I've had dozens of forestals telling me they think their own skill, Scent in Wolf Totem, is stupidly overpowered, and seeing how it works, I can only agree.

It tells you the location of everyone in the local area, whether they're inside or outside, have a Gem of Cloaking or not. It doesn't even consume balance or equilibrium.. So what is the point in paying 400cr for an artifact that gets completely negated by a novice skill that 50% of the Basin possesses?

I suggest Scent to:

* Only tell who is in the local area, whether they're inside or outdoors, but not the room they're in.

* Not let you see anyone protected by a Gem of Cloaking.

This will make it like Scan in discernment, except it will work both outdoors and indoors, whereas Scan only works outdoors.

scan sees people with gem of cloaking

Why? Spirituality in other IRE games had something that let you detect everyone in the local area. It went as far as being able to do this through a gem of cloaking -and- hood of elusion/veil of sphinx.

We don't get a scry ability either. (Except Astrologers)

Why is it everytime a change is suggested people come defending it as if it was something to Nerf them personally? Thorgal made his point, I agree, I did not pay 400crs just so it's wasted over a novice skill half the basin has.

Agreed. Scent, Scan, things of this nature should not see people with a Gem of Cloaking. Iunno about the room name - we really don't have a way to scry people w/out enchantments, although if SCENT gave just a list of people in the area, and then SCENT gave a room name, I'd live with it.

For once, we agree Seconded!

If scent blocked gemmed people then it'd be acting as a Veil of the Sphinx which Estarra (or somone) said we'd never have.

I don't give a flying fart what other IRE games have in this case, the Gem of Cloaking is a hundred times more effective in Lusternia than in the other games. And a novice skill every single forestal has should not bypass it.

As to not having another way to scry people, it's an enchantment available to everyone, we haven't got any other way to cure but buying from alchemists, you already have half of our enchantments as noviceskills, scry should not be yet another enchantment you don't need.

It seems like you forestals would like to become completely independant from enchanters, yet keep the cities entirely dependant on you, and even think this is a fair and normal situation. Totems seriously needs less enchantment-replacing skills.

Hence:

- Scent should NOT show the room everyone in the area is in, it working both indoors and outdoors without even consuming equilibrium or balance is more than powerful enough.

- Scent shoult NOT show anything from anyone if they're protected by a Gem of Cloaking.

Disagreed. This would be so if it blocked window/farsight/scry and other various forms of scrying.

I'll gladly trade for Scent not being able to sniff out someone with a Gem of Cloaking (not that makes much sense) for our communes to get something like Scry or Farscout. The only people in the communes that can 'scry' are Moondancers that have taken up Astrology, whereas the cities have Guardians and Mages that have them as common skills. If you're trying to balance things out, then give us something in return.

I agree with Terenas. I have a Gem of Cloaking as well, so you can't even say I am biased because I don't make use of one so it doesn't affect me.

Not to mention Scan tells you everyone in the local area gemmed or not, Demesne sense tells you everyone your demesne gemmed or not, and Scent has a defense that stops people scenting you.

It's a Gem of Cloaking, not a Gem of No-Smell-Invisibility-Ninja-Transplanar-Interdimensional-Shifting . Why can't scent track out invisible people, they still smell like they would if they weren't cloaked?

I don't really care, so please don't hurt me. I'm just throwing this out for arguments sake because if I don't, someone probably will bring this up.

Yeah, but see....we have the skill scry in enchantment. I am not biased there, since you'll get your enchants from Celestians, but...that takes pretty much the wholepurpose away. You rarely at all need scry enchants. Now you nearly don't need them at all.

Scent's purpose is that it's local area. Anyways, Gems are not supposed to act like Veils of the Sphinx.

Except scry works across the whole plane. Scent is local area. Now if you want to say scry won't find gemmed people, sure then we can make an argument for Scent, but until such time as I can sit in Serenwilde and Scent you in Magnagora, your comparison isn't very good at all.

No, but it's supposed to hide us. That's why it's a gem of, you know, cloaking.

Gem of Cloaking: 400 credits
- Removes you from the who, clwho, and bw/qw lists.
Note: it does not remove you from gwho or cwho.

Veil of the Sphinx: 2000 credits
- Hides you from many mortal abilities that can pinpoint your location,
including spy, scent, view, scan, sense, window, fullsense, certain
angel and falcon abilities, who, farsee, allsight, foresttrack,
various grove and mind abilities. One exception is PUPPET/VODUN SPY,
which requires a puppet of you, and will cut through the veil.
- Owning a Veil (not just borrowing one), allows you to cut past the
Veil defence of an opponent when locating him. This will _generally_
only work for one-time abilities, like 'sense', as opposed to
abilities that trace someone on an on-going basis, like angel trace
or forest track.
- Does NOT hide you from abilities that do more than simply locate you,
such as Metamorphosis tracking.
- Does not remove you from qw/bw and organisational who-type lists.
- If you have any doubts about the affect of the Veil on a given ability,
ask before you buy!


There's a difference.

And we get back to the point someone else made that Hunters can't find people but totem users can.

Meh. Still. 400cr on something a novice ability can go through. Then again, so can scry/wind/farscout, so. Unless we're going to basically make it a Veil of the Sphinx, it is indeed a lost cause.