Scan vs Sneak/Hide

[Is Friday]

It will take longer, yes, but it's pretty easy to do, either way. And no, it doesn't create OOC motivation to raise these skills, all it does it ensure you can't leave the gates--hit a button a few times, and improve them.

[Clearsighted]

Before it worked based on success turning it on, now it works like watch and guard, you gain when the skill is tested.

Won't this make the skills virtually impossible to increase for characters of certain professions, as well as further encourage OOC-motivated behaviour in order to increase them? I can't see a Luirs-bound merchant having much opportunity to raise scan, nor a desert-elf's listen. Since the skills themselves are so important and certain classes may branch crucial skills from them, they may very well have to seek out places with the OOC knowledge that hidden NPCs exist there. If they don't, the time taken to get these skills to a tolerable level will be prohibitive.

That's what I said at the time. So long as your character has any IC reason to be in any of the cities, you should be able to get it up eventually. But I can see how listen for delves is going to be a pain.

[Synthesis]

Before it worked based on success turning it on, now it works like watch and guard, you gain when the skill is tested.

Won't this make the skills virtually impossible to increase for characters of certain professions, as well as further encourage OOC-motivated behaviour in order to increase them? I can't see a Luirs-bound merchant having much opportunity to raise scan, nor a desert-elf's listen. Since the skills themselves are so important and certain classes may branch crucial skills from them, they may very well have to seek out places with the OOC knowledge that hidden NPCs exist there. If they don't, the time taken to get these skills to a tolerable level will be prohibitive.

That's what I said at the time. So long as your character has any IC reason to be in any of the cities, you should be able to get it up eventually. But I can see how listen for delves is going to be a pain.

It will be -beyond- easy for d-elves.

All d-elves have a tribe, right? If you travel slowly, in groups, your listen skill will go up faster than any other character type in the game, except maybe 'rinthers.

Oh, wait...but if you solo around in the wastes just pretending like you really belong to a tribe, yeah, you're boned.

[Lakota]

Oh, wait...but if you solo around in the wastes just pretending like you really belong to a tribe, yeah, you're boned.

Or if your tribe has few, if any, pcs.

[Dar]

Before it worked based on success turning it on, now it works like watch and guard, you gain when the skill is tested.

Won't this make the skills virtually impossible to increase for characters of certain professions, as well as further encourage OOC-motivated behaviour in order to increase them? I can't see a Luirs-bound merchant having much opportunity to raise scan, nor a desert-elf's listen. Since the skills themselves are so important and certain classes may branch crucial skills from them, they may very well have to seek out places with the OOC knowledge that hidden NPCs exist there. If they don't, the time taken to get these skills to a tolerable level will be prohibitive.

That's what I said at the time. So long as your character has any IC reason to be in any of the cities, you should be able to get it up eventually. But I can see how listen for delves is going to be a pain.

It will be -beyond- easy for d-elves.

All d-elves have a tribe, right? If you travel slowly, in groups, your listen skill will go up faster than any other character type in the game, except maybe 'rinthers.

Oh, wait...but if you solo around in the wastes just pretending like you really belong to a tribe, yeah, you're boned.

I dont understand. How would listen go up for delves.  So you travel slowly, in groups. And then what? Not that many hunting parties adhere to the <only whispers in the sands> rule. Most simply talk. And if they talk, your listen wont improve. You have to 'fail' to overhear a conversation on the tables/whispers. So in a sense, only way a delfer would increase whisper, is by robbing himself of interaction via sitting at the Rose ,at the table where people arent at.

That said ... it's still easy to improve listen for a delf. Just do it the same way you learn sirihish. Find a wilderness place where people go to often. Mining/lumberjacking/etc. Hide ... and eavesdrop. Except for listen, you oughta do it one room away, I suppose.

[Lakota]

Sneaking checks against your listen skill. If you have high listen, you can hear people sneaking in.

That's what Synthesis was referring to in his above post.

[Olgaris]

I'm going to stop this now before it gets even more ridiculous.

Maxed hide trumps maxed scan anyday? Really? And you know this because....? This kind of speculation on the code does not have a place on the GDB. It's part of the mystery that is Armageddon.