The Hunt Skill

[musashi]

Has there ever been any discussion about making the hunt skill (at least the desert one) a bit more objective in nature? For example, instead of feeling like one should wander ever single room until they happen upon tracks, being able to type something like "hunt duskhorn" would run the chance to telling them a rough direction in which the nearest duskhorn could be reached? Or that there just aren't any in the immediate area?

Just idle thoughts ...

[Jherlen]

To some extent, that's what finding tracks might tell you. Hunt represents trackable signs that would lead you to something.

In the absence of that, how would you know what direction a duskhorn would be in? Instinct? Psychic powers? Rangers aren't mindbenders (though they are just about everything else.)

[Winterless]

I think it would be neat if there was an echo specific to rangers for tracks, depending on their hunt level, like certain other guilds get (i.e. magickers with a certain spell) where when they enter a room they can hear or see certain things. The echo for a ranger wouldn't have to be specific, just something like "There are several tracks in the sand here." Then by utilizing the hunt skill you could determine more specifics about the tracks as it currently does. Because a skilled RL hunter entering an area would be able to spot tracks right off then would have to inspect them closer to figure out what the tracks are from and the direction that they came/went.

Edit: Maybe this thread could be moved to the Reborn forum?

[AmandaGreathouse]

That sounds awesome.

[musashi]

Good ideas. I was just thinking to myself how people tend to complain if a PC uses the hunt skill in every room they walk through searching for random tracks, and perhaps the code could be tweaked a little so that something like that isn't as required.

[Sokotra]

I think it would be neat if there was an echo specific to rangers for tracks, depending on their hunt level, like certain other guilds get (i.e. magickers with a certain spell) where when they enter a room they can hear or see certain things. The echo for a ranger wouldn't have to be specific, just something like "There are several tracks in the sand here." Then by utilizing the hunt skill you could determine more specifics about the tracks as it currently does. Because a skilled RL hunter entering an area would be able to spot tracks right off then would have to inspect them closer to figure out what the tracks are from and the direction that they came/went.

... and then, if they were looking for something more specific, they could type "hunt three-legged man" (or just "hunt elf" or "hunt beetle" or whatever) and perhaps have a better chance at finding the tracks just for that target so they can tell where they went.  Of course, storms and shifting sands (terrain, etc) might have to come into effect a little more...

[Tisiphone]

Good ideas. I was just thinking to myself how people tend to complain if a PC uses the hunt skill in every room they walk through searching for random tracks, and perhaps the code could be tweaked a little so that something like that isn't as required.

Cool idea. Perhaps split hunt into two commands, with the same skill, one passive and lasting (ala scan), the other active. The first would give you the rough state of the room with regards to things moving through it, eg a massive army moved through here recently, or there are a few tracks here, and then the active version could give you specifics the same way the skill does now.

Same command to avoid having to memorize more strangely organized stuff. In fact, it could use Morgenes' new-fangled adverbial modification system.

[Is Friday]

If you have that, you might as well have the hunt skill branch into different types of environments. For instance, forest hunters, plains hunters, desert hunters, etc. Have one character with background in the desert be able to track all beasts in the desert better, and then whatever they have experience tracking?

[Dalmeth]

Here's an idea : add in the passive component along with another nifty feature.  When you walk in a certain direction with passive tracking on, the tracks leading in the direction you walk are taken into account.  Any tracks similar in type or age to those in the next room are reported when the movement delay ends.

[musashi]

I like the passive and active idea Tisiphone mentioned ... now another question would be ... could you use that passive hunting ability while mounted? As it stands you can't use the hunt command when you're riding something because you need to get down and really LOOK at your surroundings but, for a passive glimpse of the area to just notice signs of recent passage, could you do that from atop an inix?

[Tisiphone]

I like the passive and active idea Tisiphone mentioned ... now another question would be ... could you use that passive hunting ability while mounted? As it stands you can't use the hunt command when you're riding something because you need to get down and really LOOK at your surroundings but, for a passive glimpse of the area to just notice signs of recent passage, could you do that from atop an inix?

Inix are really fucking huge.

[musashi]

I like the passive and active idea Tisiphone mentioned ... now another question would be ... could you use that passive hunting ability while mounted? As it stands you can't use the hunt command when you're riding something because you need to get down and really LOOK at your surroundings but, for a passive glimpse of the area to just notice signs of recent passage, could you do that from atop an inix?

Inix are really fucking huge.

