Nerf City Listen

[Fragmented]

Hi,

I'm sure this has probably already been suggested, but I couldn't find any such threads in any recent posts. These ideas are for the city version of listen, and possibly the wilderness, as I'm not sure what the differences are.

I would like to see listen nerfed. It makes very little sense to me that a person listening can hear every conversation at every table in a busy tavern. My ideas are as follows:

In a room flagged tavern (if there is such a flag) require listen to be directed to -one- table, or the bar. As someone gets really good at listen, perhaps they can catch -snatches- from other tables they aren't focusing on. Whispers spoken inside a tavern would be impossible to hear, ever. There's just too much background noise. The same would go for detecting someone sneaking away. If I'm in the local pub on a friday night and there's a football game on, I'm not going to hear someone -run- out the door, let alone leave very quietly.

In a room -not- flagged tavern, then sure, let listen catch conversations from any sittable object, althought those with newbie listen skills might miss a word or three now and then. Also, in these non tavern rooms, let things be heard from another room, or even through doors as the code seems to allow now.

Any thoughts? Changes? Additions? I really think listen as it is now is very unrealistic, and I'd love to see it changed.

[Cale_Knight]

I agree. I think certain rooms should be flagged "noisy," and such rooms would have listen restrictions similar to the one you described.

It would also be impossible to listen into or out of a noisy room.

[Seeker]

Yeah, there have been quite a few recent threads.

Without overhauling the existing system, which I'm not opposing or suggesting, I do think that this thread about toning down ranger's listen made good sense.

I tend to agree that the ranger guild's listen should be the "wilderness version" and nerfed pretty severely within the gates.  Rangers have an awful lot going for them, and this limitation makes sense, giving city-based characters at least something that they chould do better than the universal tool ranger.

Seeker

[Cale_Knight]

Another interesting idea would be to make bard listen slightly different, where it works normally in taverns but is slighty nerfed everywhere else.

[Tamarin]

That would give bard rangers fine listen in most places.

[Cale_Knight]

True - maybe make the ranger listen supercede the bard listen?

[Fragmented]

Honestly, I'm not so much concerned with rangers having listen as I am with listen as a whole. It's too powerful. It's unrealistic. You'd have to be superman to pick out every conversation at the bar, table A and table B in a tavern that's -supposed- to be busy.

[mansa]

I always thought that Listen was not just LISTENING to conversations, but a multiple of skills combined together in one.  It's lip-reading, and body-language reading, as well as training your ear to pick up special key phrases in discussions.

I'm sure you've all heard your name in a crowd.

I do think it's more powerful when you hear -each- and -every- table, and if you could target tables, that would be neat.  More tables for the higher levels of listen.

I think that the recent changes to listen over the past couple years are excellent.  Listen six years ago was a lot different than listen NOW.

[EvilRoeSlade]

Without overhauling the existing system, which I'm not opposing or suggesting, I do think that this thread about toning down ranger's listen made good sense.

I tend to agree that the ranger guild's listen should be the "wilderness version" and nerfed pretty severely within the gates.  Rangers have an awful lot going for them, and this limitation makes sense, giving city-based characters at least something that they chould do better than the universal tool ranger.

I do believe rangers already have a negative skill modifier when they use listen in a city.

[Cale_Knight]

I think that the recent changes to listen over the past couple years are excellent.  Listen six years ago was a lot different than listen NOW.

Do tell. I'm curious.

[Folker]

Having experienced the power of listen myself with my recent characters. I thoroughly enjoy how powerful it is, and I thoroughly agree that it is too powerful.

[Anonymous]

I suggest that instead of getting rid of a skill which frankly makes a major part of the game, tavern sitting, more interesting, some sort of 'sotto voice' feature is added so that if you're sitting at a table and use this feature, someone at the next table listening wouldn't hear what was said (or maybe only have a chance of hearing it if her ability to listen is well developed).

If you speak at a normal level, you should expect to be vulnerable to being overheard.

[spawnloser]

Anon, there is such a thing...it's called whisper.

As to the rest?  The responsibility is on the player listening.  If the person hears everything because the code allows him/her, they're doing bad.  Just like the person who hunts for a span of 5 days IG, yeah, that person's responsibility to cut down on that too.  Should we codedly stop them?

I'm thinking, no?  Listen is powerful for what it does, but it isn't THAT powerful, and not everyone gets it.  I'm fine with things the way they are.

