Suggestion:20071103 Scent-trails

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20071103 Scent-trails

Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 14:10, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Suggestion type
Skill enhancement

Suggestion scope
Zombies with Scent Trail

Suggestion description
I suggest a zombie with Scent Trail could smell the scent of the last survivor who recently passed through a block. No names or profiles would be shown, only the direction where the survivor went. This information would be shown in the block description message, so you could smell the trail even if you weren't in the block when they were.

The block description message would include a line like "There is a strong scent of a human. It leads north." or "There is a weak scent of a human. It leads inside the building.". The trail could lead to any of the eight compass-directions or in-/outside of a building. Insides and outsides of buildings would have separate scents. If there's a survivor in the block, the description will read "The scent of a human fills the air." (changes to ..scent of humans.. if there's more than one). Scents that are up to a minute old would show as very strong, up to 5 minutes old as strong and up to an hour as weak. Older scents would be not be shown.

A "Follow trail (direction, 1AP)"-button would be shown among the other buttons. The button would move the zombie in the direction of the trail. If the trail leads north, then the zombie moves one block north. If it leads inside a building, the zombie will try to enter. If there's a survivor in the block, the button won't be shown.

The main reason why I'm suggesting this is that I think it would increase real-time fights, which (at least for me) are one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game. This would also provide a way (through the less than hour old trails) for feral zombies to move in a semi-random direction that probably has more survivors. Or if they want to avoid survivors, they can go in the opposite direction.

The following were added on 10:15, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Clarification: This wouldn't allow you to see through walls. "Insides and outsides of buildings would have separate scents.". With "If there's a survivor in the block, the button won't be shown." I mean't that if the zombie can see a survivor, the button won't be shown.

Also, it only shows the last survivor to leave the block, so there would be no spam, a maximum of one line in the message description.

Example: A survivor goes through the block on the outside to west. The description would show "There is a strong scent of a human. It leads west." for any zombie to pass through the block. Two minutes later another survivor goes through the block towards north. The older scent would be "overwritten" by the new, fresher scent. The description would change to "There is a strong scent of a human. It leads north.".

Voting Section

Voting Rules

Votes must be numbered, justified, signed, and timestamped. # justification ~~~~ Votes that do not conform to the above may be struck by any user.

The only valid votes are Keep, Kill, Spam or Dupe. If you wish to abstain from voting, do not vote.

Keep Votes

1. Weak Keep This idea has some potential. I like your suggestion of real-time fights, which most of the time end rather badly as the human can just run away and hope that lag will save his @#$. However, i'm just afraid that this will cause a lot of complications. You didn't note at all what happens when MORE than one passes through. Do you have a lot of choices? If so, that would cause quite a bit of Spam.--Erutan 16:38, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
2. Keep Although I would be interested to know how you would solve the several people walking through problem. Maybe just the strongest scent is shown? Makes sense if you figure in the zombie's craving for fresh food.--Seventythree^Talk 18:33, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
3. Keep - Zombies need brains.--  Savant  Chit-Chat  18:58, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
4. Weak Keep- As Erutan, it's a bit spammy, but can prove to be useful. --Darth Lumis^{T! A! E! FU! U} 19:05, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
5. What? - Get rid of the button. Zombies would benefit from this, and survivors will not. Good for me. doc crook 21:37, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
6. Change - Get rid of the auto follow button then keep.Studoku 22:28, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
7. Strong Keep - Great suggestion. This is neither game breaking or x-ray vision. (Remember it's smell based and is designed to increase real-time fights... something almost everyone enjoys!) To answer the question of multiple survivors, I'd say just go with the last one to pass through. The odds of two people leaving from the same square at the exact same moment in different directions are pretty slim, but if that does happen just go with one of those two directions at random. --Uncle Bill 01:27, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
8. Keep - WAAAH! BOOHOO, IT'S "HUMAN"! Yeah, and they're not undead, either. Glenstone 02:25, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
9. Keep – I like it. Much potential for fun. I think some of the voters need to read more carefully: "the scent of the last survivor who recently passed through a block" made it pretty clear to me how it is intended to work. (Of course, I did read it on Talk:Suggestions as well.) ᚱᛁᚹᛖᚾᚨᚾᛏ 06:19, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
10. Keep - Author vote. --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 10:28, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
11. Keep - i like it --~~~~ [talk] 12:01, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
12. Keep - Looks right. -- John Rubin^{T! ZG} 19:26, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
13. Keep - I would suggest removing it and resubmitting it with the clarifications. Make sure you CLEARLY state that only the most recent trail is visible. --Steakfish 00:03, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
14. Keep - Read the kill votes and you'll see why idiots keep getting elected. BoboTalkClown 00:40, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
15. Irony - I'm voting Keep to balance out the fact that JP is voting Kill on something he himself suggested ages ago (except to combat PKers) but failed to get passed. --Funt Solo ^QT 11:45, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
16. Keep Funt, I voted kill because there was no indication that the scent continued when you moved to another block. For the record, my skill was called Track (I think) and let you follow a PKers path for 2AP for each square, so it wasn't quite the freebie this is. This needs a time limit to balance this out after which the trail fades. --Jon Pyre 15:47, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

