Covering your tracks

Started by Realedazed, April 30, 2004, 12:48:42 PM

I was out in the wilds the other day and was wondering if a character could cover there tracks.  I can see Rangers, Hunters and other outside type characters with this. I'm not sure if this is already in the game or has been suggested before. But here it goes:

>Hunt
Less than an hour ago a humaniod came in from the west
Less than an hour ago a large insect came in from he west

So you would:
>Cover humaniod tracks
You carefully set to work covering some humaniod tracks.

>Cover insect tracks
You carefully set to work covering some insect tracks

When you hunt again you get:
>Hunt
You find no tracks.

..or

>hunt
You see than something passed through this area recently.

...or something similar if you were not able to completely cover your tracks.
 got caught at school with my hands down my pants and had to keep it down there for  a whole week.......What a week!
~Chris, Family Guy

Seems logical to me that you could do something like that. Maybe not totally hide it, like in your first example, but something that will interrupt it, perhaps something like your second suggestion, or hinder hunting in a similar manner to weather ( I know weather's supposed to interrupt it, never tracked through weather).
7 more days!

Ranger Hide should be able to do a skill check to see if you hid the tracks well enough. That'd be neat.
A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.  Zalanthas is Armageddon.

I think it'd be a good idea.

To an extent, it's already in the game. Both for city and wilderness hunt. It's also implemented in a simple way that makes perfect sense while being far enough from foolproof not to be obvious. Likely to also be one of those things we won't be giving away on the GDB, so you'll have to do some experimenting on your own.

Ah, so we are supposed to ask in character then?

The tall elf asks in sirihish, "What is the syntax to cover my tracks?"

Seriously.  If we know how to cover them with emotes, but not the syntax to do it codewise, how do we ask that?  A good role player wouldn't just tell us a command.  If they knew that's what we wanted it would be revealed by barely in character means, which wouldn't feel real.

Though I'm not particularly sure of what the syntaxes are, I think it would follow common sense. I.E. if you were running, it'd make a severe mark on the land so it'd be easier to tell somebody passed by. Not to mention that well, when you run by, it's a little hard to cover the tracks. Whereas if you walked by, it's probably a little harder to detect the tracks with the necessary command. IF you follow that line of thinking (which I think is what the above posters mean), I think you can figure it out quite easily.

Hopefully I haven't exposed too much then again, I don't know anything for certain! :P

It isn't a syntax thing. There is no command that lets you "cover tracks." It's a combination of RP and doing something else that would make sense to do given the situation. You -can- ask about it ICly, or you can ponder it ICly. Here's a hint:

What are things you can cover tracks WITH, to confuse people into not realizing you were there, or that you didn't go the direction you went?

Think: Confusion is the aim. What would you do if you wanted to confuse your tracks?

There you may find your answer.

Covering your tracks works in the middle of a dense forest or some woodlands, to some degree, because you have something to actually cover your tracks with, namely plantlife.

In the end, whether it's tracks or sand moved around to fill in those tracks, there will still be traces of disturbances in the sand.  At best you could hide your weight and how far apart your steps were.

Quote from: "Delirium"Think: Confusion is the aim. What would you do if you wanted to confuse your tracks?

There you may find your answer.


Jesus, people, calvin tricked his parents with this tactic in the snow! Don't you remember that comic? I think it was a sunday one.

What? You don't read calvin and hobbes?


psssha! Go euthanize yourself.

So as the original poster wanted, how about a way to cover our tracks?  Maybe a tool could be used to assist it, such as a large piece of sandcloth dragged behind you in the sand.

still sounds like a good idea to me.

I just wanted a chance to tell some one to euthanize themselves.

Having dated some one that was/is a Border Patrol Agent, I can say tracking someone is an interesting, somewhat complicated thing. Joe Schmoe can spot tracks in a wilderness environment. Joe the slightly skilled hunter can tell how old they are and notice other "sign." Joe the ten year veteran tracker, can do all of that, plus find tracks that were lost, and spot when someone is trying to cover them. Even when you try to cover them, you will leave a different kind of trail.

I say leave it.

*my .02 sid*
Just like the white winged dove,
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing
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