Ranger Archive
Thread: Top 5 WEEK 2
Assuming we receive feedback on week 1, here is what is currently on my list for week 2, in abbreviated form. Post with your comments, please:
1. Foraging - currently, you have to stop moving (like sampling), wait (like sampling) take action and mind damage (like sampling), but receive no xp for success, nor does the ability exist to see what in a given area can be foraged. Foraging success should result in a modest amount of frontiering xp.
2. High Level Camps - currently, there is a food/chem crafting station at Field Base, and a General and Food/Chem station at HQ Field Base. Most serious crafters are going to have droids that will perform these functions. The advanced features of the high level bases offer no real benefit/advantage. Perhaps pull the food/chem station and put in a power droid or power generator that recharges droids.
3. Tracking - description of profession says we can track...yet no such ability exists.
4. Grouping - Rangers have zero skills they bring to the table that cannot be provided by a seasoned scout. There is nothing in the Ranger tree that would prompt a group to seek out a ranger or otherwise find a ranger a desirable asset to a group.
5. Trapping - Area Effect Stun and Area Effect Blind aren't very useful at all. Rarely would a ranger want to attack more than one creature at a time, and if they did, stun and blind would not be the effect of choice. Area Effect Snare, Area Effect Root, and maybe even a single target knockdown trap would be far more desirable.
Thank You Mineras...it makes me feel good that we at least have a Correspondent that is intrested in getting things fixed. Now all we need is a Dev that you get to talk to 
It is nice to see some Devs (such as the scout dev) sending emails and talking to that Correspondant. I was assuming this would take place with all professions .
I personally like the crafting stations that are given, but I understand why you are interested in changing at least one of them. I do not like any type of pet, I do not have a reason why I just do not like using them.
I think there should be a way for the Ranger to experiment to customize the 2 high level camps into what he or his group would need. This is even better than changing one station to a power station. I hope this helps you .
Why if the higher level camp is suppose to be "all that" and then some out in the wild, can it not have both Chem/Food and Item crafting stations? Have both of them?? Heck even add in the Droid Recharging Unit station!
One camp down have it only have Item Crafting Station. One more camp down have it have the Food/Chem Station. Make camps be worth more and progressively get better as you reach Master Ranger.
As for Grouping... Something desireable YES! Both with PvE and a hint of PvP. Not asking to take away from another class, but right now Ranger in PvP is like bringing your grandma to a fight with you 
Rest is fine, same stuff that has been said since day one...
Keep up the good work Mineras!
The Ranger trap "Sonic Pulse" also has an area dizzy effect, which can be VERY valuable - now if it would just work.
Another thing - this might not be ranger specific, but here goes. We need a way to disengange combat without automatically attacking again if we get hit. THe way it works now: if you peace while fighting you will stop attacking till you get attacked again, and in a normal fight the mob will usually just keep on pounding you, making you auto-attack that mob again. This makes it VERY difficult to use roots, since these only work if you arent shooting the rooted target. I've tried quite a few different approaches to this problem and so far theres 2 solutions that work for me 1. Throw the trap then uneqip your gun (to prevent you from damaging the mob and thus breaking the root), 2. Throw the trap then quickly change targets - this is difficult and requires there to be more then one mob aggroing you (assuming you don't want random aggro just to be able to rootone mob). What we need is a command that ensures your character doesnt shoot back nomatter if he/she get hit or not. ALso there are a few other things that could be done to the Trap line: the trap skill could be made to decrease the casting delay of traps - so a master trapper would experience little to no delay from pressing the button till the trap flies through the air, while a master scout would still have quite a delay as it is now. This would greatly enhance the value of those trapping boxes. Maybe trap skill too could have an effect on root/snaredurattion ?
The Lure idea for traps would be awesome, and enhance our ability to make better use of our ressourcegathering skills. Yesterday i went to Endor to get some hides for armor making .- that planet just isn't for solo players - everything swarms you etc. Now if i would have had a lure trap I would actually have been able to go there and lure some mobs away from the flock - gather some hides - and sell them - Ranger style!. I mean i'm a ranger, i'm a big game hunter - I should be the one ppl come to when they need spicific hide from that evil place - Lures would greatly help me here - also would make a ranger valuable in a hunting party - would fullfill his role - The ranger would be the able to pull 1 Kimo from the flock and ensure the party wouldnt get swarmed.
