I've been a ranger since 1999 as well. I loved the tracking improvements that SOE has already implemented and I like the fact that they were exclusive to rangers. My druid was a bit jealous, but too bad. Although I really haven't given it much thought, here are some off the top of my head. Tracking improvements: 1) Height filter. In some very limited situations, it's annoying to pick up mobs that are 3 floors above you and run to the location on the floor you're on just to find an empty space. 2) More filters: filter by con (filter out mobs that are indiff), filter by mob-type (filter in/out quest mobs), filter by mob base class (filter out caster mobs) 3) multi-track: track more than one mob at a time 4) the "find worm": use the glowing yellow find path worm to track mob 5) track to last known: I hate tracking a target and then someone kills it, or seeing a target on track and then on next refresh it's gone. It would be nice, in certain situations, to be able to track to the last known position of the mob. 6) track map: show tracking target on player map 7) target stats: obtain basic stats of tracking target, such as current health - this is in line with RP as when a tracker is running down a target, the tracker may be able to identify that a target is bleeding or injured, thus identifying (roughly) the relative strength or condition of the target. The dream ability would be able to actually obtain the tracking target as a current target so you could observe health changes, current buffs/debuffs, who has agro, etc. 8) expanded temporal tracking: be able to see what has been up in the last 15 mins for example. Again, this is consistent with RP because a ranger should be able to see recent tracks and identify creatures that have passed by in a limited recent time. It would be useful from a game play perspective to see which mobs have been recently killed. I'm sure that some of these would not be feasible under the current code base or may be considered overpowered, but hey, a ranger can dream, right? That's all for now. Time for lunch.
I love your ideas Blacksun. A height filter, multi-track, and showing the target on the map. Mostly, showing your target on the map. That would be awsome.
only changes to track id like to see are as blacksun said height filter, and the ability to target the mob you're tracking. i have all 3 tracking classes and i accept that they're different. personally i use my druid track the most when farming nameds etc bc i dont ahve to chnage any settings to watch them spawn etc, adn just bc she's on the side of me that is more comfortable to watch track on. when im looking for specific motypes /names etc i use rgr track and sort alph, or by distance and then scroll to the nearest of that type. and ocne in a great great while i might actually use the filters for con, but not often. i do with theyd remove or allow us to filter out, mercs and familiars, however they're handy as markers when you're using the "normal" track function so yo ucan see waht's spawned since you started killing etc. one other filter that would be nice but a royal pain to code...filter out all npcs, (as in nonkillables) or all findable mobs, just to shorten the lists. the biggest thing to me that's broekn with trackign, is the backwards fact taht rangers are the best trackers yet theyre the worst hiders. ranger fade seriously needs fixing to mesh with the lore of the class. fade is a bard innate dont make rangers better than them at it, but they should NEVER be worse than a cleric or paladin and never have to wait 15minutes to do so. gimme a break
Somehow this turned from a "Can druids and bards have functional tracking?" thread to a "Buff rangers more" thread. Interesting. Saying you prefer druid tracking to ranger tracking because it's a hassle to change the filter is pretty humorous. I wish I had that inconvenience.
Actually this thread started out as a way to discuss different ways to display information for all tracking classes and how to improve the skill in general and turned into complaining about not being able to sort specifically.
Shamans have been able to FD for like a decade, perhaps you should visit a zone that removes your buffs.
It looks to me that this thread was made to discuss tracking in general and how to improve it. I consider allowing all tracking classes to sort an improvement. I also think the other tracking suggestions offered here are ideas that should be examined. If this thread is not open to all tracking issues, then I have no problem starting another thread on different issues with tracking. As I mentioned in my first post in this thread, I was going to create a thread just on the issue that druids and bards be given sorting, but I never got around to it. I wanted to design a really good viewpoint post to try to convince the Devs that it is a UI function, not a class skill. But when I saw posts mention that it was "impossible" for non-rangers to get sorting, I felt I had to correct that misconception now, rather than wait for my well crafted thread to be designed.
As was clearly stated in the OP this was to discuss all ideas on tracking. Talking about sorting them for some classes would certainly fit into that. However also clear is that I quoted someone foolishly trying to say that this thread was specifically about sorting and implying it was foolish to improve ranger tracking. I wasn't discounting your views, just pointing out that anyone who thinks this thread is specifically about sorting hasn't actually read the whole thread or even the OP.
How about funding the dev time to improve the Tracking features? Potion of the Hunt, grants 100-200 tracking skill for 30-60 minutes, usable even if your class can't otherwise track. only 500 SC! (and maybe some 14th anniversary quest/expensive tradeskill version)
I think giving Druids and Bards 'track by distance' as an AA for about 65th level would be great. I can add Forage AA to characters who cannot otherwise get forage. So I don't see a problem.
I've always preferred the way bard track works by showing newly spawned mobs at top. Think I'd be pretty p'o'd if I lost that. Helps keep track of ph's and lets me see what other people are killing/camping by their placement in the track window in relation to the mobs.
Just so you know: If SOE were to give track sort to other tracking classes, one of the options would be "Normal" sort. Normal is what you have now. Normal is also what my ranger uses about 95% of the time. About 3% or 4% of the time he will use Distance. Alpha, Consider and the other sort options are pretty much only used when he first zones in, then it is almost immediately set to Normal.
I've never understood why beastlords never got tracking as a skill, they should be able to track to some degree, each race has a pet who can naturally hunt.
no. Next thing ya know, they'll want "kick" ! ! ! Why can't a Bard kick anyways ? Anywho, leave my Ranger goodness alone.
