03-10-2009, 12:31 PM
I took what ya wrote and added a few things odium. Really great suggestions btw.
Tracking could work like this;
If your in,
- a house/boat region your status will be "hidden"
- a blue(guarded) town(region) your status will be "In x town"
- a mine your status will be "hidden" (Or possibly when gathering resources in general so its not just lumberjacks getting picked on)
- combat your status could be "hidden"
- Newbie player status automatically "hidden" till a skill or timecap is reached.
- If you are invisable or hidden in game, status "hidden"
Or like this;
tracking should only be on when,
- your in a no pvp zone (ex, pits,tornyarea,eventarea)
- a red TOWN
- a dungeon / world pve area such as chimera fortress or yew crypts
- if your order/chaos when your in a blue town.
Would also be cool to see a new area like a dungeon/castle whatever, that as soon as anyone enters they are trackable. But the castle could have like a +20% to loots or something in this place, so it attracts the more daring people. It would have to be designed not to be a cluster**** like some of the dungeons though so PvP could take place without getting fs'd by 10 mobs. So like a series of big bosses which drop really good stuff, but if you go to try and take them down, you need to expect an assault on your team by other players.
Edit: Heres another idea as well. How bout we take some of those spells we dont use, and put them to use for this if it ever happens? I'll give an example.
Say using inscription you can create a scroll of fog or something. This could be used to combat a Seer's stone which could be made by alchemy. So in order to get coordinates of someone they must use a resource, this seer's stone which costs around 5k to make, but if someone is under the effects of a scroll of fog (say it lasts 10 minutes per cast, around 5k to make as well) they will perhaps get incorrect info or a blurred vision of where they may be. You get where I'm going with this, if PvP'ers want this tracking ability they can at least be using it in an RP friendly way.
I think its much better to do it like this. A set of rules of places where people are always hidden is essential to lay out and agree upon though, odiums definitely on the right track. On a personal note though, as I know this will come up, I dont think people should be entitled to invisability on a rp/pvp shard. People will say "Why should we have to pay 5k to be untrackable for 10 mins? We never had to pay nothing before." Well if you want to avoid all danger from other players, thats something you should have to pay for and should have its limitations... In my opinion anyway. This is because the uo map is SO large, its intended for many many many more players then we have, people have relative invincibility in that they cannot be found at all, so we must find a way to bring players together in interaction. Thats where the fun is! Right now its like a singleplayer game where you occasionally run into someone else. But with a system like this, you get that feeling of paranoia, but it doesnt mean pvpers can just constantly hit refresh in their browser and find you non stop all day long. They have to use it as an element of suprise, tactically, or be prepared to spend 100k to stalk someone all over the map, if the other person hasnt just decided ok I need to use a scroll of fog now. Both sides contributing to the crafting economy.
Edit again (sorry I hate doubleposting): I'm not sure if it would be possible, but instead of giving coords, maybe use the treasure map system? What I mean is, uo generates those tmaps from its same map file as everything else uses. So it could be made I think to return a small map of the area the person is in. This could be beneficial because rather than coords its showing the area, the pk'er seeking his victim would have to take a moment to think on what area it could be etc.
Tracking could work like this;
If your in,
- a house/boat region your status will be "hidden"
- a blue(guarded) town(region) your status will be "In x town"
- a mine your status will be "hidden" (Or possibly when gathering resources in general so its not just lumberjacks getting picked on)
- combat your status could be "hidden"
- Newbie player status automatically "hidden" till a skill or timecap is reached.
- If you are invisable or hidden in game, status "hidden"
Or like this;
tracking should only be on when,
- your in a no pvp zone (ex, pits,tornyarea,eventarea)
- a red TOWN
- a dungeon / world pve area such as chimera fortress or yew crypts
- if your order/chaos when your in a blue town.
Would also be cool to see a new area like a dungeon/castle whatever, that as soon as anyone enters they are trackable. But the castle could have like a +20% to loots or something in this place, so it attracts the more daring people. It would have to be designed not to be a cluster**** like some of the dungeons though so PvP could take place without getting fs'd by 10 mobs. So like a series of big bosses which drop really good stuff, but if you go to try and take them down, you need to expect an assault on your team by other players.
Edit: Heres another idea as well. How bout we take some of those spells we dont use, and put them to use for this if it ever happens? I'll give an example.
Say using inscription you can create a scroll of fog or something. This could be used to combat a Seer's stone which could be made by alchemy. So in order to get coordinates of someone they must use a resource, this seer's stone which costs around 5k to make, but if someone is under the effects of a scroll of fog (say it lasts 10 minutes per cast, around 5k to make as well) they will perhaps get incorrect info or a blurred vision of where they may be. You get where I'm going with this, if PvP'ers want this tracking ability they can at least be using it in an RP friendly way.
I think its much better to do it like this. A set of rules of places where people are always hidden is essential to lay out and agree upon though, odiums definitely on the right track. On a personal note though, as I know this will come up, I dont think people should be entitled to invisability on a rp/pvp shard. People will say "Why should we have to pay 5k to be untrackable for 10 mins? We never had to pay nothing before." Well if you want to avoid all danger from other players, thats something you should have to pay for and should have its limitations... In my opinion anyway. This is because the uo map is SO large, its intended for many many many more players then we have, people have relative invincibility in that they cannot be found at all, so we must find a way to bring players together in interaction. Thats where the fun is! Right now its like a singleplayer game where you occasionally run into someone else. But with a system like this, you get that feeling of paranoia, but it doesnt mean pvpers can just constantly hit refresh in their browser and find you non stop all day long. They have to use it as an element of suprise, tactically, or be prepared to spend 100k to stalk someone all over the map, if the other person hasnt just decided ok I need to use a scroll of fog now. Both sides contributing to the crafting economy.
Edit again (sorry I hate doubleposting): I'm not sure if it would be possible, but instead of giving coords, maybe use the treasure map system? What I mean is, uo generates those tmaps from its same map file as everything else uses. So it could be made I think to return a small map of the area the person is in. This could be beneficial because rather than coords its showing the area, the pk'er seeking his victim would have to take a moment to think on what area it could be etc.