[Haukon]

Does anybody else agree ranger tracking needs to go or change.

When I track with my ranger I would like to see an actual trail of footprints belonging to the character I select. A trail that vanishes on rock and in water. To see the destination of the trail on a radar is ridiculous.

The ranger should have to leave stealth every 30 seconds to pick up the track again.

This would open up entire avenues of pvp. Imagine discovering you have a ranger tracking you, so you lure them beside a boulder outcropping and climb up the rocks in stealth, then wait for them to unstealth to regain the trail and you ambush them!

If you think you have no chance fighting them you can lose them in a river until the odds are more even.

Until something changes though I think the radar track needs to be abolished.

I guess my point is that I want improved world pvp and this is just one of the roadblocks. It's a pretty helpless feeling knowing there is a ranger out there tracking you and you have no way to hide.

Fix this and bring on world pvp objectives plz!

[stiiixy]

That and necro dots after res. Same old.

[zensome]

Originally Posted by Haukon Does anybody else agree ranger tracking needs to go or change. When I track with my ranger I would like to see an actual trail of footprints belonging to the character I select. A trail that vanishes on rock and in water. To see the destination of the trail on a radar is ridiculous. The ranger should have to leave stealth every 30 seconds to pick up the track again. This would open up entire avenues of pvp. Imagine discovering you have a ranger tracking you, so you lure them beside a boulder outcropping and climb up the rocks in stealth, then wait for them to unstealth to regain the trail and you ambush them! If you think you have no chance fighting them you can lose them in a river until the odds are more even. Until something changes though I think the radar track needs to be abolished. I guess my point is that I want improved world pvp and this is just one of the roadblocks. It's a pretty helpless feeling knowing there is a ranger out there tracking you and you have no way to hide. Fix this and bring on world pvp objectives plz!

Do you understand how much coding would be needed to implement this? You are talking a good three years worth.

Not to mention the lag that would be caused from the server constantly having to lay down foot prints from every toon in every zone.

[stiiixy]

Originally Posted by zensome Do you understand how much coding would be needed to implement this? You are talking a good three years worth. Not to mention the lag that would be caused from the server constantly having to lay down foot prints from every toon in every zone.

Huh? How hard is it for a ranger to 'track', which pulls them out of hide. It's not unlike any player doing any action being pulled from hide, and subsequently a successful track pops up footprints for the ranger to follow for the player. Considering there are at least two pair of shoes (black and red) that leave tracks already, what's so hard about leaving them up for longer? 3 years is a bit exagerated, even here at FC.

[zensome]

Originally Posted by stiiixy Huh? How hard is it for a ranger to 'track', which pulls them out of hide. It's not unlike any player doing any action being pulled from hide, and subsequently a successful track pops up footprints for the ranger to follow for the player. Considering there are at least two pair of shoes (black and red) that leave tracks already, what's so hard about leaving them up for longer? 3 years is a bit exagerated, even here at FC.

I don't think you understand the way games are put together.

I think you should hit your bong and go back to highdeas.

[Haukon]

Originally Posted by zensome Do you understand how much coding would be needed to implement this? You are talking a good three years worth. Not to mention the lag that would be caused from the server constantly having to lay down foot prints from every toon in every zone.

Expanding on code that is already in place shouldn't take three years and the only footprints layed down would be of the actual target being tracked, not everyone.

To ease the lag the initial track could make a direct path of footprints to the target and activate a footprint tracer starting at the targets current location. Each subsiquent track activation makes the footprint tracer reappear. The tracer could last 5 minutes from the most recent track activation to prevent lag.

This would make the track mechanic more fluid and less like a cheezy aoc buddy hack and I'm sure there are many other better ideas than this but the current track system needs something to make world pvp everyone's playground.

Option two like I originally suggested is to remove it altogether which is probably the more realistic approach.

[di85ll]

Originally Posted by zensome I don't think you understand the way games are put together. I think you should hit your bong and go back to highdeas.

Have you ever tried putting a game together? It's not easy. That would take at least 5 years. Everyone knows that.

Maybe you need a hit from the bong?

[zensome]

Originally Posted by Haukon Expanding on code that is already in place shouldn't take three years and the only footprints layed down would be of the actual target being tracked, not everyone. To ease the lag the initial track could make a direct path of footprints to the target and activate a footprint tracer starting at the targets current location. Each subsiquent track activation makes the footprint tracer reappear. The tracer could last 5 minutes from the most recent track activation to prevent lag. This would make the track mechanic more fluid and less like a cheezy aoc buddy hack and I'm sure there are many other better ideas than this but the current track system needs something to make world pvp everyone's playground. Option two like I originally suggested is to remove it altogether which is probably the more realistic approach.

The system would have to keep track of everyone on the tracking list's path's until you decide to select one person; meaning everyone would have to put down a digital foot print for you to track. that would be the easy part, but creating the graphics for a new tracking system would take for ever. You want to complicate the system by adding geography restrictions, more coding. It will take them a year to accept this as viable option, 6 months to plan it out and another year and a half to code.

Originally Posted by di85ll Have you ever tried putting a game together? It's not easy. That would take at least 5 years. Everyone knows that. Maybe you need a hit from the bong?

You just proved my point.

[Haukon]

Originally Posted by zensome The system would have to keep track of everyone on the tracking list's path's until you decide to select one person; meaning everyone would have to put down a digital foot print for you to track. that would be the easy part, but creating the graphics for a new tracking system would take for ever. You want to complicate the system by adding geography restrictions, more coding. It will take them a year to accept this as viable option, 6 months to plan it out and another year and a half to code.

First of all, read my second paragraph again. It eliminates the need of leaving any digital imprint by anyone until they are tracked. Then 5 minutes after the latest track attempt on a target the digital imprint is deactivated.

The system would only be keeping track of the few targets that are actually being tracked.

Second of all the graphics are already in place as Stiiixy has indicated. I've seen the blood trail tracks myself as well which is much more sophisticated graphically than a shadowy footprint.

The approval and design stage of any change has no relevance to the actual amount of code involved either. I can only base my estimate on how long it takes Funcom to develop things already in place and based on that for loose guidelines it shouldn't take more than a couple weeks to code.

How far down the priority list does this sit with me? A long way, but I'd rather see the track mechanic removed before any world pvp objectives are added until they find the time to squeeze in a proper track mechanic.

Deactivating the track ability should be easy.

[di85ll]

Originally Posted by zensome The system would have to keep track of everyone on the tracking list's path's until you decide to select one person; meaning everyone would have to put down a digital foot print for you to track. that would be the easy part, but creating the graphics for a new tracking system would take for ever. You want to complicate the system by adding geography restrictions, more coding. It will take them a year to accept this as viable option, 6 months to plan it out and another year and a half to code. You just proved my point.

Your point is it takes too long. Then you throw an insult.

How do you know how long it would take Funcom to implement this. Are you in the gaming industry? Do you create games like this from scratch or maintain games such as these? Even if you do, how do you know what resources they have to implement this system or what the most effective or efficient way of doing this for FUNCOM would be.

The suggestion is coming from a customer, not a game developer.

You think you know how long it would take but you don't so you really have no point, or suggestion, unless you are saying leave it as it is. I like the idea. I think I would like any idea at this point to change the existing system. Nobody is asking for it to happen over night. With the dual spec out the door and sprint system on the horizon, maybe something like this would be good to look at next.

So, what wouldn't take too long?