The ranger service

Rangers count, follow and protect the wild animals of the valleys. They never hunt them. Open the menu with slash ranger, or from the living world menu, slash world.

Stations and ranks

There are ranger stations on Middle Valley, Beautiful Forest, Stormcrag Ascent and the Misty Highlands. Press shift enter at a station to enlist. Enlisting is free and your first radio collar is a gift. Everything you do earns service points. Ranks: Volunteer, Ranger at 300 points, Senior Ranger at 1200, Chief Ranger at 3000. Each rank is also a title. Senior Rangers see which map the next migration will cross.

The daily census

At a station, take today's census sheet for that map. Walk to its three survey posts and press shift enter at each. Stay still: the animal calls of that map play around the post, one by one. Then answer how many calls of each animal you heard. One question is always a trick about an animal that does not live there: the right answer is none. The number of calls comes from the animals that are really alive on the map at that moment. You may listen to the whole count once more. When all three posts are done, hand the sheet in at the same station. You get up to 100 points, depending on your accuracy, and a Voyage Token at 80 percent or better. Each map can be counted once a day. The census register shows the last count of every map and the live herd book.

Migrations

Every two to four hours, day and night, a herd or a flock crosses one of the four ranger maps: wild horses, wild ducks, rooks, a wolf pack, songbirds or coyotes. Rangers get a radio call five minutes before and when it starts. The animals move across the whole map in about eighty seconds, and you hear them if you are within about seventy steps of them. Go to that map's migration watch point, listen, and when it has passed press shift enter there. Say what it was and which way it was going. The log stays open for five minutes after it has passed. The migration calendar shows the time of the next one and this week's log. You can turn the radio calls off in Privacy options, announcements.

Radio collars

A radio collar costs 80 points at any station, at most 3 a day. Stand within three steps of a calm wild animal and use the collar. You can follow up to 3 animals. The ranger radio, slash rradio, tells you where each one is, how far and in which direction, and how healthy it is. Listen for its beacon to hear where it is. Every minute on the air is data: download it for service points, points and ranger reports. When the animal dies or the server restarts, the signal ends and the data is saved. A collar runs for two days at most.

Bird ringing

The bird ringing station is by the pond in Beautiful Forest. Press shift enter there. A bird flutters in the mist net: wait until it goes still, then lift it out. Too early or too late stresses it. Tell which bird it is from how it feels in your hand and its weight, then pick the ring by weight: A up to 12 grams, B up to 35, C up to 120, D over that. Last, hold it in your palm and let it go when its breathing slows. You can ring 6 birds a day. The species book in the ranger menu describes every bird.

Field notebook and rewards

Your field notebook keeps your records and your collections: census maps, species counted exactly by ear, migrations logged, birds ringed and animals collared. Titles: Ranger, Senior Ranger, Chief Ranger, Migration Watcher, Bird Ringer and Wildlife Tracker. Trophies: the Perfect Census rosette, the Four Valleys map, the Long Signal plaque, the complete ringing book and the Chief Ranger's silver whistle. The weekly board counts ranger reports: 3 for a census, 1 or 2 for a migration, 1 for a good ringing, and 1 for every hour of collar data. The top three each Monday win a cup. Points from the Ranger Service are limited to 300 a day.

Commands

Slash ranger opens the Ranger Service menu. Slash rradio opens the ranger radio. Both are also in the menu.