I would like to suggest a skill that will make rangers more interesting to play above level 40.

The way I see it, the live of a ranger above level 40 quickly gets boring. Sure, you are almost unkillable in the woods and there is a number of classes which you have a good chance of killing if you manage to catch them in the woods at the right time (and have a bit of luck). However, finding somebody in the woods (or crossing the wild area near one of the cabals which require crossing them) gets hard and time consuming at high levels.

In addition, a rangers cabal options are limited, and given that you are cammouflaged most of the time, communication with others who are not in your cabal is hard. So even if there is somethin going on in which you would be interested it is not unlikely that you will miss it because there is nobody who can let you know.

The skill I am suggesting is meant to decrease the above problems.

The basic idea is that starting with level 45 an experienced ranger can train a gyrfalcon to assist him in his hunting.

A rangers falcon would be simillar to a familiar. Personally, I would like the idea that instead of getting all skills from the beginning it would start only with the most basic skills (camouflage and auto-creep) and then get additional skills including flight as time progresses, so that it would take perhaps 2 RL hours to have
a fully trained falcon. (It could be even that in the beginning the falcon not only can not fly in high altitudes but actually cannot leave the ranger..) In addition it could be that some of the falcon's skills only get available/better as your falconry skill gets better. (It makes sense that your first attempt at training a falcon will not produce a falcon which is as well trained as if you did this for 30 years.)

What skills would a gyrfalcon get?

1) almost no attack, but it should be fast anough to escape from shifter air forms. (The falcon is supposed to be able to catch pidgeons and perhaps a hare. Nothing more. It should however not be possible for a shifter just to fly around and kill all ranger-falcons, especially if they take time to train as suggested above.)

Falcons of two different rangers should be able to fight though.

2) Camouflage and auto-creep. (So that the ranger can creep around with the falcon without the falcon getting noticed/killed.)

3) High altitude flight. (Could be limited to same continent or something like that. Alternatively, could exclude cities or landing in civilized areas.)

4) Some cosmetic things like "hunt and fetch pidgeon/squirel". Perhaps also a "distract" skill which can be used during fights. (The latter could become available only if your falconry skill is very high.)

What do I envision from such a change?

In short I would hope that the life of a (especially uncaballed) ranger gets less boring.

A) Instead of sitting and waiting for somebody to run into your waylay/snare you it is now easier to check what your intended prey is doing. If they are ranking/exploring somewhere far off and there is no chance of them comming you can go explore or do something else.

As a matter of fact, as the falcon has auto-creep and camouflage if you find somebody in a wild area you can probably check exactly what they are doing. In a civilized area the falcon will be much less useful as it is visible and vulnerable to attack as soon as it gets to the ground. (As mentioned above there could be also a restriction that forbids landing in civilized areas. The falcon is a wild bird after all.)

I am not sure how to implement this best, but the idea is to give the ranger a tool so that he becomes an extremely good scout in forests and can do some scouting in civilized areas close to forests.

B) You can have the falcon patrol an area near a cabal, therefore seeing when there is some activity there and perhaps get involved.

C) Even if you do not get directly involved you can become a valuable scout hired by one of the sides, instead of perhaps the most useless class in cabal conflicts.

D) If you are a good alligned ranger you can check if there are some low-level players which are in trouble or with which you would like to interact.

Why not something else?

Given that the familiar for conjurers is implemented this does not seem like something which should be hard to program (except perhaps having the falcon get skills as it gets older and receives more training).

It will allow the ranger to be better informed but does not directly change the balance in a way a better lagging skill would. The basic fun of putting up a snare in the right place, carefully timing your ambush, etc would be untouched, only useless waiting and repeated checking of various areas would become easier and more interesting.

Any comments would be appreciated.

I really like this idea. Could even go with other animal familiars, landbased, waterbased, ect. Well thought out with the falcon though. Most people simply bitch for more power but I think this one would make hunting more interesting.

Just protect them from air majors or it wont work.

Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torment of man.

>I really like this idea. Could even go with other animal
>familiars, landbased, waterbased, ect. Well thought out with
>the falcon though. Most people simply bitch for more power
>but I think this one would make hunting more interesting.
>
>Just protect them from air majors or it wont work.

What won't work? That your air major shapeshifters now act like the Air-force, scouting out for enemy spies. They kill off the falcons to stop them from spying.

Of course, this would require falcons to be rather expendable, unlike say..conjurer familiars.

My Tribunal air shifter Agantas had a bitter war over air superiority against Jhuyzi(Outlander).

So you'd rather that the enemy air force was given free reign?

As long as I can throw it in someone's face and have it claw their eyes out.

(You can tell what I've been reading.)

This isn't the direction that my thinking for redressing rangers has gone, but it's an interesting idea. One of the better I've read recently.

Part of my falconry idea was that it is something which seems like a small change which is relatively easy to do. (That is also why I suggested just one kind of falcon.) The problem with grand redesigns is often that they never come.

Not saying this is the case here, but I was curious if you can give us any idea when the "redressing" you mentioned might occur and in what direction it might go?

Thanks.

>This isn't the direction that my thinking for redressing
>rangers has gone, but it's an interesting idea. One of the
>better I've read recently.

That you're in danger of someone implying that falcons are in actual fact therefore ranged weapons.

Gyrfalcon is a 3rd tier air shifter form, by the way. A ranger familiar as a mob you can order around?

Or maybe you can send out a bird to seek for a specific prey. It would systematically scan the skies for the prey it was sent after, one air room/tick, then returning to you with the speed of two air rooms/tick and tell you in which area it saw the prey. This would of course be limited to the areas from which air forms can scout by staying in the same sky(meaning not finding prey for underdark and needing to be in the past to check the past etc.). Also, sending out a falcon could be lagging to ranger in similar fashion harvest(or even strengthen) is to Outlander.

Neato idea. =)

One thought I have is that because it's not a familiar in the typical sense, maybe it would have to report back to the ranger, as opposed to the ranger seeing through the falcon's eyes (too magical?)

Camo only when landed in suitable terrain. It's a wild creature, but it sure as hell can't camo against a blue sky. Auto-creep? Iffy. Night usage and vision should be a consideration too.

Also the 2 hours to train would be tricky for someone who only plays that much at a time.. I mean, it's a little difficult to keep some charmies through login/logout yes?

Maybe more a la beastcall, but duration different (obviously), with varied strengths and skills because each falcon is a different beast.

I like the idea of rangers and wild animal training, though the feasibility is a matter of code. I know that bearcall was taken out for a reason, but it would be nice if rangers still were able to train a companion.

Even if it was just a steak-hungry little furball that doubles as a one way dimentional portal for any edible substance in your backpack (edible, of course, in the discretion of the furball). =)

A la familiars and forms perhaps? Dependant on focus/location/etc? Would always be 'utility', but utility/mountain gives you falcon or similar, utility/field maybe some form of rodent? Utility water a dolphin or the like? (rangers on the water?!) Forest: fox? Dunno. Just some additional thoughts. Wily, small, generally combat ineffective, save as a distraction. But that grows with the ranger and his ability to call upon the wilds. Hell, knock em like druids, make it necessary to be in the wilds a long time for the animal companion to be stronger. If the animal companion is killed, make it do damage to the ranger (more powerful/close companions doing more damage). If the animal companion dying could kill the ranger in a fight, how many rangers would take the chance?

- Tharena