Enkidukai-specific skill: Scouting by Scent

[Moogie]

*nods* Absolutely right, Karyuu. If you think about it, just how useful to the entire game is \'short distance flying\' or \'tracking scents\' anyway? These advantages arn\'t major unbalancers, but they do give each race a feeling of individualism. (is that even a word?)

[Kiva]

Oh yes, I can see it now...!

*You have 50% in scent identification. You use scent identification. Sorry, you fail. You use scent identification again. Congratulations, you identified the scent of a Trepor! It is coming from -------> that direction.*

*You look in -------> that direction. You see 48 and a half Trepor beating up eachother, and some helpless newbies who are running around, screaming and calling eachother n00b and cheater...*

*You decide to find somewhere else to fight.*

Um... Yeah. That kind of explains how useful a scent identification skill would be in a MMORPG.

[Elkindel]

This could potentialy be used to track players as well. You could learn to identify scents of friends, enemies, the various people you know. And track them down if you come across their scent trail. I suppose you could also send them a /tell and -ask- where they are, but I\'d prefer an alternative to telepathic information gaining :P

I don\'t think this is something that could unbalance the races, but it would be nice if they all had something unique. So far only Klyros have that.


[edit] Was missing a word o.0

[Kiva]

Maybe I could agree to this being a some kind of useful skill in a single player game, but unless it\'s directly quest related, and actually needed for more than just one, or maybe two, quests, or at least has some generally useful value ingame, then to me it seems like nothing more than a waste of time to both code and implement.

The idea is fine, it just doesn\'t belong in a MMORPG.

[Mage of Darkness]

gronomist *cough cough* its a mmo\"RP\"g anything such as this can inhance the aspect of roleplaying. its merely what players want to be seen done with the game to make it a true \"RPg\". i mean it takes time to code and such but it could be for later it doesnt have to put into imediate it could like gradually make its way in when new characters are put in or new places.

[sashok]

true that Mage

 I like this idea, and as everyone mentioned there has to be unique abilities of other races.

enki could have exceptional stealth or tracking ability that players may choose or somethin

[Monketh]

So then the special ability of humans is not having a special ability?

This would be interesting, but unbalancing.  It could be used as a replacement for some ranger-type tracking skills.

[Moogie]

Then I say being able to fly short distances is unbalancing. It might bypass fall damage. It might allow you to enter areas that non-Klyros couldn\'t reach. It could save you from dire situations if you become surrounded by enemies.

If scent tracking is so bad, how is flying not unbalancing?

[Syzerian]

Because Klyros are physically weak plus they only fly for a SHORT time, just enough to escape from danger. The only race I feel that is unbalanced slightly at the moment are Ynnwns as they seem a little too disadvantaged.
Maybe this skill could be replace the +4 bonus to specified way. Or maybe it could be a choosable advantage only available for the Enkidukai at character creation costing 2 points

[Kanon]

I\'m only going by memory here, so anyone correct me if i\'m wrong *cough*adeli*cough*  

I\'m sure I read somewhere that Enki\'s looked very cat like but it doesn\'t mean that they get cat abilities. I know, it sounds wrong to me too, but I\'m sure I read it.

Also, you are all overlooking the fact that the Nolthrir? and the Kran are able to stay underwater for excess periods, and again from memory, I\'m also sure it was expressed on the main page that there would be places where only they could get.

[Kiva]

Originally posted by Mage of Darkness
gronomist *cough cough* its a mmo\"RP\"g anything such as this can inhance the aspect of roleplaying. its merely what players want to be seen done with the game to make it a true \"RPg\". i mean it takes time to code and such but it could be for later it doesnt have to put into imediate it could like gradually make its way in when new characters are put in or new places.

First of all, I don\'t need anyone telling me what a MMORPG is, what a MMORPG should be and what roleplaying is all about. If you try to do that, you shouldn\'t expect to be my friend at all.

As for what a roleplaying game is, it is a game where you can imagine doing things that - in the real world - would seem very illogical, as well as things that would seem just normal. Now tell me, what sounds more like roleplaying? Playing a skilled sniffer that can track down any creature by playing a role ingame, or playing a character that has 100% Scent Identification skill and simply gets an arrow pointing in the general direction of the nearest creature?

I will point it out just for you, yet again, that this skill has absolutely no use in a MMORPG. Roleplaying does not take hardcoded skills where you click buttons and get a message. It takes brain-skills. Skills you develop over time and skills you have to use and understand, not your character. If you are incapable of roleplaying, your character is incapable of roleplaying, so if you can\'t pretend to be using a sniffing skill, how on earth do you expect your character to know how? After all, your character doesn\'t play itself.


