Scout Archive

What a major set back for Rangers and Scoutstoday!!!

1. One problem - this will make the outside of the city look like a ghetto with all the camps being setup there. Everyone and their pet is looking to get their survival exp up and will be clustered around the major entry points!
   


2. This is my major beef - because of number one, the Scout and Ranger professions will be further cheapened since survival exp will be so easy to get now. One of the things about reaching Master was the fact that you and everyone else knows you worked your ass off camping out there in the 'wilderness"! I don't exactly consider camping outside the city in some tent ghetto the "Wilderness"!! How the hell do you get "Wilderness Survival" points from that!!

The Ranger profession is already weak enough as it stands. Our only consolation are the great field bases we can make. At this rate, everyone will be climbing up the survival ladder in no time and our high-level camps will become commonplace whereas now they at least still draw some ohs and ahs!

I for one am very PO'd with this new development and consider it a SERIOUS set back for us rangers!! Basically all that time I spent camping was just a waste because soon it won't mean crap!!

All you Master Scouts and Rangers - raise your voice now or your hard work won't get the respect it deserves!

Zkull
Master Ranger, Ahazi

So basically, you had to endure the broken horrible survival exp as it is now, and you want everyone else to suffer like you?

ExactlyDa_Bamf. All the masters had to do it the hard way and that's how it should stay. You know, my grandfather had to walk to school in eight feet of snow, going uphill both ways, barefoot too no less. Boy was he PO'd when he heard I was driving a car to school.

Camping was broken before and now it's fixed. I for one was sick of all the no build zones even over a kilometer from any city. Now at least I'll be able to camp when I need to no matter where I am.

Sorry, but I don't consider it broken. Every profession has its 'grind' tree and this was ours. The only thing 'broken' about it was we couldn't create macros (without a little creativity)to camp like the others could create for sampling or dancing.

Zkull
Master Ranger, Ahazi

Well Zkull, many people DO consider it to be broken. Sadly I am in the same boat as you, and am raising camping the old fashioned way. But I still don't see how changing where you can set up a camp will affect anything.

Anyone could simply walk outside the current bounds and grind away with the same impunity as they will soon be able to within the bounds.

These skills were not meant to be completed in a single month. If you had interspersed the camps between combat, it wouldn't have felt like such a grind to begin with. With that problem I can not help you.

The problem that I have with this is the fact that being next to the city, you can have ten peeps in your camp all the time -basically allowing you to crank out the max exps of a camp every 5 mins or so. When you are outside the limits, you either had to have a group which was either surveying or hunting, or you were lucky if some peeps came by every now and then, something like camping for real. To me, this seemed to be more in the spirit of things - the lone camper or hunter.

Obviously , I have misunderstood the concept of 'wilderness' and the art of camping. My interpretation is different than what seems to be the majority.

Zkull,

I was actually expecting a post like yours before now - you made it a week longer than I expected.

I'll get to the theory behind your argument in a moment. But first I want to focus on the issue of the no-build zones.

1.) The no-build zones are not standardized - There is no standard (at least not in my practice) as to when and where these exist. It's 1k from the city on Naboo. It's 2k from a city on Talus. It's completely random around the Outposts on Dathomir. This fact alone causes confusion and frustration, which should be addressed by the devs.

2.) There are completely legitimate, non-exploit, non-grinding reasons to camp within 1-2k of a city - I have frequently been in places where I would have liked to camp - getting jacked by reds outside the outpost on Dathomir, getting jacked outside the Imperial Temple on Yavin 4, getting jacked outside the Emperor's Retreat on Naboo. It wasn't that I was grinding - I had a legitimate excuse for camping, and I was forced to run through even more reds beforeI could set up a camp to heal the damage I received from the last batch. As a ranger I can get around most things, but sometimes even we get aggroed. I shouldn't have to die in order to keep people from grinding out the XP.

3.) No profession should have a grind, period - There is absolutely nothing more boring with a computer game than a grind. Why did I pay 90 bucks (C.E. and next day shipping) to play a game where I spend half my time reading "Band of Brothers" and watching CNN? I can do that for free. If this makes it slightly easier for me to camp because i can heal when I need it, no matter where I am, it'll cut back on the grind.

