Ranger Archive

Background -
I'm not currently a Ranger, nor am I currently near that lofty goal, being a very casual player. However, I am working towards it, and I will eventually reach it. I seek to define the class as something I want to be when I get there. Currently I believe the Ranger class is somewhat devoid of benefits, and I think many of you would agree with me. This is a list of proposals for modifications to this class. I would like everyone to comment on them, and correct me if I have made an incorrect statement about anything herein.

Feel free to add your own suggestions to this list, as I amcertain it is by no means comprehensive. Please feel free to point out any potential exploits or abuses that may be caused by the adoption of these suggestions. Please feel free to point out any lack or failure these suggestions would contain.

I ask only that they be given fair consideration. Thank you.

Problem:
The Ranger class is devoid of many benefits. Rangers gain a couple of new traps (currently bugged), a couple of camp types (bugged as well), and the /rescue command (nearly worthless, as it gets Rangers killed with frightening regularity). Aside from these, we are merely a way to gainfurther refinement of (and increases in) the skills gained through the Scout class. Rangers need some additional abilities (and/or refinements) to clearly delineate them from Scouts.

Situation:
Currently Ranger traps do not affect humanoids, as they are simply an extension of Scout traps.

Suggestion:
To differentiate between Scout and Ranger, allow Ranger traps to affect NPCs and Players in PvP. This would give us a wide variety of effects (snares, dizzy, specific pool attacks we may not have a weapon for, defense debuffs) we could use as fire-support personnel in PvP, and in groups which are performing faction missions against Imps or Rebels. This could be instituted with a flag (Trapping Humanoids +1) upon gaining some ranks in the Ranger class. I do not believe it should be a feature of Novice Rangers, or other classes will take Novice Ranger purely for this benefit. Further, ALL traps should function against creature-type pets. DROIDS should be made immune to many/most/all traps.

Situation:
Currently, Scout and Ranger camps disband if the user enters combat or wanders away from the camp.

Suggestion:
Allow Ranger-constructed camps to remain operational, even when the Ranger and his group goes afield or enters combat. To prevent exploit, remove the healing ability and repelling creature abilities (currently bugged) of campswhenever the Ranger or one of his group members is in combat and for a few seconds (20?) afterwards - treating them as a piece of normal "ground" lacking in all benefits. The camp should NOT generate experience for this time, nor should anyone, in the group or otherwise, gain ANY benefits from it. As with the previous suggestion, I think this benefit needs to be placed up the skillset some distance, to prevent other classes from simply taking a Novice level of Ranger for this benefit.

Situation:
Maskscent is of dubious value, even when highly developed. It fails often and regularly, and has a punitive delay timer. It cannot be used in combat, and is useless against NPCs or players. Current developer notes suggest that failing at a /maskscent skill use may result in angering creatures which might not otherwise notice the player. (Possibly even normally non-aggressive creatures.)

Suggestions:
Maskscent, when used by a Ranger, should remain effective against NPCs, and possibly players as well, reducing the distance at which we can be seen/detected. This would allow us to "camoflage" ourselves against other humanoids, and reconnoiter into areas inaccessible to other classes. It would represent the skill a Ranger should learn at remaining undetected in a wilderness area. We should not be permitted to become "invisible" while approaching other humanoids closely, but perhaps a reduced distance (30m?) beyond which we are undetectable would be sufficient.

All benefits of Maskscent, including the camoflaging against NPCs, should be LOST within city limits. You cannot be exploring, if you're in town. This would encourage Rangers and Scouts to get out of the cities and into the wilderness areas, as is appropriate for this class. This should affect Scouts, as well. There is no need to mask your scent against creatures in town. A human that smelled like an animal, yet which entered a town while so masked should stand out, not blend in, when scented by creatures...

