Hunting

[Silent Bob]

Ok since we can't look in every direction because its a big bad coding effort, How about an improved tracking skill.  If you are actively tracking you would be looking at the ground and once you pick up the trail you would not lose where it goes unless you fail.  So if I choose to track the "creature" tracks I found when I move into the next hex it tells me where they went without my having to use my skill again unless I fail.  You might think this is silly at first, but you dont have to relisten between every spoken sentence with the listen command, do you?  A good tracker should keep track and catch up, a  a learning tracker on the other hand stops and checks and hopes his prey pauses.  You might think this is too good to be true but people can double back and make multiple tracks that you dont which to follow, but a creature might not be smart enough to do that.  So you might walk into a room and see tracks going north and east.

[spawnloser]

My Bob!  I think he's hit on a wonderful idea.  I had a tracker once and kinda thought the tracking code was a little unrealistic that you couldn't tell one set of tracks from the next when you've been following the first for a while and they don't necessarily interset, but one went north and the other east...why can't you tell which is which?  Just because they're the same height/weight/race shouldn't mean that you can't tell the difference...they may be wearing different footgear and such...

Now that I'm thinking about it, to make the tracking code as 1337 as I'd like it to be would probably make it a major coding effort as well, but one could include penalties for when there are multiple tracks and such, but still follow along Bob's idea above.  I think it is workable, but I don't know exactly how workable, not knowing how the code for tracking actually works and/or how the code for listen works, to try to base the tracking code off of how listen works.

[Angela Christine]

Merciful Tektolnes noooo!   Have you ever been followed by a raptor?  Those things are harder to get off your tail than a T1000, and twice as ugly.  The only hope you have is to get far ahead of them and put a barrier between you.  If you happen to have a slow or tired mount it is  nearly impossible now, letting them move faster would make things worse.  :x  Since they always follow the most recent set of tracks doubling back on your own tracks is useless, they never guess wrong.  Your only hope is that some other poor bastard crosses your path between you and the tracking creature, then it will follow the more recent tracks to the poor bastard.

Don't for get how big an outdoor room is.  Most outdoor rooms are 1 league by 1 league squares, that is  3 miles by 3 miles.  The skill delay on hunt is really quite modest if you assume it means you have tracked the creature for 3 entire miles.  City rooms are smaller, but even if you could come up with a good excuse to use hunt in the city it would presumably take a long time to find evidence of a particular person's passage among the tracks of dozens or thousands (depending on if it is a back alley or a main road) people.  Tracking isn't a fast process, and it shouldn't be fast unless you are tracking a family of half-giants riding a bahamet through virgin scrub.    

As it stands now you have a choice: either you slow down and pause to track every three miles, or you fly blind hoping the target  continues in the same direction and only slow down to track every 9 or 12 miles.  
Suppose continous tracking worked.  Since you have to dismount to track now, a continuous track should also be impossible to do while mounted.  Likewise, you shouldn't be able to track while running, since tracking inherently requires you to be looking closely at the ground and the surroundings, which can't be done while running.  The code only has you dismount and stop once, but I take that single delay to represent many shorter pauses as you follow the trail.  You can't maintain a sneak or hide/sneak while running or riding, tracking should have similar restrictions.  How many people would want to -walk- through the wastes following something?  I've done it, following a kank-thieving elf, and it ain't fun.  

AC

[spawnloser]

The problem with having to 'hunt' in every room is that if three people went through of approximately the same build...those three people all came within three miles/leagues of each other.  In all likelihood, they didn't come anywhere near each other.  Why shouldn't the code tell you which set of tracks coming in went in which direction out?  How about we simply add that?

[Dan]

Its alot of fun AC. If your the kank-thieving elf.  

[Silent Bob]

AC if you ran through a bunch of other tracks don't you think the raptor should have a check against his track skill or at least have to pause and look?  As a hunter you do.  The raptor has an advantage above all the other hunters, Faster access to the server!  He should have a roll to lose you once he loses sight of you, just like you do when hunting something.  He just like you should not see as far in a sand storm and also not be able to smell you if you are downwind of him.

[creeper386]

There are SO many problems with tracking in the game, and I honestly can't think of a decent way to do it really.

As it is now, a nearly dead dwarf with one leg can lose a tribe of delf rangers that are on their own land, just because of the hunt delay.

It seems an injured thing leaves a better trail, but there is still the same delay. Therefor that better trail is worthless when it comes to hunting PCs. Overall hunting a PC who OOCily is going to do what it takes to not get caught is nearly impossible when they are speed walking to the nearest safe place. Even worse when they have a mount that most likely would be leaving fairly decent tracks.

From what I've seen... Hunting animals is time consuming but relatively not difficult in OOC terms. It seems alright over all. Animals hunting you... They are too automaton like and can find you no matter what it seems. But still the main problems comes to hunting PCs... And it could be as much of a RP issue as it is a coded issue.