CUEmu - Thread Posts

SirBorsKaegel

Sat Apr 03, 2004 2:11 am

Developers and Fellow Rangers,

I have a few ideas to improve one of the most heavily-used skills a Ranger has: Tracking.

One very effective way to imporve the Ranger tracking skill is to place a 'REFRESH' button on the interface window after you've done a successful track of players, people or animals. That way, we do not have to close out the interface and open a new one when we want to refresh our track. This action could even be restricted to a timed interval, say 10 seconds.

Another very sought after Improvement would be the ability to track on vehicles/mounts. Look, the tracking animation has more to do withsurveying the landscape visually, and nothingto do with observing the ground for tracks, so why do we have to dismount when we want to track?

Oh, and the ability to mask scent on mounts/vehicles.

I use Ranger tracking heavily in my profession, and these improvements would go a long way towards making Ranger a much more self-sufficient and desireable skill for true masters and hybrid professionals.

Your thoughts?

- - - - - - - - - -
Bors Kaegel
Master Bounty Hunter / Jedi Hunter
Tarquinas Galaxy

Calculus_Entropy

Sat Apr 03, 2004 2:16 am

#2

A refresh button would be great. I also hope they will someday add /aretrack animals as a command (along with commands for the other two options). As for tracking on a vehilce, I am indifferent becuase I have made a macro workaround.

Calculus Entropy
Ranger Blue Glowie Emeritus
Garindan used /areatrack to find Han.

Droci

Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:07 am

#3

i like this skill alot how it is, but it wouldnt hurt to make it better

(Droci/Droku)

JBMat

Sat Apr 03, 2004 5:41 am

#4

1. Not a bad idea. Never been suggested before. Mayhaps Calc can add this, tho the 10 second deal is too short to be of much use.

2. Tracking while mounted. Nope. Forget what the animation does (Air Force salute is how I describe it). To track you need to examine the area. Sorta hard to do while on the back of a bike or in a speeder. It's not like it takes an hour, you stop, jump off, track, get on and go. 30 seconds max. Minor, not worth fighting for.

3. Uh.... mayhaps you didn't know, maskscent while mounted is going to die period. If not in the next publish, then soon (Scout forum has many threads on this). It's more of an exploit, you can max out scout xp driving around Dath or Endor now, and the Dev's will stop it eventually. Besides, in the grand scheme of things, how do you stay hidden while riding a screaming jet bike? Like even the dumbest of animals would not notice it?

Still, number 1 is a good idea.

JB

AzucarSalado

Sat Apr 03, 2004 6:23 am

#5

(1) It is good idea, but if you refresh while the Window with the previous results is open, you won't see the cool animetion of tracking

More than a refresh option, I'd urgent for an option to sort the results of the Tracking Window (by coloms as in any Market Terminal).

===========================
Imperial Colonel "Azuc Ar'Salad".
Proud Bothan of his Lineage.

SirBorsKaegel

Sat Apr 03, 2004 12:17 pm

#6

I'm glad you guys like my idea for a 'REFRESH' button on the interface menu. Personally, I was a Master Ranger once, and I thought long and hard about ways to make Ranger more effective and desireable to be full-time. Many ideas later, those three abovewere what survived the test of time.

I don't see the problem with tracking on mounts/vehicles. You are already examining the area 500m around you visually, so why must I be off my vehicle/mount to do this? I can understand being completely stopped. To me it's ridiculous watching the character animation, where he is visually examining the area, and knowing I am having to be off my vehicle/mount to do this? I mean, can't he examine his surroundings while on the mount/vehicle? He's not feeling for tracks or anything, so far as it shows it is entirely visual. The only negative thing I can see from this so far as accuracy would be doing it on vehicles would impede the character's ability to use his hearing for tracking. But I counter that by saying, 'How much better can he hear standing beside a roaring speeder engine?'

Guys, do your best to help me get the attention of the developers on this, spread the idea. These are several features that would make Ranger much more desireable to hybird professionals and Masters alike!

- - - - - - - - - -
Bors Kaegel
Master Bounty Hunter / Jedi Hunter
Tarquinas Galaxy

JBMat

Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:36 pm

#7

Granted, the animation is crap. The forage animation is sort of what I envision. We are not "visually" examining 500 meters, instead think of it as looking around us and seeing tracks and knowing how long ago they were made, versus the speed of the animal. Throw in animal behavior knowledge and we can find things. Just how we track birds, I got no clue..maybe fallen feathers and droppings.