[flurry]

I'd like to see it tweaked a little.  Targeting seems like a really neat idea.  The "noisy" factor does too.  I like the idea of giving rangers a penalty for indoor listening.   I don't think it needs a total overhaul, but some changes would be welcome.

[X-D]

Rangers already have the wilderness version and do take negs in the city, more then one kind of neg I might add.

[Malifaxis]

Rangers are super cheesy and shouldn't even be allowed to carry ears in to town.  Ranger ears should be considered more illegal than spice in Allanak, and they are obviously magickal because they can hear everyone whispering three rooms away in towns, which means that all rangers should be slain in Tuluk.  

Rangers should be branded, and forced to wear something that distinctly announces that they are rangers.

[ale six]

Rangers should be branded, and forced to wear something that distinctly announces that they are rangers.

You mean like desert-camo gear and anakore-claw gloves?

They don't all do that already?

[Supreme Allah]

I agree. Listen is too powerful. Forcing it use targets might solve this.

My ideas:

Listen <person>: You attempt to pick apart anything this person says. At low levels, this will be what they're saying to their table or the like, and it will be the initial option. At high levels, you'll be able to hear their whispers.

Listen <table>: You'll hear everything spoken in "talk" at this table. You'll need a slightly improved listen skill to do this. At high levels, listening to one table in a room that is not "noisy" will allow you to hear what is being spoken at all nearby tables.

Listen <direction>: You'll hear everything spoken in this direction for one room. You'll need a slightly improved listen skill to do this. At high levels, this will allow you to hear through walls when not in or toward "noisy" rooms.

Listen room: This will help in detecting the movements of persons using the "sneak" skill in movement, albeit much less so or maybe not at all in "noisy" rooms.

[spawnloser]

You're making it too complicated, Supreme Allah.  Should we do the same sort of thing to scan?  I mean, you can see things others can't when you have that skill, just like people with listen can heard things others can't.

I really just think people need restraint.

[Supreme Allah]

If it's available in its fullest extent in all areas, even to the point where it is overwhelmingly unrealistic (which it currently is), people will continue to use it to its fullest extent.

Why should players be subject to information they must decide they can or cannot use? It's like a hidden emote of someone doing something flagrant like punching you across the jaw - it's there, so you're gonna react to it.

If somebody in a neighboring tavern room full of VNPCs through a wall while you're outside in a sandstorm says that they just killed your character's best friend and spat on his corpse, while someone in the same room as as you whispered to their buddy very quietly that they just raped his mate, and someone on the bench over there's going on about how they murdered his brother - all spoken simultaneously -, are you gonna have your character ignore any of the three even though codewise you'd be competely legitimate in not doing so?

Sorry man, but I doubt it.

I do buy that a skilled listener could probably pick apart an individual's voice, or the conversation at a particular tavern table, or maybe even a conversation from a neighboring room with a door seperating it, all with some degree of clarity - but not all at the same time.

[Maybe42or54]

I've had a lot more bad experiences with listen, than I've had good ones.

[mansa]

I've had a lot more good experiences with listen than bad.

I'm not convined that it needs to change.  Give more examples and analogies.

[EvilRoeSlade]

I'm not convined that it needs to change.  Give more examples and analogies.

Here's an example.  I was sitting in the Gaj cooking room talking quietly with my buddies about how scary magickers are, and then some magicker hears our conversation and contacts a templar, who arrives on the scene to yell at us.

I thought it was really stupid on the part of the magickers involved.

[Larrath]

Nerfing listen by making it harder to use and giving some guilds penalties to their listen skills is really meaningless.  It doesn't matter if rangers were capped at 15% for their Listen skill, because they could still spam 'listen on' until it worked.  They'd even be able to interact with the environment while doing so, with the new way command queuing works.

The listen skill needs to be completely changed.  Outdoors (and indoors in unpopulated rooms) listen should primarily alert people to sneakers.  You have listen up but you suck at seeing things?  "You hear footsteps."
In a populated room, every character should be able to listen at a single table of their choice.  This is because it's just possible - most people who don't blast their ears with loud rock music on earphones can usually do those things without even trying too hard.

To people with the listen skill indoors, they should either be capable of listening in a single direction away, or listen to multiple tables, or target one or two people and have a moderate chance of success at hearing what they whisper and are whispered to.

Make people choose what aspect of the listen skill they want to employ (and on what) instead of giving everything at once, and the skill would get pretty balanced, I think.

