Tracking animals and players

[President Rattlehead]

This idea came to me as I was sitting on the toilet (obviously) as the title entitles, the ability to track players and animals. I find this fun enough on multiplayer servers following trails of dead zeds and broken windows, but it makes it rather difficult. If there were drops from clothing and being ability to follow the trail, would be interesting for hunting other players down. Also being able to see slight variations in grass or bush where players have made trails.

It could even have it's own skill, tracking living things would increase the skill, so finding pieces of torn clothing, blood trails or examining (new idea all together) the ground and uncover invisible trails to the location of a player or an animal. As skill levels up, players can see more distinct marks in grass or trees which make it easier to hunt their prey.

Any suggestion guys?

Edits:

Silent spy - adds interesting ideas to jobs, e.g park rangers can see these trails easier than other classes due to their jobs.

Kurruk - makes it easier for new players to find their way around and determining where they have and have not been.

[Kurruk]

I imagine adding a trail history for each and every player might kill a server for MP. But since I don't really use that mode, might as well add it there if you want

[President Rattlehead]

Not an actual record, but maybe one cloth every 50 steps or a discolouration in the grass, and it would be wiped clean once a softwjpe is used.

[Kurruk]

So instead of keeping a history of player movements, you're thinking more of changing the tiles they are walking on? That might be easier to do and keep track of, as it changes the map part and would require groups to use different routes between base and city, because otherwise with number of ppl it would "create a path". I think even for SP it would simplify navigation for new players as well, as they would build these paths that would essentially show where they've been.

 

But that would be a map change and so it would be independent from any skill. If you're thinking about applying a skill for that - it would have to be either passed on to the server that would have to create special stream of map just for you, storing "stomps" as some sort of flags, or pass it on to you, where client would decide if they would show it or not, based on the skill (increasing size of communication data and also allowing for hacking the game to show that stuff regardless of the actual skill level).

[SilentSpy]

This seems like an interesting idea but I could see it being a little overpowered. I think that having the park ranger able to see a clearer view of the distorted grass or broken twig would add some nice immersion and making it a perk for every class would add some balance and make being a park ranger a bit more interesting. Just my two cents though.

[President Rattlehead]

So instead of keeping a history of player movements, you're thinking more of changing the tiles they are walking on? That might be easier to do and keep track of, as it changes the map part and would require groups to use different routes between base and city, because otherwise with number of ppl it would "create a path". I think even for SP it would simplify navigation for new players as well, as they would build these paths that would essentially show where they've been.

 

But that would be a map change and so it would be independent from any skill. If you're thinking about applying a skill for that - it would have to be either passed on to the server that would have to create special stream of map just for you, storing "stomps" as some sort of flags, or pass it on to you, where client would decide if they would show it or not, based on the skill (increasing size of communication data and also allowing for hacking the game to show that stuff regardless of the actual skill level).

Yeah changing tiles depending on how frequently it's walked on or how many travel along the route at any given time. Also I agree with you on the single player section, I've had a mate who is terrible with direction, some kind of trail would be most beneficial to him. It would be difficult to accomplish, but I think it would add a lot of strategy into the game.

This seems like an interesting idea but I could see it being a little overpowered. I think that having the park ranger able to see a clearer view of the distorted grass or broken twig would add some nice immersion and making it a perk for every class would add some balance and make being a park ranger a bit more interesting. Just my two cents though.

Hmm yes, jobs, I overlooked this, thanks for pointing this out, I agree park ranger should be much more efficient at seeing these trails whereas builders would find it difficult.

[Kajin]

Tracking is going to be a part of the hunting update as it gets fleshed out.

[President Rattlehead]

Tracking is going to be a part of the hunting update as it gets fleshed out.

Wonderful, any ideas how it would work?

[Kajin]

No idea.