rebootedrock Report post Posted January 29, 2004 hey. i was sitting in wild management class looking at pics of animals when it hit me, i know what instinct could be used for!! ok check this.. we could have at lv 1 say rabbit tracks behind rabbits later we add deer.. so on. now! i though about how you wouldnt want them to show all the time, and so i think you could tie that into the combat grid. say you turn it on, if any animals(that you can see) have walked by in X amount of time you would see tracks.. they could be outlined in a color like yellow. about the prints- they could show and then dissapear after a period of time .. say 5 secs?(they would have to slowly fade to look good) special conditions- if its raining it makes the tracks dissaper in 2.5 sec? or you couldnt track at all. as to how to lv this... i dont have a clear enough idea to write it down here so i'll just say to tie it into a quest and make it purchaseable. (a good example is the guy who taught you to fight, he could have another option,advance in tracking) anyway tell what you think. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sander Report post Posted January 29, 2004 Sounds like a pretty good idea actually :-) It isn't often that someone posts an idea that hasn't been posted before (this is a *very* busy forum). Maybe you could tie this in with the 'animal nexus' as well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kedan Report post Posted January 29, 2004 yea that a cool idea the higher your animale nexuse the higher level animal's tracks you could see Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grum Report post Posted January 29, 2004 Good idea, very nice. Hope it's possible to implement this... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
duran Report post Posted January 29, 2004 yes, it could be done in theory. but how would you filter what kind of animal your after? diffrent colors? the biggest problem is the amount of data the server have to track and transmit unless you can somehow tell the server what kind of tracks your after. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kedan Report post Posted January 29, 2004 how about something like #track_rabbit or #track_deer Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Leeloo Report post Posted January 29, 2004 No, don't make everything server commands. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sander Report post Posted January 29, 2004 I agree with leeloo. You could simply have a 'footprint' texture for each type of animal and then just blend them over the ground. One at each square the animal walked. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Leeloo Report post Posted January 29, 2004 that could look great on fast graphics cards, if it was done right. However, it would probably slow down my single-digit-FPS even more... So there should be a way to turn it off (possibly in the el.ini). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sander Report post Posted January 29, 2004 Do you think so? The only place I could see that happen is with summoners. For the rest, the creatures are spaced out quite a lot (besides Isla Prima that is). What if summoned creatures didn't leave tracks? They are sort of animated dead things anyway. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Leeloo Report post Posted January 29, 2004 Depends on how many triangles the footsteps would be, but as it is now, when there are lots of players online (i.e. evening in europe), I have 0-3 FPS near the fireplace. Add a couple of rabbits walking through the area, and all the triangles they would leave... Hmm, wasn't there a setting once to show how many triangles are on screen? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
duran Report post Posted January 29, 2004 dont make them models, make the 2d objects like the bones that we have in the desert... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rebootedrock Report post Posted January 30, 2004 nice ideas.. nexus thing sounds good -that way we wouldnt have to make another "skill" really... i think that they could be color coorordinated.. say yellow rebbit, red deer ,blue snakes ,green fox ,purple puma ,white (pig thing i forget name)orange. and at later we could add say goblin tracks.. and such. as for how to deactivate it.. use the combat grid, it seems logical and its already implemented. what they should be.. well i kinda forgot about people with modem connections... :oops: if you didnt activate the combat grid then you should be ok. im not a programmer and i dont pretend to be. i have great ideas but I donot have the knowledge to explain how to im plement them(as to what they should be and what they should be made of) cool, I hope you consider this entropy. (Join Guild MMM today!!!) cya Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guthix Report post Posted January 30, 2004 I like this idea. If the footprint thing wouldnt work then you could put in some sort of command or something to make your character turn and face the direction of the nearest specified animal, the success rate and types of animal you want to locate being affected by your instinct attribute and animal nexus. Could make hunting down animals more interesting and fun. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Entropy Report post Posted January 30, 2004 Great idea. But it will be a text based thing. You type #track, and depending on your instinct,and maybe even nexuses, you'll get a message like: there might be a rabbit close to you, NW. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sander Report post Posted January 30, 2004 Depends on how many triangles the footsteps would be, but as it is now, when there are lots of players online (i.e. evening in europe), I have 0-3 FPS near the fireplace. Add a couple of rabbits walking through the area, and all the triangles they would leave... Hmm, wasn't there a setting once to show how many triangles are on screen? 2 triangles per walkable tile would do. So even in a very busy area like Isla Prima with the rabbits, you would get 30-100 extra triangles. Not something your GPU would choke on I think. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Entropy Report post Posted January 30, 2004 What about the bandwidth to send those triangles? No way! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Learner Report post Posted January 30, 2004 What if the client watched for 'nearby' activity and tracked the animal movement? This would be similar to being able to track only recent movement. If the animal wanders so far out that it 'vanish' for the client, you lose the tracks at that point? Of course you would need a time out or length limit on a trail so you don't have an area so covered with tracks that you can't see anything. That would mean no extra bandwidth is needed and puts all the extra loading only on the Client. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Leeloo Report post Posted January 30, 2004 Yeah, it could be done client-side. But don't make the tracks different colors, make them look real instead (a bear foot print looks nothing like a rabbit foot print) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
