Ranger Archive

This thread is to organize the questions, ideas, concerns about the upcoming revamp. For simplicity's sake organize them into the following 6 categories. If you have a question that may not fit into any of these categories, suggest a new category and i will modify the post to reflect that

This is a free form thread designed to capture as many aspects of rangering as possible.

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Gameplay:

Will our tracking beacons work similar to our current "ESP" method of tracking? Will the beacons give a readout of the creatures, players, NPCs and their locations to us via technical means? If this is the case, then we are losing nothing and gaining a more realistic system.

Will the bio sensor probe allow us to acquire the bio signatures of creatures and then program the probe to use the DNA to find creatures of like DNA within a given area? If this is the case, then we are gaining a system that will help us tremendously.

The primary way rangers make monkey now is by harvesting organics for crafters, after the revamp hits, our focus will no longer be on harvesting. How will rangers in the future be able to sell their services, items, craftables for profit?

Assuming that Ranger will remain a Carbine-Based profession (as we've seen in the In Concept stuff) will Rangers see some Ranger-Specific Weapons that are Certfied at Novice or Master Ranger, similar to the Scatter Pistol and Proton Carbine that Bounty Hunters get.

With the Rangers get to see some sort of new content as far as quests/missions go? For example, if a Rebel Ranger goes to a Rebel Base (player-placed) an NPC in there (Defense Corrdinator) could give the Ranger a small quest to help fortify the bases by placing some traps/minefields a certain distance from the base. Or maybe more of a Recon mission. I know there are some Recon Missions currently, where you are asked to just go to a waypoint, and observe what's there, and return to the mission-giver. Maybe implement something like this, where an Imperial Sgt sends you out to go find 3 small Rebel encampments withing 2km from the base. You'd then have to sneak into the camps, steal the secret attack plans (from a magseal or something) and return undetected. if you are detected, you've got to eliminate all the troops in the base. These type of missions could reward you with credits and faction points.

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Skill sets - Traps

Traps:
When planning an ambush, planting concealed mines/traps while invisible may be necessary. Having to reveal ourselves to lay a trap, or indeed placing a trap which is initially visible may limit the situations in which we can use traps. A possible solution would be for traps to "inherrit" their owners visibility status. In otherwords, if a Ranger is not concealed a trap would be visible until concealed, but if a Ranger is concealed and lays a trap, then that trap would be concealed too.
There is an old saying that goes "no plan survives first contact with the enemy". With the fixed position nature of our new traps, we will require our targets to get into proximity of the traps during a combat situation. Given that combat situations are fluid by nature, your plans need to be fluid too. Therefore the ability to lay a new trap during combat would important to have.

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Pre-Reqs

Is the carbines IV pre-req set in stone or clay?

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Schematics

What kind of customizability are we getting for traps, are the traps at novice ranger going to be less powerful than the ones at master ranger? or is the experimentation going to determine the effectiveness?

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Combat Mods

Also, can we expect to see Carbine-based Combat Mods such as Speed and Accuracy Mods?

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Specials

Are rangers getting some "stealth-specific specials"?

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The devs have not asked me to collect this information, however, when the revamp comes closer and closer, i want to have enough ammo from the community to ask questions, suggest enhancements, and best represent the views of the ranger community. I will be modifying this post to make sure that its up to date and reflective of what the community wants.

If traps are not deployable during combat, then we would need combat specials to replace them in a fight, or to use as a suppliment for an extended fight when the pre-layed traps have been used up.

Thanks for your help and stay involved, the better ideas we bring to the table, hopefully we will be able to shape our revamp.

Thanks

Message Edited by AgonThalia on 10-11-200508:02 PM

Message Edited by AgonThalia on 10-11-200508:03 PM

Message Edited by AgonThalia on 10-11-2005 08:03 PM

How are Rangers going to make Monkey?

is that a gameplay issue?

also... secondly, if you have a question, it would be best if you were to provide a possible solution.

For example:

The primary way rangers make monkey now is by harvesting organics for crafters, after the revamp hits, our focus will no longer be on harvesting. How will rangers in the future be able to sell their services, items, craftables for profit?

Thanks

Message Edited by AgonThalia on 10-10-2005 12:30 PM

who wants to make monkeys anyhow seems that would be a ch skill

Message Edited by Oreet on 10-10-2005 12:49 PM

Are we decided at this point as a community that we would greatly prefer that Carbines not be a prerequisite for Ranger? If so, do we know why the Developers put forward that specification? If we have a concrete understanding of their rational we would better be able to address the issue with alternatives.

