INTRODUCTION
I was bored this morning whilst sitting around watching tv so thought id jot down a few ideas that have been buzzing around my brain recently. Its not much but gives a good idea of what direction i would personally like ranger to go, not to say it will, just that at this time i like this idea.
Throughout the development of SWG ranger has always seemed to play a low-key role within the combat system and the game as a whole. For the skill point investment as high as it is (140 skill points) and the fact a ranger would need to invest in combat skills as well as the Master Scout pre-requisite in order to be an effective ranger, leads me to ponder the future of the ranger profession, as many have already done so.
Some have suggested ‘The Great Hunter’ (I myself being one of them), ‘The Outdoorsman’, ‘The Military Ranger’ and now the hybrid and extremely well thought out proposal that is the Outdoorsman 2 by Phenix.
Of all of the ideas that I have read about over the many months, I loved the developing concept that ranger needs to be involved more in unrestricted combat and lean away from the creature centric roles. In the beginning I also thought that the main role for a ranger should be creature combat, not much else and specialise in hunting. As time has progressed and the game development has shifted to a more npcs/pvp combat orientation, I see this role being far too restrictive and could become extremely stagnant due to the lack of possible development in this area.
From this we have started to develop ideas that push rangers into the combat scene in a none-weapon based way that mainly focuses on stealth more than anything else. I like the way things are developing in this regard and will attempt to push this concept as our main profession-defining role/skill in this proposal.
Notes:
- No combat mods included (Combat Upgrade will make any predictions most likely false)
- Based on skills and roles more than mods and figures (for the same reason as above)
- Rough ideas to develop direction, not set in stone abilities
- Just something to read for those who like this sort of thing hehe
So without further hesitation, I give you Ranger: The Recon Unit.
OBJECTIVES
The ranger as we see it today has no role, has no basis to develop and floats aimlessly in the gaming world with no purpose. With no benefits comparable to other elite professions and no real way to play a ranger without picking up other skills makes for an extremely costly and diluted overall template.
From this I have set 3 very distinct objectives for this proposal and these are:
- Create a Ranger defining role that is attractive to groups and players.
- Promote this role with the inclusion of distinctive skills of Reconnaissance, Hunting, Survival and Tracking.
- Make Ranger a stand-alone profession that can be enhanced by getting combat or support skills rather than a profession that enhances others.
Achieving these objectives is paramount in developing the ranger we know today into something that players acknowledge as a powerful profession in its own right, offset by the skill point investment and a profession rich with diverse sub-roles and unique skills. The new ranger I am aiming for should allow for the user to play a ranger under the recon role or if he/she chooses fall back into one of the 4 sub-roles that make up the overall role.
With the focus of the development team moving away from the profession concept and more towards the player template we need to make sure that the skills available to people are great enhancers to their other professions whilst making sure that the pure rangers (those who choose to master) can get other skills from other professions to enhance their ranger template. So for example a sneaky Master Rifleman with some Medic can pick up some skills in Ranger Stealth and become a much more proficient sniper. On the other side of that a Master Ranger could pick up some Rifleman skills in order to give them more options offensively as the master of sneaky ranged combat.
The Concept
A Master Ranger is the ultimate reconnaissance unit able to track, gather large amounts of intel and relay this information back to their group. Navigating even the most hazardous and exotic worlds without a trace or sound makes the ranger a fearsome opponent in the wilderness, able to use highly advanced stealth abilities and unmatched trap making skills. The ranger has no problems in turning an idealic setting into a complete ‘hell hole’ of snares, concealed pits and ground and air based traps. Years in the wild has taught the ranger to become a great combatant in the ways of wilderness warfare and in particularly creature based combat. This experience has given the ranger innate combat defences and offensive abilities against npcs, players and even more so against creatures. Relying on extremely advanced survival techniques the ranger can stay out in the wilderness indefinitely, living off the land and creating huge multi-functional habitats.
