Novice Ranger.

These could be similar to other combat professions (i.e Rifleman, swordsman, etc) so as Ranger you could be a Pistoller, Rifleman, Pikeman, etc. also (but this will add a unique weapon for us to use in hunting creatures). Hunting weapons would have an extra + to damage on creatures.

Here is an idea list

1. Hunting rifle (or bow?) –for the Rifleman
2. Hunting Spear – For pikeman
3. Hunting Pistol – for Pistoleer

and so on….

This will help the Ranger in hunting and give us something that separate us form Master Scout. Even if you are Ranger w/o any other combat profession under your belt this will still help us in hunting.

Only requirement I put on it would be to have x level (Like III or IV) in the Brawler or Marksman skill tree to allow you to use them. This way if I have Rifle IV, then get Novice Ranger I am certified for that new hunting rifle, however if I try to use a hunting spear I will do horrible at it (same as now if I pick up a Flame Thrower).

Thoughts?

Message Edited by Darth_me on 04-09-2004 12:44 PM

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Darth_me wrote:

These could be similar to other combat professions (i.e Rifleman, swordsman, etc) so as Ranger you could be a Pistoller, Rifleman, Pikeman, etc. also (but this will add a unique weapon for us to use in hunting creatures). Hunting weapons would have an extra + to damage on creatures.

Here is an idea list

1. Hunting rifle (or bow?) –for the Rifleman
2. Hunting Spear – For pikeman
3. Hunting Pistol – for Pistoleer

and so on….

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Calculus_Entropy wrote:

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Darth_me wrote:

These could be similar to other combat professions (i.e Rifleman, swordsman, etc) so as Ranger you could be a Pistoller, Rifleman, Pikeman, etc. also (but this will add a unique weapon for us to use in hunting creatures). Hunting weapons would have an extra + to damage on creatures.

Here is an idea list

1. Hunting rifle (or bow?) –for the Rifleman
2. Hunting Spear – For pikeman
3. Hunting Pistol – for Pistoleer

and so on….

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The problem I see with that is you have introduce many new weapons. Simply increasing (or making useful) our Creature-To-Hit mod would be much easier, plus you would retain the ability to choose your damage type. There is also a "critical hit" described in the Outdoorsman Proposal that would be an extra heavy (but rare) damage dealer and would work with any weapon.

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Calc,

Good point. I need to go back and re-read the Outdoorsman Proposal. The new weapons would bring some new "bling" to Ranger. However, in the end it's the damage mod I relly want (need). Either would work fine for me.

Thanks and good work.

I'm all for a weapon tree in Ranger. We're supposed to be the ultimate hunter but we're "forced" to take an elite combat profession leaving us with 18 skillpoints to play with. I wouldn't mind hunting with a high-tech bow with scope and arrows with vibro-motors. Gives the class a bit more distinction.

Though if traps and camo-kits are fixedand arrows are limited a Ranger will carry a S**tload of supplies around

The increased quality on resources is most likely a no-go, I doubt there able to put more then 1 type of each on each animal without very extensive in-depth reprogramming. I wouldn't want it anyway. Too confusing on the market.

Washell Olivaw, Ranger/Avenger, Eclipse

Good idea, was when it was first proposed 7 months ago too.

Please do searches before posting.

ty

JB

I didn't know I had to look over half a year in to the past before posting an idea.

So I say to you, show some tolerance before posting.

A ranger should have hunting rifles... Thune rifles and stuff... with some kind of DOT action to bring down creatures faster....

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ForDee wrote:
A ranger should have hunting rifles... Thune rifles and stuff... with some kind of DOT action to bring down creatures faster....

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And what happens to the Rangers that prefer using their fists? Or a hammer? Or any other non-rifle weapon? We have to be really careful what we do here. Using a bow to inflict states instead of grenades is one thing (think of some of the really cool arrows from Thief and Thief 2). Making it so that Rangers are forced to pick up a specific weapon tree to use their skills to the fullest is another matter entirely. While some sort of unique weapon would be nice, don't destroy the skill based system. What would be interesting is to give Rangers a bow for trapping purposes and then give them a "Bow Concealment Chance" mod like Riflemen get. Removes the need for a special lure trap and it would give us an interesting new way of deploying traps.

Lythender Nirou
Master Ranger/Master Rifleman
Eclipse Server

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Nemo0 wrote:

And what happens to the Rangers that prefer using their fists? Or a hammer? Or any other non-rifle weapon? We have to be really careful what we do here. Using a bow to inflict states instead of grenades is one thing (think of some of the really cool arrows from Thief and Thief 2). Making it so that Rangers are forced to pick up a specific weapon tree to use their skills to the fullest is another matter entirely. While some sort of unique weapon would be nice, don't destroy the skill based system. What would be interesting is to give Rangers a bow for trapping purposes and then give them a "Bow Concealment Chance" mod like Riflemen get. Removes the need for a special lure trap and it would give us an interesting new way of deploying traps.

Lythender Nirou
Master Ranger/Master Rifleman
Eclipse Server

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