Well ... I pulled inix as a random example, lets say an erdlu then ... I just mean to say I doubt the code distinguishes between seperate types of mounts. It likely just checks to see if you're mounted or not.

[Tisiphone]

I like the passive and active idea Tisiphone mentioned ... now another question would be ... could you use that passive hunting ability while mounted? As it stands you can't use the hunt command when you're riding something because you need to get down and really LOOK at your surroundings but, for a passive glimpse of the area to just notice signs of recent passage, could you do that from atop an inix?

Inix are really fucking huge.

Well ... I pulled inix as a random example, lets say an erdlu then ... I just mean to say I doubt the code distinguishes between seperate types of mounts. It likely just checks to see if you're mounted or not.

Yes, but my point was, mounts in Arm tend to get you pretty high up off of the ground. I'd be a fan of reduced passive checks for people mounted.

[musashi]

I think, all things considered so would I.

[X-D]

I've always thought hunt should have a passive and an active component.

It has never made any sense to me that I find some tracks, know what made them, which way they are going and how fast. Alright, I want to follow them east.

Why do I have to search for them every single time I move, I did not jump a mile away like the hulk, I was following tracks.

IRL, its finding the tracks that is the hard part. once you have them, following is normaly pretty easy.

For me, the perfect coding of the skill would be to stop in a room. hunt, you see several sets of tracks. Then target say 3.tracks. As you move they should show up in the room desc. Depending on skill and other things of course. If you fail then you have to stop, hunt again, target again and continue on.

And yes, this probly should be in the reborn forum.

[Bebop]

I assume hunting is intentionally vauge.  Sometimes hunting can represent a broken bit of terrain, or grass.  Boot tracks or insect looking marks could be a number of creatures.  Hunting isn't supposed to let you automatically no what the tracks you are looking at are.  Part of the fun of being a ranger is remembering what some tracks appear as IMO.  That's part of the IC and OOC level of skill.

[Majikal]

Has there ever been any discussion about making the hunt skill (at least the desert one) a bit more objective in nature? For example, instead of feeling like one should wander ever single room until they happen upon tracks, being able to type something like "hunt duskhorn" would run the chance to telling them a rough direction in which the nearest duskhorn could be reached? Or that there just aren't any in the immediate area?

Just idle thoughts ...

I like this idea, would be neat to have various echoes for how you could tell the various npc's were nearby, npc's don't roam enough to make hunt very useful in tracking them.

But me personally, I would like to see hunt broken up into race categories not for the purpose of insta locating npc's but for when you're riding 6 deep after raider amos and everytime the hunting party enters a room it erases the tracks. Would be nice to just do something similar to

>hunt long-strided
you crouch down and begins searching the area for tracks
[ignoring the twelve sets of inix tracks that just walked in]
a long-strided elfie man lightly moved to the north

[Dalmeth]

Why do I have to search for them every single time I move, I did not jump a mile away like the hulk, I was following tracks.

IRL, its finding the tracks that is the hard part. once you have them, following is normaly pretty easy.

In real life (yes, that's right, I didn't abbreviate!), tracking is as much about knowing where your prey would be going as finding the tracks.  Otherwise, you'd never catch up.

Unfortunately, we don't have much in the way of varied terrain that would funnel traffic through the wilderness, so that isn't such an easy thing to do.

[X-D]

I really don't see much a point to that post Dalmeth...unless you are agreeing. It is exactly the fact that we don't have enough of a funnuling effect that tracking should be more realistic and faster.

As it sits IG, you are far better off to hunt once, then guess where the person is going and try to beat them there, then to actually do it more then once. The hunt delay is so long that even a walking dwarf  will easily outdistance a desert elf if they hunt more then a couple times.

Fact is. If you are walking and following tracks, you walk in them, the next one will be where you expect it to be...remember,  your not doing the hulk jump from room to room outdoors and outdoor rooms are supposed to be rather large, so you would see hundreds of tracks moving to the next room not just two as the prey also does the hulk jump to the next room.

[Maybe42or54]

If you have that, you might as well have the hunt skill branch into different types of environments. For instance, forest hunters, plains hunters, desert hunters, etc. Have one character with background in the desert be able to track all beasts in the desert better, and then whatever they have experience tracking?

I really don't like that idea, Friday.

I'm no expert, but I've been shown how to track, and they didn't show me how each plant looks when someone touches it, they showed me to look for common signs of passage, broken stalks, torn cloth, foot prints, etc. All of which would be common to all of the environments. IMHO.