The concept is pretty simply to visualise, a current day ranger enhanced with stealth, recon and intel abilities and an upgraded tracking and camping package. Hunting would be a great feature of the new ranger tree but would never be its primary role in the game, simply a route the ranger may wish to take.
The idea is to split ranger down into 4 very attractive skill tiers that benefit the master primarily but also attract the players who want to enhance their template with some ranger skills. Perhaps a rifleman wants enhanced stealth, well they would pick up the stealth line, or if they wanted to be the ultimate sniper, they would pick up master ranger. If a person wanted to make the ultimate hunter template then he/she would have options open to them; take master ranger plus a combat profession and use ranger skills and crowd control abilities to survive very well. Similarly they could pick up the hunting line and offset the lower harvesting mods and ranger skills by picking up more combat skills. Two options with two different ways of approaching combat, one orientated around crowd control and avoidance, the other resisting damage taken.
The Ranger Tiers:
Ok now onto the good stuff, the ranger tiers. As I stated earlier, we need 4 clearly defined sub-roles divided however slightly mixed into the 4 tiers that make up ranger. The tiers would be called:
Reconnaissance: Primary role is recon/intel.
A Recon Unit should be able to quickly and effectively gather information about an enemy and relay this information to the group.
Hunt Leadership: Primary role is hunting.
Players should want a Hunt Master on any hunt into the wilderness for the highly advanced hunting skills they possess.
Frontiering: Primary role is habitat engineering/group support
A Frontiersman greatly increases the efficiency of a group. Preparations are enhanced and downtimes are reduced, all in a convenient location.
Trap Mastery: Primary role is crowd controller/debuffer/damage giver.
A Military Trapper uses intelligent tactics and planning to turn the tide of battle. Attacking a Military Trapper on his terms is suicide.
The Wayfaring tier has been revamped and changed to Reconnaissance to enforce the skills contained within. Wayfarer just sounded too much like a wanderer rather than someone at the forefront of terrain negotiation and planetary exploration. Hunt Leadership replaced tracker just because tracker it’s a god-awful name for a tier and it focuses on the hunting aspects of ranger, which include tracking in various forms. Frontiering and Trap Mastery are very similar to existing set ups just much more content rich and role orientated.
In the next section I will focus on what skills should be included at each level of ranger giving you a rough idea of where and how we would progress.
RECONNAISSANCE
Reconnaissance 1: (Basic Concealment Tactics)
/conceal
Schematic: Camo Kit: Naboo Camo Kit
Schematic: Camo Kit: Corellia Camo Kit
Schematic: Camo Kit: Tatooine Camo Kit
Reconnaissance 2: (Pathfinding)
/pathfind
Schematic: Camo Kit: Rori Camo Kit
Schematic: Camo Kit: Talus Camo Kit
Reconnaissance 3: (Advanced Techniques)
Schematic: Camo Kit: Dantooine Camo Kit
Schematic: Camo Kit: Yavin Camo Kit
Schematic: Camo Kit: Endor Camo Kit
Schematic: Camo Kit: Lok Camo Kit
Reconnaissance 4: (Stealth Mastery) – Recon Unit
/reconconceal
Schematic: Camo Kit: Dathomir Camo Kit
Schematic: Recon Package
Master Ranger: (Master Ranger) – Master Ranger
/gatherintel
HUNT LEADERSHIP
Novice Ranger:
/areatrack (animals)
Hunt Leadership 1: (Basic Area Tracking)
/areatrack (direction)
Hunt Leadership 2: (Stalking Tactics)
/areatrack (people)
Hunt Leadership 3: (Man Hunting)
/areatrack (players)
/areatrack (distance)
Hunt Leadership 4: (Beast Tracking) – Hunt Master
/track (beast)
Master Ranger: (Master Ranger) – Master Ranger
/track (big game)
/areatrack (stealth scan)
FRONTIERING
Frontiering 1: (Survival Habitats)
- Insert Modules Here -
Frontiering 2: (Combat Hides)
- Insert Modules Here -
Frontiering 3: (Hunting Blinds)
- Insert Modules Here -
Frontiering 4: (Advanced Hunting Blinds) – Frontiersman
- Insert Modules Here -
Master Ranger: (Master Ranger) – Master Ranger
- Insert Modules Here -
TRAP MASTERY
Trap Mastery 1: (Basic Hunting Devices)
