#Ideas on improving the scenting system

13 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

signal thorn
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This may have been mentioned before but I wanted to get my thoughts / ideas out there. Note that this is aimed at pve, I don't do pvp - so I'm not taking into account how it would affect pvp. (Separate the two for all I care)

Currently, the scenting system is suboptimal. Let's take a look at how it works first:

  1. By 'default', the apex predators we're playing as do not smell anything whatsoever and rely only on sight
  2. If they do want to smell something, they have to spend around 7 seconds intently sniffing the ground and air while stationary
  3. Upon doing so we'll get a direction for each scent within a relatively close range, but no distance, or, if close enough, a small smoke plume on the thing we're smelling
  4. We can follow a scent for like 10 seconds and then we are once again clueless as to where the thing we were tracking is

In my opinion, none of these are great both in terms of (fantasy) realism and gameplay. Hunting through scenting feels like a hassle and likely involves turning around when you realize you walked past the crab at least once, possibly followed by walking in circles for a bit trying to find the actual crab in the foliage.

Some suggestions to overhaul and improve this system, both to increase realism and make it easier and more fun to use, roughly listed from simple tweak to complex overhaul:

  • Scenting can be done while walking or maybe even running (not sprinting). Unless trying to smell something highly specific or at a specific location, there's really no reason to have to stand still for THAT long when we're just trying to get an idea of the scents around you
  • Intensity of scent trails indicates distance (low intensity color = far away, high intensity = almost on top of) and the maximum distance you can scent something is (much) higher
  • Low intensity / far away scents are less accurate and become more and more accurate as you get closer. Aka you don't walk in a straight line to something that's far away.
  • While scent is 'active', scent sources receive a smoke plume when we get close enough to them and the plume is much more obvious. This helps suggest that we do still have a nose after finishing the scenting animation, so we will notice when we've moved closer to a source, and given that we're so close to it, it's very noticeable
  • When scent runs out, scenting again to resume your hunt is much quicker than the initial one (thinking like a brief window after scents fade that makes your scent complete much faster if you start it during that window). After all, you've been following this scent for a while already and it should be easy to continue following it.

These suggestions aim to stay close to the current system while improving it at different points (specifically point 2, 3 and 4 I listed earlier). I personally think the following could be nice too:

  • At all times (or with a toggle, in case it's redundant / annoying) our dragons do have the ability to smell things and inform us of this passively. Perhaps smaller, less noticeable variants of scent indications can occur naturally. Imagine walking through a bush and catching the scent of a carcass not far away, which might pique your interest (I am a bit hungry) or serve as a warning (someone has been here and I'm a tiny vulnerable hatchie)
  • I'd love to see a more complex / interesting scenting system overall, like.. there's a difference between catching a scent in the air (depends on the wind, source hasn't necessarily been here) or catching a scent on the ground (something has walked here, following this trail would not be necessarily a straight line but rather follow their path). Haven't worked out an exact system for how this could work and might not even be desirable on account of it being too complex, but just throwing it out there.

That's all the time (and message space) I have, I enjoyed 'hunting' when I first started playing and would love for it to remain something interesting when we get more and better AI

lofty sundial
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I like the suggestions you made, maybe with the exceltion of scent being active all the Time, altho IT would be realistic, IT would make the game too easy. But IT could be a compromise, what if smelling was a toggleable skill, you can initiate IT with the current long animation but from then on it's constantly draining your stamina to keep IT on and Will go away if you run out of IT (or cancel the skill)
This Way you don't have to keep sniffing every few seconds, but If you're determined to follow a scent for a long time you're risking getting caught tired

signal thorn
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I agree the balance between realism and 'fair' gameplay can be a challenging one here. I was thinking of the passive scent being like a weaker version; (much) shorter range and less obvious visuals so you do need to be paying attention to notice them, but it will inform you if you're for example, in close range of a crab (or later on, like a swamp snapper).

I understand if people still think that'd be too easy though. I can definitely see a scent being active while draining stamina as a good balance between realism and good gameplay - it does actually make a lot of sense as intently following a track for long durations is tiring

lofty sundial
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Yeah I could get behind IT being a super short range and/or faint signal

blissful gyro
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I think it would be pretty balanced if there was a passive short range/weak scent and an active scent that has much better range than what is currently implemented, should be able to use while troting but slow you down a bit

signal thorn
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Yeah! Based on your comments plus some more thinking I'm proposing the following then:

  • a passive scent that's always active (though it should probably be possible to turn off as well) that has a short range and weaker visuals, you could technically miss them if not paying attention
  • an active scent that's activated by the current sniffing animation (can be used while moving slowly preferably). Once animation is finished you can track easy to see scent trails & see smoke plumes when close to scent sources until either you cancel or your stamina runs out. Having it active slowly drains your stamina
gentle slate
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I really like this idea for hunting, and I agree, it would be beneficial and more interesting when it comes to finding food. The dragons can smell nests, however, and that could be very dangerous for nesting dragons in pvp.
My suggestion for that one would be this: the nest scent mechanic must be much, much closer than say a bug or a corpse. Those kind of smells, if there was a smell at all, would be new, and wouldn't have as long to carry, and would help keep the nesting dragons safe from potential trolls who heard about a free nest in chat and went hunting.

calm egret
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Yes I agree, with an addition: a nest doesn't reek like 2 day old rotting meat does. Therefore: nests sniff range is shorter, and overall-- the longer that the item creating the scent is in the location, the stronger the scent gets. Particularly for static items like corpses or food.

lofty sundial
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it could be an interesting mechanic for nesting as well, animals in general keep their nests clean to minimise scent, taking out the "'trash" regularly, what if parents have a mechanic (even if it's just an animation they have to do once in a while) to keep the nest's scent to a minimum and if they ignore it, the nest will start to smell and be detectable from farther away

signal thorn
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I think they intend to overhaul nesting anyway (update 1.0.2) - such that it's a bit more involved than "lie down on nest and wait". Taking care of your nest to keep it safe and difficult to detect would fit really well in there

blissful gyro
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I'm thinking more along the lines of the isle's scent mechanics but instead of tapping the scent button to see things in the immediate area it just passively shows, I'm not saying steal there code or anything just that I think if it were more similar to their's as far as activation goes would be nice

calm egret
blissful gyro
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I just meant the controls to activate, I don't love the compass either, not accurate enough, mostly able to trot while scenting and the increased range while stationary and maybe a toggleable passive short range scent but keeping the scent trails maybe have them be affected by the weather, I don't like the idea of scent taking stam tho, smelling takes almost no effort