[ale six]

I still don't get why it's all or nothing.

Let everyone be able to turn listen on. Then, depending on skill percentage, let the code determine whether you catch a specific talk at another table or not.

It already works this way with whispers (sometimes you hear, sometimes not.) Why not just change it to be the same way with talk?

Then the lower skill percentage that rangers and whoever else has listen might have would actually mean something.

[Tamarin]

If you annihilate ranger city listen, then you have to also make ranger hunt/sneak/hide more appropriate outside.  This means letting you sneak up on auto-flee creatures.  This means making hunt more active, rather than just tracking.  Rangers should be able to navigate the outside so easily that they can sneak up on critters no problem, and also avoid the baddies that come at you from a room away.

So there.   How do you like them apples?

[Forest Junkie]

As far as I know, rangers already take appropriate negatives to their listen skill when inside the city.

If you do not want your conversation to be overheard, then I suggest you retire to a more suitable place, ie a private room or your apartment, perhaps.

Again, I reiterate: If you do not want to be overheard, go somewhere else. It's common sense.

[Desertman]

I would like to see listen nerfed. It makes very little sense to me that a person listening can hear every conversation at every table in a busy tavern.

This is not the case I am afraid. The listen skill does not allow you to hear every conversation in the room at every table. It only allows you to hear some of the conversations in the room.....How you ask?....Have you ever heard any of those 50 other vnpcs having conversations in that crowded tavern?.......No?.....Thats because your listen skill isnt picking up every conversation at every table in the room. There are tens upon tens of people moving about the room and sitting in the tavern having conversations other than the relevant pcs, and I am apt to think your character has never overhead many of thier conversations if any no matter how good your listen skill has gotten.

[X-D]

As to the arguement that you would not be able to hear all that at the same time...well, your right, -you- wouldn't.

But then, its not -you- is it? Not even earth, as has so often been said before, it is Zalanthas and these are Zalanthan races. Races that somehow contact each other with thier minds. Having a mind capable of doing that over the breath of the world, is it so hard to beleive that it could not decode a few conversations going on at the same time around it?

I have no problem with the listen skill as it stands. I often ignore things my char hears when listen is on and concentrate on a particular table already..BUT..if something catches his ear then he will change that concentration. This is not something that could be easily handled by code.

No, you want to make it target, because to you it is more realistic, fine, do it, but also, code in the ability to enter in between 50 and 100 keywords that your char will hear even if it is not the table he/she is targetting, that would make it close to realistic and able to change target.

But I think it is fine the way it is, the code accounts for many of the things people are saying to do already. And as Forest Junkie said.

If you do not want to be overheard, go somewhere else. It's common sense.

IE, You want it harder for people to hear your super sekrit plans to off Tektolnes and diddle all the templars, THEN MAKE IT HARDER YOURSELF!

Thats the main reason that the skill is even in place. to Force people to act in a realistic manner or get caught, simple as that.

I don't care what the movies show, nobody is going to make plans to build a nuke while sitting in a crowded bar, they are going to do it in a basement with all the doors locked and probly people out in the yard to make sure nobody approaches.

Bah.

[Cale_Knight]

As far as I know, rangers already take appropriate negatives to their listen skill when inside the city.

The one and only ranger I played lived less than five days, but by the time he died his listen was good enough that it almost always turned on within two or three tries inside a city.

[Delirium]

As far as I know, rangers already take appropriate negatives to their listen skill when inside the city.

The one and only ranger I played lived less than five days, but by the time he died his listen was good enough that it almost always turned on within two or three tries inside a city.

There ARE other things that 'listen' is good for besides snooping on table conversations.

Other far more useful things, really.  Table conversations are, on the whole, useless tripe to a spy.

[Angela Christine]

Honestly I'm not worried about listeners listening to all the conversations in a bar at the same time.  Because if there are more than one or two active conversations listen becomes really unpleasant to use, and I usually turn it off at that point to save my sanity.  Have you ever tried to use listen in a bar with active conversations at four tables?  It is hard to make sense of anything, as it should be.  While you are trying to sort through all the scroll to find the interesting bits, it is quite possible that the interesting bit has already scrolled right off your screen.  I suppose a listener could log the scene and comb through it later to reconstruct the individual conversations, but that doesn't sound like fun to me.

Being able to target listen to a specific table would be helpful in some situations.  I wouldn't consider that to be nerfing the skill at all.


