Watch, Scan, And YOU! A debate. And poll. Yay polls.

[Malifaxis]

Okay, so there I was having mudsex the other day, and I kick in my watch.  You know.  As you do.  And this:

You stop scanning the immediate area.
You begin watching the tressy-tressed five-legged chalton.

Now, maybe it's just me who uses those two all the time, but I don't think so.   It would be super to be able
to do both, I think.  When you're watching, you're still being vigilant.  You don't get tunnel vision, you're just
very much keeping an eye on whoever it is.  Don't stare, just... you know.  Keep an eye on.

In fact, when you're watching, I'd say you should have a higher passive scan than any other time, because
you are already keyed up and careful about something.  Also, tangent... listen.  I think listen should add to
the overall vigilance-osity.

I just think being vigilant should be cool, just like being stealthy is. 

[Jihelu]

I'd agree if you got a minor penalty to watching and scan while you did it.
IE:
Say your watch and scan are 100/100 master
You watch and scan.
They are both at 90/100

[Lizzie]

The way I understand the logic behind the current situation:

If you're neither watching nor scanning, you're there, being somewhat attentive to your surroundings and at least somewhat attentive to whoever you're talking with (or whatever elsing with). You will notice the templar walk in, and you will also notice Tressy's emote about her blue eyes sparkling as she gently tithers your tatters in her blue-blah humdedum. (I totes have to emote that some day in a fade).

If you're scanning, you are on alert. You're scrutinizing the sleeping room, making sure some sneaky isn't coming close to your straw pallet. Your attention is expanded to outer perimeter inward because you are purposefully, intentionally paying heed to the "alarm signal" in your head telling you that you should try to not be distracted too much for whatever reason.

If you're watching a specific person, you've honed in on the source of your need to pay attention. That one person's existence takes priority over all else. You'll still notice the templar show up, but that's because templars are obvious. You've chosen to direct most of your focus toward this one person - her zircon-encrusted tweezers gleaming in the moonlight-ey light, the hair that reminds you of a warm safe place, I mean you're really paying close attention. No, it won't give you tunnel vision exactly. But it will make peripheral stuff fuzzy and less significant in your brain.

I don't know if it works this way already or not, bit I feel that if you're watching a specific person, then your listen skill should take a hit. Not shut off, but be less effective than usual. It should be better between you and the person you're watching, but worse with everyone else in the room (and outer rooms).

I think if you try to watch and scan at the same time, they should both take a hit, because you can't do both *efficiently* at the same time. Even if you have ADD, where you're streaming data from all sources simultaneously and your brain is incapable of filtering out what's needed and what isn't - all the incoming data becomes a little fuzzy and it becomes more difficult, not less, to sort the data into understandable bits.

I'm okay with the idea that you should be -able- to watch and scan at the same time. I just don't think the code should allow you to do it as well as if you were only doing one or the other.

[Malifaxis]

I need to stop posting while drunk.

I swear I already posted like this exact thing once, but... I can't even.

*goes home*

[bardlyone]

Yes.

There are a shitload of items that give sneak or hide bonuses anyhow, which allow you to pretty much be more invisible than a whiran even to someone with high scan who is scanning.

I think it would be reasonable for you to be able to watch the person at the table with you while still keeping an eye out for suspicious shit in the crowd.

But I'm also one of those who watches almost constantly. If I could do both, I would, so I'd have more chance of catching hemotes from people I wasn't watching (since you can only watch 1 target at a time).

[nauta]

I just don't use hemotes during mudsex.  Problem solved!

[Majikal]

Watching gives you tunnel vision, super-scan against a single target.

Scanning gives you a chance to see all da things from all da peoples. Scan already IS the 'watch somebody and while still keeping an eye out for suspicious shit in the crowd' skill.