Travel... as a skill

[Thanos]

For my first post in some time I decided to talk about a topic near and dear to my heart. Travel across the harsh wastes of zalanthas has become a deadly proposition. It has always been tough, but in the last few months, it has become nearly impossible without wagons or huge groups.

I would like to see implimented a Travel skill. Allowing those classes who have it to be able to pass near aggressive mobiles without them reacting. There are those who would argue that such a skill is not needed with the sneak and hide skill that are currently in place. This skill would encompass a knowledge of the terrain. How to use the curves of the dunes to pass undetected. I would further suggest that if one is hurt, or has drawn blood recently, that massive penalties would be applied to the skill. I would further suggest that there be a blanket effect on one or two followers. IE If I hired a good ranger to take me from allanak to luirs. I could reasonably expect to make it alive. I think this would allow rangers to make a living travelling without impacting the need for wagons to move large numbers. The way things are now. If you travel and enter a room connected to a room where a silt horror is it is likely to kill at least one person in your party. I know the world is harsh. And I like it that way. But I also think that an expert guide should be able to travel between the cities with relative success.

Thanos

[Hoodwink]

I think it sounds too much like hide.  But I like the idea of a skill which aids travel.  How about being able to scare your opponent by looking fierce?  It would instill fear into your opponent, be it PC or NPC.  If you look menacing enough, and thus have a high skill in this ability, you don't need to fend off gith on the north road, just give them a good scare and keep on going.

[Rindan]

While I like the idea, I would personally just settle for having sneak and hide work properly such that it has an effect upon NPCs.  As it stands right now, sneak does nothing against NPCs in most situtations.  You can't actually sneak past a group of gith, soldier, or anything that is set to be aggressive against you.  You also can't sneak up on things that are set to run away.  Sneak and hide are great, but mostly only against PCs and a few rare situations with NPCs.

That said, I do like the idea of some sort of in-between skill to show that a ranger 'knows' the land and can lead people through it.  I would hope that such a skill would develop very slowly though, and that the more people you have in tow, the harder it is to lead them quietly.  So, that bad ass old timer ranger might be able to Lord FancyPants to Luirs unscathed,  but not if Lord FancyPants insists on bringing along his two body guards and his soft and creamy 'personal servant' boy.

[Rindan]

I think it sounds too much like hide.  But I like the idea of a skill which aids travel.  How about being able to scare your opponent by looking fierce?  It would instill fear into your opponent, be it PC or NPC.  If you look menacing enough, and thus have a high skill in this ability, you don't need to fend off gith on the north road, just give them a good scare and keep on going.

You are joking, right?

[Lazloth]

I think it sounds too much like hide.

This is nothing like hide.

How about being able to scare your opponent by looking fierce?  It would instill fear into your opponent, be it PC or NPC.

rofl, that's great.  Why stop there?  If you don't use soap, you can create such a cloud of smell that you propel V/N/PCs away from you.

--

Back to the original idea -- though imho solo-life/travel is nowhere near as difficult as people claim, I like the concept Thanos proposes.

[witchman]

There are a couple of really great travel spells, the top ones that I can think of are owned by Rukkians and Whirans.  

Heh.

If you need to travel maybe you better seek out one of those for your business.  You might not like 'em, but they'll get the work done.
:-)

[Gorobei]

Is it really that tough?  It was a month or so ago, but I had my merchanty type character ride alone along the north road all the way to Tuluk from Allanak.  A bit of trouble with a halfling and a pack of dogs, but I got through it (relatively) unscathed.

[Cyrian20]

This I heard back when I Was a newbie and tested it then. IT might have been just a glitch but it worked....once, Never again I can recall.

I heard rangers have something liek that where they don't always get attacked. I had a character sit in a room with 2 gortok before and didn't get attacked for the longest time. I hade my character emote tossing meat to then and trying to tame them....Well after over two minutes they attacked me but that was such a long time I believed perhaps what everyone told me might have been true.

The above statement could be true or a buncha hot wind outta Cy's ears... If anyone has light to shed please feel free

[Hoodwink]

Nope.  I wasn't joking.  It seems perfectly plausible to me.  Why does a gortok attack and fight to the death, especially if its opponent clearly has the upper hand?  Or anything else aggressive for the matter.  Aren't they smart enough to figure it out?  Lions in Africa know when they're in over their heads, and they don't just keep fighting until they are a corpse on the ground.  What's more, some animals that aren't really that strong are capable of appearing menacing, and thus give their opponent second thoughts about attacking or not.

[Eternal]

Let me tell you something about wolves, and perhaps you'll understand gortok a little better... Native American shamen (of which I happen to be one, though I am closer to Raven) have a very simple saying about Wolf:

"Wolf wins every fight but one, and in that one, he dies."