Now, on a diffrent note. Before you start saying \"my characterz is skilled assassin and whoop your azz n00b\", read and understand this. Your character is an idiot, and if you think otherwise, you are an idiot as well. You start as nothing, and you honestly have no clue what PS is all about. Most people don\'t. You have no idea what the new town design looks like, you have no idea where the monsters are, and you don\'t even have the slightest clue how to buy items or get money. Thus, your chracter cannot be a skilled assassin. While you play, you, as well as your character, learns how to do several things. You might not learn how to fly in real life, but you might just learn how to make your character do it. You and your character is one person, whether you like that or not. The whole point of roleplaying is to find and express yourself through your character. Maybe you don\'t like rooftop killers in real life, but you still find a thrill in being one when you\'re playing a game, and if you cannot accept that fact, I\'m afraid you are not worthy of calling yourself even a newbie roleplayer.

So if you still think good about the idea, please do tell me why, rather than just trying to teach me something when you seem to not have the slightest clue about what it actually is.

[Mage of Darkness]

i do know what an rpg is thank you i was merely stating that a game with so much potential should at some time include a track type skill even though this may not be one of them. and it wouldnt be an arrow on the screen that would just be to wierd to suddenly see a gaint floating arrow in front of you that came from no where =\\. i know someone is suppose to be the character but your playing the game to become that character and to act it out as if though it were real well then in \"real\" life cat have a high sense of smell so it would only be likely that even though this is a game not set on earth but in some other place i do think the smell aspects of a cat should transfer. i mean look at kran it is said they cant swim so they sink like a rock which is what a real rock does anyways. and it also says diaboli are afraid of holy objects as in real life even though its thought to be that anyways if a demonic thing existed. look if lots of aspects come from real life things why not give the cat like race some cat like abilites. unless you plan on giving them extra speed or incrediable jumping power then by all means then dont add a scent tracking. but it would seem only fair to add this aspect if speed and jumping werent given.

[Ghostslayer]

Originally posted by Kanon

I\'m sure I read somewhere that Enki\'s looked very cat like but it doesn\'t mean that they get cat abilities. I know, it sounds wrong to me too, but I\'m sure I read it.

That\'s a good point.  You can\'t expect a humanoid/feline species to have all of the abilities of a cat, while having the intelligence and body size/functioning of a human.  Crossing the two species would give some benefits and disadvantages of each.

If the Enkidukai did retain their enhanced smell, I think this would be a good idea, but would need balancing.  Enhanced smell doesn\'t just result in becoming a supurb tracker.  There should be appropriate disadvantages tied to it as well: alchemists could produce chemicals with a very strong foul smell, which when used against a Enkidukai, would overwhelm their senses and cause disorientation.

As well, if you were a criminal being chased by hunters, you should be able to lay a false trail as well.  Otherwise, an Enkidukai skilled in tracking could find anyone with ease.

[Elkindel]

The reason dogs and cats have such a good sense of smell is because they have a much larger nasal cavity than we do, and thus have more olfactory glands to receive scents. Enkidukai look to me like they have a similarly large nasal cavity, so would most likely have the good sense of smell. Sense of smell isn\'t related to how animal like the Enki acts, or intelligence, etc. It\'s just the physical attributes of the creature :P Though Ghost has a good point, with the disadvantages.

Edit: Cats and dogs see color, just a slightly different spectrum from what we see I believe

[Seytra]

@ Gronomist: If PS was like what you say it is (RP being done solely by imagining things), then it would be a chatroom without any graphics, etc.. Since it has things like stats and skills, it adds a framework to what is possible to RP so that there will be a balance. Imagining tracking by scent is not possible IMO if you need to do the exact same things as other species would have to that don\'t have scent tracking abilities. If I need to track someone by vision, and loose them, then how am I going to RP a scent tracker?

I think that scent should be simulated graphically, as faint traces of different color that vary in intensity with your success in smelling, the age of the track and other smells that may hide the one you search. It would be a passive skill that\'s always active. You could, however, assign scents you want to see so that it will not be confusing (since the only sense is optical, you need some other way to seperate unlike if you had real smell and the appropriate ability). Of course, you can fail in scenting so that tracks might vanish or have the wrong color.

I like the idea, it just needs to be implemented very good.

I also like the idea of unique abilities for each race. And before anyone asks: humans don\'t need to be like RL humans, they can get some unique skill just like everyone else, because they are not RL humans.

And I think Kran do have one if I\'m not totally mistaken: eat rocks. Who else can live off nothing but bare rock? That\'s a big advantage IMO.

Oh, and I read somewhere that cats and dogs don\'t see color, but maybe that\'s a bit harsh to impose as disadvantage.