Ranger Archive

Color Reference

• Grey: New to list or changed from last version
  
• Yellow: Ranger Top Issue
  
• Red: Will be Affected by Future Changes
  
• Magenta: Officially Announced / On Test Center

Overview

• The concept of the Ranger has been quite contentious among the forum members.
  
  
  
  • There are those that wish a profession along the lines of the "Nature" Ranger: At one with nature and the ultimate outdoorsman
    
  • There are those that consider the profession to be in line with the "Park" Ranger: Wilderness enforcer
    
  • There are those that want to pattern the profession on the "Military" Ranger: Survivalist and Combat specialist
    
  • And There are those that believe we are "Big Game Hunter": The ultimate Creature Hunter
  
  
  
  
  • But the question is: How does the Developer envision our Profession?
    
  • With that knowledge we could direct our efforts to perfecting that paradigm
  
  
• These views allow for a wide range of what should be the top priority for the profession. But most arguments boil down to two sides:
  
  
  
  • PvE: As the majority of players tend towards engaging the games creatures, a great many suggestions have been made to improve our proficiency in this area
    
  • PvP: But there is a vocal contingent that want far more effectiveness in the GCW, as once a player achieves Master, there is little available in the profession to directly aid in this end game.
  
  
• In the end however, we are all interested in fleshing out our quasi-complete profession with skills that benefit all sides.

Economics

• As most of the equipment we produce can only be sold to Master Scouts or other Rangers, there is little demand outside the profession.
  
• Our mainstay is the same as the Scouts: Harvested Resources. In this area, we would love to excel far beyond the Scouting profession, but at the moment most rangers don't feel the harvesting skill is sufficiently different from our Scouting brothers.
  
• With the addition of /areatrack, many have found a new avenue for income, though the skill still is still far too limiting to solely rely on.
  
• In general, there does not seem to be much complaint regarding monetary issues.

Interdependence

• Being Rangers most of us enjoy our independence and fight fervently to ensure that we stay one of the most independent professions.
  
• However, it is in the best interest of game as a whole to have some interdependence, and several Rangers find it odd that polymer was removed from our camps, leaving only traps with resources that we can not supply using our own skills.
  
• On the whole though, we love our freedom from other professions, relying on others only for weapons, armor, and healing.

Bugs

Camps

• Issue with Ranger camps not actually repelling aggressive creatures
  
  
  
  • Request for deployed camps to inhibit new agressive spawn points from forming near the camp
  
  
• Issue with Field Base and High Tech Field Base healing radius not being large enough to contain all the chairs deployed
  
• Camps are insurable for some reason, and therefore get added into the cost when using Insure All
  
  
  
  • Most rangers agree that camps should not decay, and therefore do not need to be insured

/areatrack

• Issue with not locating creatures that are a certain distance aways, namely around 100 to 130m.
  
  
  
  • We suspect this phenomena is the effect of the spawn system not adding creatures to the environment until a player approaches.
  
  
• Issue with the vertical plane. Namely problems using it on mountainous terrain
  
• Issue with Transport Shuttles and Droids being listed in the animal tracker
  
• Issue with extreme sparseness or complete absence of spawn outside of a certain radius around towns.
  
• Issue with /areatrack not picking up lairs that have not yet spawned any creatures
  
  
  
  • This is a rather irritating issue that limits the commands usefulness away from the more travelled areas

/conceal

• Reports of some Gang Member NPCs ignoring /conceal entirely, and attacking concealed players without breaking concealment.
  
  
  
  • There are occurrences where extremely poor faction rating with a gang may be impacting concealment.
    
  • forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=ranger&message.id=13682
    
  • There are occurrences of Humanoids aggroing at a distance of 64m with or without the use of /conceal. Possibly the NPCs are aggroing before /conceal is being checked.
  
  
• Several of the resources required by camoflauge kits are so rare, that no Ranger has ever found them (Lok domesticated meat for instance).
  
• Issue with creatures attacking without checking /conceal or /maskscent beforehand
  
  
  
  • This has been noted with greater frequency since the November Publish
  
  
• Issue where lair defenders (creatures spawned near the end of a lair's life) will attack nearby players who are not engaged in combat, without checking conceal beforehand
  
• Issue with not receiving any Wilderness Survival Experience for crafting Camo Kits
  
• Issue with concealed group members being attacked during combat even if they succeeded in concealment and did not initiate attack
  
• Issue where a non-ranger can not remove /conceal that was applied to them, because they do not have the ability to use the /conceal command itself
  
• Issue with attempting to apply /maskscent after /conceal wears off normally. Rangers receive a message stating that /conceal is still active.
  
