Scout Archive

Last night I had an amazing success with trapping and I just wanted to share it (any of you who remember I used to hate traps...then Delta enlightened me).

First off...let me just tell you a long time ago I found the greatest exploit of MMORPGs...its a social exploit and not a game mechanics exploit.

I play female characters...but I'm not female.

I created a female Twi'lek character for one reason: boobies get you perks.

I can't tell you how many times I've gotten heals, buffs, or invites to guilds from some stranger who thought he had a chance at a real, live girl. My wife thinks its hilarious...but I digress.

Last night a Master Doctor gave me some of the best buffs I've ever gotten. All my attributes but mental were buffed up to 2500-4300. I doubt he did this because of the boob-factor because he wasn't geeky-flirty, just being nice because I was a fellow imperial I'd guess. I'd be willing to bet the purple Twi'lek wearing bright red paramilitary pants and the low-cut top, carrying the DX2 got his attention tho -- god I'm evil.

I was on my way to Rori and on arrival I got cocky...hell my health was up over 3000, action over 4000...I had nothing to lose I attacked everything in my search for 175,000 pistol XP for my 2nd Pistoleer box.

I was happy soloing Gualamas for 500-600XP with that Torton watching me in the distance. Even when the Gualamas BAF'd I just pistol whipped and shot them as they lay unconscious. PistolMeleeDefence1 is amazing...2 will be godly.

Then the Gualamas stopped spawning.

That Torton, stood there 60M away...he was mocking me with his yellow con. He roared a taunt at me.

Now normally I leave yellow and red CON's alone. There's really no sense in solo-ing them because sometimes you can do it with traps, sometimes you get a streak of bad luck and end up in a cantina with 178 BF and 60 wound damage to half your stats. Generally I stick to white cons that give me 300-600XP plus my Probot had been shot up pretty bad in a fight with some Rebel scum (Creature handlers at that! /spit) on a faction mission and was repairing in my data pad.

But this Torton...he was copping this attitude...I swear he was. You could just tell he was saying, "Nyah Nyah Nyah Nyah you little girly Twi'lek with your girly little DX2 shoot that girly green bolts...you can't touch me." in Torton-ese roars.

Nobody calls me girly...especially some overgrown mutant ninja turtle with a gland problem.

I quickly fired up two crafting tools and used my best hides, bones and resources to make a stack of Adhesive Mesh and Phecnacine traps.

I walked right the hell up to that Torton...35 meters away...and gave him a bleed from a prone posture.

And waited...1 Mississippi...2 Mississippi...

At 15 seconds I hit him with an Adhesive mesh trap and spammed /bodyShot2.

After a few shots that cocky overgrown tortoise was down 40% of its health.

I lobbed a Phecnacine trap just as the AM trap wore off and ran from the Torton, mashing F10 for more /bodyShot2's about 20 times, watching the distance between us grow on my radar firing over my shoulder the whole time.

Stopping I crouched 40m away and kept spamming body shots.

Then the Torton fell with a crash shacking the ground like an earthquake.

The fight was over.

And I had taken NO DAMAGE!

I solo'd 7 more Tortons until they stopped spawning and I moved on and in that time I took only ONE hit, at which I responded by giving it a /pistolMeleeDefence1 (pistol whip) across the face and finished it off while it was on the ground (god I love that attack).

Ok...so...you're wondering what my point is...well if you've been having trouble with white/yellow cons, and the occasional red con, use traps that play in your favor. Spamming just any traps don't always work to your favor and time your traps. You can only use one Phecnacine trap, a second has no effect so make it count. I've not been able to get Adhesive Mesh traps to work more than once per target either, so I use them together adding the occasional Glow Wire trap to give me the benefit of the ranged modifier.

This is a good strategy for Pistoleers, but Carbineers should always mix in a Lecepamine trap with their tactics because the Action pool drain plays into their specials just like the Noise Maker (and Bone Spur/Stink bomb? I'm not sure I don't use them.) drains Mind that plays into the Rifleman's specials.

I know a lot of people just spam all their traps (works great for grinding) but a lot of times you can get excellent results by picking the right trap to use at the right time that plays into your combat skills. I've got my timing down that on non-BAFing Yellow/White cons I can hit them with a bleed, wait, trap, shoot, trap, shoot, kill without getting hit once and without a pet/droid.

