Scout Archive
Thread: Delta, whats the latest tally on mask scent?
KD,
That's a very interesting hypothesis. We'll need to test that out.
Anyone else have this problem?
B
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Yes very interesting, I have been a Master for ages and have started to have loads of problems of late. I was standing next to somebody with less Scout skills than me and my Mask was breaking all the time. It even breaks laying prone without moving. There has been a change somewhere as it feels like I have the skill of a Novice at the moment.
Final post on this one. And short this time even. 
Yes you are correct, I remember when Ronto/Bolle types did break it although they are non-aggressives. I have only encountered one break by non-aggressives since the last patch,It was a gorgon Tatooine. It was the only mob on my HUD and radar, otherwise I would have posited that break to anyaggressive on my HUD. I assumed and still assume it was a glitch that a nonaggressive broke it that time. My overall break rate is still higher than when Rontos/Bolles could break Maskscent.
I note your comment re: Conceal. Since itappears to have beenimplementedwith the same code as Maskscent exceptwhat appears to be a longer timer and a reported (but not my experience) extension to NPC humanoids, I am, shall we say, dubious, that it will be made more reliable than Maskscent. I would like to be proven wrong, but my hunch is the extension to NPC humanoids will be implemented and considered a sufficient improvement for the foreseeable future. (The experience argument would apply equally to Conceal.)
I note that some upcoming scouts may want the experience now. I bet when they hit 4 0 4 0 they will wish they had a reliable skill instead. When someone is using Maskscent not as a skill but to grind experience, the one break message after five experience messages is not a problem. After all it refreshes faster now so they can get back to grinding experience with it. Theyaren't using it forthe stealth component (the functional part of the skill), only the experience gain. It smells like an exploit. Sad that this is the sticking point when Harvest alone produces Scouting experience so rapidly.
The 100% argument, yes, which is why I was careful to say approaches 100% over a large enough sampling. In truth, I think the overall chances are slightly lower and your 75% experience is about where the break by groups rate is overall. I suspect my fail rate is abnormally high at this time at 25% and will eventually average out with a spell of fewer breaks. However, I'm reporting my experience, not what I suspect may happen over time. That being said 75% failure versus groups is still too high. I think we all know this. Itseems to bethe experience issue that is keepingthe devsfrom moving this number to something more helpful.
As an example I was escorting a fellow PA member to a harvester. He ran by a diseased vrelt lair and was ignored. One broke my maskscent and came charging after despite the fact that I intentionally ran a bit further from the vrelt. With a 25% chance of the lowest level aggressives breaking my mask, it should not incite an increased chance of aggression.
Overall though I must agree with Dverr. I would rather a reliable skill over one that gives experience, and I have been here through all the maskscent changes to see the difference between them. My skill shouldn't be a liability, it should provide a bonus.
Once again, I have to say that I think the current breaking of mask scent is due to the experience cap and is a bug rather than any intentional design.
I continually get mobs breaking my mask scent outside of the 64k range. While my friends who have not hit their experience cap work fine.
DeltaXi65 wrote:
KD,
That's a very interesting hypothesis. We'll need to test that out.
Anyone else have this problem?
B
I maxxed just recently and have detected a larger amount of breaking than before. I noticed this because I no longer get any exp messages for running by critters.
What has stayed the same is the fact that lower level critters(1 - 20) will break mask scent much more often than higher level critters. I have a perfect example from this morning. I was on Dathomir hunting for Grauls to tame. I logged in in the morning and found myself in the largest amount of Graul spawns I have ever seen (like grauls every 100m) There were other creatures as well, purboles and mites mostly.
Now I had quite a bit of mask scent breaking (thank god I can reapply faster now). But more often than not it was always the purboles or the mites that broke it. I was on for about one hour and my mask scent broke more than a dozen times at least. Now considering this is Dathomir I wouldn't have much problem if it was the Grauls who were doing the breaking. But it was usually the purboles or mites that broke it. They were the under lvl 20 kind too.
I actually only had 1 graul break my mask scent and aggro me the entire time. This was when I ran towards the spawn to try and grab a baby. (Now if you ask that was suicide, yeah i know it was but I had already gotten two other babies so I wasnt being as careful.)
Delta,
Do you know if the check for maskscent is the same for the 60's checks as the 30's checks? What I mean is most critters check mask scent at two points one out around 50-60 and one closer. Now are these checks the same? Considering that if you are farther away I would think that it would be easier to avoid detection on the farther away check.
Shnelle,
I don't know if it is the distance so much as the critter's ferocity - as that governs how close they'll let you get before attacking. I'll try and get a better clarification on this if I can.
B
This range should be reduced. I don't care if it reduces the xp i get overall. It will also greatly reduce the attacks i get from creatures that are well outside of standard aggro range.
For the record I'm a novice ranger (though dissappointed enough with the available skill set that i've untrained most all of it.)
Wrrli