Idea - Tracking and Treasure hunting

[Lord Chaos]

Inspired by the other thread.

What if the Tracking skill was upgraded to allow you to track the treasure location if you have the decoded map in your backpack (if you have multiple ones, it gives you a list to select, just like tracking normally does)

It will then tell you in which direction the treasure is located, easing the location process once you've found the area. Keeping both the fun of the hunt, but easing up the announce of having to dig all over again and again to find it.

This would also further diversify the treasure hunter template and it would revitalize the tracking skill.

 

[Fink]

Tracking is looking for signs of live quarry.

I don't think it's appropriate for finding buried treasure. I would rather see Tracking used for something related to mobile targets. I think it already gets a fair amount of use from Ninjas and the occasional pure Scout.

 

[Lady Storm]

Tracking whle a nice skill for other uses has no place in t hunting.
Many Thunters have a very full skill list as it is and couldnt aford to train another skill.

The simple adition of coordinates back on the maps will solve this. It doesnt interfear with random locations just gives the Thunter a more accurate way to pinpoint it once the area has been determined.

 

[popps]

Rather than using Tracking, I see more appropriate introducing further Cartography steps, 105, 110. 115 and 120.

The related powerscrolls will be found IN treasure Chests, not at spawns, with a random chance of spawning in any of the 6 levels (higher chests having a higher chance) as well as in fishing chests.

The higher the Cartography past 100.0, the more likely one will be to receive hinting messages to the correct location of the digged chest and from a wider range because of a greater Cartography experteese.

Oh, and items +skills won't help.....it will have to be real skill that one has trained up to receive the additional messaging help........

Also, this might open up room for level 7 (110 Cartography skill) and level 8 (120 Cartography skill) Treasure Maps further down the road......

 

[Lady Storm]

Popps like you dearly but hun as I said before most Thunters are maxed in skill points. Where do you think I can get these spare skill points to put into this expantion idea??

I doubt Cal and the dev will add more for use to do just that..... unless you know more then the rest of us???
Also what critters do you think they would place on as guardians??? I dont know if you have been on a T hunt of late but the mobs that pop up in a lvl6 are a handfull if the chest spawns the max number it can in the first dig up. Plus many dont have that many people to go with on some shards. Not to mention the Soloists who love the challenge. Id not mind a bigger map or two with major arti loot not the low junk we been getting... But One has to consider the size of the party and the mob that would guard it..... in my opinion its not worth the trouble it will cause in the end.

 

[popps]

most Thunters are maxed in skill points. Where do you think I can get these spare skill points to put into this expantion idea??

We are merely talking about a few more points to add to Cartography (anywhere from 0.1 to 20 more points....) which can be taken off of some other skill and put onto Cartography instead.

Besides, it is not that one "has to"..... If they want easier Chest location finding then they will have an option, add more points to their Cartography.

Don't want to add more points ? Then stay with 100.0 and have more trouble finding the location........
After all it is like without having mining skill today. One can still dig the chest up with no mining, it only is that it is harder to find it.......

Having more "options" from where to choose from does not necessarily mean that one has to do it.

As in regards to level 7 and 8 Maps I do not see nothing wrong in doing them in a group.......

 

[Old Man of UO]

Rather than using Tracking, I see more appropriate introducing further Cartography steps, 105, 110. 115 and 120. ...

NO! We don't need powerscrolls for every skill!

And as others pointed out, tracking really doesn't belong with Treasure Hunting. Don't make it more difficult, else you will take the enjoyment out of something that is finally fun and worthwhile doing once again. If you add all these requirements that others have mentioned - Tracking, Detect Hidden, Remove Traps, Power Scrolls - this part of the game will die out once again. Don't make the requirements harder even for higher level maps if they will ever exist.

 

[Babble]

Why not detect Hidden?

 

[Flutter]

Only if it replaces mining.

 

[Old Man of UO]

Why not detect Hidden?

Why make T-Hunting harder? Making it harder means fewer people will be willing to invest the time to do those. That's going the wrong way in my mind.

 

[Lord Chaos]

Tracking is looking for signs of live quarry.

Says who? Trackers have been used in many cultures to find both places of interest, treasures, paths, live targets, etc.

