Ranger Archive
Thread: An idea! Rangers can not only viable in PvP, but tactically indispensable.MUST READ!
Just an idea, but wouldn't PvP be great if you could plan truely strategic assults. I.E.-Suprise attacks, sneaky flanks?. What if a team of commandos could prone there way close enough to take out the AT-ST, before the battle erupts? True rebel ambush's in the wilds,,, etc etc ...Fun idea, but we all have that radar that happily shows the positions of all nearby enemies. Including PC's.
Unless there was a CamoKit that Master Rangers could make, that had a chance to remove a players' dot from the radar......
As of right now, PvP is a slug fest, with no real tactical skills players can utilize. Other than timing, pets, and damage modifers.Work is breathing down my neck, so I'll pass the torch to everyone else for now. Think about the implications, and post it. Good, bad or ugly.
I personally think its a great idea: what do YOU think?
As much as I would love to see this happen, I believe it was mentioned in another thread that the dev's were pretty anti-stealth. I got the impression that they had dug their heels in on this one.
But for me I agree! 
It doesn't have to be pure stealth. It could be limited to concealment from radar, and pure stealth (as in invisible), might only apply toanyone outside say ......30m. Anything closer can be seen as normal,but concealment from radar is still maintained. I'm know there is a way to make this perfectly viable, and not overpowered.
I like the idea as well, in addition to that what if a master ranger could be almost completely invisible as long as he didn't move with a camo kit on? He is at one with the wilderness after all, however that would only be a PVP thing
Merc
"I posted about this awhile back and people were saying the DEV's were against it because of how easy it is to hack into the game and make your own radar."
- That is a problem, if they were to send all the information down from the server and have the client hide what you shouldn't be seeing.
- However, if they simply didn't send the information regarding "stealth" characters, you would not be able to hack the client to display the data (as it would not even be available).
- In order to do that however, "stealth" would have to be pure stealth... Meaning the character would be completely invisible to everyone, and that is not exactly what /conceal does.
Only thing is, certain NPCs like Tusken Snipers are already stealth in the game. They are not on radar or overhead map until you face their direction and hit tab to auto-target, then they appear on radar. Even if you can see them lying on the ground they are not on radar until you target them.
-- YP
"Only thing is, certain NPCs like Tusken Snipers are already stealth in the game."
- They are not pure stealth though. If the information is available for you to auto-target them, then there is information on the client side stating where they are (the client is simply hiding the info on the radar).
- With this information, someone can simply hack the client and change the radar code to display the Tusken Snipers. 
NRaas has an excellent point. He is right, I have seen this situation in many other games, particularly Diablo 2. The devs on that game STILL can't keep their players from making a "maphack" that shows everything in the area. I guarantee if this happened there would be an "anti-stealth" hack someone would come up with and distribute.
To work, it would have to be, as he said, PURE STEALTH. This would be possible, but pretty hard to do. The server would have to make a complete erasure of the concealed player from other players' systems (not even send them the data that the player is there, at all) This could be problematic, both from a lag stand point (the server having to sort out which players are concealed and which arent and what player data should get sent to whom would create more lag), and from a balance standpoint (I think complete and total invisibility would be EXTREMELY overpowered), particularly if applied to entire groups.
This is a bit of a tough issue. The devs would basically be stuck with a choice of making the ability worthless, or overpowered. Unless there's an alternative, such as limiting it to Master Rangers only, and only making it appyable to that one person only(allowing them to "recon" or "scout" ahead) It could quickly become a game ruining imbalance.
ThePhilosopher wrote:
NRaas has an excellent point. He is right, I have seen this situation in many other games, particularly Diablo 2. The devs on that game STILL can't keep their players from making a "maphack" that shows everything in the area. I guarantee if this happened there would be an "anti-stealth" hack someone would come up with and distribute.
My my, I finally found someone who knows what happens to a game when Duping, Hacking, Bugging starts!
However, I agree also. If it is on the Client side, it can, and WILL be hacked sooner or later. I like the idea, since that would be the only thing making me go for PvP. The PvP combat now is just find the opposing faction and open fire..... no tactics, no strategy, no fun (for me anyway).
Not a bad idea, kind of a modification of my idea I have posted on this same concept. My idea was to have an option for overt rebels, to have a timed gorilla mode or something like that. Basically, for x amount of time, you show up as a nuetral dot on the radar to any member of the opposite faction. And when they target you, you still show as a nuetral. Not true stealth where my avatar is invisable, I agree that is way to powerful, but just so I show up as nuetral on the radar. Once the person that is "in gorilla" mode attacks, they return to normal and are a red dot to the opposing faction.
This, as in your idea, would lend to the gorilla, suprise attacks of the rebels, and thus give us something storyline appropriate like the AT-ST. I like the idea of the camo kits doing this, especially since I'm a ranger, but I still think that it should be for the radar only. And maybe not so you are invisable on the radar, but just a nuetral. Even if you are overt.
Mind you, if this capability is given to the rangers, then that means the Imps can do it as well. Imagine some Imps sneak up on you, then pop out some AT-ST and attack. I think that might be just to game unbalancing, and not really true to storyline. The Empire did some covert opps, but not really any large operations, or attacks. Their covert operations were mostly things like spies, and informants. If they attacked, it was in the open and in full force.
So maybe we can all come up with something like this the camo kits can do.
I've said that in the past when the camo kits first came out...along with the fact that I was a little dissappointed the avatar didn't any anything to show for it. Anyway, to get back on topic, if camo could be used to become stealthy, it should be used to do recon and break once you enter combat since it isn't that hard to tell where that blaster bolt came from *speaking from a ranged combat perspective* or a ranged m perspective. I think that would make our profession more viable since we could relay the information on enemy strength/pets, etc. It'd be like early spy work used in WWII before the British and Germans got really good at it. Just my thoughts, but I whole heartedly agree.
Ta'l