Getting free buffs at the starport or cantina from Docs who need XP also can help get your courage up to try silly things like attacking Tortons. [GRIN]

Now this is what scouting is about, using traps, shots, the evironment, and your knowledge of creatures to your advantage. This was no exploit, it was skill. Congrats.

Cool story. Funny in parts, and you can learn some stuff from it if you read it.

Traps are your friends, use them often, use the right ones. There is no freaking reason in the universe that trapping is not the first line maxed out. As a Master Ranger I use traps on darn near everything, and I am 2-3-4-3 in Pistoleer...ok, not on durni or paralopes, but about everything else. You can solo white, yellow and even some red cons using the right traps, the right tactics, and with a little luck (burst run and knowing when to use it counts as luck, not tactics).

WTG FUna, continue to KA and take names, or just KA and leave the name taking alone, harvest instead.

JB

FUna,

Great story.

And you're welcome - glad that my enlightenment was useful.

B

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DeltaXi65 wrote:

FUna,

Great story.

And you're welcome - glad that my enlightenment was useful.

B

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I forget the name of that post I made where you set me straight (Are Traps Useless or something like that) but if I was a Wishing Well...and your advice was a penny dropped in...that moment was the little "ploop" sound of the coin hitting bottom.

You flicked a switch in my brain and suddenly I achieved some kind of Scout Zen Enlightenment.

That night I started solo-ing Peko Pekos and Kaadus with Lecepamine and Phecnacine traps and a Laser Carbine with only Markman Carbine 4 skills (don't tell the Devs...they don't want us solo-ing red-cons [grin]) and beating them...I was taking a beating in the process but I didn't get incapped. The trick then, since I didn't have any bleeds just LegShot1 was to go prone, do 2 leg shots, hit it with a Phecnacine trap (with my fingers on Shift-F5 to throw another in case it failed), slam it with 2 more LegShots, kneel throw a Lecepamine trap, and spam LegShots till the Peko Peko was dead.

Of course Peko's and Kaadu's con white for me now and are a peice of cake...even when the Kaadu's BAF. [grin]

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TeraKasi79 wrote:
Now this is what scouting is about, using traps, shots, the evironment, and your knowledge of creatures to your advantage. This was no exploit, it was skill. Congrats.

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The exploit isn't in the combat.

The "exploit" is in playing a female character. I've been playing female characters in video games for years just because they're more pleasant to look at but in online games I found out you get treated differently by male players in that for the most part if players think you really are female, they're more polite (there are exceptions where you get called a whore or get propositioned -- but when you're a 31 year old drunk, straight, man whose been playing video games longer than most gamers have been alive, you just call your wife into the office to help point and laugh at the fools like that), and you get free stuff, advice and attention more often than male characters.

Where it gets a little uncomfortable is that I'm a role-player so playing a cross-gender role, where it can be fun, makes me want a hot shower using unscented sand, motor oil, and a putty knife to scrape away the estrogen.

In SWG I've gotten lots of free heals when combat medics come running up to flirt with my avatar then in the course of conversation I get heals, I get noticed more often in Starports and Cantinas and get free buffs from across the room, and players are more inclinced to ask if I need help or want to join a group than my male alt character.

Its what I call the "Bewbie Coefficient Of MMOs(c)".

On another note...

I had a really funny story about a squad leader hitting on me that I posted on the PlanetSide forums, but it has been lost to database maintenance. It seems that out of an Outfit (Guild) of 500 people, he was the only person who DIDN'T know I was not female...and proceeded to publically tell me how sexy I was on Outfit chat. The humor was priceless -- especially when I said, "Sorry dude...but...how should I say this...I have a 5yo daughter who calls me 'Daddy'."

The best part was I created an Alt infiltrator character and THE SAME GUY discovered it at a vehicle terminal (this char was in a different outfit). He tried a new method of getting attention from this avatar, again thinking he was gonna somehow get laid, by stabbing it with a knife, then healing her, stabbing and healing until I said, "Stop it. Randra says 'Hi'"

"You're Randra"

"Yes, this is my alt and I'm still not interested in dating you."

"Goddammit you F-ing she-male."

I live for those moments.