Imagine, The Apocalypse comes, and for weeks you don’t realize as you continue minding your state park, Obeying national laws, and cleaning litter, then one day, some rude park guests break your shacks door in and try mauling you to death.
A park Ranger Start, which:
Limits your choices to Park ranger for class
Starts you in the largest forest generated in the game map
Gives you a Special park ranger Badge, or Hat.
Morale bonuses for cleaning up forests?
possibly two different levels of being a park ranger, a Jr and Master ranger?
o_o First off, you get points for painting me a picture. I like to role play and I like the idea.
Unfortunately, I don’t think there would be any way to assess what the ‘largest forest’ would be on mapgen. I think it’d be more reliable to set up a Ranger station and make it huge, manually inserting forest into the ‘building’ layout of the site.
If that makes any sense. IE: You could make it huge, multiple map tiles, and just fill it with trees to artificially create a ‘forest’. Based on the fact that some buildings are more likely to spawn out of cities, you could also make it pretty likely to be surrounded by forest.
Of course, that’s a lot more work than just putting together a profession. You could make a ranger profession and set the spawn location to the wilderness, but that’s not the same as having an actual park or ranger station.
I really like the idea of a park ranger profession. I think I’d like to add one to my additional buildings mod. It can start in the fire lookout tower… or I might make a proper ranger station. we’ll see.
Maybe it can start with a cowboy hat, two-way radio, cargo-shorts, hiking boots, and as fer skills maybe a 3 in survival. hmm
The starting gear should be more, pants and jacket, it is still snowing out at start, course other profession don’t take into account the weather. Even then, pants, long sleeve dress shirt, hiking boots, sun glasses, canteen, some granola bars, radio, knife of some sort, possibly binoculars, I’d say boonie hat, or regular baseball hat over cowboy hat. Start with some survival and first aid skill, maybe swimming.
Story could be: You and your partner were checking the camp grounds and area for the spring season, stumbled upon a group of hikers, something seemed off, Phil greeted them, giving you time to run away as they ripped his throat out. You made it to a ranger station, dead air on the radio.
Park Ranger one profession, possible second profession cost some points; Game warden, starts with same gear/skills but, also a gun, maybe a kevlar vest, and some sort of firearms skill.
Other professions do take into account the weather. The military professions have you with the winter army gear, because that’s what you’d likely have on at the time. A Ranger strikes me as the kind to always have a warm jacket on hand, just as part of the uniform.
Well, starting gear is important, but I assume you’d also be making a ranger station. Therefore you wouldn’t need to give the profession everything if you have, say, lockers with various ranger gear in the building. You could assume that most players would come across a particular gear item, and those that didn’t would have a (marginally) more challenging go of it.
Also, on a random but connected side note. I learned, today, about the USA’s plans from the cold war, the plans to keep government rolling in the event of a nuclear war. Various government agencies had very specific duties in the aftermath of a nuclear attack (the post office was supposed to tabulate the dead) and the Parks Service was on that list. They were supposed to be in charge of refugee centers. The idea being that parks wouldn’t be very high on a list of targets, and would therefore, hopefully, be relatively unharmed in the initial attack.
Once I heard that, I was thinking all day about how I could incorporate that, somehow, into a Park Ranger/Station but outside of a simple ‘survivor note’ style message, I didn’t come up with anything compelling.
Okay, some of them take into account for weather. Still, shorts?
If they are starting in a ranger station with a full set of winter clothes, and gear in a locker, then ya obviously no need to start them with it. By that logic no reason to start a fireman in the firefighter scenario with any firefighter gear.
I was referring to what an actual ranger would probably have on them.
but this is quite the interesting idea, but how about instead of a forest a national park forest? like it has small pathways of dirt and small buildings? but is still a forest with bears and etc?
Garments:
-Cowboy Hat(unless you make a unique item of this saying Ranger Cowboy Hat)
-Shirt Ranger variant from a Mail Carrier shirt
-Pants Ranger variant from Blue Work Pants(from a car repair shop for example)
-Hydration Pack (instead of back pack, because they actually wear similar)
-Tool Belt
-Drop Leg Pouches as an optional because hiking pants tend to have leg pockets similar but not in game yet
Items:
-Whistle
-Swiss Army Knife
-Hatchet
-.22 Rifle with bullets w/ strap
-Flare Pistol with flares (optional)
-Beef Jerky
-Plastic Canteen full of water
-Bandages
-small flask of disinfectant
Starting skills and traits are still up to the player but I imagine first-aid and proficiency with mechanic should be normal. Maybe some craft skills ala MacGyver stuff.
