Improvements to spotting skill

[jrawlings]

I think the spotting skill has a lot of room for improvement.

Currently, your spotting skill determines how far you can see on the world map. Each point increases your sight range by 10%, so a spotting skill of 10 should double your site range compared to those with 0 in spotting.

What if we add the following to the spotting skill... to make things easier for me to explain, I am inventing the following system. Let's say you have a spotting range of 100 squares/units/feet/whatever. This could be expressed as a percentage of your viewable distance on the map.

The spotting system could be changed such that parties that are:

0-50 away: you see everything, name of party, travelling speed, composition, current movement status (patrolling etc) - what you see now
51-70 away: You see name of party, its compostion, and speed
71-90 away: You see only name of party and compostion
91+ away: You only see the name of the party

As your spotting skill improves, the scale slides to favor seeing all the information at farther distances, such that a party with a spotting skill of 100 would see everything at maximum range (100).

I hope that wasn't confusing.

 

[Manitas]

I'd get rid of this skill completely, in favor of sight distance based on:
- time of day
- weather conditions
- vegetation (I mean forests)
- landscape
- The size of the party being observed! (like, you are able to spot a group of 100 men from further away than just 1 guy under normal conditions)

Sight range varying from unit to unit is an RTS legacy in my opinion.

 

[jrawlings]

Sight distance is already affected by time of day. I think it is at least halved at night?

I would agree. Since all participants are human, I would assume that they all have 20/20 vision. But since the skill is there...

Maybe it should be renamed to "reconisance" Your ability to gain intelligence on your enemies in the vicinity. In the military it is customary for a large force to send out recon patrols as the unit is moving. This would be the equivalent of that.

 

[Manitas]

Yeah, reconnaisance makes sense, if, as you said, we don't get full info about the other party at once.

 

[Thorn]

Actually I think it's a pretty good suggestion. I sure can imagine that a comander (or his scout) can be trained in being able to determine the enemies movement speed, size etc from a distance .

 

[jrawlings]

Of course, this would also apply to AI controlled parties... so they may not no to run from you until it is too late...

 

[Manitas]

Maybe it does apply to AI parties already.
Last time I saw a sea raider party entered some kind of loop. they were chasing me, then when they got closer changed their minds and started running from me, and then when somewhat further away started chasing me again and so on...
I don't know, it may be a bug, but maybe something makes em want to attack me when they are far away, and to run away when they are closer.

And I think that some kind of memory for AI would be useful, this would prevent loops and such, but that's another story.

 

[Ryuta]

I agree with this idea.

I would say:

1-40: Everything (name, composition, number, speed, destination).
41-70: Name of party, simple composition, approximate number (like one in a track), speed.
71-90: Rough composition (mounted, foot, combined), approx number. (you can't get name. Just 'party' or 'mounted party' 'foot party' 'mixed party')
91-100: rough number (large, small etc.)

Simple composition means very rough descriptions like 'Armoured horsemen' 'horsemen' 'foot soldier' 'archer' 'crossbowmen' 'footmen (those who don't look like soldier. e.g. bandits, river pirates, farmers and refuges)'

 

[jrawlings]

Maybe it does apply to AI parties already.
Last time I saw a sea raider party entered some kind of loop. they were chasing me, then when they got closer changed their minds and started running from me, and then when somewhat further away started chasing me again and so on...
I don't know, it may be a bug, but maybe something makes em want to attack me when they are far away, and to run away when they are closer.

And I think that some kind of memory for AI would be useful, this would prevent loops and such, but that's another story.

I've seen this phenomenon before... maybe the AI is following tracks at longer distances, using spotting at shorter distances?

 

[octavian]

I've seen this phenomenon before... maybe the AI is following tracks at longer distances, using spotting at shorter distances?

no i dont think so... when you hold your cursor over the party that is chasing you it says "following X's party"