Message Edited by FultonMeigs on 10-10-2005 12:06 PM

I think that we should have some sort of involvement in the GCW, but unfortunately at this time that is restricted to base destruction for all professions but Smugglers. You would not be able to justify requireing a Ranger to help destroy bases unless the benefit of destroying a base would increase.

Therefore, we could have some options as to intelligence gathering about enemy bases. This could be dependant upon a craftable item, or use of equipment found at factional bases, where the Ranger(s) could gather information as to the vulnerability timers and locations of Imperial Bases, or even be able to manipulate the vulnerability timer itself.

I doubt that there is much left in the GCW for us to have a place in. Anyways....



As far as combat specials go, if our combat modifiers are generous enough to compensate for not having them, and only being able to place traps outside of combat, then I would settle at the no specials stance the Devs are at now. However, we could use something not directly related to combat as our specials. Such as a togglable Burstrun, or a modifier to extend /burstrun's duration. What about being able to unequip and re-equip armor during combat? Could we justify asking for this?

I think there should be a few traps / mines that can be thrown during combat, but would have a damage penalty and an accuracy bonus. If we can't have combat specials, then there should not be a strict line of separation between modifiers and mines as far as use in and out of combat is concerned.

Its kind of hard to debate what prereqs, or mods until we get some more info on howthe new ranger deviceswill work and under what circumstances.

Since Helios has playtested these new toys. Some info on what he has gleemed would be most helpful. Even if things will not change just understanding how Helios envisions them working, and how he has used them in testing the new Ranger profession would be a plus.

Message Edited by Rolfie on 10-10-2005 11:01 AM

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Channon wrote:

Will token repecs still beuseableafter the revamp? I am sure I will

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Why wouldn't they be? I doubt they will give us another one, but any unused ones should be fine.

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Keeper32 wrote:

* Skill-sets

Would the currently slated Battle armor likely be changed to something more in-line of a profession that deals in sneaking and covert tactics? By this I mean Recon armor.

Also. If the current armor certifications are kept, what would be the justification to force two armor certs of the same type on one profession? (Battle armor from Carbineer, and Battle from Ranger).

They are keeping the battle armor certification, mainly because it is the most versatile armor for both NPC and Creature combat. Recon armor, while the name suggests a stealthy, quick movement, is only "recon" in name only and provides a higher protection vs. energy. I am fairly sure that they will keep the battle armor cert, however, if one is a MCarbines, the cert in there is also battle armor. (Personally i would prefer some diversity) but i get the impression battle armor is set in stone for now

* Schematics

Would these new itemsbe crafted as with the current Ranger traps by a majority of organic components or will it be a more technical craft, needing mostly inorganic resources such as copper for wiring, polymer and/or fiberplast for explosive substance (if applicable) with metal for the casing and/or frag parts?

Or will they be made more organic in nature, as to have hide for sinue and release with bone fragments (Spikes for instance) to create a frag mine?

Will the new Ranger be getting multiple types of mines with different properties, for instance one more accurate but less powerfull. One more powerfull but less accurate etc? Or perhaps even other mods like chance to blow prematurely and so on.

Traps, as stated by the devs will be kept to fairly simple crafting with a line of experimentation. they want to keep ranger mobile and adaptive in the field so they dont require tons of crafting and components

* Specials

Would it be possible to get specials that draw upon our new nature of covert combat. Such as specials that can be fired while camouflaged? (Yes I know this is a rifleman ability but it would be natural for Rangers to have something similar imo)

good question, thanks

* Combat Mods (Or schematics. I got carried away heh)

Will Ranger be getting mods that improve the ability to craft higher end explosive charges? Like at novice you can craft a low-yield explosive charge with an inaccurate proximity gauge (Or better yet, do both and make them experimentable). And then at later skill levels increase the ability to create higher yield, more precise mines.

again, another good question

Preferably with experimental properties to determine this yourself. Whether you want something with a very good chance to hit but not alot of power, or one which will blow a person from Tatooine to Lok IF it hits.

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AgonThalia wrote:

Specials

Are rangers getting some "stealth-specific specials"?

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A sneak attack damage bonuswould be nice,they could add this toPowersand Rifleman too. I fail to see the point of first strike without it, heck I don't have trouble getting first strike withouttrue stealth. While the real life combat ability to one off an enemy quickly and quietly isn't an option (game balance wise), a tactical advantage would be very useful. This sneak attack would 'decloak', so your likely to only get one shot in any given combat(a 25% damage bonus doesn't seem unbalancing).