Scout Archive

Japhy,

Wait a minute. Let me understand this - if the devs decided to reduce the amount of meat/hide/bone that every character across every server could harvest (I'm not saying they did this - just a possibility based on the reports I've read), this has completely destroyed the utility of being a Ranger for you?

I don't get it.

If everyone had the amounts reduced, how is this a problem?

I'm starting to think that the reduction that we are seeing isn't a bug at all, but a planned reduction across the board in the harvesting amounts, in order to reduce the amount of bone and hide introduced into the economy - an effort to balance the additional hunting that will be happening.

Do I have a problem with this? Yes, but its not what you expect.

My problem is that we weren't notified.

I understand that there are a lot of little changes that make there way into a patch, and if someone accidentaly drops something off the patch notes, it gets missed. But there are way too many players now - and way to many extremely perceptive players - that these minor changes are going to slip past unnoticed. And when something changes and its not communicated, this can be seen as a breach of trust between the Devs and the players.

I don't havea problem with nerfs, and I don't have a problem with balancing. I only want to know about it ahead of time - or at least when it happens. That way we don't spend two weeks after a patch figuring out what's broken and what's not-broken-but-isn't-working-the-same-as-before.

B

Delta,

And that's what I'm afraid of is that this in intentional without notice. I just wish someone from SOE would clarify.

Willmy reason for being a Rangerbe nullified? Somewhat yea.. especially if I'm only getting 5 more hidesthan a master scout where I used to get a minimum of 10 more. I thought the amounts we could harvest prior to the update were right on the money. If they're afraid of a heavy influx of harvested resources into the market, why should a Hunt Master (or whatever we're called now) suffer or effectively be nerfed?

Look.. I love playing a Ranger character. I love mycamps, my traps, andthe whole thing about being a Ranger, but it was being able to collect a larger amount of resources that really defined why I wanted to dedicate my play time to being a Hunt Master above all else in the Ranger proffession. I wanted to specialize in what crafters needed, travel to any planet I needed to and hunt down specific prey to get what I sought after and strike my deal with the crafter in need. That is my primary role as a Ranger and how I like to play it. If I have to spend hours more to gather the same amount of resources.. than this has become nothing more than a time sink and it does not sit well with me.. I'm sorry.

I put in my time and skill points to be better than a scout at what I do, not just marginally better.

Not a programmer are you?

I don't mean to flame you, I can understand how this would look easy. I'm actually with you, this would be a good idea.

The check for being in a group seems to occur when the mob dies. Since it is already checking that the killing blow was landed by a group member, it should be very simple to further check that group for having a "group harvest" flag active.

(I need to do further tests to group/ungroup during combat to see if it changes the harvest. I suspect it will not as that would be a bunch of unnecessary checks, but want to test it to get the complete picture.)

If you're grouping with pets, simply make a macro to ungroup them all (if they have different commands for group), then harvest then regroup.

A good idea, unfortunately this does not work. If you are grouped when the creature dies, its resources are reduced. (Possibly if grouped during any hit, but as I said above, unlikely. Only those with pets would find this feasible, and others would still benefit from a "group harvest" on/off option.)

In the patch notes, it says we will be getting less resources across the board because more people will be harvresting due to the group harvest. This measure was used to keep level the amount of resources in the economy.

For example, if everyone was harvesting at 100 % pre patch, to include in groups, the economy would get flooded with resources and the demand would shrink...therefore hurting scouts/rangers, as we could not charge as much. To stop this the DEVs decreased the total drops of resources to allow for the extra harvesting happening. If it is to low the DEVs will see it in thier numbers and adjust...frankly its good for us because we can charge more now!!!!!!!!

Shoecacca - Bria

Ranger/BioEngineer/Creature Handler

Doh.. well that would explain it.. except for those of us, like MANY RANGERS that don't group except with our pets....

And I honeslty didn't see a decrease in resources on lower CL creatures...

Oh and its.......