    Re: A scent lasts one hour. It's in the suggestion. Okay, next time I'm going to explicitly and throroughly address all the unclarities that come up at Talk:Suggestions :/. --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 21:00, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

17. ^They said it all.^ --•▬ ▬••▬ • •••• •▬ ▬•▬• ▬•▬ ^{#nerftemplatedsigs} 22:35, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
18. Keep - Needs to be a little clearer, but all-in-all a good suggestion. --_Ducis ^Dux_Sloth^Talk 22:36, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
19. Keep- This is what I thought it meant back when I was a little ol' noob. Needs to be clearer, but yes, I like it. Boojamon 11:37, 17 November 2007 (GMT)

Kill Votes

1. You didn't cover the multiple survivors passing through well enough. 5 survivors walk in and if they are headed north, that's great, but if 1 goes east, one goes west and the other three go north, do you continue to followe the three or go after east or west? Logically, it would be "follow the three" but what if everyone splits up evenly? Is it just random which one you follow?--Pesatyel 19:51, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

   Re: ...the scent of the last survivor who recently passed through a block. Emphasis on last survivor. --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 10:28, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

   Okay, I still see problems though. Seems somewhat limited by the map. I mean if you see a survivor one square away it wouldn't really matter if there is a trail, would it?--Pesatyel 07:07, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

2. Kill -As Pesatyel. And why do these morons always insist on saying "human"? --AlexanderRM 20:38, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

   Kill - Overpowered and unbalanced. To start with, you're giving zombies a key advantage in a real-time fight. You've also thrown in some X-Ray Vision as well with "If there's a survivor in the block, the button won't be shown." Any suggestion that lets zombies follow me in a real-time fight and see through walls - all for free - well, I'd be an idiot to vote Keep. --Funt Solo-QT- 20:57, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

   Re: The X-Ray Vision/seeing through walls I answered in the clarification (sorry for the mess up). The way I see it, this counters the survivor's big advantage of a larger damage per AP. And you can simply lose a zombie by entering a building (and optionally free running away). --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 10:28, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

   Re - thanks for the clarification. I'm abstaining for the moment, as I don't particularly like the idea, but have nothing strong enough against it for a kill vote. (Struck my own vote.) --Funt Solo ^QT 11:32, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

   Further discussion moved to the talkpage. --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 11:30, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

3. Kill - "Overpowered and unbalanced. To start with, you're giving zombies a key advantage in a real-time fight. You've also thrown in some X-Ray Vision as well". And think of the spam. Sockem 21:43, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
   • Kill I don't think it's overpowered, just useless. Have you ever tried chasing after a survivor? It's impossible even if you can see them! How are you supposed to hunt down someone "to the north". What benefit does that information bring? Survivors are in most non-ruined buildings in an average suburb, it's not like this zeros you in on any specific target. And what if the survivor walks north than heads to the east? --Jon Pyre 20:17, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

   Re: The plain "to the north" doesn't give much benefit, but if you move into that direction, the next block will have further information, then you follow that and get more information. Eventually, you're going to end up where the survivor is, or to a dead end. Also, consider the following scenario: A survivor comes out to hunt zombies. He finds an offline one and starts attacking. Meanwhile another zombie comes online. He moves around and comes across the survivor's (still very strong) scent and starts following it. Eventually he comes to the block where the survivor is attacking the offline zombie and naturally attacks the survivor. --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 06:31, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

   Kill- Because BoboTalkClown, himself, is an idiot. But mainly because I do want this ability because it has no real use especially because it reveals no names, and has no option to hide it, plus this suggestion was changed during voting which means it should be removed. Unsigned vote struck --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 05:36, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

4. kill - Few reasons, "This information would be shown in the block description message, so you could smell the trail even if you weren't in the block when they were." Should be between zombie and survivor, not survivor and the block, if changed so that it was only viewable if you were on the block when the survivor passed through it it would be better. Then there is the vacuity of the message, a direction is not enough, some sense of distance is needed, even if it is just a descriptive word like it is with other scent skills in lew of actual numbers. --Karek^maps?! 13:45, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
5. kill -It is overpowered towards zombies, allows Xray vision against all newbies at the least (they can't Free Run), and it won't increase real-time battles. If you are online when an attack takes place, you don't need some silly scent, especially if the target is near. You're going to be right there duking it out. And even if a zombie follows a survivor out on teh streets, it only takes a few minutes for a kill to take place, so the survivor would likely be gone by the time the zombie arrives if it actually has to follow scent. If you insist on adding such a feature, survivors need an item to screw with it somehow.--Kolechovski 16:47, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

   Further discussion moved to the talkpage. --Midianian|T|T:S|C:RCS| 18:59, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Spam/Dupe Votes