This is a small fix, and I don't think it will have the negative effects you expect it to. And considering the popular support in the community for this, you seem to be in the minority.

That gets the technical points out of the way.

Now for the philosophical.

We've been playing this game for a month now. You and I both joined on the same day - Day 2 (really day 1 because of the login server issues). We've both played pretty hard to get where we are. I would have made Master Ranger by now had I spent more time camping than writing guides, running a PA and planning a wedding. Your point about Master Scouts/Rangers being cheated because it was so much harder for us is, in my opinion, an easy way out. Of course it was harder for us - we were the first ones to do it.

Do you get angry when you train someone and they don't tip you? I don't. Even thought I had to shell out the money for most of my training as no one was as high as I was when I was moving up through the ranks. That's just how it was. Do you get angry when you see players who started last week running around with Laser rifles and Composite armor when we only got it last week too - because no one could make it when we started? I don't. I expect that now. Do you get angry when see everyone running around with Master Creature Handler, Expert Bounty Hunter and Master Marksman tags on? I don't. The servers are going to full of players like us who worked hard to get where we were. And because it may be easier for players after us because of the work we do now doesn't cheapen our achievement.

Think of it this way - we can say we made master when camping was busted. We were so good, we overcame a serious impediment of our profession and made master anyway - that makes what you did MORE impressive, not less. I made Master Scout in 11 days. That's an achievement I have real pride in, because it WAS so hard to do. And you should be proud of your achievement no matter how easier it gets for those who follow in our footsteps.

Also, remember that many of the things that we enjoyed doing are getting nerfed and the exploits removed. So in many ways, the game is getting HARDER for the new player, despite the changes making certain things like camping easier. Remember the days when having a Probot meant you were invincible? Remember the days when Jaxes were so plentiful that Endor - one of the most remote and diffifuclt planets in the game - was busier than the Mos Eisley Cantina? Soon we will remember the days of when CHs and their triple Gurrecks raped and pillaged their way across the battlegrounds. All of these things made the game harder, not easier, for the newer players. Remember that too.

Camping may not be broken, but it has a high frustration level. If you take out the frustration, the game becomes more fun, and that makes everyone a winner.

B

Man, you nailed it. That really broke it down. I don't think they should rotate you out of the corresponant spot.

Nice summary.... but

/snore

Just kidding,

Chekula

Chek,

I'm a politician - we're long winded.

B

This is the must important change they are doing for scouts, as it is now you have to look for harvestors to find a place to camp. Maybe the increasing the city limits should be called for. even doubling them would be good.

Camping is boring. Everybody knows that. Just as the Corresponded has summed it up.

If I code a game, and find parts that are plain boring, then i fix them, so
they are no longer boring.

The sad but true thing is: nobody needs the scouts that have been sitting outside.
Everybody just _is_ a novice scout, and theres no mastership necessary to build
a camp for a couple of people. As the game is set up, brawlers and marksmen is,
what the game needs. Scouts are just an annoying requirement to become a bounty
hunter. At least that's how it feels. Not any better with doctors or entertainers.

I for my part think the most fun of a collaborative game people can get is,
when they feel, other people need them. I see basic tendencies in the game
to build upon such a system. Not more, not less.

That's a thing one should work upon. It's much more motivating sitting and
camping, when i know, afterwards, people will be able to make use of it,
have fun with it, need it. But i have never seen anybody on the game ask
"can you build camps?" or say "I need a scout and a medic to join me on this
mission".

Right now the game is about the best way of soloing. It has yet to live through
some evolution till it becomes a collaborative multiplayer game.


Justhe humble .02 from my stomache.



Sflith

Again, Wow DeltaX. Got it all. Except...

The entry points into the cities wont be clogged with camps, and the cities wont be surrounded with camp gettos. You will have to be outside the "You have left %city name% message point. These are generaly about 1000m from the center of the city. So for small cities that puts them rather far out form the edge of town. But even fora larger city you have to go out a ways.

Last night I was running around the perimeter of Coronet looking for newbie creatures to get up my unarmed. Well when I had to setup camp to heal, I had to go a ways out still.The leaving town message was in the middle of the river that goes around part of Coronet. I could still, "JUST" see the city. I also didn't see any other camps out there that night, when I ran around the city. Coronet is a very large city with many people coming and going, and staying.