I find that this part is almost entirely correct.

ALso there is nothing in the helpfile about what weapons work with what kind of ambushes best. I found that its impossible to determine really, without trying out 200 ambushes of each type and then crunch numbers to figure out what does what. Thanks but no thanks.



How is it incorrect? Well. Having played over 5 rangers to rank 40 since the changes to ambush, I've gone out of my way to try to figure out the weapon vs. type thing that is hinted at in the help file.

Unfortunately, even at 100%...ambush has such a wide variance of success rate...and such a wide variance of effect...that even after multiple thousands of ambushes of different types with different weapons (keeping results on a spreadsheet)...I have yet to see any appreciable differance between weapons that doesn't fall WELL within the already wide range of affects...


For example...

Ambush onslaught.

With a weapon of each type, all same ave, all same +hit +dam.

in one string...regular ambush failed 2% of the time, and varied from MUTILATE to ***DEMOLISH*** but mostly getting mangles.

For every weapon the failure rate was between 22 and 25% and the damage varied from MUTILATE to OBLITERATE....but mostly getting mangles.


I believe that is a representative example of the result of keeping track of all 100% ambushes with 5 rangers.

Quite frieckin annoying. At least give us hints....or don't even let us know. This "weapon choice MAY effect success in SOME nebulous way...but you will never be able to figure it out in a normal lifetime" is just crap, in my opinion.




"Death awaits ya all, wit nasteh big pointeh teeth!"

"Well. Having played over 5 rangers to rank 40 since the changes to ambush, I've gone out of my way to try to figure out the weapon vs. type thing that is hinted at in the help file."

This is the point where the clever player stops writing and says "Wow. I've sure played a whole lot of ranger. If I haven't noticed a difference by now, it's probably a very small factor and I can worry about other things."

I will thusly propose a draft version of The Valguarneran Theory of Number Crunching:
If a number-crunchy effect is large, it is easy to find out by experiment, and not worth asking about(*). Conversely, if the effect is too small to notice by experiment, it is also not worth asking about, by virtue of it making an insignificant difference in your life.

(*) This is due to the Valguarneran Theory of Relative Power, which states:

You need not care about your absolute power, but you do care about being relatively more powerful than your next opponent, lest they otherwise pummel you repeatedly and make slanderous assertions regarding your ancestry. Thus, for any topic that is not understood by the bulk of the playerbase, you are better off figuring out a strategy yourself than you are asking for hand-holding. This is because the former makes you a more skillful player (and not your enemies), whereas the latter makes no difference in your relative power and atrophies your analytical talents.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

its the difference is not important enough, wouldnt be a need to put it in the help file. Besides, i had no interest in doing any number crunching really, not on a large scale. Takes the fun out of the game.

The problem with the assumption that it wouldn't be in the helpfile because it is that small is that someone else will say, "Hey, I noticed a difference when I used this weapon versus that weapon. Someone should put that in the help file."

If someone was unable to notice it through five rangers, and its too insignificant to ask about, why bother adding the lines of code to begin with? If bash varies .08% based on whether or not your character has made use of the deficate command in the last three hours, would it be worth adding the check to the game? Heheh.

Sometimes game balances are made that you will be notified about, and some are made that you will not. In some cases, it is to enhance the roleplay and tactics of the players. How many times have you read a log that shows the person getting away at 1% or 1 HP even? Perhaps that .08 percent chance allowed them to live. If you spend all of your time trying to figure out why changes are made, I can assure you that you will scratch your head. For arguments sake, let's just say that certain things are always going to get tweaked to enhance the mechanics of the game for the player base so that certain aspects of it aren't lopsided.

n/t

"Do not merely practice Art, but penetrate to the very heart of it. For only Art and Science elevate man to the Godhead." Ludwig Van Beethoven

they should just leave that outa the damn helpfile or say what it does. None of that kinda maybe could would etc. Thats just wasting player time IMHO.