Rangers of sufficient skill should be made exempt from any penalties for failing at maskscent. If it fails and has the potential to agro creatures, an experienced Ranger should receive only the normal chances for a creature to attack him - for being too close to an aggressive creature, perhaps, but not for failing the use of the skill itself and being discovered. This would be a distinct benefit over Scouts, who would remain subject to the penalties for failure with this skill. Again, this ability needs to be placed higher in the skillset than Novice, to prevent Scouts from simply adding the Novice skill and gaining the bonus.

Situation:
Currently, there is little use for the additional creature knowledge we gain. Knowing a creature's specific threat level is of little value, given the specificity of the /consider system.

Suggestions:
A Ranger should be given information on the type of resources which can be harvested from a creature by examining it. This would give the Ranger additional information, as though he were examining the resource itself (resource attributes) and would allow him to decide whether or not to attack the creature for the materials it represents. (This one's not very good, folks. Help me out?)

Situation:
Rangers are defined as well-suited to travel and tracking. There is no tracking functionality. Travel benefits consist primarily of the ability to run uphills at increased speed, and a reduction of the speed penalties faced while prone.

Suggestions:
Rangers should gain a benefit to mobility at all times, even on flat ground. They should be able to outrun any other PC or NPC. (Exceptions: multi-legged creatures, mounts and vehicles) The bonuses granted by the (Exploration?) line should be increased, and a benefit to normal movement speed should be granted at all times. The delay between burst run attempts should be decreased as the Ranger's skill grows, in addition to the currently existing modifiers. (If they do not already, the bonuses should stack with those of a Squad Leader.)

Tracking must be added to the game. Perhaps a Ranger could select a type of creature to hunt at any time, and be given a waypoint to a lair or single creature of that creature type - much as happens with a Mission Terminal. This would allow the Ranger to focus his efforts on a specific type of resource (Wooly hides, Insect Meat, Avian Bones) and pursue the creatures that produce it. This is more important than ever, with the introduction of rare creature resources.(PCs and NPCs should not be "trackable" via this method. That is the province of the Bounty Hunter.)

Situation:
Rangers are defined as well-suited to "...defending others." There is currently no skill, benefit, or modification to a Ranger that encompasses this ability, other than the /rescue command.

Suggestion:
Grant the Ranger the ability to interpose himself between a foe and its target with a /guard command. A random, moderatechance to apply damage to the Ranger instead of the foe's target would allow a Ranger to absorb some of the damage aimed at another, while remaining "behind" PCs more suited for taking damage, like Brawlers. The Ranger would need to be close (within 20m?) of the guarded target for this ability to function. It should NOT affect any use of The Force, nor area-of-effect attacks (like Carbineer area-effect special movesor thrown grenades). It should be permitted to change guarded targets at any time, even while in combat.

As the Ranger gained additional skill, he should be able to guard a target against attacks from multiple foes, or potentially guard multiple characters. Possibly /guard should allow a Ranger to take slightly lessened damage while guarding another (10% reduction in damage averted from a guarded target to the Ranger? This would mean that a Ranger who "guarded" a blow doing 100 damage would receive only 90, before the application of armor and other modifiers).

When using /guard combined with the /rescue command, a Ranger would gain the ability to defend another, and even to potentially save another at the expense of his own life. If a Ranger used /guard, he could soften a foe's onslaught, and if that proved insufficient to save his comrade, he could use /rescue instead, at the peril of losing his own life to save that of his comrade.

Situation:
Rangers lack any form of concealment equivalent to camoflage. This is inconsistent with the flavor and theme of the class as designed.

Suggestion:
Allow the ranger to disappear from radar and to appear as a rock, small tree, or inoffensive piece of ground common to the planet/areaat the price of remaining COMPLETELY IMMOBILE. This allows Rangers to set up ambushes, while preventing them from firing from total concealment or dancing around while appearing as a rock. Against creatures or NPCs attacked from ambush while concealed, this ability should be good for an additional shot or two. (Additive with /maskscent?)