Wayfaring: An increase in runspeed associated with tarrain negotiation would be very nice and make this skill more valuable, make it so that every point above 50 or 75 increases your runspeed - this would also help Squad Leaders and their mobility line, which i have heard have zero to no effect atm.
Conceal skill: just implement it and make it work like maskscent on npc's - in pvp just make the radar blip go away until you engage a target - if you initiate an attack or is attacked your blip will pop up on the rader. This will enable the Ranger to use the conceal skill in pvp for recon operations - and wont be too overpowering imo, also as someone else in this forum pointed out - it will make the rich tarrain features more usefull as you will need to use canyons, rifts and hills for cover, since even when concealed Players will still be able to get a visual on you. Making it work like this would also make prone crawl speed worth something, since a prone character is quite hard to spot (ack i know - ppl would propably just turn off the flora draw in pvp heh to spot concealed Rangers lol - but i'll live with that).
Camps: Top ranger camp should heal BF, i mean take a look at that camp - it looks like a small village! - I know the point is to draw ppl towards the cantinas - but when hunting on Darth, Yarvin etc. you can't expect an entertainer to sit in the cantina for ppl to come in - make the top camp heal BF, mabe make it an addition to the top camp - gained through mastering the Ranger profession.
That´s what i've been thinking of the last few days, keep it comming.
/D
Yes i agree with ChasEpp, We need something like a customizable camp, with options of what it can do, Some kind of ability to trade a station for even more advanced healing, or some kind of trades so that you can customize the camp, right now camps are cookie cutter objects just slap some materials in the device and voila you got a camp.
In my opinion i think the High Tech Field Base should allow entertainers to heal battlefatuige. The base is nicer than a house, and houses can heal battlefatuige...
Just my 2 cents
Personally, I would love the ability to heal Battle Fatigue in the top two Ranger camps. This would put high level camps in demand with combat groups on Endor (where there are no houses to heal BF in).
It would be nice if the healing was gated to people with skill in Novice Musician or Novice Dancer or above, that way you could also encourage the use of those professions in the field.
My two creds.
I think there is quite a point in making some of the more valuable abilities Master Ranger only - or atleast skill lvl IV - thus my comment on BF healing in the Top ranger camp only. Implementing these effects further down the skill trees only makes everyone able to get these abilities - and thus create cookie cutter characters. IMO all professions should have profession definihng abilities in the Master box - this would ensure that a player needed to master a given profession to be able to use those abilities, making the player who worked hard to master a profession, sacrificing other professions, valuable in groups - for specific operations.
/D
Fix traps. Fix camps. Add/fix conceal. Heck, before adding anything. Just fix what we have now. And what has been the Dev's response to the first week's letter to them?
I think you are doing a great job. your posts are very well written and address all the relevant points. But, how do we know there is even a Ranger Dev? I, personally, dont thing it exists. Sounds like the admins are just shining us on with bs about "The correspondence system is new and it might take a few days" Seems like other professions, like scout, are having a dialog with there dev. But, rangers are getting nothing. I challenge anyone to prove to me there is a Ranger dev. I so want to be wrong in my assumption of the lack of a Ranger dev.
I believe the Correspondents program is considered very valuable to the Devs, and i think it's taken quite seriously, now we can't expect them to have a complete responce within a week to our issues. The correspondent program does infact inform the dev's of the most important issues concerning each profession - and that in a much more cunstructive and detailed way then the daily "Fix this or i quit" rants on the disucssion forum. The Ranger profession hasn't been that visable on the discussions forum and i think mabe the reason is that we are not a "fighting" profession and neither the most popular amongst players, i would also like to believe that the Ranger profession sports the more mature players in the community, but mabe i'm just wishing away here.
Anyways - I think it's far too early to complain about the correspondents program, and i think it's best for all to put some trust into it - becuase this is the best means we'll ever have to influence our professions, and I believe that the Dev's are looking more to the correspondents reports then the discussion forum.
/D