Angela Christine

[Anonymous]

Anon, there is such a thing...it's called whisper.

Whisper only targets one person. I meant something like leaning forward and speaking in a low voice to all people at your table.

As to the rest?  The responsibility is on the player listening.  If the person hears everything because the code allows him/her, they're doing bad.

Gaaaahhhhhhh! And just how do you decide what your character did and didn't hear? Roll a dice?

[Malifaxis]

Choose not to hear some of it, as a player, and also take into account what exactly your player was doing at the time.

If you lean forward and order a beer just as lord fartynose says some sekrit thing, chances are you were ordering the beer and just happened to miss it when the bartender responded.

[mansa]

Sometimes, characters talk to mine, but I choose that my character ignores it, or that my character was facing a different direction looking a different direction ignoring it all.

I am overloaded with information; what people wear, what items in their hands, what accent they have, the weather outside, the time of day.

You have to be responsible.  Just because you can do it doesn't mean you do it.  I mean, Do you log all the descriptions of people that you see, put it into a excel file and save it, along with all the information that you've ever heard from that person, for your special 'rinthi elf with ADHD and one EYE?

[Lazloth]

Sometimes, characters talk to mine, but I choose that my character ignores it, or that my character was facing a different direction looking a different direction ignoring it all

That's well and good, and I'm sure people applaud your discretion.  Listen differs from your other examples in that it is a skill and not a generic command for information.  The incarnation of listen (in one context, yes delirium .. hopefully people picked up on your point) does not reflect that.  AFAIK, your "skill" in eavesdropping tabletalk is not pulled into question beyond the obvious.

Some people prefered the old way and some people have suggested various other approaches.  There's a wealth of history on the topic if you search the gdb.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

If you do not want to be overheard, go somewhere else. It's common sense.

Thank you for this, sir. I'll be honest with you, and you can like it or not ... listen can really make a real boring time much more interesting. I don't care if you call it twinky or not ... it is much more fun. Personally, my character doesn't hear everything, and what he does hear is based on what I've decided to do with my character today. But when you play a loner, listen breaks up the utter OOC boredom of waiting out something, etc.

If you want to change how much specifically you can hear, as far as complete sentences, then fine, I'll go with that. But fuck a nerf.

[Fragmented]

While I didn't even bother to read all the ranting posts about rangers being too buff and whatnot, I did want to reply to Venomz. I think having listen adjusted so you can only focus on one table and (with higher listen skill) catch scraps of other conversations would make things -more- interesting, then eavesdropping on every conversation, at every table.
You just heard that guy saying he wished someone would fall off the shield wall, but -who-?

And this has nothing to do with wanting private conversations to stay private. It has everything to do with realism. Listen is too powerful. It's ridiculous, and I'll trumpet that to the very end.

Rooms flagged "noisy". Less clarity through listen for city dwellers. Sneakers -not- being caught due to listen in a bustling tavern. Hoorah.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I could live with your solution. Generally, when I hear the word 'nerfed', it indicates that someone wants the skill to be harder to learn, or, some class to lose it.

Nerfing as in modifying output to a more realistic level bothers me not at all, but fucking with the ability to learn it or bitching about fucking rangers having it just ... bugs me a lot.

[amoeba]

If you do not want to be overheard, go somewhere else. It's common sense.

Thank you for this, sir. I'll be honest with you, and you can like it or not ... listen can really make a real boring time much more interesting. I don't care if you call it twinky or not ... it is much more fun. Personally, my character doesn't hear everything, and what he does hear is based on what I've decided to do with my character today. But when you play a loner, listen breaks up the utter OOC boredom of waiting out something, etc.

If you want to change how much specifically you can hear, as far as complete sentences, then fine, I'll go with that. But fuck a nerf.

I'll go with that as well. All this brouhaha over what? Being overheard? There are so many ways to not be heard it's absurd to call listen a problem.  99% of the time it is simply entertainment.  I'd rather see -more- conversations being overheard, not less.

[Maybe42or54]

Fun? For who? I've never had good experiences with listen, when I had it or didn't have it. Even when I had it, people treat taverns like they only go there to get overheard, or drink.

People go other places to have secret conversations, how is that fun?

How would it not be more fun if a bunch of borsail were talking at a table and you heard them say ,"We really need to .... that guy. .. is really getting on my ........ Shit man, I'm going to .... Lord Hardtits."

