Traces

[Lumbo]

_ _  _ Traces_ ____ ___ __  _    _    

Players, NPCs (...and animals...) leave tracks when walking/running on snow, dirt, sand or flour/powder poured on the ground

 

• every player can see running tracks

 

• characters with hunting/foraging level 5 are able to see walking tracks

 

• characters with hunting/foraging level 9 can see sneaking tracks

 

• direction of footprints is visible

 

• traces fade out progressively (similar to blood) until they disappear after a time calculated by the weight, sneaking skill (and type of shoes) of the character (edit)

 

• during rain-/snowfall traces fade much faster

 

• foraging/hunting skill (alternatively a new trait like "tracking") enables players to gather information about tracks by right-clicking on them, for example:

 

level 1-2: weight (...kind of shoes [ link to shoes-suggestion by heporlathic -> http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/16623-shoes-blisters-and-prison-weapons-bonus/ ] )

level 3-4: kind of animal (kind of vehicle)

level 5-6: travelling speed, male/female

level 7-8: leg injuries, fitness/strength level

level 9-10: character name if you have seen him before

 

(edit)

 

• a high sneaking skill (alternatively a new trait like "traceless") enables players to move around almost tracelessly while sneaking

 

• the heavier a character is (including inventory) and the faster he moves the longer his tracks are visible

 

• walking barefoot or wearing low profile shoes lets tracks disappear faster

 

• covering a track is possible by rightclicking -> "remove track", the tile will be "fresh" again then

 

• zombies don't leave tracks since it would cost too much server storage capacity/ processing power i guess? If it was possible it'd be awesome though...
  

   

 

 

 

Some gameplay possibilities traces would provide:

      

 

• reconstructing individual player routes and actions would be possible (tracking down players, investigating "crimes", evaluating player behaviour etc.)

 

• a foundation for an immersive hunting/trapping system (I'm coming up with an idea for an animal-, hunting- and trapping system based on tracks)

 

• winter would become a season attractive for hunters and trappers (whereas farmers have their high-time in summer/autumn)

 

• you could tell how frequented a certain area is by examining the amount of tracks there and consider that when choosing your base location

 

• finding poorly hidden lootspots/ bases would be easier

 

• pouring flour/sand/dirt on the ground could leave a tile that conserves traces (so you could f.e. tell if somebody has entered your base when you return home from your stroll or you could gather information about the attendance of areas/buildings of interest)

 

 

Some information on the pure technical feasibility of this topic by a developer would be nice, just to know if it makes sense to pursue this idea. Love the game so far!

 

What do you think of this concept?

[BetaSpectre]

+1 Tracking would be nice, but sometimes there are too many marks to know what's where.

[uberevan]

All of this is very intriguing and would add some depth, but how does the player themselves detect the tracks for the character to investigate?  Does it glow slightly and if you right click it and click "investigate" does it tell you what it is or something similar?

[BurnTheWitch]

I like the sound of this.

[Geras]

I like it.

[Lumbo]

+1 Tracking would be nice, but sometimes there are too many marks to know what's where.

 

Good point there! I think it could easily be solved by new tracks "overwriting" old ones however, so if there are multiple tracks on one tile, only the youngest one is shown.

 

All of this is very intriguing and would add some depth, but how does the player themselves detect the tracks for the character to investigate?  Does it glow slightly and if you right click it and click "investigate" does it tell you what it is or something similar?

 

Glad you find it intiguing, i do so as well   The idea is that tracks leave visible footprints behind (on snow f.e.) with only running tracks visible to all players, walking and sneaking tracks only visible to players with advanced hunting/foraging/trapping skill. The rightclick->investigate/info option would only be usable for players with said skill as well. I sketched a list with some ideas on how the level of your tracking skill could affect the information gathered by rightclicking tracks in my first post, but it's not worked out very well yet.

 

I like the sound of this.

I like it.

 

Cool    Just out of curiosity, do you play single- or multiplayer? I myself play multiplayer only atm and would love to make it easier to find other people, but i think with animals and NPCs added the tracks-concept could provide benefits for singleplayer, too.

[Geras]

-snip-

I play SP only. I like your idea because there are NPCs on the horizon so we could track them all the same. Zombies would be nice to follow as well. And animals.

[Lumbo]

It's nice to hear that it would be fun for singleplayer, too . As for zombie-tracks, I can imagine they would be too CPU-intensive but I'm no coder. Maybe making them fade out much faster would help, it could really be nice to know if they're around.

[uberevan]

I think the surface you're walking on should affect the footprints/tracks left as well.  If you're walking through snow or mud tracks are likely to be left behind, but on concrete you wouldn't expect to see any.

[BetaSpectre]

I think the surface you're walking on should affect the footprints/tracks left as well.  If you're walking through snow or mud tracks are likely to be left behind, but on concrete you wouldn't expect to see any.

Running on concrete can leave rubber tracks, also in an area with poor maintenance there will be disturbed debris...but then we have zombies everywhere xD!!!

[The Good Noob]

For feral animals (for hunting them) would be very nice when they implemente. For NPC or MP would be very nice too.

For zombis you would only need some information: zombis near, fresh trace. It is the only we need to know about them. It could be like a moddle of advise in other part of the screen.