Ranger Archive
Thread: My vision of Tracking revamped ...
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KellenNW
Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:00 pm
#1
I know the chances of this happening are remote, but this is sort of how I'd like Tracking to be revamped:
Increase the range of Tracking as much as possible, preferably at least double the current range (I suspect this can't be done with the current engine, but it'd be nice).
Scrap the current tracking animation - it's embarassing!
For each type of tracking, have a new animation and way it works:
Animals - The Ranger gracefully goes down to his knees and presses his ear and hands to the ground. Background sounds are briefly quietened and we can hear the sound of animal footsteps, grunts and roars,all around us. From the list of animals (showing direction and distance as now), we pick the one we want to track and then the Tracking method switches to one of hoof prints and animal scents and sounds, perhaps using a hand-held scanner or "sense" ability to follow the trail.
People/Players- The Ranger gracefully goes down on one knee and moves the long grass aside, spotting a footprint heading North ... it's recent, and judging by the boot style he can work out that it must be a certain type of person (a BH with heavy boots, an Artisan with soft shoes, etc.). A list of nearby players appears, you select the one you want to track. A trail of footprints appears (roughly) as a series of dots on the radar or the terrain. Tracking the player is a matter of following these footprints, perhaps losing the trail after 100m or so, and then having to relocate it either with the above method ora scanner. Bikes and speeders can be tracked by their exhaust gases and the way they've bent the grass or disturbed the water as they've passed overhead.
New method of general tracking: I'm a big supporter of the idea that the Ranger should be "at one with nature". I'd love to see a basic meditate ability. I don't want something that will give me a mind buff, heal my wounds or BF ... I'd like to simply be able to sit in the middle of nowhere with my legs crossed and "be" in my surroundings. Where does tracking come in?
As a Ranger gets better at meditation, he becomes more and more aware of his surroundings. Eventually he is able to tune out the sound of the wind, the rustling of tree's, the chirping of the birds ... he can hear only one thing: The footsteps of a Rogue Fambaa 500m away, or the running footsteps of a player/NPC over the hill...
Basically, I think Ranger should be a much more "sensual" profession. Using our environment. Doing cool things like Aragorn in The Two Towers or Crocodile Dundee in the first film ... I know everything I've suggested can't be done (and if it can, it probably won't), but its something I'd love to see.
All comments welcome! 
AlexKC
Fri Jun 18, 2004 6:23 pm
#2
KellenNW wrote:
Basically, I think Ranger should be a much more "sensual" profession. Using our environment. Doing cool things like Aragorn in The Two Towers or Crocodile Dundee in the first film ...
When i think of Ranger, i think of Aragorn.
Hail to the King!
MaxWellScot
Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:38 pm
#3
KellenNW wrote:
As a Ranger gets better at meditation, he becomes more and more aware of his surroundings. Eventually he is able to tune out the sound of the wind, the rustling of tree's, the chirping of the birds ... he can hear only one thing: The footsteps of a Rogue Fambaa 500m away, or the running footsteps of a player/NPC over the hill...
Wow, that sent a chill up my spine
Ive been playing for just over a week now (Got the game last christmas but didnt really play that much) and plan on going Ranger (4-4-4-1 in Scout atm). I would love for you tob e the lead designer in the revamp of Ranger 
Svengali666
Fri Jun 18, 2004 10:54 pm
#4
OOH! I love it!
It kind of supports many Rangers current attitudes as well.
To me it also seems to support a more slower paced way of playing which may keep the population of our profession down. Who knows if thats a good thing. hehe
Anyways, I like it, a nice romanticized view of the Ranger.
Wideshot
Sat Jun 19, 2004 1:13 am
#5
I love your tracking ideas. The trail of footprints or exhaust fumes etc. is inspired.
Meditate would be nice as well, but not sure how that would would fly as it is an existing TKA ability - I prsume that is wher dabbling would come into it. Similar buffs or cures over time from high level camps would be very cool though.
RohmEnari
Sat Jun 19, 2004 1:27 am
#6
I like it. I love the visuals you gave us. Truly inspiring.
As for the Ranger meditate, I offered up a potential Ranger meditate ability a while back that enhanced our defenses against poisons and diseases. It seemed to have gone over well at the time. Here is the link if you want to check it out.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=ranger&message.id=43899
Back to the original post, one can only hope that this sort of stuff is seen by the devs and notes are taken so that something like this may one day see the light of day.
Chewjedi
Sat Jun 19, 2004 1:39 am
#7
Very cool indeed. Way more involved than what currently exists.
KellenNW
Sat Jun 19, 2004 3:22 am
#8
Thanks for the replies and comments so far- very much appreciated.
I'd be curious to hear from Calc or a Dev about this ... how much of it might be possible. Thinking it through again, I'd guess (with my limited technical knowledge) that almost everything but the range increase is possible.
Typing "/who" tells you who is near to you and what area of the planet they're in, surely that can be adapted to be more specific for a Ranger. The server knows where everybody is, the Devs just have to make that information accessible to us.
Keep the replies coming.
