So, little birdies told me that evidently Trackers are able to bond seek and determine if a gnome is in the local area. They can't find out where specifically, but they know if there's one around.

This is kind of a massive advantage, so maybe it should be addressed. This kinda explains why certain individuals have gotten so many artifacts out of the lil buggers

Yeah, last year you couldn't track them at all or so I was told, this needs to be addressed!

I agree.

Nothing has changed since last year. This was mentioned on envoys and I don't know when we can recode the gnomes so they won't be tracked. We can, of course, stop doing gnomes until then (which could be awhile--this is the holiday for coders too after all).

Yea, I'm just going to go ahead and apologize to the general Lusty public (thanks to Vis for not pointing me out specifically, though). I'll refrain from hunting gnomes now!

I still think the randomness of gnomes and Ironbeard is really unfair.

Oh, oh well. Keep going with the gnomes then, and hopefully the trackers won't abuse that too much

(maybe you could do an announce post asking them not to use it?)

I'd rather you not. If some folks want to be tools and utilize an unfair advantage, that sucks. But since it can't be fixed, I'd much rather let it happen and still have the tiny chance that I might be able to bump into one in the sporadic moments I can log in, than to lose it altogether.

Sheesh, we're just trying to do something fun and nice for players for the holiday season. Is it really causing such grief to players?

No, it's not. Don't let a few humbugs get ya down Estarra. I think it's awesome that you give away presents. Maybe a few folks seem unable to remember that they're talking about the chance to get FREE things - a chance they don't have to have even - but most people enjoy it and think it's nifty.

I think the issue referenced is that everyone wants to get something. Hopefully an artifact. However, some people seem just to get more. It's kinda the gambling thing. "Richter won thousands of gold, why can't I win thousands of gold?"

Meh, I haven't gotten anything myself. Mainly it's "Hey, even if it's vials, it's something more than I had before." 'course, a cubix would be welcome, mainly for trade-in value.

I think both options together make it pretty efficient at getting (most) people, though for the future, might be worth considering making it so people can only influence a certain number of gnomes (like 1 per 5 hours or so), to let more get a chance-- because it's highly addictive to chase the things.

But there's a year before it comes up again.

I think the only way you'd satisfy everyone is by giving out free artifacts to all but since that's not happening, be assured that we all do appreciate the gnomes, heh, even though I haven't got any artis yet this time.

I really appreciate the fact that you are trying to let us have some fun. But sometimes it's just really disheartening to hear about people who get an expensive artifact (or artifacts) that I would never dream of being able to get. I guess this is more because of the people who just like to tell everyone about the X amount of artifacts they have got (most of them probably don't do it to brag, but it does come out that way sometimes). I'm not saying to stop these fun things, but maybe to rethink about how they might be done in the future.

But at this tracker issue, can't you at least write an announce post telling people not to do it?

Yeah, well. I mean, I honestly hate to feel like such a grouch but it really tires me out.

Anyway, back on Topic.

I've been wondering if trackers could do this for a while and it's nice to have it confirmed.

EDIT: Despite all this I would never think of debating someone for a gnome who has already found one. That's just being a stiff dick.

Yes it is, but I don't think there's much you can do about it. We do appreciate the extra effort you're going to (and I say this even having not gotten anything.) Especially including Ironbeard this year so people don't have to go stress themselves out for the annoying gnomes was a good idea.

People are going to whine about everything.

Definitely no more gnomes for you. You can't play with your toys nicely.

Ironbeard is great, even if he can be a bit annoying (I'd rather he randomly chose people and then gave gifts to everyone in the room with them, rather than popping in to gift one person and leaving, which can be quite frustrating) but gnomes have the issue of causing grief to players who go around looking for them and find nothing... so one does feel somewhat cheated when we find out some class abilities can be abused to find gnomes really fast.