Schematic: Trap: Flash Bomb
Schematic: Trap: Sonic Pulse
Trap Mastery 2: (Crowd Controlling)
Schematic: Trap: Phaescene Detonator
Schematic: Trap: Tranquiliser Dart
Trap Mastery 3: (Ground Traps)
/placegroundtrap
Schematic: Trap Module: Entangling Thorns
Schematic: Trap Module: Slippery Leaves
Trap Mastery 4: (Wilderness Attacks) – Military Trapper
Schematic: Trap Module: Poison Snapper
Schematic: Trap Module: Groin Slash
Schematic: Trap Module: Quicksand
Master Ranger: (Master Ranger) – Master Ranger
Schematic: Trap Module: Log Crush
Schematic: Trap Module: Rock Detonation
In the following section I will highlight the main features of each tier, focusing on the most role defining abilities.
Reconnaissance:
The ‘Recon’ tier is very profession defining and dedicated to stealth knowledge, intelligence gathering and highly advanced scouting techniques (pathfinding).
The goals of this tier are to provide a base for the ranger to operate and a playstyle that is defined as being ranger-ish. If you get killed by someone who was stealthed, or discover a stealthed player, you would instantly relate that playstlye with rangers. It gives us character, identity and a role.
Possible skills to include would be:
/Conceal:
Based on the same role as the current conceal in that you can apply it to others and it aids you in limiting agro from critters and npcs. The possibilities are there to push its uses to taking players that are concealed off the radar. All that would need to be done is enhance its effectiveness.
/Pathfind:
Pathfind is a skill that allows the ranger to put all his/her efforts into terrain negotiation, running speed and scouting. Basically the ranger gets a speed increase at the cost of having a damage multiplyer added to them due to their focused attentions. The ranger becomes more aware of his/her surroundings and can run much faster than the average player making a ranger with this skill adept at pathfinding and scouting ahead of the group for dangers. The idea is that a group leader leads the group and a ranger is the guide, the scout and the pathfinder. The damage multiplyer could ranger from 1.5x to 2.0x but spawning issues need to be taken into account. We dont want to see a ranger running along and have a spawn of ranger pop on his head and hit him for 2x damage.
/Gatherintel:
A brand new ability to the ranger skill set that enables the player to fit into an intel/spy sort of role focused on providing the group with info. To use this feature the ranger must target the player or object and type the command in. Upon doing this the ranger will gain a temp combat delay of 30 seconds highlighting the ranger’s task of pinpointing the target’s location and relaying info back to the group. Either as you gain the delay or after, an updateable waypoint (updated every 10 seconds) is locked on the target viewable by everyone in the group. The ranger must stay within 500m>1000m (feedback on range) of the target for the lock to remain. The ranger can switch target lock at any time.
The purpose of this skill is that instantly the group knows where the target is in relation to their position, where to go, what direction he/she is travelling in and what the targets name is. The target will have no idea that he or she is target locked whilst this is happening unless the lock fails in that case the ranger will be taken out of any stealthed/concealed state and be placed into combat with the target (if attackable). This skill should be made most effective at the master ranger level perhaps involving a 40% boost at master ranger or even placing it at master ranger, this would be up to the devs to decide.
/Reconconceal:
An advancement on /conceal but specifically made for ranger personally use meaning it cannot be applied to others. This is the main ability in this tier and quiet possibly the whole tree. It enables the ranger to avoid the view of other players and go about his/her business unnoticed. The skill will be closely linked to other abilities within the tree in that it will enhance their potential. For example some traps (ground based) can be applied whilst stealthed meaning you could theoretically trap a zone around an enemy camp whilst they are resting without them even knowing you where there.
