lots of questions :P

[shockedfrog]

If someone wants to know instantly if someone is on their land, they should be on it themselves However, I'd like the tracking skil to work for a reasonable amount of time (that is, until the thief is able to lose the tracks, which should not be a trivial thing to do and should only be possible after a certain amount of online time, which is extended if the player trespasses on multiple players claims). I feel the focus should be in giving everyone (including offline victims) a fair chance to catch the thief.

[kaka]

Sounds pretty neat, if you ask me. :)
There's still the problem of how to identify or distinguish players to solve, though.

[theTrav]

In terms of distinguishing, it doesn't need to say "TheTrav trespassed on your land" just "Someone has trespassed on your land" and then give you a button that lets you "track the trespasser" which starts the tracking activity which works similar to the dowsing rod (but possibly with more frequent pings as you get closer).

Possibly an icon above the players head if you're actively tracking them so that they have trouble hiding in a crowd, but that one could be argued

[shockedfrog]

I was originally going to post a big reply to this earlier, but that ended up in a new Critique topic instead.

I just feel an instant message would make it too easy. A delayed message, maybe, but I'm generally against that magic-communication-from-nowhere thing. I also feel tracking should not be a simple matter of following an arrow that points towards the player's current location - rather, it should be about using clues to determine where they're going now based on where they've been, maybe even some time ago. I see this as a basic skill that everyone would start with, though. Basically, the thief gets a headstart (unless they're crazy enough to rob a place that's being actively guarded) but the thief then finds things more difficult due to karma penalties, while others are encouraged to help hunt down the thief for potential karma rewards. Obviously as the moment karma has no effect, but I'm trying to think to the future when it and various other features will have been added.

[theTrav]

karma should (and probably does) have an effect. There's plenty of luck based activities in the game, I imagine karma makes you more or less likely to succeed in those activities.


As for the clues approach to tracking, the only problem with that is that it puts a hefty burden on the server in recording where a player goes, which is why I suggested simplifying to a dowsing rod model. If the burden isn't too much then obviously actual tracks/clues would be a bit nicer

[shockedfrog]

I think it depends on how regular the clues are. Tracking every step would probably be a horrible burden, and would totally defeat the purpose anyway, but leaving one every minute or two that deletes itself 24 hours later can't be much worse than existing things (ie. plants/smelting/bloated leeches etc. track time, and people are making stuff like a few baskets per minute) and these tracks would only be left by people with the reason to leave them (some kind of criminal status). There may be other things I've missed, but the only real issue I can think of is hiding the tracks from people who aren't supposed/don't need/don't want to see them.

[kaka]

The karma system doesn't do anything atm and will be replaced, as Loftar mentioned here:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=108