Tracking...

From: Danhiel Baker (dbaker@dcs.uga.edu)
Date: 03/28/94


Mathue Moyer explains:
| 
| This is sortuv a minor point... but perhaps being able to track into
| a DT isn't necessarily a good idea.  The fact that you are tracking
| somebody usually implies that you are examining your surroundings
| rather closely.  Now, if the DT is designed to be some sort of
| magical effect, no amount of physical scrutinization would save you.
| However, if it is something like falling from an unstable bridge (or
| any other physical event), the fact that you are examining things
| more thoroughly than normal might even save you from it (from
| entering the room).  As I said, this is a minor point, and the
| opposite point of view could be argued just as reasonably.  Just
| thought I'd throw my $0.02 in on the matter.

I've been playtesting a v2.20 lately, and I managed to 'track' my way
into _2_ DTs: Mid-Air in the Sewers, and the poisonous spiders in the
dark forest.  While the Mid-Air case doesn't make much sense, walking
into the poisonous spiders (I was tracking the Queen spider; from outside
the DT, it is 'uww' to the Queen _safely_, but the shorter route would be
to go 'ww', under the poisonous spiders) was totally reasonable to me.
Short of trying to 'jump' the chasm, noone is going to just say "Look at
this Bob, it went right over the cliff into this Abyss!  COME, LET US
FOLLOW!" In case anyone wonders, no, I am not a complete idiot - I had 
tintin  (which reminds me - anyone know a site I can find tintin++ at?  I
just changed machines, and my old version doesn't like this machine, and
we don't have archie, either *sigh*; at least it DOES have gcc!) running 
a trigger to continue tracking a target, and it found the shortcuts
alright! *grin*.  I've also found some areas that will put my auto-track
into an infinite loop (Arachnos, to be specific, on the busy path, tracking
drones);  my main interest in this is to be able to construct "mazes" that
resist tracking (yeah, I *could* just ask Jeremy for a NO_TRACKING room
flag...[I hate it when Occam's Razor rules out deviousness!) by either
making 'shortcuts' through DTs (which would seem contrived, in most cases)
or introducing a loop like I ran into in it.  I really can't fathom AT ALL
how I could end up looping;  I know that 'track drone' means 'track 1.drone'
and not 'track the nearest drone' (try tracking a baker from the temple
in Midgaard in v2.2 - you'll end up somewhere *other* than the baker in
town), so it can't be that suddenly another drone is closer, step wise, nor
could another path be shorter simply because I'm closer.  Granted that
Arachnos around the busy path was probably designed by Escher, but still...
Any reasonable explanations or theories would be welcomed! 

To continue my rambles, here are a few suggestions that I made to Jeremy
rgding TRACK, and some more ideas that just hit me:

	1) Make it a skill that different classes get at different levels
	2) Make 'track dog' look for either the closest dog or at least
	   first check the zone you are in for dogs; it is aggrevating
	   to 'track slave' in Arachnos and end up heading towards Rome
	   or the Drow area.
	3) Limit the max number of rooms you can track from (perhaps make
	   this increase with skill% AND level).  Tracking the DracoLich
	   from the Bakery in midgaard makes damn little sense, period!
Jer ->     (*SIGH* OK, Jeremy, add a NO_TRACKING room flag and a NO_TRACK
	   mob flag, please...it's gotta be done, I guess :)
	4) perhaps add a toggle that will always do an 'exits' when a
	   player is tracking, so they can see for themself what lies in
	   that direction.  All DTs will be lighted in v3.0, so being given
	   a track direction of west, and an exit description for west of
	   'Over the Cliff' *should* be a good compromise between the
	   paying attention and not-paying-attention when tracking debate -
	   it'll certainly weed out those players that aren't paying 
	   attention!

	 * Quick question - in a group situation, only the leader enters
	    will enter a DT, right?  The others won't be dragged along...
	    lemme know if this is NOT true, and, if you could Jeremy, fix
	    it to the other way-'round, as players shouldn't die en-masse
	    for some other bozos screw-up :)


Well, that's it for now!

Danny

+--------------------------------------->
| Danhiel Baker // Derkhil CatSpawn         /) /)     Fade away
| dbaker@sa.dcs.uga.edu                    ( o o )    into the
| dbaker@jb.ucns.uga.edu                    = x =     ethereal grey...
| Work: 542-0123  Pager: 369-2781          m     m    
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