In discussing and experimenting with a warrior friend, I've developed concerns about Retrieve/Unite that I'd like to share. In several ways, the pair of abilities used together is similar to the often-spoke-of (and disliked) Moonbeam, but even worse.

My concerns are mostly for the security and safety of guildhalls, and perhaps manses (as has been discussed in various other instances with regards to Moonbeam). I've heard that stockrooms of shops already are not vulnerable to having their items found with Retrieve, which is good.

Moonbeam (single ability, low in Master): local area only, to a player only, stopped by the player moving at any point within a fairly decent length of time

Retrieve/Unite (two abilities, Unite being high ... I'm vaguely recalling something like halfway through Mythical?): local area only, to a player/denizen/item, stopped if it's to a player and the player is able to kill the wolf/hound very quickly

I'm happy for the warriors that they're able to do these things, as it's an incredibly versatile skill, but I believe there needs to be some way to protect a certain few areas. We have monolith sigils to stop teleporting and spores, and eye sigils to stop souls/ghosts. Perhaps we could have scent sigils, to prevent wolves/hounds from detecting a particular thing in a certain location? Along the scent idea, a scented candle that might only be able to be placed indoors (give Hartstone an indoor location with Dain? *pity Hartstone*)?

Alright, I had some other thoughts, but I've been distracted and seem to have lost them. So, thoughts from the rest of you?

Eye sigils dont stop ghosts.

But closed doors do. What stops a dog from sniffing out something in a stockroom, allowing a tracker to unite in?

The fact that they're not able to.

I do like the idea of some sort of item to act as defence against Trackers though, I'm interested to see it developed.

Oh, I have no idea how it works ^^; But they can sniff out a guild tutor while a guildhall is empty, unite in, demesne the guildhall, kill the tutor, and set up shop?

Trackers = Warriors

Warriors = Demesneless.

You can't have a raiding party follow a tracker when the tracker unites? Odd, I thought I saw someome do that today...

Beaten.

It is possible and annoying.

Yes its possible to follow tracker, I followed Shinza to Celestines guild hall.
I'm starting to regret that i didnt swiched.

And should be fixed. I think eye sigils should stop hounds from finding anything, or monolith sigils should stop uniting, or perhaps just something new, like the scent candle idea or a new kind of sigil or something.

At least they should be prevented from working into guildhalls while noone's there, and they, along with moonbeam, shouldn't work in the Aetherways.

Just my opinion though.

The only thing I want to know is... can a Tracker enter my manse via monolith sigils even if my manse is private and I'm not even there?

I THINK they can if someone is there or if you have a mount there. Right?

I'm a bit confused now. Does there have to be a denizen there for them to sniff an item? Or can they sniff the item even if there is no denizen or player?

They can seek any item/person/denzien however, you must be in a local area of the dog/wolf for unite to work

They can sniff out an anything in the local area, if they know what it is. For example: You own pegasus12345 called 'Charlie', and it's in your manse. If there are no other pegasus' in the Aetherways, the hunter can do 'RETRIEVE pegasus' (or whatever the command is). If there is one or more pegasuses'..s, then the hunter would have to use the number to be sure it is yours. Alternatively, if it knows the name of the pegasus it could do 'RETRIEVER Charlie'

They can also sniff out players, if they're stinky.

Meh, you got me confused for a mintue soll. Here's how retriever works. If you order your animal to seek something, they will go to that item and stay there until they're call there. Track works only if they get their scent and will stay one room from where they are. However, I agree some measure needs to be done to ensure no one could use bond unite and bond seek as a means to steal from shops.

Is Unite stopped by monoliths? I just don't want to log into Lusternia one day and find someone in my manse because they had "locked on" to one of my monolith sigils.

I'm not 100 percent sure unite is stopped by Monolith, though it would be wise to test and send in a report of tracking. Also, using numbers in bond seek doesn't work either

Unite is not stopped by monoliths, nor do I think it should be. But the combination of Retrieve/Unite should be able to be stopped by something other than a player being present and able to quickly kill the wolf/hound when it appears before the Unite goes through.

I don't know the exact length of the timer, of course, but here's what happened when I was harvesting earlier, with Elfen (High Elfen, technically, but I don't think it matters) balance recovery. All that's removed was the prompt in the blank lines:


A fierce timberwolf pads in, sniffing at the ground until it reaches you, then
lifts its head and howls triumphantly.
harvest galingale
galingale harvested, 13 left.

harvest galingale
galingale harvested, 12 left.

A pixie flutters off to the east, barely suppressing a giggle.
Abatina arrives following Lupine Ranger, Rizzen T. Regamos, Eagle Hunter.
A rush of air accompanies the entrance of Rizzen as he appears next to an
athame dagger, appearing strangely grateful.


That's fast, which is fine if the target is a random place. And if the target is a person rather than a guild tutor denizen. Someone should be able to conduct administrative business or sit and teach a newbie or sleep in at least a few locations of semi-private areas (read: guildhalls, manses) through some method of preventing the tracking.

Also, though I don't want to nerf the nifty Retrieve-of-item ... quests that revolve around locating various items where the difficult part is in the finding of them might've just gotten ridiculously easy for a lazy Tracker. I don't know the details of most of those things, but that also might be something needing to be considered.