Ranger Archive

I did the same thing yesterday for 3 hours. I've never really group hunted on Dant but apparently that's where everyone goes. I had to leave the group when I capped my pistol XP (around 600k in 3 hours). I have to admit I'm not really sure I agree with how the grouping works after doing this. If I wanted to I could easily bank a ton of XP but I'm not really into grinding. I'm so used to solo hunting (98% of my time is spent this way) I just felt a little guilty after I logged off yesterday

LOL this is what Ive been trying to tell everyone ever since the CU hit. We need to address our role for the simple reason that our one workable role of "creature-harvester" is no longer the slightest bit necessary in the game. Ifa ranger is gathering a few million units, how many do you think a dabbling scout is? easily a few hundred K perhaps? And how many of those scouts are there in comparison to how many rangers are out there? Prices have been falling through the floor for months now, so that while it is true that we harvest more and more,we also maintain less and less control over that market. If we ask for a skill reduction before addressing the issue of roles, we will get stuck with glorified creature harvesters until the game folds up.

This is particularly distrubing for those of us who are trying to earn a bit of a living as a ranger. We started up a creature resource vendor on naritus that is backed by over a dozen rangers. A prices are a touch above average, but stuff just isn't selling that well. Why? I've talked to many of the common buyers on the server and they are all telling me that they can get FS grinders to harvest for them at 3-5cpu.

The post-cu harvest rates, while kinda neat, have created FAR too much excess in supply for rangers to support themselves. This only further supports the idea put forward by Bal that the idea of Rangers as a "hunter" is no longer viable - a few scouts can do plenty of harvesting. Sadly, the role of the "hunter" is all we have going for us, and now, we don't even have that.

My Chef (now ex-Chef, long story) on Wanderhome with only Novice Scout, and my son's toon - Novice CH with the Scout lines for that, in a group, made 8k hides each in aprox. 2 hours of hunting.

I find that sad really. I still recall what it was like *before* the CU and group bonuses and just can't believe how much hide/meat one can gather now.

Anyway, I wanted to note - when you hunt for and find the best spawns, that ranger bonus (and group bonus) is N I C E. Especially if you have contacts/contracts for the hides/meats. However, I'd like to see it cover Milk. Rangers should get more. It's a resource like meat and hides so why not? As odd asI feel running around being a milker of lairs (literally) it seems really wrong anyone can do it with mask scent and get the same amount.

That doesn't really adress the issue of making Ranger unique but just some things I've been thinking about.

I personally just stay far, far away from any requests for resources on Dantooine or Lok. Too much lag, too many jeedai wanna-bes grinding on bols and gurks. I spend the majority of my time in game these days doing one of the following:

1) hunting Black Sun in Endor Space for that ever-elusive helmet

2) hunting for prestige and faction in Kessell

3) hunting creatures on Yavin IV or Endor, both are still relatively untouched "preserves" with lots of very nice high level creatures and if I want to hunt solo, it's quite possible to hang out there for several weeks and not see another player

4) helping out a couple new friends in the game level up in space and on the ground, while at the same time showing them the "lesser travelled" paths out there. Without fail, every single one has gone on to take at least one profession based on Scout, one might be going Ranger, and they ALL love being shown these fun places that nobody EVER goes. Definitely makes it feel more "special" and "hidden" and all (their words) and adds to the sense of immersion and exploration.

I make more money just on space loot that I decide doesn't have good enough stats to hang onto for RE purposes, as well as looted credits from spaceships, that I find I don't NEED to hunt anymore to pay the bills - and if I stay mostly in space, I don't need food, armor, spices, healing or anything else. As long as I don't get stupid, I can even get free repairs on my ship by jumping to Deep Space and back when I'm done (or need a repair). I think my inventory credit chip from JtL is getting close to 1million credits, and I'm just going to let it keep building up...

Well its not so much that there is not any money in it for us anymore... After all if a scout can earn a 100k stack in his grinding time then its a sure bet that a ranger can earn twice that, and even at 5cpu thats not too shabby. The real issue is that if every single ranger stopped harvesting tomorrow, would the resource buyers actually notice? On naritus at least that answer is probably no, payouts wouldn't increase in the slightest bit. If you haven't seen it on other galaxies yet, feel fortunate, because on naritus dantooine is only the start, buyers have discovered that if they put a shouter in the MO to suggest another planet and a specific creature then you can usually get quite a few groups to switch to that if they know they're going to make another 500k each for the day...

