Tracking PCs

[Ebok]

• MAP ISSUES

This suggestion is not likely even possible anymore. Many of the maps have areas from a number of very very different locations within them. Quite a few tunnels and paths within the same map have no connecting point, and to be able to find signs of a person in these locations would be kinda poor. Already the actual NPC tracking fails in these situations.[INDENT] Ex. Someone on one side of the mountain in the tunnel tracks, and finds a person that they know to be on the middle trail of their map. This middle trail was somewhere near the bog. They now have information that is just plain OOC, that serves to offer no benefits to the IC.
[/INDENT]I did enjoy being able to use tracking to run into people while wandering the wilds before however, so I do understand why people enjoy the ability. However, this situation is not about the name that shows up in the PC tracking box--its about the fact that people could track someone who was never there.

• APPLICATION ISSUES

I have watched trackers track people coming up from behind them IG before, maybe they didnt even mean to, they cannot always tell. I mean...  how does that work?[INDENT] Ex. You are on the run, and you race into the wilds and hide in a corner and spam the track skill looking for signs of anyone else entering the area so that they can avoid them? Ohnoes Their footprints are coming up at us from behind! Prepare! Hide! lol!
[/INDENT]The whole concept loses some of its luster in these situations and its unavoidable that these situations would happen.

[Secutor]

A possible solve is putting a cooldown time on tracking (30 - 60 seconds?). That way it cannot be spammed to emulate "radar" and would represent the time and concentration required.

[Ebok]

Does that really solve the issue?

They can still have a (albeit slower) radar, and putting a timer on it doesn't much change the fact that they can track what isn't there yet, or what never passed this way. Being able to see people coming at you from the other side of the map cannot be justified through tracking.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Well, it could represent the ranger's ability to detect variations in the vibe of the wilds.
Small furry animals running away from over here, birds going suddenly silent over there.
It doesn't justify knowing who's there, but it's fair enough if they can tell that someone is.

[Ebok]

An open forest? Maybe. Plains, possibly. Long winding caves? No. Windblasted mountain tops?no. Through thick mist, rain, or sands? No. And even assuming some things could give signs. Orcs and giants are common enough  to throw you off. NPC tracking is a different story, but PC tracking doesn't really work well enough to get around the downsides, IMO. Anyway I'll stop ranting I think my point is made. I really liked howlands trans tracking, but don't expect it anytime soon.

[The Crimson Magician]

Or, as Howland suggested, [maybe possible?] that when a character with ranger/druid levels goes through a transition, they make an auto-track on PC's, which are probably removed after a certain amount of time.

In wilderness areas, anyways.
Such as:

'Cruzel the Curious just passed here 10 seconds ago,' or whatever the amount of time.

Probably a lot more generic too, such as races instead.

More like:

'A set of human-sized tracks have been spotted. By the freshness of them, you can tell that they have been here about 2 minutes.'

[Ebok]

I wonder what the training ground transition would do in such a case?

Orjust make the most commonly traversed transitions to well traveled to identify any one track. ...

[Underbard]

I will go out on a limb here, and say that if I walk 5 miles through the woods, the best tracker in the world could not identify me by my tracks, even if he knew me and what type of boots I wore.  He would know someone walked through the woods, nothing more.  Also, in anything less than perfect conditions, before I was found, he would lose my tracks.
  Obviously, under certain conditions, a human wearing 50 pounds of armor will make a deeper track than one wearing leathers, but that could not be narrowed down to a certain PC.
  Doesn't make sense that a ranger could identify the tracks of PC's.

[Caddies]

The ranger would know a human passed through, not what your name was!

When I meant 'tracking PCs', I meant simply the ability for PCs to come up on the tracking information as 'human' or 'elf', etc.

Another thought I had which might solve some of the issues regarding tracking is some manner of timer on tracking. Which is to say, a Ranger must spend a certain amount of time in an area before he can track PCs properly, perhaps even as long as an hour (5 mins IRL). ICly, this would demonstrate the Ranger pursuing different tracks and taking his time to closely examine the spoor. OOCly, it would definitly cut down on the 'PvP radar' issue.

The transition thing Howland suggested is also a nice idea.

Needs more Arkov. :(

[Underbard]

When I meant 'tracking PCs', I meant simply the ability for PCs to come up on the tracking information as 'human' or 'elf', etc.

Another thought I had which might solve some of the issues regarding tracking is some manner of timer on tracking. Which is to say, a Ranger must spend a certain amount of time in an area before he can track PCs properly, perhaps even as long as an hour (5 mins IRL). ICly, this would demonstrate the Ranger pursuing different tracks and taking his time to closely examine the spoor. OOCly, it would definitly cut down on the 'PvP radar' issue.

  This I like.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Having to spend 5 minutes in an area is alright for a detailed analysis, but a good tracker should be able to follow a trail, once found, very quickly.
Considering the fact that a character can AT once a minute or so, it would make tracking next to useless anyway.

[VanillaPudding]

I've seen systems that use the transition thing and it is fairly amazing. It would tell you who passed through, and which way (of the transition) they went and also how long ago, all depending on the area type. Add in the custom weather to this, with rain reducing the time you can see that someone went through and this would be awesome.

Also, a method to track 'humans' or such would be nice too.

[ScottyB]

It could be possible to create an Area Of Effect effect/object with custom enter and exit scripts, on-demand every time a "/c track location" command is given (destroying the ranger's previously-created AOE); every time a non-DM creature passes the AOE it logs the entering an exiting direction, plus the race; racial information is lost every 20 minutes, or 10 minutes if it's raining, or 30 minutes if it's snowing; the tracks are lost completely after 40/20/60. When the ranger comes back they can "/c check tracks" and get a log like:

"There are some old tracks coming from the south, heading north.
There are some human tracks coming from the east, heading north.
There are some elven tracks coming from the east, heading north.
There are some human tracks from from the east, heading north.
There are some elven tracks coming from the north, heading east."

Using this information, a tracker might deduce that two humans and an elf came from the east and turned north at the spot the tracker wanted to return to and check, and that the elf came back this way within the last 20 minutes.

It would be possible for people who have reasonably guessed that an area is being tracked (or fear that they might be tracked) to criss-cross an area a bunch of times to make the tracked area spammy and hard to deduce.

DCs could conceivably be added to take Stealth Mode into account and adjust whether or not a creature gets added to the log.

Note: This wouldn't be limited to just transitions, then. One could set up tracking at a major crossroads, or at the end of a bridge, on a beach, etc.

[Winston Martin]

That sounds pretty amazing ScottyB.

[Arthurian_Spark]

I would definitely love to see something of the sort implemented. Ranger tracking is an incredible skill and shouldn't be pass up on!