Ranger Archive

Thread: The Ranger, a vision of a viable profession

Tribus
Thu Jul 29, 2004 6:39 pm
#1
The Ranger

By Tribus Koran





Rangers in Star Wars: Galaxies are a rare breed. Not as rare as some other professions, but definitely not a prominate profession by any means. When I first started playing SWG back in Beta 3, I immediately gravitated to the Scout profession because I loved how huge the worlds were, and I thought that the Scout would be a much needed profession. I have been a Master Ranger twice, and am headed back to it now again. I just can't get enough, I guess it's in my blood to be a Ranger. The Problem with the Ranger, is that to be such an outdoorsman, and be a loner at the same time, you also need to be able to defend yourself, or to be able to just plain hide. There have been many arguments, and design posts regarding the Scout/Ranger professions. But, with so many different opinions of how the Ranger should be envisioned in the Star Wars world, it is very difficult to really nail down what direction this profession should head. I am writing this post in an effort to express my views, along with some of the popular threads that attempt to give a good Star Wars role to the Ranger profession.


The two major design thoughts:


  • Outdoorsman

  • Military Rangers/snipers

Now, I think that the overwhelming population of Rangers, would like a combination of both, however that is almost too much to ask for. You just can't have a support style profession that is able to solo anything in the game. But, if we were to all pull together, I think it is possible to reach a balance that will satisfy even the most die hard Ranger player. First and foremost, in my opinion, a Ranger should be more of an outdoorsman than anything. A player able to survive in the wild with not much more than camps, traps, healing, and forage abilities. The Rangers combat skills should be left open to pursue any elite combat profession that suits them the most. My personal combat skills are in the rifleman profession, something about the conceal shot, and the cover ability, just adds to my sense of a Ranger.


I have a vision of a Ranger in the wild who is able to spot a creature way off in the distance, slowly the Ranger camouflages, and begins to track the creature. Once within range unleashes hell on the creature(s). The ranger then harvests the animal, and returns to his camp to heal, rest, and prepare for the next big game to cross his path. All the while taking notes on locations, and scouting other threats (Imperial movements/Rebel movements etc.) To me this would be the ultimate Star wars feel for a Ranger. A Ranger should be able to hide, track, and scout locations without being seen, but if noticed should be able to fight his way out, and get back to hiding.


Star Wars is ultimately a story set in a war period. To make the Ranger a viable profession, you have to include the military support role, and to make a Ranger an outdoorsman at the same time. I think that Rangers should be very useful in group battle, and be able to survive alone. There is a very fine line that would balance these abilities, but I think we can achieve this through discussions such as this one.


My ideas for the Ranger re-vamp would include alot of what has already been posted here in this forum, but to really focus on the core roles of the Ranger in SWG. I think if we can come up with true core roles, we can then work on the extra's after that.


Core Roles:


  • Ranger hunting/big game terminals for income.

  • Harvesting bonus's for good resource collecting/sales.

  • NPC Traps (Master Ranger bonus ability?)

  • Military type scouting, to track Imperial/Rebel scum. (GCW bonus for Master?)

  • Conceal/Camouflage for solo hunting, or large group hunting.

  • Basic medical abilities/First aid to maintain in the wild, and free up a few skill points.

  • And of course, tracking skills.

I think this would provide the best Ranger feel in this game, and would truly make the Ranger a viable profession in the GCW,and in the PvE world. Now granted this is a huge wish list, but I think this is the direction that the Rangers should be headed. I apologize for this post if it is just re-hashing old issues, but I wanted to express my opinions of a profession I love so much. I have never posted much on these forums about my passion of the Ranger, but I plan on attempting to get into it more, and try to make an impact, and help develop the Ranger profession.


Thanks for reading. I hope some of you share my opinions of Rangers, and we can all work towards making our profession what we want it to be, or at least compromise somewhere in the middle. The purpose of this post was to just let my voice be put into the mix,to at least say I spoke my opinion.


Thank you






Tribus Koran
The Tribe - Minister of Information
Gens Urbis, Dantooine (1806, 3392)
Wanderhome
http://www.swgtribe.com



Hear the drums... they come from the sea, bring the tribal spirit on me.
Cause my pride and my roots I believe...no, this tribe you cant take it from me.
Washell
Thu Jul 29, 2004 8:34 pm
#2
I've got the idea that the dev's had both roles in mind but in a slightly different way, they gave us 250 skillpoints to mix and match as we want.


Outdoorsman/creature centric ranger:

Ranger/CH, Ranger/MBE, Ranger/Combat Prof template


Military Ranger

Ranger/SL, Ranger/Combat Prof template


Our original Outdoorsman proposalsteers the current ranger profession more towards creature centric. I feel the Ranger prof should be heading more in the general direction. So both NPC/player traps for the military oriented (not damage but area state effects with single target npc/player traps in scout) as well as better harvesting modifiers. Camps both good for harvesting runs (mission terminal) as forward command posts (increased player areatrack range (radar), turrets, defense bonusses).


Modular trapping/camping would go along way with the proposed modules in the outdoorsman proposal. Stealth in wayfaring would fix that tree (and be usefull to both orientations). Tracking tree is pretty good as it is, justadd the promised /track command to make up for the "bugs" in areatrack.


So the core roles would be the ultimate creature harvester as well as intelligence gatherer/covert ops on the battlefield, this all depending on what other prof you choose to complement ranger with.


Thinking of the radar module gave me a (maybe) new idea too. /Areatrack in a camp with radar module puts all /tracked targets on the radar, yours and all other players in the camp. The dotswon't move but fade out. Repeated areatracking will reveal the general direction they're moving in. Of course, a ranger from the other side will be able to camo his team to prevent detection by this radar enhanced areatrack.

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