Ranger Archive

Does anyone think that areatrack should work indoors as well. Does a trail just disappear once someone walks inside? Does my character suddenly forget everything he know about ranger when he is not outdoors. I know it's not that big of an issue but I wanted to look for some characters from the expanded universe and cannot search indoors for them.
Later

I think this is as intended. Ranger tracking is more like the hunting trackers of old. Impression shape in the soil, transfer of a type of flower, specific smells(this may work inside if it wasn't for all that **edit** entertainer perfume), bent grass, broken twigs, the way animals are attracted to or reppelled from a specific area or direction, etc.

Theproblem appears to be mainlya game technology issue.

Interiorcoordinates don't correspond properly to the outside coordinate system.

• Previously, all players inside would show up on the list as -1m...


• The simplest solution was to simply remove those listings.

I do like alphaforge's rationalization of it though, and that is possibly why it was "fixed" the way it was.

To go along with the previous poster.....

I think that the areatrack command is accurate the way it is. We are masters of the wild and can notice (like Ben-Kenobi)when Bantha tracks are side by side or in a straight line. We can tell by direction of the tracks, smell and other game intangibles what was here earlier. The wild is our home and we are very familiar with it. However, towns are a little bit more enigmatic to Rangers than to others. For example Theed is paved over most of its area and tracks do disappear once you hit sidewalk I am willing to take suspension of disbelief in tracking over paved areas, but inside a building is a bit more unfamiliar to us.

just my opinion

Thanks, all good responses here, I guess i was thinking that if it working in the middle of a concrete jungle like the ones on corella then why not indoors. And I was not aware of the -1 issue. Though i think it should be all or nothing, works everywhere in the city or, not at all in cities.

Has anybody seen Corran Horn? I found his father about a month ago, but still cannot find him.

I really have to proofread better I spelt people wrong. LOL

Engine issues aside, I'd love to see tracking be more like the way alphaforge pointed out.

I can see why it would be nearly impossible to track someone indoors, but the blades of grass they bent on their way to that building don't unbend when they go inside. It should still be possible to track someone even if you didn't click the button til one moment after they stepped inside a building.

Here's one theory of how tracking could work, with a good bit of new code:

1) Click areatrack macro

2) Select target type (people)

3) Display all people within range, people that display -1 say "Indoors" instead.

4) Select a target you want to track, click OK

5) Query sent to target's client, client keeps track of its' own movements for the last30 minutes, or whatever is more reasonable. Client sends data back to server

6) Server sends movement info to tracker, displays as highlighted footprints on tracker's screen indicating which way they went.

That way you could still follow them up to the building they entered. With that setup you could even dothat funky cool stuff like making itmuch harderto see tracks that are on dense terrain (concrete, tile, etc.) and no tracks at all across water... it would even be possible to realistically evade a trackerby using terrain and buildings to your advantage=)

Yeah, far-fetched. But I'd love to see it happen =)

"Query sent to target's client, client keeps track of its' own movements for the last30 minutes, or whatever is more reasonable. Client sends data back to server"

Sadly, this one step essentially kills the idea...

• The developers would never rely on data that is stored on the client side.

"The Client is in hands of the Enemy."

Goood idea Doremar I would like to see something like that, but Nrass is right it would never fly. To easy to hack.