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Track
Scumm
Member UncommonPosts: 78
I was a big fan of the skill 'Track' back in eq. It was actually pretty valuable to know what mobs were present in a zone and to be able to find them quickly. Do you think Track will make a comeback in Pantheon? How might it work? Who should have it? Here's a few thoughts I've had:
- Track could improve via use or level. The more proficient you are, the greater your range or amount of mobs you can find, etc. At certain skill levels, mobs could appear as unknown and you would have to find them to know what they are.
- There could be a visual representation in the world. Back in eq track was text that would appear periodically saying "Your target is to the left". That was great, but now that technology has advanced maybe it would be better to have literal tracks on the ground to follow. And hopefully it would be more subtle than a glowing orange line... This could also leave some of the challenge on the players actual ability to follow tracks of varying difficulty.
- Track should be able to find corpses. I never understood why it couldn't in eq. Surely whatever died left tracks before it did. Why was that a separate skill?
- Maybe players could leave markers in a zone that they can reliably track to find again. Not permanently, but it would be an interesting addition to the skill. A Ranger could mark the entrance to the zone, or a specific camp, and then return to it easily.
Hopefully Pantheon is a large enough world where track will be a valuable skill.
Comments
I loved track as well. I share the hope for a world big and SCARY enough that track is valuable.
If the world is not scary enough people just "body check" for spawns.
MMOs finally replaced social interaction, forced grouping and standing in a line while talking to eachother.
Now we have forced soloing, forced questing and everyone is the hero, without ever having to talk to anyone else. The evolution of multiplayer is here! We won,... right?
I have a feeling track is going to be relevant for all the reasons it was in EQ, and more. Reason I say this is because it seems like VR want to mix things up when it comes to the way dungeons work and camping in particular. I'm sure camping could still exist in its classic form, but I think we will be seeing more randomness and encouragement to crawl in dungeons versus just staying in one spot farming exclusively, as it existed in EQ.
This is totally speculation, but I can't think of a way to do this without adding a bit more randomness to the equation. If there is one thing that tracking is good for, its finding mobs that may not always be in the same places...
I dislike randomness a great deal. The less randomness the better ;-)
Track can be useful without screwing unlucky people like me over with randomness haha
MMOs finally replaced social interaction, forced grouping and standing in a line while talking to eachother.
Now we have forced soloing, forced questing and everyone is the hero, without ever having to talk to anyone else. The evolution of multiplayer is here! We won,... right?
I doubt it will be completely random, then again I'm just trying to piece together things I read. At one point they said they said they didn't want dungeons to be too static and that camping was not what they originally intended for Everquest.
Just looking at the way early EQ changed from static named to a system with multiple names in the same spots, named with numerous spawnpoints, and rare items spread across multiple mobs and even common mobs, I think they are probably going to find a system that mixes it up some and gives people more of a reason to move around. That kind of thing is great for trackers.
Yeah, randomness will really increase the value of a Track skill. A wandering npc is the perfect application. It's useful for the randomness of a dungeon spawn too. If you want to know what you might be facing in the next room, or if you just want to find mobs to pull more efficiently.
Tracking in a dungeon was weird in EQ, I think it acted as more of a homing beacon. It pointed you in the current direction of the npc, which may have been through a wall or above or below you. In an open zone, it was useful because it gave you the most direct route to your target, but in a maze-like dungeon it just made things difficult.
I'm not sure what this would require from a technology standpoint but, it might be more immersive if you were actually following a trail that the npc left. So instead of psychically knowing that they were right next to you, you would have to follow their path and catch up to them.
But i love camping in EQ.
It was a great way of socializing with your group. The more a group has to move, the less time there is for chatting. It is a fine line between being boring because you don't have stuff to do,... and rushing content like current WoW dungeons for example. The later one negates socializing 100% because half the dungeon is clear before you can say "hello".
Just hope they don't go overboard on "new ideas" and "stuff they want to test". The old systems worked and are the main reason people are interested in a small team of people that want to do a new Everquest,... change it too much and we end up getting something else that noone really wanted.
Again: I understand there is a fine line between going all old school and viability. Hitting that mark is not easy tho and quite a lot of the ideas floating around this forum gravitate towards implementing systems that "could work", "should work", "sound better" ect. But however they sound, they are not EQ like and produce a game that is something else. They may be great... for something else. But please let this one game be our real EQ sequel,.. just this one game :-)
MMOs finally replaced social interaction, forced grouping and standing in a line while talking to eachother.
Now we have forced soloing, forced questing and everyone is the hero, without ever having to talk to anyone else. The evolution of multiplayer is here! We won,... right?
pond_scumm
I like track as well, and you presented some creative ideas
Bullet 1 - Agreed, and I liked how in EQ as your tracking skill raised, so did your ability.
Bullet 2: If footprints could be visible, I assume they would be some sort of graphical feature that may be toggleable on/off depending on your computer specs (and not all rangers most likely will be playing on max graphics).
I get your idea and like it in theory, but I'm not sure how it could be implemented practically more than just basically a creative version of /find NPC
Bullet 3: Class interdependency, it gave another class a utility skill. And, I would also guess if every corpse was on the tracking bar there would be no room for NPCs - especially in Greater Faydark as a newbie. I wouldn't be opposed to this one though.
Bullet 4: Not a bad idea here, a ranger could basically scout new areas, leave a marker, and later bring a group there. However, how would the ranger track the marker without it seeming like an artificial /find marker?
Well, the problem of seeing too many corpses (not to mention someone's corpse 1, 2, 3, etc.) could probably be solved through a filter. But I see your point about class inter-dependency. I guess I was always just annoyed that another class got that skill and I didn't
. I lost a lot of raw-hide armor on corpses I couldn't find in Greater Faydark!
And you make a good point about the marker idea. A truly capable Ranger would be able to keep track of where they are in a zone without an artificial /find.
One could maybe argue that "As a Ranger, my character should be good at navigating a forest even if I (as a player) am not". And that argument could extend to other things, like manual dodge or attack mechanics ("As a Monk, my character should be good at dodging even if I as a player am not good at dodging attacks"). Which elements of a character should be controlled by statistics and dice rolls, and which parts should rely on player skill? I do think the majority of Pantheon fans would agree we don't want a manual dodge or attack. But would a Ranger having a /find command be too far?