JB

Oh yeah, no way in he11 would I be using my pistol barrel to scrape the ground. Talk about retarded animations.

Calculus_Entropy

Sat Apr 03, 2004 10:41 pm

#8

mmmm.....droppings.....

Calculus Entropy
Ranger Blue Glowie Emeritus
Garindan used /areatrack to find Han.

Offcr

Sun Apr 04, 2004 2:14 pm

#9

Ok, first off this is my first thread. But I would really like to add a thoughts about this. I just completed master ranger in the hopes of finding rare pets among other reasons. Wow, what a disappointment! I've noticed a few things that should be changed and if I'm the only person who has noticed this. One being, range. The distance and accuracy of the scan. Distance seems very short at 500 meters, at best I might add. The accuracy, well, put it this way. When I perform a scan some things show up, afterwards, I take a step or two and find two different animals that didnt show up on the original scan. Is this a lag issue?? Either way I really think it needs to be addressed by SWG.

Offcr

Sun Apr 04, 2004 2:24 pm

#10

Ok, first off this is my first thread. But I would really like to add a thoughts about this. I just completed master ranger in the hopes of finding rare pets among other reasons. Wow, what a disappointment! I've noticed a few things that should be changed and if I'm the only person who has noticed this. One being, range. The distance and accuracy of the scan. Distance seems very short at 500 meters, at best I might add. The accuracy, well, put it this way. When I perform a scan some things show up, afterwards, I take a step or two and find two different animals that didnt show up on the original scan. Is this a lag issue?? Either way I really think it needs to be addressed by SWG.

Sorry wrong button.

Next what would be wrong with being able to look for asingle creature, npc, or person while riding a mount (not a vehicle). Perhapsbeing able to type in what you are looking for?? Not that it takes up that much time to dismount and track, (well at times) but it would be quite a handy feature. One other thing that troubles me, with the skill points left after acheiving master ranger, how am I to protect myself outside from hiding under a bush? Camps arent THAT great for defense. If I am spending all the skill points on scout and ranger, shouldn't I at least be able to have the choice of offense or defense on some situations??

TeddyRuxpin

Sun Apr 04, 2004 9:00 pm

#11

Ok, you know what would be a really good tracking improvement? If it brought up a smaller version of the map window, with a marker for each creature, prefereably the con indicator. That way you could see groups, distance, directionand difficulty at a glance. It would be easier to find everything, and you could click on it's marker to set a waypoint if you wanted a waypoint system.

Al;ternatively the overhead map already sort ofdoes it in realtime, but it doesn't tell you real distance, or more importantly what things are.Usefully it has a label system already, so maybe areatrack could just be made to label all the NPCs, Peopleand Animals.

brandedglacier

Sun Apr 04, 2004 9:07 pm

#12

I'd like to be able to examine from the tracking screen. It wouldn't be examining, exactly, but still give me the window that's brought up by examine. I'd like to think that with my +100 to creature knowledge, I would be able to remember some of the stuff about the creatures without having to be within seeing distance of them.

Now that I think about it, THAT could be a bounty hunter skill, being able to see the equipment and attacks of NPCs, being a ranger I honestly don't care about seeing what people's equipment is, but a BH might like that. They're always looking for a ranger skill to steal, I think that should satisfy them.

-----------------------
Cerstian Rowen - Ranger/TKA - Kettemoor

Rangers offering directions?

"Take a left out of the spaceport, then go up. *looks at compass, tilts head, squints eyes* Yup. Up. Then go north a bit. Hang a right at the mission terminal and....you'll be as lost as I am" -Ehope

AzucarSalado

Mon Apr 05, 2004 2:34 am

#13

Hehe, last weekend a Guild buddy ask how many Km I was able to track? When I said 500 m he laugh at me really loud. lol

500 m nay seem to be very few, but if you compare it with similar skills in the game (Surveyors max distance is 300 m) it's not as bad. So, I think we don't have a chance asking DEVs for this.

A really, really great improvement will be the map window that TeddyRuxpinsuggestted or, at least, a 500 m map similar to the one that Surveyors have.

===========================
Imperial Colonel "Azuc Ar'Salad".
Proud Bothan of his Lineage.

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