Rooks
Sat Jun 19, 2004 4:27 am
#9
This is more of a technical issue, but I always figured Tracking would be more like Everquest tracking, once the long list of things in your area is brought up, we could click on a specific target, then track it down.
For SWG mechanics when we click on the specific target, it simply waypoints it for us.
I know this is kind of simple, but would make sense for Tracking at least to me it does.
JBMat
Sat Jun 19, 2004 4:43 am
#10
Laying your head on the ground, only to be stepped on by the sneaky tortur who just spawned in. No thanks.
IRL trackers track by looking at tracks, not listening to the ground - which by the way is about as useful as teaching a pig to sing, you waste your time and annoy the pig.
Exhaust gases - interesting - but after I am guessing 30 seconds, useless. The effect of the bikes passing over the grasses would be good, sand qualifies. But being a wily Ranger, and sensing you are after me, I drive down a river/creek. Where y'at now??
Hey, how about we fix what we have first before adding in all sorts of off the wall stuff?
The only "one with nature" we need to be is the one that is still standing at the end of fight. Meditate -ommm ommm ommmm gonna kill myself if this crap sticks in my head anymore. No thanks.
Sorry gang - I just want to get what we got fixed and working as intended. BTW, you are correct about range. The DEvs have stated someplace 500m is about it, tho IRL if I could track a square kilck (or round actually) that would be something.
Sorry - not hugging any trees or durnies. I am using the trees for firewood and harvesting the durnies - they bug Fred and make him cranky.
Peace through superior firepower
JB
KellenNW
Sat Jun 19, 2004 8:51 am
#11
Well I'm certainly not suggesting or implying that the many other things that need fixing aren't done first ...
Its obvious that any fixes that come will be part of a complete profession overhaul (hopefully before Hell freezes over), but rather than just repair what we already have, I'd rather they improve at the same time, and this is the logical place to suggest such improvements (and this thread is merely a suggestion).
Not all Rangers are in it just for thehunting bonuses, not all Rangers want to PvP. I'm a Ranger because I like the implication that the title "Master Ranger" brings. Alright, putting your ear to the ground isn't realistic, but neither is standing with your hand to your brow and turning left and then right.
Using the environment to locate what we are looking for isdifferent. Rangers are cool because they're different. I don't want to be like every other profession, I want to be different.
Ultimately it call goes back to the idea of what people want Ranger to be. I'm all for the nature-loving aspect of it, others want to run around killing things (animals and players). Why can't we be both?
The idea that a player could go over water to prevent me tracking himis exactly the sort of thing that would happen - and that's good. I'm a Ranger, I'm tracking you, you go over water to mask your trail ... I can either give up, or swim across the river and start tracking you again.
There's room in the Ranger profession for "tree huggers" as you call them (the meditation idea is using your highly-tunedsenses to listen to the environment andfind what you'relooking for)and expert hunters (both of animals and people). Individual Rangers can be what they want to be.
Theres the Outdoorsman proposal, but there are countless other ideas doing the rounds. If we don't keep suggesting things, all we'll get when the Devs get around to giving us some loving will be a list of fixes and a few enhancements. We'll have missed the opportunity to make this profession everything it deserves to be, and god knows how many months or years it will be before we get the Devs attention again.
RohmEnari
Sat Jun 19, 2004 2:45 pm
#12
JBMat wrote:
Laying your head on the ground, only to be stepped on by the sneaky tortur who just spawned in. No thanks.
IRL trackers track by looking at tracks, not listening to the ground - which by the way is about as useful as teaching a pig to sing, you waste your time and annoy the pig.
Exhaust gases - interesting - but after I am guessing 30 seconds, useless. The effect of the bikes passing over the grasses would be good, sand qualifies. But being a wily Ranger, and sensing you are after me, I drive down a river/creek. Where y'at now??
Hey, how about we fix what we have first before adding in all sorts of off the wall stuff?
The only "one with nature" we need to be is the one that is still standing at the end of fight. Meditate -ommm ommm ommmm gonna kill myself if this crap sticks in my head anymore. No thanks.
Sorry gang - I just want to get what we got fixed and working as intended. BTW, you are correct about range. The DEvs have stated someplace 500m is about it, tho IRL if I could track a square kilck (or round actually) that would be something.
Sorry - not hugging any trees or durnies. I am using the trees for firewood and harvesting the durnies - they bug Fred and make him cranky.
Peace through superior firepower
JB
I gotta tell ya man, even if they made everything work as intended, we would still be behind the times. We need new additions to this profession to get it up to speed in this futuristic sci-fi universe.
MonsofoLexius
Sun Jun 20, 2004 2:00 pm
#13
LMAO, JB you got me going with that one.
JBMat wrote:
Laying your head on the ground, only to be stepped on by the sneaky tortur who just spawned in. No thanks.
IRL trackers track by looking at tracks, not listening to the ground - which by the way is about as useful as teaching a pig to sing, you waste your time and annoy the pig.
Sorry - not hugging any trees or durnies. I am using the trees for firewood and harvesting the durnies - they bug Fred and make him cranky.
Peace through superior firepower
JB
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