Ranger Archive

Lourdes,

Tracking can be very helpful, but it does have limitations. Tracking allows you to track existing spawns only. In the first box it only tells you what is around, no direction or distance. As you go up the tree you get more information and the ability to track other things like NPCs and players. So for example, in tracking 4 you would see the following:

Crazed Gurrek 326m SE (or something similar to this)

You now know what distance to run and how far. This is limited by the fact that while running towards your target other things could spawn. Crazed Gurreks might spawn 10 meters way because they were triggered by your presence. So sometimes running around may get you more targets than actually tracking them. Some people will speed around the area for a while to encourage spawns, then track and pick the ones they want to kill.

Tracking Jedi. I have been asked several times to track Jedi and have never found any. I have, however, successfully tracked and stalked my friends, so the skill does work. Two things limit this: Players move around, and players move around FAST on speeders. Your range is only 500m. If you know a jedi is fighting in the area however, areatrack will pin them down.

Er... not that I have ever done this, being a rebel and all!

Areatrack will also tell you whether what you are tracking is a (baby), which is good for CHs but maybe not you so much! It will also, strangely enough, track the space shuttle. /shrug

What do I use areatrack for? I mainly use areatrack to find the highest level animals in the area, so I dont waste time on stuff that gives tiny amounts of meat and xp. I use it to find misplaced friends while hunting. I also use it to figure out if the person I have found using the search button is actually in my area. This is useful when I want to be trained. I have started characters on other servers and I find it VERY frustrating to notbe able to track people when I want to, so I would say I use this skill regularly and enjoy it.

EDIT: To agree with what Calc says, it is also good for tracking rare animals, if you know a place where they spawn frequently. I have located many giant dune kimos and peko albatrosses using areatrack.

Message Edited by Vorpaks on 05-06-2004 12:49 PM

What about using it to track an NPC spawn like the Black Sun NPC's? Is it useful to do that? BTW thanks for all the other helpful comments.

Lourdes Lunae

NPC spawns are similar to animal spawns I believe. Just because you cant track them doesn't mean they are not there. You need to trigger the spawns first using the speeder method or luck.

I did something similar when I needed Jabba faction to do the theme park. I tracked down Valarians and slaughtered them lol. So on areatrack (at tracking 4 level) you will see:

Annie Osto (a black sun operative) 326m SE

NPCs are refered to as "People" on areatrack, as opposed to "animals" and "players" (I think - I have a bad memory though!)

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stevebmbsqd wrote:

What about using it to track an NPC spawn like the Black Sun NPC's? Is it useful to do that? BTW thanks for all the other helpful comments.

Lourdes Lunae

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It tracks NPC's exactly like it does other players and creatures. So, if the spawn is within 500m of you, you can find it. I haven't tried it on Black Sun NPC's but it used to work very nicely for hunting down FS mobs on Dantooine (i.e. before they added the cities that make it so nothing spawns).

Lythender Nirou
Master Ranger/Master Rifleman
Eclipse Server

Right, if you are a master BH, then you will have a 450 meter radius (master rangers have 500)

using A=pi*radius^2: you will be able to scan roughly 636,000 meters or area surrounding you in a circle. (/ar bugs and ghosts not included)

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AgonThalia wrote:
using A=pi*radius^2: you will be able to scan roughly 636,000 meters or area surrounding you in a circle. (/ar bugs and ghosts not included)

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+confused+

A equals pie star... pie in the sky... Mmmmm... pie. My understanding ended there. Enlightenment for an English Major?

• Area = pi * radius * radius

pi (3.1415...)is a fudged number that someone made up way back when. To get the area you can search you multiply 3.1415 * 500m radius * 500m radius and get 785,375 square meterswhere you can see what has spawned within you search radius. These numbers are for a Master Ranger.

So if I ah.. "root" for you... would that be some sort of math pun?

I think I understood all that - amazingly. I have to dig out my old college math books! Or did we learn this in highschool?

I don't think I learned the ^ thing until I picked up a TI-83 graphing calculator, about a year ago.

But yeah, the basic formula for the Area of a circle was back in highschool/junior high.

Good call on the math pun.. I honestly didn't intend it, though. I'd be kind of a square if I went around making puns like that. Far too derivative anyhow. Inverse to my basic, non-punnish nature, really.

::flees::

heheh oops

math has been on the brain...just finished my calculus finals... (no relationship to our cold-blooded ranger friend)

didnt mean to confuse, but i think everyone explained my intent perfectly.