They are fiercely loyal to their own, and if they believe that by their death, they can aid their others, they will never hold back.  Wolves in the forest are the same way, their pack mentality means that if you can beat them, you are the leader, the superior... but most men would kill a wolf with a gun, rather than wrestle it to the ground.  

Wild dogs are tamed in the same fashion, being the leader means having the true loyalty of your pets, and wild animals challenge this, whereas those born into the hands of men have only the most rudimentary of instincts to guide them.

EternalRaven, who will never again argue in Wolf's favor... unless the mood strikes him.

[Hoodwink]

Eternal:  Right, OK, so maybe wolves don't run away or what have you.  You get my point though.  Not every creature in the animal kingdom is so stupid as to fight until death; if this were the case the population of every living thing would drop like flies and life as we know it would cease to exist.  I used gortoks as an example to a much broader topic: aggresive NPCs.  

I watched some bear photographer once on wild discovery raise his arms and shout in a menacing gesture to frighten away a bear on the verge of attacking.  The photographer actually screamed and yelled, charging after the bear!  Sure enough, this enormous bear whimpered and ran off.  I can't say I'd try this method,  but the point is that sometimes you don't have to be physically tougher than someone else to frighten them away, you just need to look it.  If this man had acted frightened instead (and I'm sure inwardly he was), I imagine he would now be dead.

[Rindan]

I don't mind if things run away when it is looking bag.  Some NPCs do this already, and those NPCs are generally the ones where it makes sense.  However, to have a skill that would cause NPCs to run seems out of place.  It would be outright destructive to the environment to see PCs be affected by such a skill.  If you want to intimidate another PC, do it the old fashion way.  Convince the other guy that you are the bigger and meaner.  There are many ways to do this in game.  A few dozen tattoos work wonders in convincing people that you are a badass.  Talking tough, acting tough, and making people think that you would not blink once before starting a fight go a long ways too.  One of my characters that I was most fond of started day one trying to act tough.  He had people convinced that he was a mean guy on a hair trigger long before he had the abilities to back it up.

As to the case of NPCs, I imagine very few instances where anyone could intimidate a Zalanthas creature out of a fight.  Most of the aggressive creatures I can think off of the top of my head are either highly aggressive, meat eaters, intelligent, and/or an insect.  Truly, what aggressive creatures could you imagine intimidating out of a fight by trying to look big and mean?

[Typo]

Back to the original subject--

I like the idea of some skill that represents "get alongness" in the wilds of Zalanthas. I remember (please correct if wrong) a post written that a ranger could make money as a guide across the deserts. Although Rangers do have a nice assortment of skills that certainely enable them to survive for relatively long periods of time, a skill like "travel" would really add weight to the rangers being able to survive out in the dunes. As it stands, a warrior probably has better chances on his own, since a ranger won't live long enough to have to worry about running out of food and water (desert spiders anyone?)

That said, I would understand if no one wanted this skill implemented. Nothing funnier than Ranger Bob leaving Lord Fancipants in the dust when an angry gortok rears its head. Maybe Rangers could get a bonus to fleeing animals instead

[Hoodwink]

However, to have a skill that would cause NPCs to run seems out of place. It would be outright destructive to the environment to see PCs be affected by such a skill. If you want to intimidate another PC, do it the old fashion way. Convince the other guy that you are the bigger and meaner.

I hadn't thought of that.  Good point.

[swordmaster]

For my first post in some time I decided to talk about a topic near and dear to my heart. Travel across the harsh wastes of zalanthas has become a deadly proposition. It has always been tough, but in the last few months, it has become nearly impossible without wagons or huge groups.

I would like to see implimented a Travel skill. Allowing those classes who have it to be able to pass near aggressive mobiles without them reacting. There are those who would argue that such a skill is not needed with the sneak and hide skill that are currently in place. This skill would encompass a knowledge of the terrain. How to use the curves of the dunes to pass undetected. I would further suggest that if one is hurt, or has drawn blood recently, that massive penalties would be applied to the skill. I would further suggest that there be a blanket effect on one or two followers. IE If I hired a good ranger to take me from allanak to luirs. I could reasonably expect to make it alive. I think this would allow rangers to make a living travelling without impacting the need for wagons to move large numbers. The way things are now. If you travel and enter a room connected to a room where a silt horror is it is likely to kill at least one person in your party. I know the world is harsh. And I like it that way. But I also think that an expert guide should be able to travel between the cities with relative success.i completly agree as it is even i (a ranger) cannot easyly cross a desert alone...it suxs

Thanos

[Hot_Dancer]

Crossing a desert isn't an easy task for anyone without magickal means or strange powers. Heh. Ranger or not.