That leaves a lot more open to imagination, than "We really need to help that guy. He is really getting on my nerves. Shit man, I'm going to tell Lord Hardtits."

Making listen a less perfect skill will do a lot more to add to RP than as it is now where everyone stays away from the taverns so some guy with listen doesn't overhear their plans and tell 10 Pcs, (which happens to be all of allanaks Pcs at the time).

[amoeba]

Making listen a less perfect skill will do a lot more to add to RP than as it is now where everyone stays away from the taverns so some guy with listen doesn't overhear their plans and tell 10 Pcs, (which happens to be all of allanaks Pcs at the time).

So if listen were made 50% less effective, then 50% more people would show up in the taverns having 50% more conversations?  Quite frankly I don't buy the argument, there is a lot of unsubstantiated and subjective reasoning in there.

And do we really want all the activity to happen in the taverns? I've seen SOI's version of listen, with the ... inbetween.  It was not all that spectacular in practice.  The problem with a lot of examples given is that they are massaged to pull out key phrases, in truth the code can't tell a key phrase from a hole in the ground.

Now, should listen be changed?  If it is made more enjoyable for more people, and serves it's true purpose in leaking secrets out, sure.    But I won't go as far as saying it is broken.

[Maybe42or54]

It's not broken. It is too perfect. It needs to have faults and holes.

[Anonymous]

Make listen targettable to a table or a person to get 100% of what is said at that table or to that person.  Make listen without a target give a less than 100% chance of echoing what was said to the listener.  I can buy that you are able to focus on a particular conversation.  I can buy that you can overhear fragments with a passive eavesdropping approach.  I just don't buy hearing 100% of everything that is being said at every table in a tavern that is loaded with PCs, NPCs and VNPCs all chattering up a storm.

Listen also needs the chance for failure messages to be directed at the target.

You notice that the nosey, lanky man stares at your table for a long time.

I still believe that if listen is less all-encompassing that people will talk about sensitive matters just a little bit more in public making the skill all the more valuable.

[Rindan]

Fixing listen to be a little bit more realistic would not make plan their plot to kill Tek in the Bard's Barrel.  What it would do is make people more willing to do something that might get them into a little bit of trouble.  I can't even begin to count the number of times when two players have had a problem, one of them gets up and leaves, and the other character mutters something at the table they are at, and the character that is standing RPs hearing it even though they have walked off and their back is turned.

Other simple shit that could happen if listen wasn't so all powerful is that two people might be more willing to talk about minor conspiracies.  I don't mind opening myself up to a chance that someone is going to listen in on what I am saying. I do mind knowing that there is a 100% chance that someone is going to listen in on what I am saying.

If I could change listen, it would be like this.  Anyone that is standing can target another table to listen to.  They stand a reasonable chance of catching most of the conversation with a moderate listen skill.  They can also target nothing and stand a reasonable chance of hearing all conversations in the room with a very high listen skill.  People that sitting or resting at another table trying to listen to another table stand a reasonable chance of listening only if they are highly skilled, otherwise the best they can hope for is fragments.  Even with a maxed out skill, people sitting at a table can only catch fragments of conversations if they do not target a table.

The idea is this.  Want to listen in on someone else conversation?  You need to be standing and mobile.  Want to sit across the room and listen to another table?  You better be damn good at lip reading to try, so you better be skilled.  If you want to listen to 'everyone', you need to be mobile to stand even half of a chance and be exceptionally skilled.  If you are sitting, forget it.  There is no way you can possibly listen to everyone.  The best you can hope for is fragments of conversation if you can going to try and listen to 'everyone'.

I might even throw in the ability to 'talk whisper' which double the difficulty of anyone overhearing you.  I want people to discuss stuff in taverns.  I want spies to be able to overhear this stuff if they really are trying.  It would be nice if there was a grey area between shouting to the entire tavern and hiding behind a locked door.

[daedroug]

I agree that somthing should be changed to make it a little more specific and as a suggestion i'd offer the way that SOI does it, along with a few additions. Basicly it'd be just like the language skills are now.. always on and depending on how good you are you'd catch snippets of conversations (though i'd suggest using ... instead of scrambled letters and that instead of missing individual letters group the words together) and at times you would have to fill in the blanks between the words (which could be fun at times). one suggestion that i would add to that would be to keep the listen but instead it gives a bonus to it, this might be made to be directional or table or person oriented or all three. and as one final addition it could be made so that as soon as you change position or move to a new room then it resets to off that way you can't just turn it on when you get online and forget about it and it would also demonstrate the fact that you wouldn't always be trying to listen you'd be concentrating on other things at times.