• Issue with immediately applying /maskscent after /conceal breaks. Apparently the /maskscent acts like /conceal (checking against humanoids) for the remainder of the session.
  
• Issue with travelling disabling /conceal, and once on the other side /maskscent can be used to reenable the /conceal functionality.
  
• The wrong message is displayed when /conceal wears off... You receive the /maskscent message.

Traps

• Issue with using a trap and not receiving any feedback at all (neither success nor failure mesages)
  
• Issue with the last trap in a stack tending to fail more often than the others.
  
• Issue with traps not working in Caves. We have no idea if this was intended or not.

/forage

• Issue with receiving a "Inventory Full" message when your inventory still has space available

/examine

• Issue with certain animals not displaying all the examine data available at the viewers skill level.
  
  
  
  • Posts regarding Resistances being missing for instance
    
  • Other posts about seeing the resistances but nothing else

/harvest

• Issue where you accidentally harvest a non-existing resource (hide off a Hermit Spider) by using /harvest hide, and after that you are not allowed to harvest the correct resource.
  
  
  
  • This problem has also been noted with attempting to harvest from too far away from the corpse.
  
  
• Issue of creatures with skinny resources appearing for 24 hours after the resource has shifted

/takecover

• Issues with moving after performing the Rifleman /takecover command. Reduced running speed and other more serious symptoms have been reported.

Skill Experience

• The experience caps are apparently still set to pre-patch values, and were not adjusted with the increased Scout experience requirements

Posture Change warping

• Several Rangers have noted that the warping while going prone seems to be more pronounced when a player has Ranger skills

Color Reference

• Grey: New to list or changed from last version
  
• Yellow: Ranger Top Issue
  
• Red: Will be Affected by Future Changes
  
• Magenta: Officially Announced / On Test Center

Color Reference

• Grey: New to list or changed from last version
  
• Yellow: Ranger Top Issue
  
• Red: Will be Affected by Future Changes
  
• Magenta: Officially Announced / On Test Center

Wishlist

Traps

• Request for an Area Effect Root (stop completely) or Snare (slow down) trap for handling social lairs.
  
• Request for a Tranquilizer Dart/Trap
  
  
  
  • The effect would stop the target creature from attacking for a certain period of time
    
  • The trap would also stop the creature from assisting other creatures
    
  • Attacking the creature would immediately drop the effect
    
  • If the trap fails to affect the target, aggro would ensue as normal
  
  
• Modular Traps
  
  
  
  • A generic trap schematic with multiple optional component slots
    
  • A crafter could produce a trap that produces multiple effects in a single throw
    
  • Each optional component item would provide a single effect
    
    
    
    • Effects such as Blind, Stun, Dizzy, Bleed, Poison, Disease
      
    • Effects that reduce the armor resistance of the target (such as Kinetic, Lightning, Acid, etc.)
    
    
  • The components could be experimented for duration of effect, and effectiveness
  
  
• Request for a Trap Launcher
  
  
  
  • Item would propel traps further than simply throwing them (perhaps up to 64m)
    
  • Item would increase the Chance-to-Hit of the trap (very useful against the larger creatures)
  
  
• Request for a Damage over Time trap
  
• Request for a trap usable by Creature Handlers (but created by us) that could be used on target creatures to improve taming success
  
• Request for a Shockwave trap that would produce an Area Effect Knockdown
  
• Request for a Baby Creature Trap
  
  
  
  • The trap would be used on an existing baby creature with the chance of trapping the creature alive
    
  • Once trapped, the creature would be stored in the Datapad
    
  • The only option on a trapped creature would be to release it
    
  • Once released, a Creature Handler could then attempt to train the creature

/areatrack

• Request for Opposing Faction members listed by /areatrack to have a different colored listing to differentiate them
  
• Request for a Pet tracking option
  
• Request for a Droid tracking option
  
• Request for a Quest NPC tracking option to make locating various quest spawns simpler

Creature Combat

• Request for a random Creature Critical Hit on occassion, with a frequency based on the some skill modifier, that deals a larger amount of damage than normal.
  
• Request for a Creature Toughness skill modifier
  
  
  
  • The skill would work like Unarmed Toughness, reducing the overall damage inflicted by creatures
  
  
• Request for an innate damage increase against creatures. The increase in damage would be based on some skill modifier.
  
