Ranger Archive
Thread: How useful is ranger tracking?
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Bermag
Sun Jul 25, 2004 10:41 am
#1
I have been thinking of picking up soem ranger skills to get area terackign to help my locating Krayt and other interesting creatures. But I have read that tracking will only work if the spawn is loaded on the server (i.e. someone is close to the spawn). If it is like that when tracking is pretty useless isnce if someone is close to the spawn it is usually to late (ate least if you don't do kill stealing)
Flenst
Sun Jul 25, 2004 11:45 am
#2
There's a slight difference in behavior between mission spawns and wild spawns. Mission spawns generally, but not always,only load once the mission holder gets close, but wild spawns do load on the server even if there's no one nearby to see them, and that's precisely where our tracking comes into play. Naturally, the spawn system is always in a state of flux, as far as I can tell, so sometimes things load after you've done /areatrack and you can miss them, which is why it is generally recommended to wait about 5-10 seconds after stopping to begin tracking. It does work though, and I've used it a lot to find rare and interesting creatures.
Calculus_Entropy
Sun Jul 25, 2004 9:36 pm
#3
Sorry Flenst, I have to disagree. A person needs to be around to spawn critters,even the wild spawns.
Bermag, I will tell you that tracking ishit or miss. In general, I like it, and it even got me the mark of courage. I set up a general area (with waypoints) to find the boar. I actually tracked the boar 250m outside of my search grid. So, I would have missed it without tracking. I have also tracked plenty of Black Sun spawns.
Now, on to your specific request. Tracking krayts is really a tough prospect. They need to be spawned to be able to be tracked, and honestly, there is only one time I have ever tracked a Krayt before the rest of my group found one. If you have other people looking for them, it might be hard to beat them to the spawn.
So, honeslty, if all you want is to track krayts, then I would advise against it. If you want to track for less popular (i.e. not camped) critters, on a daily basis, then tracking is indeed worth it. I will also mention that the harvesting mod is in the same line as traking, and that may influence your decision as well.
Bermag
Tue Aug 03, 2004 6:55 am
#4
Thx for the reply
How close must you be to a spawn so it get loaded?
Not sure I understand 100% how the spawn system works. Is the spawn generated by the server but not loaded into the system until someone is near or how does it work?
Or is it that when a person enters a area there is a check if the server should spawn something or not?
I try to kill off existing spawns to force a new. Does it work or a waste of time?
--
I am in Europe so when I go Krayt hunting there are not that many people around.
Spent 2 hours yesterday and no krayt spawns (other than one I saw just in front of me but that might have been a Scythe quest spawn - was another person there as well. Did my own scythe quest and the treasure was at the same location). Had to kill it to see if it is true they have no loot (true and you could not even harvest it)
Last time was better. Found a spawn of Krayts, however Giant Canyon Krayt. Actually I did nto find it, the Kryat found me. Was driving around sending tell and WHAM it knocked me off my bike. Killed2 of them, 2 disappeared when hunting them (how much do I hate that), then I run out of powerups and buffs and had to leave lol. Hehe it was fun to drag one dragon to a squad of imperial NPC. took the krayt 10 seconds or so to kill them all lol
Calculus_Entropy
Tue Aug 03, 2004 7:03 am
#5
Bermag wrote:
Thx for the reply
How close must you be to a spawn so it get loaded?
Darn fine question...anyone know? I will ask on the Corr forumas well...
Not sure I understand 100% how the spawn system works. Is the spawn generated by the server but not loaded into the system until someone is near or how does it work?
I think it is similar to that...The server generates the spawn, and depending on ones' lag and whatnot, it will appear on different computers at different times. Quite often, I have been able to avoid a fight becuase I saw a spawn before the person ahead of me did...it took a while to figure out why my buds seemed to like to walk right through a lair of Wrixes...
Or is it that when a person enters a area there is a check if the server should spawn something or not?
That is part of it, but I don't know how big the 'area' is...
I try to kill off existing spawns to force a new. Does it work or a waste of time?
The consensus is that this is indeed a great way to get new and potentially dofferent spawns to appear. This works, in part, due to the spawning system caps (i.e. if the cap for spawns is 100 lairs and there are 100 bantha lairs there, how can a krayt spawn?).
Springbok
Tue Aug 03, 2004 7:16 am
#6
Calculus_Entropy wrote:
How close must you be to a spawn so it get loaded?
Darn fine question...anyone know? I will ask on the Corr forumas well...
Speculation only. It would have to be equal to or greater than 500 meters right? If you hop off a speeder and track immediately, and only player in the radius, nothing should show up on track (unless you find a static timed spawn site). But once the server registers your sticking around, things start to pop. They would have to provide (lol in theory only) enough spawn radius to meet all players skills...aka tracking 4.
Another question if I may: Does the server measure in grids? And if so what size? What I am getting at is if you track, and nothing shows up, (and grids of determinable size are used for measuring) how far to you HAVE to run to inspire a new track?
Bermag
Wed Aug 04, 2004 6:44 am
#7
Can it work something like this:
1) Server restart: (easier to start here). Let say is is a cap of 100 lairs. location (and type) for those 100 lairs are generated on the server. But no lair and creatures walking around are loaded in the gameworld (server). This probably to save processing power since every crature need to be controlled where it walk and do (attack other creatures). No need to have those around when no players are in the location.
2) A player login. When he enter the area (my guess is that it is much less than the 500m rangers cna track or you would always find everything in that area), all lairs and the creatures in that area are generated and loaded into the game world. Creatures now starts to walk around sit, lay down eat a bunny or whatever they do. This will take some time (both to generate on the server and to download to the client program) so that is why it takes some time before you see the creatures when you enter a new area.
3) When the player leaves an area new lairs and creatures are loaded etc like in 2). This isprobablynot done continually (if it would do this every m you travel lag would be really bad but it might do when you stop moving) and that is why you sometimes find yourself inside a camp or something spawns on top of you whenyou travel by bike. If it works like this, it is not because of lag this happens (more because of avoiding lag) but design. Still there are lag because the client need to be told about the new objects (and why you see the creatures and not your friend).
4) When a player destroy a spawn/lair (to my knowledge it looks likespawns without a lair for example NPC will disappear after the third time you kill all in spawn) this frees up a slot on the server to place a new spawn (question is if it is on theplanet as whole or area; my guess is in the area,how large area I have no idea). A new location for the spawn is generated. if a player is in that area it will load into gameworld (and be trackable etc). Not sure if this is done immidiatly (server reacts that now a lair is destroyed, make another) or at given intervalls (like for exampel once every minute server checks if there are any free room to place new lairs and do that all at one time).
This is pure speculation but I think it seems reasonable it works like this when thinking about what you see in game. Never thought much about it until now. I can understand what kind of problems developer were faced with when they made mounts and bikes.
What do you think? Any flaws in my theory. To bad that SOE never tells anything about game mechanics.
lol, why do I post on Ranger forum, I am not even a ranger. But here seems to be some good discussions unlike many FOTM forums
Message Edited by Bermag on 08-04-2004 09:48 AM
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