with all the talk of tracking stuff i figured i'd throw some of my ideas out.
Might be good to add in some distance and movement checking. I know when i was thinking of working on my tracking system, before classes started heh, i had an idea designed to only go 50 rooms away at max. Affected by weather(wind/rain/etc) and by how much the mob moved. There were three variables used in determining trackability: scent, tracks, and intuition. The trackability was calculated in the first room and every room from there in a continiously degrading fashion. for example, if it was raining for a while and the mob moved alot it was difficult to track as the tracker relied only on intuition. The trackability from the orig room would be at max 33.33% and then the second at max would be 10.99% etc if the conditions remained the same. When it got to under 1% it was untrackable.I say at max because intuition is not always 100% as it varies from time to time. Also, for the actualy foot tracks that would be left, you'd need to save a list of all the rooms the target had been in.. atmost 3 days and their mode of transportation. If they were flying etc they wouldnt exactly left tracks if they used magical means then they would also leave no clues as to where they went. And as for scent, it depends greatly on weather/wind aswell. If you are downwind from someone then you can track them via smell. Also remember scents will drift so they are not 100% reliable aswell. anyway, this in my opinion offers greater functionality to a tracking system. Traditionaly, if you track something it has to be alive and in thesame area or general area and doesnt even have to move. with this you are actualy tracking the targets path used and not the shortest/fastest/first path to the target. The downside of this..more memory usage. you'd have to store every target loaded into the game for atleast 3 ic days with their paths over that time (potientialy unlimited path[best to limit the max to around 50 or so]), and the weather conditions the time each movement was made. Hmm, i think maybe i left something out of the idea so if you have some questions let me know. Anyway, have fun. -Richard/Ostoles
