Tracking System Addition - Timed Grass Trampling

[icehex 25]

Pervious suggestions I found: blood trails left by wounded players/animals; amount of blood left in trail depends on wound 'severity'

 

New suggestion: walking/running on grass tramples it (just as it already does when crawling on it), and the grass stays down for a sufficient amount of time, perhaps for 5-15 minutes, or a 24-hour period.

 

Scope: players, zombies, animals, and vehicles (when implemented)

 

Motivation:

 

--- increases lifetime of player-to-player encounters

 

It is already somewhat rare to find a player outside of main spawn areas, or outside of hotspots such as military bases. When you do meet in the distance, the player could easily weave around buildings/trees and escape visual range, and then proceed into a random direction to disappear most likely forever. Tracking would allow for the encounter's lifetime to increase.

 

--- encourages players to be mindful of the paths they take

 

Water and roads are not trackable, but water gets you wet/soaked, and roads make you stand out more and increase the chance of meeting other road-takers, so you have options with pros/cons for which routes to take, and why.

 

--- fear of being followed by a potential tracker

 

A vulnerable (or any) player can play mind games with potential (real or imagined) threats in order to decrease the chance of being tracked. Should I merge tracks with other tracks I find? Run through water or a road? How long would it take that bandit to catch up to me? Is he even following my tracks? What if someone else found my tracks and is following me? Should I try to emulate the walking pattern of a boar, or maybe a zombie?

 

--- thrill of tracking another person

 

One could feel like a badass such as Daryl Dixon from The Walking Dead. And/or maybe the bandit that killed your buddy is trying to make a run for it? Maybe you're bored and want to see where this random trail takes you? Are these tracks from an animal/zombie (random tracks) or a person, and how could I tell? Maybe they are car tracks (2 parallel lines/curves) and I'd like to steal someone's car.

 

Guess on feasibility: grass can already be trampled when it is crawled on, so this seems trivial to add for running/walking. Does information of trampled grass get passed through the server network right now? I don't know, but info does pass on for cut-down trees and bushes. This would be more difficult to implement if it isn't already. But, if we have blood trails, we can have trampled grass, which might be easier to code for altogether.

 

Lifetime of trampled grass: if the time is too short (less than 5 minutes), it would be useless. If it is long (10-20 minutes), one could perhaps always track a target, so the targeted player would never be able to escape. If it is very very long (24 hours), then this would add much more to the network load (??), but it would also increase the chance (by a lot) that a tracker would come up to crossed tracks, making it more difficult to follow the initial set of tracks, and adding to the beauty of the feature.

 

For the very interested readers: Below I linked a quick find I made when google searching - a book from an SAS (British elite Special Air Service) veteran with information on the 'real' process of tracking. Click here for a google book link and read the first paragraph on page 39.

Edited October 16, 2014 by icenhower

[IkaikaKekai 1957]

I haven't checked it on the standalone as stealth is a crapshoot when zombies are concerned (at least for now), but in the mod grass would stay trampled down for a while (forget the exact amount of time but someone said it would stay down around an hour).  I think there were even foot prints for a similar amount of time, they'd show up even on roads (or rather they were the most visible on roads).  I'm all for methods of tracking other players, so beans for you.

[nokyookami 63]

Sounds Good as Long as the trampled Patches are Much Smaller if Walking xD

Irl You Can See Someone walk through a Field and it Still takes Looking to Locate their Steps (You Wouldn't be Able to Spot it From a Distance) But in DayZ Crawling Creates a Rather Wide Area Effected in the Field Much Larger than Even your Laying Down Body Should Produce

Leading to Far to Easy tracking From a Distance if it did it Same size for Walking and Most People Dont Drag their Feet to lay Down Grass unless they are Eager to Be tracked or they are Wounded

Would Like tracking But it Needs Be Subtle
Not Easy KoS'er "Follow to Prey  trails"

they Should Have to Work For it Leaving them Selves More Vulnerable While they Are Crouched Looking For tracks
LIke when you are out in the Woods tracking Game it isnt Something one Can Do at Full run it takes Getting Low And Using Actual Skill to Accomplish But it Can Be Rewarding if you Do it Right 

And there Should Be Precautions for the Paranoid Survivor to Cover their tracks

Edited October 16, 2014 by NokyoOkami

[ValentinBk (DayZ) 60]

Sounds awesome, have some beans :beans:

[d.walker43 196]

I like this idea for 2 reasons.

 

1: It is super realistic, I think this along with the post you linked to about blood trails would make things like hunting super realistic. Could help with so many things. I have an addition id like to make, what about when its raining and for a little while after the ground is muddy, so your tracks are deeper and stay longer? Maybe you run a little slower through it too? Idk just an idea.

 

2: I also like this because the linked post about blood trails and realistic damage was my post :)

[icehex 25]

Sounds Good as Long as the trampled Patches are Much Smaller if Walking xD

Would Like tracking But it Needs Be Subtle

Not Easy KoS'er "Follow to Prey  trails"

And there Should Be Precautions for the Paranoid Survivor to Cover their tracks

 

I agree. It should be more taxing on the tracker to track than it would be to follow a target visually.

 

Ideally, tracking ought to be effective only when the person being tracked chooses to stop, for example, in the next town in order to loot, or perhaps in a random spot in the woods to build a fire, or maybe somewhere to camp for passerbies.

[jubeidok 495]

Totally on board with this kind of stuff. Can we think of any other tracking methods based on what we currently have in the game, make this a global tracking thread?

 

- I was just in game and came across a can of spray paint, 75% remaining. I knew someone had been there, but how long ago? So I thought it would be pretty cool if you could touch the nozzle. Wet paint would mean someone would have been there within how ever many minutes it takes for the paint to dry(5-10 minutes?).

 

- With a vehicle, touch the hood. A warm engine could alert you to some near by looters.

 

- Feel the nozzle of a water pump for moisture. Once again, a wet nozzle would tell you that someone has used it within x amount of minutes. And of course a rainy day would throw that all out of wack.

 

- If we ever get empties back, cans of food and soda could also be examined to give us a rough idea of how along someone was there.

 

- Find some ruined clothing, is it dry or wet?

 

I'm no tracking expert and this is just stuff off the top of my head, things I would do. I'll add more if I come up with anything new. I should also add that the beauty of such methods is that they're all text based, aside from the empty cans, so no extra art would be required. 

[liquidcactus 719]

I love the detail you have put into this post. I remember when i first played arma 2 many years ago and seeing how the grass could be trampled down and stayed down and I remember thinking " far out man this is the future of gaming" with features like that can only be extended on to make an amazing gaming like dayz even more amazing.. So I say hell yes to everything here. This could lead to alot more excitement during the many hours of downtime we all experience playing dayz. Especially chasing a bandit through long grass.

 

I think around 30 mins would be a suitable time for the grass to stay pressed but thats just my opinion :D

[WolfgangErikson 127]

1000x Yes.

 

I really like the idea of getting to a new town and looking for evidence that someone was there within the past hour or so, especially since it would take more than just a passive effort to determine that. Even if it doesn't result in encounters, it helps me feel less alone.

 

Everytime I play I think of this and wish it were so. I think there are already very very feint footprints (right?), but it would be cool if they were made slightly darker if you had previously traveled in dirt/mud/water.

 

Grass should most definitely be trampled when running through it.

 

I would suggest the ability to prevent leaving tracks if you use the crouch-walk mechanic (or maybe even regular walk).

Edited March 2, 2015 by WolfgangErikson