Arelith

Been playing my ranger for a bit now, and I'm finding tracking more or less functional, but it seems to be missing some basic features. For those who aren't familiar, tracking info is currently displayed as

(Entering) A lightly armored elf, (Leaving) A heavily armored human, (Leaving) An unarmored human.

And so on. It's a bit of a mess to actually read, especially in a heavily trafficked zone. It's also ambiguous as to what happened when, which I'd consider vital to actually tracking - think of any iconic tracking scene, and you'll have a character saying that the tracks are fresh, or stale, or x hours old. To add some QoL and functionality to tracking, I'd suggest the readout change to

Entering
- A lightly armored elf, 0-1 hours ago
Leaving
- A heavily armored human, 0-1 hours ago
- An unarmored human, 2-3 hours ago

Thoughts?

That would be much more helpful.
My first Arelith character and now my second both have tracking, and I dont find it that useful At most, maybe use the information to refresh a short term buff and hit stealth again before transitioning onto the area if I think someone may be there. But other than that I haven't found much real use for it.

I do like that its there, and this proposed change would make it a bit more useable.

It makes perfect sense. If a character can track well enough to know that heavily armored elf walked here, they obviously track well enough to know if the tracks are from roughly 10 minutes or 2 hours ago.

Timestamps on tracks would be 'nice to have', considering all is erased anyways when the zone resets with nobody within.

I've personally used Tracking and Tracks on some of my Monster PC's that were bounty-hunters and slavers. In the UD, if you spot Surface-race tracks, start trailing them. If you are on the surface, same deal. You know roughly how many to expect.

Primarily useful only in "Wilderness areas".

This would be such a nice addition to the track and tracking. Because reading through the tsunami of [entering] + [leaving] completely unfiltered becomes quite unwieldy. Especially if you're trying to track very fresh tracks of a evil do'er near your settlement.
Adding a time indicator could be REALLY useful to us trackers. And perhaps even adding a line break would be improve readability.

So about this...

I actually have 2 open suggestions
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=31226&p=246302#p246302 - Tracking on a hot/cold system. I would never suggest a straight out (its been 3 hours), I'm much more for a hot/cold system where it's not going to give you an EXACT number.
and
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=31471&p=247594#p247594 - It makes no sense to have 40 sets of prints, its just too much and even experienced trackers would have issues after about a dozen or so prints in the same area.

In regards to tracking specifically to propose just this, in addition to other potential tracking changes/upgrades.

Drogo Gyslain wrote: Sat Dec 19, 2020 2:28 am
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=31471&p=247594#p247594 - It makes no sense to have 40 sets of prints, its just too much and even experienced trackers would have issues after about a dozen or so prints in the same area.

That's why I almost always destroy Tracks that have more than a handful of prints on 'em.

It'd be real nice if tracks stopped spawning on top of portals. You could spawn them just a little bit to the left or right, if it was that necessary to have them, but spawning directly on top of the portal interface has me checking tracks at least once a day when I'm just trying to portal.

KeldonDonovans wrote: Sat Dec 19, 2020 2:14 pm It'd be real nice if tracks stopped spawning on top of portals. You could spawn them just a little bit to the left or right, if it was that necessary to have them, but spawning directly on top of the portal interface has me checking tracks at least once a day when I'm just trying to portal.

This too. Or... to have the portals have a larger area, like in the 4 portals room, they don't have a single point to click on but a transition area to step in. Let them keep the dialogue box open but have a small field under the portal so you don't always have to fight with the tracks for dominance over which to click.