And as such, its a fantasy game, so it doesn't really matter so much to not only solve a problem for treasure hunting, but also give tracking some new life.

I don't think it's appropriate for finding buried treasure. I would rather see Tracking used for something related to mobile targets. I think it already gets a fair amount of use from Ninjas and the occasional pure Scout.

Not so much you can really do that would be useful enough to justify dev time though.

 

[Lord Chaos]

Popps like you dearly but hun as I said before most Thunters are maxed in skill points. Where do you think I can get these spare skill points to put into this expantion idea??

Your choice, you wouldn't HAVE to have tracking, it would just make treasure hunting easier. (btw, in regards to live quarry, a tracker could track the tracks of whomever made their way and buried the treasure, find telltale signs of where it would have been dug down, etc.)

If you don't want to use the skills, then don't. Some of us would.

 

[Lord Chaos]

NO! We don't need powerscrolls for every skill!

And as others pointed out, tracking really doesn't belong with Treasure Hunting. Don't make it more difficult, else you will take the enjoyment out of something that is finally fun and worthwhile doing once again. If you add all these requirements that others have mentioned - Tracking, Detect Hidden, Remove Traps, Power Scrolls - this part of the game will die out once again. Don't make the requirements harder even for higher level maps if they will ever exist.

Its only because of a short cut that makes remove traps meaningless.

Either way, introducing an optional skill does not make treasure hunting harder, it makes it more diversified.

 

[Old Man of UO]

Its only because of a short cut that makes remove traps meaningless.

Either way, introducing an optional skill does not make treasure hunting harder, it makes it more diversified.

Short cut? You mean using Telekinesis spell to remove the trap? That's not a short, it functions exactly as it was designed to. If you don't like to use the spell, you are welcome to take up the Remove Trap skill - nothing and no one is stopping you from doing that. I don't see how this would make it more diversified.

 

[Zyon Rockler]

Well, I haven't tested the new system yet but i'm sure it's pretty awesome, especially for skilled Tmap Hunters and for people that know the land like the back of their hand but like I said before to me there was already an issue with Tmaps being complicated.

My arguement was when I first started, or I should say one of my first Tmaps was with a guild of maybe 6 of us on, not sure the level Tmap, but it was something like 8 hours and there were only 3 of us left, looking. I remember going behind this one tree and then moving up to this stone and then walking back to this other tree, then just moving to some location in the area and trying and then getting so frustrated, calling a GM, who never came, if I remember correctly or they said something like, "We can not help you," I don't remember.

But, there were alot of things we had to learn. When we started, we didn't know you had to click the shovel, then the map, then the ground. So, we wasted a good amount of time to begin with but even after doing it correctly, I don't remember finding it to be a pleasant experience.

But, eventually I became a GM Carteographer and learned that that was water on the map and that this was land and after time it became very simple to find the map, especially if you had it marked, even if you had the wrong spot, there were only a few other places it could be on the island or landmass.

But, with the system being random, there should be some type of tool that players can use.

 

[Lord Chaos]

Short cut? You mean using Telekinesis spell to remove the trap? That's not a short, it functions exactly as it was designed to. If you don't like to use the spell, you are welcome to take up the Remove Trap skill - nothing and no one is stopping you from doing that. I don't see how this would make it more diversified.

Uhm, its an unintended shortcut, the devs stated way way back that it was an unintended side effect that they didn't get around to fixing. Telekinesis was only supposed to work on low level traps, not render an entire skill useless. So it certainly wasn't designed this way, it simply was just never fixed and left alone.

Tracking would make it more diversified as treasure hunters could either have tracking and as such have an easier time finding the chest (but then worse at fighting it), or they can skip having tracking and find the chest the old way. It will take longer, but you will have more skills to fight with if thats your option. Tracking would be good for specialized treasure hunters that doesn't fight the spawn, but has guild mates or other ways to take out the spawn.

 

[Old Man of UO]

Uhm, its an unintended shortcut, the devs stated way way back that it was an unintended side effect that they didn't get around to fixing. Telekinesis was only supposed to work on low level traps, not render an entire skill useless. So it certainly wasn't designed this way, it simply was just never fixed and left alone.
....

I don't remember reading that, and it's been that way since day one. Do you have a reference?