• Request for a command that can be used to increase damage against creatures for a certain duration.
  
• Request for a Creature-to-Dodge bonus.
  
• Request for a group Creature combat bonus

Camps

• Request for High Tech Field Base:
  
  
  
  • To have a terminal whice provides Explore missions.
    
  • Be able to play HoloChess (Dejarik) on the High Tech Field Base's chess board
    
  • To sit/lay down on the cots in the High Tech Field Base
    
  • For the roof of the base to stop rain
  
  
• Request for a permanent, planet specific, hunting cabin:
  
  
  
  • Creatable and deployable only by a Master Ranger
    
  • Can not be redeeded and moved, only demolished
    
  • Should be buildable on Advanced planets
    
  • Should heal Battle Fatigue like a regular house
    
  • Requires Maintenance and the use of a lot, like a regular house
    
  • Allows for storage of items, and the possible placement of a Vendor
    
  • Only one of these buildings could be deployed at any one time
    
  • The schematic could require some subcomponent made by architect to promote class interdependence
  
  
• Request for a stash
  
  
  
  • The concept is a buried container that can be used to store items while away from your bank
    
  • The structure would probably require the use of a lot
    
  • A player could have as many as they have lots available
    
  • In order to compensate for being able to have any number of stashes, the storage limit should be minimal... Perhaps a volume of 25
    
  • The stash should be deployable on an advanced planet
    
  • The graphic in the game space could be a dirt mound with a flag to mark the location
  
  
• Request for an Evac Camp
  
  
  
  • The camp would deploy with a shuttle service that could transport people back to a city port
    
  • It would not be necessary to have people able to go to the camp, though that would a welcome addition if possible
  
  
• Request for some resources to be recovered upon manually disbanding camps (automatic disbands will lose all resources)
  
• Request for a more modular approach to camp crafting
  
  
  
  • This idea might be a little ambitious, but many Rangers like the idea.
    
  • forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=ranger&message.id=2705
    
  • For the interim, the idea could be implemented by adding a couple optional components to the High Tech Field Base schematic
  
  
• Request for the ability to experiment on Ease of Use on camps to allow lesser skilled Scouts to use them
  
• Request to be able to use a camoflauge kit in camp crafting to produce a planet specific camp with improved creature repelling capabilities
  
• Request for bigger campfire in the higher level ranger camps. The current one is apparently not impressive enough.
  
• Request for the direction your character is facing to determine the direction of a deployed camp

/harvest

• Request for ability to determine resource attributes on a corpse before harvesting with a command /AssessResource
  
  
  
  • The ability would provide a list window with the appropiate resource selections available on the targeted corpse (meat / hide / bone)
    
  • Once a selection is made, a player would receive the /examine window for the chosen resource
    
  • The player would not receive a physical resource, only the information regarding its attributes
    
  • The ability could be used multiple times to receive the data on the other available resources
    
  • The information could also contain whether harvesting the resource would produce a Fat, Medium, Skinny result
    
  • The attributes consist of items such as Overall Quality, Unit Toughness, Potential Energy, etc
  
  
• Request for a greater chance of higher quality resources spawning on the more advanced planets.
  
  
  
  • The Starter worlds would still get their fair share of high quality material, but there would be a larger chance of better material on the Advanced worlds.
  
  
• Request to add rare loot to creatures that only Rangers can find.
  
  
  
  • Request for a /harvest Trophy that would produce various creature goodies to celebrate the kill
    
  • Items such as Teeth necklaces, Trophy Heads, Hide Rugs, Skulls have been suggested
  
  
• Request for poison components to be harvested off poisonous creatures.
  
  
  
  • These items could then be applied to existing weapons to produce a Damage Over Time effect.
  
  
• Request to change corpse harvesting to a fixed amount per corpse, rather than the variable method currently being used
  
  
  
  • forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=ranger&message.id=12261
  
  
• Request for Creature Harvesters in the form of traps
  
  
  
  • Work like Mineral harvesters.
    
  • Possibly have a large footprint to keep from having large farms of them around hot spots.
    
  • Would use a lot, like a personal harvester
    
  • A small hopper, perhaps max of 2000
    
  • A slower harvesting rate than a regular harvester
    
  • Schematic is available at a high level in Trapping, perhaps Trapping IV or Master Ranger
    
  • Players would use an innate ability to locate animal migration patterns, much like the Survey interface.
    
