Do enemy parties make use of the Tracking skill?

[Kestenvarn]

Because I swear, sometimes I cannot get them off my tail - even when they're out of sight.

Is it just really persistent/irritating aggro, or are they actually following my trail? And if they are using Tracking, would me having a high ranking in the same skill make it harder for them to spot my tracks, since I would know to head for rocky terrain or a stream to conceal them somewhat?

 

[Skyrage]

I kinda hope that they do use tracking and spotting as well. Would be VERY valuable skills to have then (as to be able to outperform the pursuers) :p

 

[sheek]

Maybe they just have greater range of sight. You can't see them but they can still see you. Invest in more spotting skill.

 

[JohnathanStrange]

Because I swear, sometimes I cannot get them off my tail - even when they're out of sight.

Is it just really persistent/irritating aggro, or are they actually following my trail? And if they are using Tracking, would me having a high ranking in the same skill make it harder for them to spot my tracks, since I would know to head for rocky terrain or a stream to conceal them somewhat?

I've wondered myself whether they're tracking me or simply have my party in sight. Now, sometimes it's obvious they have simply spotted me as they're ahead of me or in a place I've not traveled through, the difficulty really arises during the following stage because if I'm fast enough the enemy warparties start to lag behind and will stop following if I am far enough ahead.

Did they lose sight of me and break off? Which would mean they're not following my tracks. Or are they following my tracks but are programmed to stop pursuit if we're far enough away - but that would sort of defeat the point of tracking, wouldn't it? Tracking is for following someone you can't directly see because of distance.

Anyway, I think the enemy relys on spotting and not on tracking. I've encountered enemy warparties at night at a relatively close range and they don't always notice me, but come dawn that same warparty suddenly does.

 

[Ingolifs]

When an enemy loses sight of you, i believe it just continues to the spot at which you were last and then stops.

One interesting thing i've noticed is that speeds aren't rounded exactly to 1 decimal place. I once had a patrol and my caravan following me at speed 6.5. At one point they were riding inside of each other, which made the horse look like it had 8 legs. But after a while, they seperated out because one was slightly faster than the other.

 

[Rando]

I've noticed the same thing but with damage. Every now and then, a horse will charge you for 0 but you take 1 point of damage. It probably has happened with other forms of hurt but I'm to busy fighting to notice. So maybe damage (and speed in your case) are floating decimals but simply rounded for display purposes?

As for the whole being able to track you forever, my guess would be they actually have points in spotting (I assume you don't). My guess is that once you get out of their spot range and let them move to their last location (as Ingolifs pointed out) they will go back to patrolling or chase some farmers. However, I really wouldn't be suprise if the computer was omniscient since that is the case with most games.

 

[Quietus]

Because I swear, sometimes I cannot get them off my tail - even when they're out of sight.

Is it just really persistent/irritating aggro, or are they actually following my trail? And if they are using Tracking, would me having a high ranking in the same skill make it harder for them to spot my tracks, since I would know to head for rocky terrain or a stream to conceal them somewhat?

Enemies use Spotting, but not Tracking. At night the spotting radius is smaller while at daytime, it is much bigger.

Basiocally, if the distance between you and the enemy exceded its spotting radius, it resumes to patrolling.

 

[Sir Saladin]

Well that's interesting, so I suppose if you had a good spotting skill and didn't want to get attacked for some reason you could sneak across the land at night.

 

[Kestenvarn]

Apparently I need to increase my Spotting beyond '5', then, but it's getting a bit ridiculous by now.