[X-D]

Ugh, thats horrid, specialy for rangers, who -need- it on at all times in the wilderness.

Yes yes, then you say simply make it only turn off in city rooms, problem is, not all wilderness rooms are flagged wilderness, and its not always easy to tell when. On a playability level that would be simply -horrid-.

On another point. SOI listen and movement are two of the main reasons I don't play it.

I'd also like to point out again that Zalanthas is -not- earth.

Also, what about races? Would listen work differently for different races?

I think it should if it got nerfed. Course, you would have to figure out who gets what and how. Desert elves would be different then humans and city elves, dwarves have an extreme ability to concentrate when they need to, etc etc.


[rant]

I'm still against changing listen from where it is at, I like the fact that if I wish to keep something secret my char has to -work- at it. I like that it makes the cities feel even more like the police states they are with snitches at every turn. I like that it accounts for the -hundreds- of vnpcs around you who -could- be listening also, simply by feeding the PC's a bit more information then some people think they should.

You -should- be VERY VERY worried about speaking wrong in public, even if it is something as small as saying Ladyprissypants shoes are an ugly color. Hey folks, KNOCK KNOCK, this is a world controlled by jealous sorcerer godkings and nobles and templars. Police states only work if you are able to keep control of the population, if they think that everything said, done, thought, can be overheard and dealt with in a drastic manner.
And to remember that there are desperate people out there willing to sell thier mothers to the templarate to get ahead or to simply keep thier eyes off them.

I like that so many people are complaining about listen, it means it is doing its job and forcing people to play realisticly in these police states where all information is strictly controlled, hey bub, there is a reason that READING and WRITING by commoners is ILLEGAL.
[/rant]

[Anonymous]

Ugh, thats horrid, specialy for rangers, who -need- it on at all times in the wilderness.

Ugh thats not what i meant at all #1 I said that the skill would be on all the time #2 i said that you could start trying to listen to conversations and that is what would turn off on it's own

[Agent_137]

I really don't care what happens to listen.

But I will say listen is fucking annoying as it is. I hate being spammed in a tavern when I just want to listen to one table.

One should be able to target one table, even if you don't -have- to target one table.

[X-D]

daedroug wrote:

and as one final addition it could be made so that as soon as you change position or move to a new room then it resets to off

Hhhmmm, certainly looks like thats what it says here.

[Anonymous]

ok well what does it say here:

Basicly it'd be just like the language skills are now.. always on

and when i said:

one suggestion that i would add to that would be to keep the listen but instead it gives a bonus to it

i meant keep the listen command so that when your sitting in a bar and your trying to listen it would give a bonus since your trying. any other time you'd be able to hear conversations just not as much of it and not as well

[X-D]

Still would need a nolisten or listen off command.

Listen always on...eeewwww.

[LauraMars]

Even if you could target another table with listen, you still get "speak" echo from other tables.

Code Select Expand

At a bar, the buff manly man speaks, nodding his head and grunting and taking a big long drink from his flask of whiskey because he has mercenary as his subguild and can hold his liquor.

At a bar, the hot commoner woman speaks, gesturing with her long and slender fingers which you know could break a man's neck because she is a butt-kicking ninja, dude.

At a bar, the little kid speaks, and then he screams and screams and screams and screams.

Then multiply this times however many tables there are with people at them.  It still gets annoying.  I'd rather have what they're actually SAYING spam up my screen than speak spam.  I like listen how it is -  otherwise it's really boring and irritating.

[Tyriel]

Try listening to nearby conversations in a noisy tavern or restaurant. Anywhere there is a crowd.

You will find that you can learn to direct 'where' your ears are hearing. Noise suddenly becomes intelligeble if you know what/who is producing it. Like it was said, listen is a combination of activities, and to learn, one must get past things like 'background noise'.

Please don't complicate the game needlessly by changing listen. It seems to work wonderfully.

[Vanth]

I would like to request that if you want to join in this discussion, please do not do so merely to shoot others' ideas down.

If you have an alternate idea, propose it.

If you have an opinion on how listen works currently, state it.

This makes it easier for any staff who are following the conversation to a) glean the major ideas and b) not get spammed with back and forth sniping: "Your idea sucks!" "No, yours does!"