Its useful when ranking if you're fighting bunched up mobs. Also, when exploring. I used it to separate two mobs I could handle one-at-a-time but not together.

but most people prefer skills to be good in PK not against mobs.

I would prefer my skills instantly slay my enemies, but it ain't gonna happen. Some skills (dodge) are good for PK and mobs. Some skills are good only for PK (assassinate). Some skills are good *mostly* only for mobs (ambush drive, feint, poison darts).

be nasty on druids with pets from what i hear, i never tried it. But a druid communing on his own pets would be nice. Assassins have a HUGE variety of skills however as do warriors. Rangers dont.

>What is the purpose of 'ambush drive'? To drive someone out of
>the room?

...

Pretty much, yeah.

>Rangers need to be able to specify
>a direction for that drive, without it, drive serves no real
>purpose.

Clearly, we don't agree.

If you like, think of ranger ambush drive as the closest ranger equivalent of assassin's strangle. Neither is, by a long shot, the most effective method for doing what those skills do.

However, both allow you an extra tactical option, one your class wouldn't otherwise have, and some classes lack entirely.

There are certainly good uses for even a random one-room drive; some are gambles at getting the direction you'd actually want, and some aren't. If you can't come up with any of these uses (and from the ideas I've seen in your post, you don't seem to have), just don't use this option and you'll probably be happier.

There are other uses than the ones i mentioned above, they are just ..well, not that useful and for very rare occasions. But whatever

If you're expecting ambush drive to be your swiss army knife all purpose PK tool... it isn't ever going to be.

It's a useful niche ability, much like strangle, offhand disarm, spores, worldbind, entwine, or a hundred others. If you tried to spam any of these things in every PK, you would get your ass handed to you; however, in the right situation, they're valuable.

Ambush drive is like that, and trying to sell it short here isn't going to convince me it needs to be better unless you can make a much stronger case than you have. It's really only going to convince me that you need to be better.

In any other situation, short of fighting bunched up mobs, its not really that useful. As you compared it to strangle, entwine, etc, i dont think thats really valid. Those skills are used FAR more (from what ive seen) in PK fights.

Ambush drive would be mildy useful in gangs as it is now. When you want to drive out one of the ganging members. However, if the room has less than 4 exits, the chance of it working is slim to none. Ive tried using it in 1/2/3 exit rooms and it works 1 out of 13 tries. Its like fleeing i guess, because it picks a random direction, if that direction has no exit then it fails. (i might be wrong on this so let me know if i am)

Ambush disarm/cripple/onslaught are all very useful. Drive isnt useful enough to use unless you can specify a direction on it. It shouldnt be a skill that you use once in a lifetime as a ranger. If thats the case, it becomes like 'kick' for most classes. Maybe i want to drive someone in a snare, maybe i want to drive em to someone else or to a no magic room, maybe drive them into an aggro mob. Why would i want to do that with something that i gotta hope for luck when i can just waylay em and bearcharge with 1 round lag. The ranger doesnt even know in which direction he drove his target. If you want to leave it without a direction then at least get some lag on the person being driven, 1 round lag or something and let the ranger know which way he went.

Im NOT saying to make it so every ranger uses it all the time in every pk. What im saying is make it a little more useful than it is right now. Its not like its going to make rangers overpowered or anything. You could make a direction on drive an option for high rank rangers, like 45+. That wouldnt change the power balance but allow quite a few new options for the ranger.

Personally I'd be in favour of letting rangers pick a direction. However, that doesn't make it useless because you currently can't pick it. For example, on Kidiana, you can simply delay your ambush until they've gone into one of the places with only one exit.

Regarding your comment about helpfiles for weapons to ambush with, I totally disagree that it should spell it out. If your character can't tell, then he can't tell. A similar comparison would be to say that all the elements of conjuring good servitors should be spelt out, because without that, it takes ages to work them out. Why would your character know all this stuff? Only by taking a long time to work it out.