  • Request for the "migration patterns" (hot spots) to change on a regular basis (more often than the resource itself). Possibly every 2-3 days.
  
  
• Hunting Knife
  
  
  
  • If a Hunting Knife were equiped during a /harvest, the harvested quantity would be increased
    
  • Artisans would make the Knife, and the quality would improve the harvested amount
    
  • The Condition of the knife would wear down with each use

Color Reference

Color Reference

• Grey: New to list or changed from last version
  
• Yellow: Ranger Top Issue
  
• Red: Will be Affected by Future Changes
  
• Magenta: Officially Announced / On Test Center

Fishing

• Request for the harvesting skill mod to increase the amount of fish meat filleted off caught fish
  
• Request the ability to craft fishing lures that can used in place of bait.
  
• Request for a Fishing skill mod that improves a players chance of catching a fish
  
• Request for a Fishing Net that would "net" more fish per use, but still require user interaction just like the fishing pole.
  
• Request for fish traps available at Trapping II
  
  
  
  • These would operate like mineral harvesters

/conceal

• Request for grease paint graphic on your character when /conceal is active
  
• Request to be use a camoflauge kit on a tailor made overcoat to produce a Ghillie Suit
  
  
  
  • The suit would last longer than a regular camo kit
    
  • The condition of the coat could be used to regulate the duration of the outfit, perhaps decreasing with each check or over time worn
    
  • The coat would need to be worn to utilize the camoflauge enhancement
    
  • forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=ranger&message.id=12983
    
  • When damage is incurred during combat, the coat could reduce in condition as a balance to being able to retain /conceal during combat
  
  
• Request for an Area Conceal Kit
  
  
  
  • This would be another craftable item that would take an existing camo kit as a component
    
  • The effect would be to conceal everyone within a certain radius, or everyone in a group
  
  
• Request for the ability to /conceal self with out a camo kit once a Player achieves Master
  
• Request for /conceal to work against other players
  
  
  
  • One idea is to require the player to be in a prone position, and once they you move or attack, they are instantly revealed to all players.
    
  • An alternative is for the player to impersonate one of the local aggressive creatures.
    
    
    
    • The player would still display as red radar point to the opposing faction and still targetable.
      
    • However they would appear as a creature on the main window.

Sweet Gaia,when did this list ever get so big?

Corrections, Additions, Subtractions areappreciated as always.

Well, it is nice to see that some stuff is getting fixed but I think more stuff isbeing added than fixed. Thanks again for this. I didn't see anything obviously wrong in there but it's a long list.

Lythender Nirou
Eclipse Server

I for one am sad and disheartened

Still didn't see my /wedgie command listed... Brisc at least said he likes the /atomic swirlie command for use on Lok in the ickie pee rivers. You guys got all the time in the world to do the tedious stuff and can't even ask for one silly command... roflmao...ok...double dog dare ya...ask for it. I just want to see the graphics.

Serious note - you are kicking butt and taking names. We have had our fair share of "love", if not more than our share, thanks mainly to you NRass. You got my vote for whatever you want to run for.

hoo ahhh

JB

Great googley-boogley! I had no idea there were so many improvements/suggestions out there, but I am glad to see that they are being posted, if not actually considered.

I agree with most of the suggestions on this list, and I most definitely agree with all of the top items listed. My biggest complaints were the endless warping nearly every time I stopped moving and the way that broken /maskscent and /conceal caused creatures to instantly aggro. No that I don't see either of those things happening very often (except for diseased vrelts consistently breaking my /conceals as a master ranger, that is), everything else would just be gravy to me.

I have a question for you though, NRaas: what do items listed in white mean? You have color codes for all but white, so are those old items that are just being rehashed?

Once again though, you've done a superb job, enough to rival any correspondent and easily overshadow many!

P.S.: This is the first time I've seen a request for a /wedgie emote and command, but I wholeheartedly agree! And for that matter, why can't you flip anyone off in this game? A friend of mine told me that EverQuest has a good three different ways to do so!

"Still didn't see my /wedgie command listed..."

Sadly, I believe that would be a general content addition...

• Perhaps you should ask KStarfire to add it to his list.

"I'd like to be able to customize the color of my camps."

Ok... I do not remember ever reading that on this forum, but I can certainly add that to the next list.

"Perhaps you could add in that we would get more information as we get higher in creature knowledge."

Sure, I can go with that.