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ZalokOnan wrote:
LOL this is what Ive been trying to tell everyone ever since the CU hit. We need to address our role for the simple reason that our one workable role of "creature-harvester" is no longer the slightest bit necessary in the game. Ifa ranger is gathering a few million units, how many do you think a dabbling scout is? easily a few hundred K perhaps? And how many of those scouts are there in comparison to how many rangers are out there? Prices have been falling through the floor for months now, so that while it is true that we harvest more and more,we also maintain less and less control over that market. If we ask for a skill reduction before addressing the issue of roles, we will get stuck with glorified creature harvesters until the game folds up.

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A Novice Scout can harvest at just a little under 50% of what a Master Ranger can, so a Novice can harvest 1 million units to the Master Ranger's 2 million unit in the same 8 hour time period (maybe more because the Novice SCout likely has more combat skills than the Master Ranger, and can kill faster)

Master Rangers just a more efficient harvesting machine, but certaily not a nescessary harvesting machine given the numbers involved.

Thats the major reason why I gave up Ranger is that I can do everything a Master Ranger can with Novice Scout (cep for the broken /rescue, AreaTrack and I cant make camo) and I dont want to simply be a self-propelled organics harvesting machine.

Well, if the posts of the past few weeks have been any indication it seems there is still a strong rift in the community about whether we follow the creature centric role of the past or the potential recon infantry role of the future. Im afraid that most people will eventually agree with you, the recon-ists will simply give up ranger and move on to more combat roles that involve some level of scout because the skills we get from ranger are not worth the cost, nor will they be even with a reduction of those costs.

yeah well.... it might be an insult to a degree yet its the truth to another. Exactly how many "rangers" do we have among us who aren't remaining rangers and how many Rangers do we have who are waiting to see what really happens with ranger before making the decision to give it up? I know Im one of the ones who is on the wait and see list, if things go in a way that I do not approve of then you cannot honestly expect me to stick with it. I dont speak for everyone obviously, I can only speak for myself. If we get weapon mods, defensive mods, weapon certs and they call it a ranger upgrade then I am out of here... those are things we should take for granted as deserved. We should hold our applause until we get a definition of a role, not cheer when the table master drops a few crumbs on the ground for us to forage. The sad thing is that there are people like me on both sides of the fence, and when the devs finally do make a commitment one way or the other there will be some degree of loss from it. Hopefully the decision induces more people to return, and more new people to pick it up, than it causes people to leave.

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JBMat wrote:

Okie dokie. I have a confession, I have been grinding FS. Not really hard, but decently. That's not a biggie. What is disturbing is the amounts of hide I have been amassing. Bols and picket missions - Dant.

Ummm.... 2.5 million units in like8hours of grinding. That was over a week, as I do have a semi-real job. That was basically in two days off. My tailor will be able to make how many pairs of (the garment whose name I will not utter)?? I have been giving the hide away (run it through the recycler so it is all "hide" for stackability ) as I sell it for only 1 cpu.

This is freaking embarrassing. I had two scouts thank me for staying Ranger, as they were harvesting in a group I was in and they thought they were raking in a lot of hide... 500 units per... til I told them I was getting 700+ per. Without veghash.

Anyone else doing the same? I feel bad as I may be creating a glut and driving poor Karimicu's into the poor house. Darn Imp was selling to the same tailor for 10cpu. But I have known her longer and she was a guildie and did give me 3 sets of awesome BE mod'd clothes --- free. (shameless plug - contact Mikomi on Scylla -- fantastic work, good prices)

Yeah, I am laughing all the way to the bank -

JB

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I normally come back with 100+K of hide after a grind session and give it to my guild armorsmith. I could probably try to sell it but since I'm getting 9-10k credits per mission during that same griding session I don't have a need formuch more money. The only time I try to sell a resource is if it has uber stats but I'll still donate alot of it to the guild.