Shoebacca - Bria not Shoecacca

I have to believe this is going to totally hose the economy then.

Nerf in action.. because of the pistoleer nerfs and because of the reduction in harvests, just now while playing, in the time it took me to harvest exactly 301 wooley hides off of white conned banthas, I could have done 3 or 4 destroy missions against blue con mobs.

I can notsell 300 wooley hides for even the same amount I would have made on destroy missions. If I have to increase the price of the hides to match what I would have made on kill missions then the economy is in serious trouble.

I'm starting to think this is the end of my Hunt Master carreer on this game and it's really sad. I'll see where this goes, but I'm having my doubts. Maybe the 60% rule really was a bad idea afterall.

I personally love the idea of a group harvest. I agree with Delta that some notification would've been nice, but the thing that concerns me most is something that several other posters almost mentioned: I hope that this across-the-board reduction still maintains the size of the ranger harvesting advantage relative to the other professions. Anyone know if this is still the case? As far as the reduction hurting our pocketbooks, shouldn't the opposite be true? Bear with me, I'm definitely no economist, but shouldn't that decrease the supply of critter resources and make them more valuable? Even if it doesn't, maybe the reduction will frustrate the other players even more than it does us, causing them to give up critter harvesting altogether.

I too am no economist but I think

1. that the devs seriously overestimated the added amount of resources that will be added to the market and 2. that if there is an added influx of resources,that while we can't harvest as much as we used to we will be competing with more people who will charge less for their smaller packages of resources.

Dwarftosser,

"Scout / Ranger changes

The cost to craft camps has been increased. This was done to bring these craftables more in line with other craftable items that grant XP. (Since crafting camps and traps now grants Wilderness survival XP). Also, with the new changes to grouped Scouts being able to work together in organic resource harvesting, there is an influx of more resources into the world, and these higher resource requirements are meant to balance this.

Each scout in a group with loot permissions for a corpse may harvest from the corpse. Harvested group kills yield 60% their normal resources and xp, but may be harvested by each scout in the group.

Fishing now grants Wilderness Survival experience for catching fish. The size of the catch affects how much xp is earned. Catching loot or trash does not grant any xp.

Camp xp accumulation rates have been increased.

Scouts now get survival xp for crafting camps and traps (instead of general crafting xp).

The base equation for mask scent has changed. It now checks on a mask scent skill mod.

You are now much more likely to successfully mask scent against a creature.

The delay to mask your scent again now reduces as your mask scent skill mod increases.

You are much more likely to successfully mask scent if you are prone, slightly less likely if you are up and running.

XP rewards for mask scent have been lowered, given that success rates have increased.

Increased the cost of some Ranger skills because they were too low and not consistent with the advancement rates of other professions

New Ranger command: /conceal This command gives the Ranger the ability to apply high quality camouflage to himself and others. The camouflage conceals the Ranger from creatures and NPCs.

The Ranger's ability to see the special attacks of creatures via examine has been fixed.

The Ranger's Field Bioscience skill tree has been renamed Tracking.

New Ranger Ability: /areatrack, this command lets Rangers examine local clues to determine the identity of nearby creatures.

You can now /feigndeath while running and walking.

The damage penalty for taking a hit while using /feigndeath has been reduced by a significant amount."

Can you please point out to me where in there it says we are getting an across the board reduction in the amount of harvested materials?

I didn't see it. And I read all the patch notes, all the devs responses for every profession, etc religiously. I don't recall seeing this, and no one on the Scout boards has either.

B

Any newbie can harvest critters around towns en masse. We have the advantage going for the specialized items like Yavinian wooly hitdes.

"You're the only one who has asked for this again. "

Sorry Delta....I couldn't resist

Sakarab

I must be going nucking futs, I could have swore I read something from a DEV about the issue and now I cant find it.... I have searched the dev tracker and cant find it...ummmm, make since though..right....help me out here

gonna keep looking

Shoebacca