Ranger Archive

Not that we were ever separate, but now I don't think a Ranger revamp can take place without some changes or consideration of the scouting profession (and CH and SL to a lesser extent).

I see a few major directions the revamp could go in :

1) Reduce the prerequisites for Ranger by only mandating 2 trees of scout

2) Reduce the skill point cost of Ranger (a la Image Designer) to allow it to be mastered along side CH or SL (just examples)

3) Add specific combat skills into Scout and Ranger, bothe Melee and Ranged

4) Collapse Scout and Ranger into a single profession

Now to ramble on about each of the aforementioned options ....

1) Reducing the pre-reqs to Ranger.
I see this as a non-starter. There is nothing we could sensibly lose from scout, and still retain all the ranger skills

Not my preferred option, as it finally admits that Ranger as a profession was worth less than any other profession - What the ID players must think ..... well I guess I understand now.

If the SP cost of Ranger was brought inline with what we can actually do, then it could be combined with CH or SL - both of which seem to have the greatest synergy with Ranger out of all the other professions.

This would allow Scout and Ranger SPs to count towards the overall health increase (up to 3k) that is allowed. It would also add to the professions rather than subtracting, making us viable in our own right.

A Master Scout could haveon thirdthe combined combat rating of a Master Marksmanand Master Brawler combination, and a Master Ranger could be equal to a combined Master Brawler / Master Marksman combination. In other words, add the skills and certifications from Master Brawler and Master Marksman throughout Scout and Ranger Survival and Hunting Trees.

The Master Marksman and Master Brawler combination is very unlikely to be taken up by anyone else in the game, except for dabblers. The points cost is similar to the Master Scout/Ranger combination - ok so we spend 14 less SPs, but the XP costs are much higher. This idea could be tweaked/tuned untill it fit ........

This would have the effect of removing Ranger entirely as a profession, as scouting skills are pre-reqs to other professions, and everyone should be able to get some Terrain Negotiation skills in a novice profession (IMO). Some of the Ranger skills could be moved out to SL - Frontiering and Wayfaring for example. Trapping could be removed entirely or the useful bits added into Scout. Tracking ....... not sure where that would go, but I'm sure the Bounty Hunters would like it :-p

Obviously, out of the 4 options I just mentioned, I prefer number 3 - as it keeps us as a viable profession and gives us the ability to exist in our own right without having to pick up a pure combat profession. It gives us the versatility to use a number of combat skills in diferent circumstances, and it does open up the possibility of adding some unique weapons and specials for us as Master Rangers. It ought to be possible to arrange for a Ranger with all the level one skills (i.e. Tier 1 Ranger) to then embark on an Elite Combat Profession, by spending a number of extra skill points (e.g. 43) to get Novice in that profession - or by making Scout and Ranger professions cost slightly more points .....

Then we would have a choice - Master Scout / Master Ranger with a versatile, but fairly low damage output, and having to use our wits and trapping skills to keep up with others, and having 110 skill points left to dabble in other areas, or Master Scout / Master Ranger / Master Elite combat profession with practically no skill points left. Both of these scenarios would see us have greater than 1000 health, with the elite Combat Profession option having more then the Scout/Ranger combo.

At the moment we can't Master Smuggler orCommando with Ranger - but with this new method we could.

Anyway - just a slightly diferent approach (more structural)to a Ranger revamp (notwithstanding all the fine ideas already in the revamp documents that Calc and Owen have produced - which would need to be included as wll)

Tony Weyland - semi retired

To me, #3 from the given options is the only viable one.

There has been a lot of ideas going on for the revamp and most of them go in that direction too:

* add combat rating (sorta bow idea)

* fix traps (work on more then just the ai creatures)

* make camps more usefull

Then to me, all the SP sink is worth it. I'd gladly relearn things if traps were revised or camps altered.

All the other options would probably drive me out, out of SWG that is.

I would have to agree with adding some true combat skills to ranger/scout. Some things off the top of my head:

-camo effective vs players/NPC's. All shots after second would negate it for hostile action against the given player.

-traps effective vs players/NPC's. The states will be the same effect that a creature would receive.

-give a bonus to ranged combat while in outdoors/woodlands setting. This bonus would grow with character lvl and amount of trees/rocks and so forth.

As a side note, I would also recommend reducing the cost for ranger by 1 pt for each tier. It would free up a few points, not many, butsome to be put elsewhere.