Trap Safety Mechanic

[Mad Dog]

I've been playing a grenadier/trapper rogue antagonist, and my experience with the safety trap mechanic has been disheartening to the extent that I no longer have the desire to continue with this character. For those unfamiliar, when a non-hostile character triggers one of your traps, it gets disarmed and returns to your inventory.

The problem arises during PvP encounters, where the majority of my traps are inadvertently triggered by non-hostile individuals, rendering my character almost ineffective and exceedingly challenging to play. In the majority of my PvP interactions, situations have ranged from spectators accidentally disarming all my traps to enemy infiltrators sweeping through and disarming them before turning hostile and engaging me. I've even encountered instances where an opponent charges towards me, turns hostile, but not before running through all my traps, which would have initially impeded their progress.

Navigating this situation poses a challenge for me. My ability to hostile people is limited to those I can visibly identify, which already introduces complications. While interactions with the primary target, central to the plot or conflict, are satisfying, it's the involvement of 'extra players' that disrupts the experience. Should I resort to hostile actions and killing of these peripheral characters, with minimal or no roleplay or apparent reason just because of their presence and them inadvertently disarming my traps?

Upon bringing this issue to a DM's attention, it was dismissed as non-concerning since the players were turning hostile before executing any hostile actions, despite this 'safety feature' allowing them to incidentally disarm my traps. It is evident that a modification to this mechanic is necessary for a more fair gameplay experience.

[Waldo52]

I agree entirely.

In a server that generally prioritizes friendly fire (I didn't have to hostile you for my fireball to harm you, so I have to play smart), I find the way traps are handled to be more than a little absurd. The idea is that PvP without RP is not allowed and so someone has to be hostiled before exploding, but it just doesn't work.

I've had a lot of problems in general with people becoming un-hostile when they move around a bit, and having to play this mini-game with the hostile mechanic while you're utilizing a pretty difficult strategy isn't fun and takes away from immersion.

I know that in an accidental situation where a guy who isn't even part of the RP situation randomly explodes this is actually a rule break, but the rules are enforced by DMs who should have enough faith in their own judgement to decide where it was deliberate/egregious and when it is not.

Every time I set a trap and it magically reappears in my inventory because an animal or some random guy steps over them can be pretty demoralizing. I'm not looking to commit a rule break but I'm also looking to role play as a guy who sets actual traps.

Historically, the targets of traps and land mines have been animals and "some random guy". There are parts of the world where land mines are still a danger even many decades after the end of a war. I think that in a pretend elf game, the downsides of dying are unimportant enough that we should be able to use some fun and risky mechanics with the responsibility being on the player to not be stupid.

[JustMonika]

I don't understand why this would work this way.

Shouldn't the trap simply not go off, unless stepped on by a hostile creature? What is added by self disarming traps, and what possible way could this be explained in character?

[AstralUniverse]

Huh... didnt know.

I guess that's why in the few pvps I've had vs rogues or assassins, they were always alone.

It kinda sucks that it works this way imo.

[Waldo52]

Shouldn't the trap simply not go off, unless stepped on by a hostile creature?

I disagree.

While it's a joke to talk about realism in a fantasy RPG, there has always been a degree of tactical "realism" to the server. Bombs tend to harm allies if aimed poorly, etc.

While it's somewhat reasonable to assume that allies know where the trigger is and can step around the mechanism, the whole idea of pushing buttons remotely so that the trap knows who the true bad guy is strikes me as very meta and weird.

[Heroic Spirit]

The introduction of the trap safety mechanic was primarily aimed at preventing griefers from placing traps around the town, a tactic frequently used in Skal. This mechanic's purpose is clear, but its current implementation significantly disadvantages rogue players. This is particularly true when they face opponents who have allies not directly involved in the conflict. Forcing rogues to disarm traps during PVP encounters by walking over them is a frustrating aspect of this mechanic.

While there's potential for strategic use of traps, such as setting them in less common areas to lure enemies, this strategy becomes ineffective against a group targeting a known rogue. They can easily circumvent this by using a non-fighting scout to check for traps.

From a PVE perspective, I will admit that I've occasionally left my party to have members trigger traps, avoiding the lengthy recovery animation. However, I would prefer enduring the animation if it means that I don't have to worry about someone exploiting the safety mechanic during a skirmish.

A more balanced solution would be for the trap to only target hostile players, leaving it in place otherwise. Currently, the most effective strategy for rogues is to set hostile to everyone nearby, ensuring their traps might have a chance at affecting their intended targets.

Lastly, as shown in the attached screenshot, the safety mechanic seems to prevent critical failures from activating, even on self.

[Ordo.Lupus]

The trap safety mechanic hurts all classes who invest heavily into traps. I don't care much for PvP but when the mechanic also impacts me in PvE under accidental circumstances then I find them very malplaced.

To my knowledge there are 2 layers of effect.
1) If a non-hostile player trigger the trap then it's disarmed and placed back into your inventory
2) if a hostile player trigger a trap set by another player then they're awarded immunity to traps for 1-2 seconds

why should there be difference between stepping on a mob trap compared to a player trap?
if the trapper doesnt RP the PvP then this should be enforced through server rules.