A ranger cannot fight whilst in recon mode but can gather intel and place ground based traps. The chances of the conceal failing are dependant upon the rangers recon skill and situation variables. For example a master ranger with +100 recon skill would stand a much better chance at remaining stealthed from an enemy 20m away than a ranger with only +30. Advancing on that, the master ranger would stand an even better chance of remaining concealed if he/she was lying prone. This enhances the ability to the point you rarely get seen, only perhaps by other master rangers of equal or more recon.
- >Counters:
There are a few counters to stealth that rangers should watch out for.
1: /Areatrack
A player who has Tracking 4 is able to track players and this includes players who are using /reconconceal, the only difference is that stealthed players will appear yellow on the list rather than the standard color. Using this technique you cannot expose the ranger but you can find his/her location and use another exposing technique.
2: Glow-Particle Device
This device is usable by anyone and detects all who are stealthed within 15m of it instantly taking them out of /reconconceal. To avoid detection the device must either be destroyed (either by him/herself or another player) giving the attacker a TEF or by using a skill gained at master ranger called a particle avoidance system. Using this system within 25m of the device hides you from its effects (perhaps all other rangers too?).
3: Stealth Scan
This is a new option open to master rangers within the /areatrack menu. When used you scan the immediate vicinity (around 128m) for stealthed players, the results of which get displayed in a list. You can then simply highlight the targets you wish to expose and they are brought out of /reconconceal. NOTE: This ability only works on players with a lower recon mod than yourself, so for instance a master ranger cannot be exposed using this skill but a novice recon unit could.
Amongst /reconconceal’s various tactical benefits, stealth allows a ranger to control when/how he/she enters combat to a degree giving them a great advantage offsetting the lower combat skill they may possess by picking up ranger. A ranger would be able to fire from stealthed but would instantly appear on the radar and in the visual domain open for attack. The idea is if a ranger with a master combat profession plans his/her attacks carefully laying traps to aid him/her, in a one on one fight against a combat template things would be very close. The combat template character would do more sheer damage and have more defense but the debuffs, movement control and offensive traps would make up for that in the rangers corner. However an ill-prepared ranger should be at a severe disadvantage whilst out of stealth. This would be your class defining skill, its what makes you powerful, use it.
Hunt Leadership:
A tier that currently is the most used ranger tier for obvious reasons, needs a revamp and change in direction into more of a sub-role tier. Hunting should be a large part of our overall role but it should never become the dominant role and never be creature only orientated because its far too limiting. Taking this into account I’ve created a very attractive ranger tier focused around hunting and track yet compared to the other skill doesn’t take over the profession.
A ranger is very knowledgeable in the art of the hunt and so knows a creature’s weaknesses. A ranger of sufficient skill can reduce the damage he/she takes from an attack by a creature. This is done by creature toughness. Creature toughness highlights the anticipation and damage minimisation of a ranger in regards to creature attacks. This gives them a much higher resistance to attacks from creatures than non-rangers. Creature toughness is accumulated throughout the hunting tier and a bonus is given at master ranger.
Tracking and Areatracking form a large role for the ranger both in hunting and in recon techniques. The only major change to /areatrack is that there is now an option at master ranger to perform a ‘stealth scan’. This form of areatracking supplies the user with a list of stealth targets in the area who he/she can attempt to expose. You simply perform the scan which gives you a scan of 128m and pick which stealthier you would like to try and expose. If you have a lower or equal recon skill to the target, the exposure fails. You cannot stealth scan from /reconconceal.
/Track is new to the tree and details regarding its inclusion can be found by following this link in the apendixes following
In regards to hunting benefits to a group, the ranger can take upon the role of hunting guide as defined by the name of this tier. In this role the ranger can aid the group, enhance it and removed some of the not so welcome group disadvantages often found in game. One of the most substantial additions to the group is that a master ranger can remove the group harvesting reduction, allowing them to hunt and harvest without any drawbacks in terms of yeild size. With the use of traps coupled with the rangers hunting tactics, a ranger can become a serious player in combat allowing not only him/herself to inflict a greater amount of damage on foes and control their actions, but also pass these benefits onto their group. This allows a ranger to be a vital part of a hunting group be it for creature harvesting or simply hunting down nightsisters.