Within 30m, the Ranger should appear as normal on radar and be targetable, and within 10m, the Ranger should be unable to continue to conceal himself from players. If the Ranger fires or moves at any time while concealed or takes any damage or is a target of The Force, the concealment should end immediately. There should be a punitive re-use timer on this ability to prevent it from being used to repeatedly ambush targets in quick succession during a string of fire fights (60 seconds minimum). It should fail if any creature, NPC or PC has the Ranger as their target or on their agro list. If a player can see the Ranger, all players in their group are made aware of his presence and can target him as normal - simulating the playerhaving "called out" or "spotted" the Ranger's position for his group.

Any thoughts, Rangers?

Ienei Palindrome, Marksman for Hire
Ahazi, Corellia, Coronet

I have 2 things to say on this

Concealment: Make it so we can go completely invisible, dammit. This game needs a stealth class! For all of the Rangers/rogues/scouts of other games to do!!!!!

Harvesting: Make it so we either harvest double the resource of a scout.. or we harvest from all 3 pools for the normal amount.. We should be able to do this.

WE *REALLY* need an edit button. Thought of a few more possibilities...

Add to the list that a few additional traps would be nice, as would area-effect versions of the Scout traps. (Lecepamine Mist, Glow-Juice Bomb, Phenacine Mist, Acid Spray (cause slight bleed effect on health pool?), Thermonuclear Hand-Grenade... Well, maybe not the last one.)

Perhaps we could grant the ability to add things to our higher-end camps with additional Ranger-constructed items or inate features. Sandbag walls toabsorb blaster bolts from outside, perhaps... or datapads that contact mission, faction, or bazaarterminals in the nearest or designatedcity - allowing us to provide a mobile group with the ability to stay out of the city for LONG trips, without needing to return for missions.

For overts, faction guards that appear when we make camp. They needn't be powerful, and certainly shouldn't drop anything of real value, remain after the camp is disbanded, or be replaced without making a new camp... but it'd be neat to have a stormtrooper or two guarding our high-end camps, even if he was so green that a gnort could kill him. (This might be a faction exploit- they should not generate XP or faction points when killed!)

I'm sure I'll think of some others.

Ienei Palindrome, Marksman for Hire
Ahazi, Corellia, Coronet

Awesome suggestions

Mineras : Consider these for week 2 submission

/agree

Good suggestions.

One point, I think we can already see what resources we will harvest off a critter - or at least that used to be the case in beta. Hsven't quite made it to Ranger yet to test :-(

Yeah we can already see how many and what type of resources a creature will give us.

He's saying give quality info to the resource info also. =) Which would help.. I could find out what gives the best quality easiest then

all good suggestions, although I'm not really very keen on your /guard command idea...it sounds like a slower, more painful death than /rescue. I would rather see a passive defensive bonus vs. creatures for the whole group, the rescue command modfied so that it doesn't mean instant or near instant death, and at highest level, an improved rescue that allows us to erase a player from a creature's hate list once every 30-45 seconds.

I'll keep this thread on my list, though, lots of good stuff here.

Clarification: I mean it should say "Scaly Hide - Decay Resistance 92" before we ever harvest it. Not just the type and amount, but also the quality information, if we care to look.

Having heard the complaints about the /rescue command, I'd have to agree that /guard might not be the best benefit as suggested.

Wouldn't a passive bonus for a whole group be more the province of a Squad Leader, though?

Perhaps /guard could give a passive bonus to a single target, up to a few targets at a higher level - that wouldn't usurp the Squad Leader's modus operandi of affecting whole groups, and yet would still contribute to meeting the definition of "defending others". Maybe treat it as a dodge bonus that we can give only to another.

I like the idea for the improved /rescue. Maybe call it "/distract" or something similar.

Is there any reason that we don't see any information at all currently about BONES when examining a creature? Hides and meat are there, but never bones. Before we add in a display of all the arcane statistics, let's just get all 3 resource types displayed under the current system.

I like Thermo-Nuclear hand Grenade. Put that back in.

/agree.