Stalking

[NiteHawk]

How should stalking work?

I am trying to figure out how I should handle stalking server side so its rather quick. I have some ideas but wanted to know a few things from you guys.

-How far should stalking go? I don\t think it should be unlimited, I think there should be a certain amount of steps in which stalking 'fades'. Not only for server memory/speed, but because I don't think you should be able to stalk someone from one side of a map to another. I 'can' do unlimited if we want, but I mainly disagree with endless.

-Was backtrack really useful? Should we just have /stalk?

-Autosneak will stop a player from stalking you, as will being hidden in some sort of method (Spells). Is there anything else I am missing here?

[Lateralus]

Maybe double your level? maybe a slight bonus for level 25? It was endless before but i believe it got stuck in loops so it wasn't always useful.

im not sure backtrack was super useful it was basically a way to auto walk back to towns and crap. i mean coding wise you just stalked yourself so it prob wouldnt be too hard to code?

[NiteHawk]

Maybe double your level? maybe a slight bonus for level 25? It was endless before but i believe it got stuck in loops so it wasn't always useful.

im not sure backtrack was super useful it was basically a way to auto walk back to towns and crap. i mean coding wise you just stalked yourself so it prob wouldnt be too hard to code?

Yeah it is not really the coding, and yeah it would virtually be stalking yourself. Reason why I do not find it useful. It isn't really meant to move yourself lazy mode to a city.

I would say even more that then for the range though, Like 5+(Level*3). Would give 80 squares at level 25. It should be meant more of a close hunting skill, not an endless type thing.

I was thinking though of adding a way to get people you can track though, not sure if that would be too op though. I.E. /find> "You find tracks from NiteHawk, Lateralus, and Colaboy!"

[Lateralus]

Maybe double your level? maybe a slight bonus for level 25? It was endless before but i believe it got stuck in loops so it wasn't always useful.

im not sure backtrack was super useful it was basically a way to auto walk back to towns and crap. i mean coding wise you just stalked yourself so it prob wouldnt be too hard to code?

Yeah it is not really the coding, and yeah it would virtually be stalking yourself. Reason why I do not find it useful. It isn't really meant to move yourself lazy mode to a city.

I would say even more that then for the range though, Like 5+(Level*3). Would give 80 squares at level 25. It should be meant more of a close hunting skill, not an endless type thing.

I was thinking though of adding a way to get people you can track though, not sure if that would be too op though. I.E. /find> "You find tracks from NiteHawk, Lateralus, and Colaboy!"

Haha who you could track would be sweet. When pking I'd usually just /i a-z to see who's on then try tracking everyone.

[Rodeo]

Backtrack was used before the automat for mail when people got lost I tbought? 80 squares seems pretty reasonable.

[thirdchris]

It was almost impossible to catch someone with the use of /stalk. I'm pretty sure most of us just macro'd who we were tracking and only used it when you had multiple squares someone could have gone.

I think maybe my point is, if there was some way to combine the usage of the two so that /stalk was more of a movement assist as opposed to something that moves you. Such as, when stalking and you enter a room, it automatically /tracks where the target went.

[NiteHawk]

It was almost impossible to catch someone with the use of /stalk. I'm pretty sure most of us just macro'd who we were tracking and only used it when you had multiple squares someone could have gone.

I think maybe my point is, if there was some way to combine the usage of the two so that /stalk was more of a movement assist as opposed to something that moves you. Such as, when stalking and you enter a room, it automatically /tracks where the target went.

True, but stalking in ROK was slow too. You didn't move very fast due to a timer. We could always decrease the timer a bit or maybe make it INT based as well (I.E. With 20 int you could move 4 squares a second, with 10 int you move 2 squares a second.). I want to give some bonuses to other stats that could be useful if people actually put into INT for example for them.

However, I kind of agree with just one stat, called /track. It would involve telling you where the player went automatically when entering the room. and you could do a /track with no name to get a listing. I think that actually might be far better then auto stalking. Maybe tracking could have a delay depending on int. Not talking about a huge delay, but 24 int could be 0.1 sec while 12 int coudl be 0.2 or 0.3. Something minor.

[alvarlux]

/track sounds awesome.

I assume if you /track [name], it would remain active till you lose the trail, or do you have to type it each room?

I.E

You move North

You are in the room. exits are north, east and south.

(Delay based on Int?)

[Automatic] You find tracks from [Name] leading east.

[thirdchris]

It was almost impossible to catch someone with the use of /stalk. I'm pretty sure most of us just macro'd who we were tracking and only used it when you had multiple squares someone could have gone.

I think maybe my point is, if there was some way to combine the usage of the two so that /stalk was more of a movement assist as opposed to something that moves you. Such as, when stalking and you enter a room, it automatically /tracks where the target went.

True, but stalking in ROK was slow too. You didn't move very fast due to a timer. We could always decrease the timer a bit or maybe make it INT based as well (I.E. With 20 int you could move 4 squares a second, with 10 int you move 2 squares a second.). I want to give some bonuses to other stats that could be useful if people actually put into INT for example for them.

However, I kind of agree with just one stat, called /track. It would involve telling you where the player went automatically when entering the room. and you could do a /track with no name to get a listing. I think that actually might be far better then auto stalking. Maybe tracking could have a delay depending on int. Not talking about a huge delay, but 24 int could be 0.1 sec while 12 int coudl be 0.2 or 0.3. Something minor.

Yeah I honestly don't see a need for a command to move the player. Doing what you suggested seems like a great idea to me.

[Lateralus]

It was almost impossible to catch someone with the use of /stalk. I'm pretty sure most of us just macro'd who we were tracking and only used it when you had multiple squares someone could have gone.

I think maybe my point is, if there was some way to combine the usage of the two so that /stalk was more of a movement assist as opposed to something that moves you. Such as, when stalking and you enter a room, it automatically /tracks where the target went.

True, but stalking in ROK was slow too. You didn't move very fast due to a timer. We could always decrease the timer a bit or maybe make it INT based as well (I.E. With 20 int you could move 4 squares a second, with 10 int you move 2 squares a second.). I want to give some bonuses to other stats that could be useful if people actually put into INT for example for them.

However, I kind of agree with just one stat, called /track. It would involve telling you where the player went automatically when entering the room. and you could do a /track with no name to get a listing. I think that actually might be far better then auto stalking. Maybe tracking could have a delay depending on int. Not talking about a huge delay, but 24 int could be 0.1 sec while 12 int coudl be 0.2 or 0.3. Something minor.

Yeah I honestly don't see a need for a command to move the player. Doing what you suggested seems like a great idea to me.

+1