Frontiering:
Frontiering has seen some major changes over its existing set up towards a modular approach detailed in many other ranger proposals. This set is no different, a base is set up and modules are added to enhance it. However I do like the approach like the one included in the Apendixes following.
The module list needs a lot of work however the idea that others enhance our base camps is what I’m trying to project. I don’t like the idea that others will deploy none scout camps, especially when we are advanced habitat engineers, we should be the ones running the camp even if others are enhancing it.
Habitat engineering is ranger mastery; no one else can erect camps in the same way or with the same potential for functionality. Whilst Squad Leaders can create modules that enhance their leadership, group enhancement and fortification abilities it’s down to the ranger to lay down the foundations maintain the habitat. This in a sense is group support with an added twist.
From scout the ranger has learnt how to survive, now the ranger advances those ideas so much more into units and modules that can play a pivotal part in not only survival but combat, hunting, recuperation and defence.
I can’t find a definitive or perfected modular camp design although I like the modules that Phenix presented in the Outdoorsman 2 (linked in Apendixes following) so I suggest use your own imagination based around the idea that you can customise your camp to what you or your group need. Other professions such as Squad Leaders and Creature Handlers can enhance our camps but we stay firmly in charge of habitat engineering.
Trapping Mastery:
Traps should be a way for rangers to attack, defend and control the crowds in a combat situation. They should enhance the stealthy abilities and hunting abilities contained elsewhere in the tree to a great degree.
The main inclusion is the design of ground-based traps. These are similar to the camp module set up in that you place one down and then add a module to it. The modules vary so you can customise your own trapping set up to suit the situation giving you a lot of control over the battle. As you progress through the ranger tree you become more and more gifted at placing ground traps and eventually at master you are able to deploy and control up to 3 separate ground based traps at once. The thrown traps do not differ in their attack set up however all ranger traps now effect humanoids and players.
From this I give you the traps list and a basic description of each:
Thrown Traps
Flash Bomb: AOE Blind (Can be used on NPCs and Players)
Sonic Pulse: AOE Stun/Dizzy (Can be used on NPCs and Players)
Phaescene Detonator: AOE Posture Down (causes target to move down a posture)
Tranquiliser Dart: AOE Tranc (Stops target attacking 'Forced /Peace' and cycles target out)
Ground Traps
Entangling Thorns: Enemy cannot move for 5 seconds
Slippery Leaves – Enemy slips (kd) every second for 5 seconds max or until out of trap radius
Poison Snapper – A pit full of poisonous snakes infect the target with a powerful poison
Groin Slash – Sharp bones fire up from beneath the leaves and slash the user’s groin area causing severe bleeding
Quicksand – Immobilises the target for 30 seconds or until attacked
Log Crush – Think Predator or Ewoks. Two logs swing and crush the target causing massive damage plus stun
Rock Detonation – The device (embedded in a boulder) explodes doing large damage, stun and intimidate.
Final Thoughts:
Ok so there you have it. A basic run down of the direction i would love ranger to go. Oviously its not complete nor is it set in stone by any means, its just what i would like to see in my little ranger dreamworld. I hope those of you who did read found it fun because i enjoyed scribbling it down.
Just remember this isnt a proposal or anything, simply my take on the role for ranger i think i would enjoy the most and possible skills to highlight that role and sub-roles.
Again i hope you liked it
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), indicating that Rangers are the ones you want with you if you go out on a hunt in a wilderness, no matter what you are hunting (i.e. creature, NPC, or PC). We might get a few creature oriented skills (like creature knowledge, although template knowledge would be cool) but the main focus would be on less limited skills.
