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Tracking.217 views

Player

Posts: 41

2026-08-16 20:24:18 UTC#1

https://wiki.uoicebound.com/wiki/Tracking

The main function of the skill seems correct to me. However, I'd like to give some feedback and add a few ideas. I've already commented a lot on Discord and all the bugs have been fixed, so regarding that I'd say there are no active bugs left.

Function:

Mainly, I'd say that the traps—except for the rat trap—don't seem very useful. Take the small animal trap, for example: it's much more practical to just kill the animal the traditional way.

I haven't seen any large animals, so I can't say I've tested the bear trap. Immobilizing a creature like that doesn't necessarily mean killing it, so I'm not sure how useful it really is. The practicality of the bear trap doesn't fully convince me.

I'd say that for it to actually be useful, the number of traps you can place should scale more with the skill level. Right now you can only place 4 traps at skill level 100. And even 4 traps wouldn't bring much benefit when it comes to small animal traps, since it takes time for the animal to get caught. It might be somewhat useful with bear traps… but even then, mainly in enclosed areas, because in open zones it's very easy for the target to avoid the trap (even without being able to see it).

In summary, I don't think this is a particularly profitable skill. I also don't see the usefulness of being able to see 10% farther in a storm at 100 skill, unless there's some kind of event that only happens during storms and needs to be tracked. With the minimap it's already easy to find targets at that 10% extra distance.

My idea would be (in addition to the current system):

25% → 1 trap

50% → 2 traps

75% → 4 traps

100% → 8 traps

As I said… I don't find the 10% vision in a storm useful. The 60% trap reuse chance also doesn't seem useful to me, since you can just buy a new one—they're not expensive to craft. I would add that a master of the skill should be able to hide their tracks, so they couldn't be tracked.

And all of this taking into account that it’s always easier and faster to just go look for the creature and kill it than to wait around for whatever you get from placing traps.

xVega

Player

Posts: 41

2026-08-17 14:19:27 UTC#2

I mention this here because it stems from the same discussion thread as Tracking.

A Rat Cage

I’ve noticed that a cage with more rats accumulates much more filth, whereas a cage with few rats accumulates much less.

A cage with 12 rats generates far less filth and takes much longer to reach 100%.

A cage with 2 rats generates filth very quickly and in less time.

I think these filth generation values are inverted.

xVega

Player

Posts: 41

2026-08-17 14:28:53 UTC#3

1. It would be good to know the distance to each target; perhaps a benefit of having a skill level of 100 could be exactly that—displaying the distance in tiles.
2. A separate new tab in the menu to track only players, since the "humans" menu otherwise detects a huge number of NPCs.

3. Option to go back to the menu without having to trigger the skill again.

xVega

Player

Posts: 41

2026-08-19 18:37:08 UTC#4

xVega wrote:I mention this here because it stems from the same discussion thread as Tracking.

A Rat Cage

I’ve noticed that a cage with more rats accumulates much more filth, whereas a cage with few rats accumulates much less.

A cage with 12 rats generates far less filth and takes much longer to reach 100%.

A cage with 2 rats generates filth very quickly and in less time.

I think these filth generation values are inverted.

I've checked it: it takes 15 minutes to reach 50% dirt in a cage, and 30-40 minutes to reach 100%. This is a problem because growth, milk production, and the birth of new rats stop when the cage is dirty. It should take much longer to get to 100% dirty. Basically, I have to connect every 30 minutes to keep it clean so that growth continues.

xVega

Player

Posts: 41

2026-08-19 21:51:27 UTC#5

I've been thinking about the 100 skill perk and I think the only utility of that 10% visibility in the storm is that some special node appears ONLY in the storms, although it would also be extremely dangerous to look for it, it should be worth the risk.. but I can't think of what it could be.

xVega

Player

Posts: 41

2026-08-19 22:54:50 UTC#6

I've placed traps in the "snow" and also in other areas where there's grass, but I only catch rats and I have 82 tracking.

xVega

Player

Posts: 41

2026-08-31 20:25:13 UTC#7

Any thoughts on the proposals made?

Archin

Staff

Posts: 27

2026-08-31 21:40:43 UTC#8

This is all great feedback!

Generally the rat breeding stuff is its own thing not meant to be very mechanically viable and more for flavor, so I defer to Arven on fix it up for those QoL suggestions.

I think there may be combinations already to consider a master tracker in obscuring their tracks, but I'll get with Arven and see if we want to advertise.

Generally the main game's map is wall to wall snow, so its usefulness to just find a good storm resource will come into play as you can't lap the entire map in a few minutes. With that in mind, the reusability may be more beneficial as the spread brings in more scarcity. It'll likely always be more advantageous to hunt game over trapping, as the trapping is more something that you can set and log off, but I don't see issue with allowing a few more.

As I understand it (Arven may correct me), the bear trap should be useful on any PvE combat, as its not a passive set and wait, we haven't seen a bear in game yet, but if it's not feeling good for something like a boss in a dungeon, or an open field combat with a dangerous foe (another player, a bear, etc) it probably could use some improvements.

Some of these things likely are just small perks added to consider when having an edge in outlying situations rather than be why it's chose - like storm tracking usefulness is meant to provide an edge advantages in unique situations, such as trying to shake a tail and hide from enemies, or trying to position during to not alert enemies, etc. I'm not against the suggestion that things may show up in the storm, or other opportunities, but right now it's meant for less a reason to choose it, but more just a metric for the world should consider when weighing skillsets in situational events.

And I ABSOLUTELY intend to glow up the tracking menu! I'll use this feedback when I do so!

xVega

Player

Posts: 41

2026-09-01 11:25:29 UTC#9

Thanks for the reply; yeah; in general I’m not dissatisfied with the skill and I understand that it’s not a particularly powerful skill in itself, but it is very useful. The bear trap, for example—yesterday I wanted to use it against the ancestral machine in the mushroom dungeon and it didn’t work; I mean… it’s useful, but since it’s only 1 tile that has to be stepped on, it’s pretty easy for it not to trigger; but I think everything can be solved by increasing the number of traps available. If you could place more it would be easier for the mob to activate it; same goes for the small traps—currently 2 is way too few. I’m not saying you should be able to place 10, but keep in mind that you need 1 small pelt to make 1 leather, and right now you can only place 2 traps, so you can’t even gather enough for one leather; that’s why I was saying to increase the amount to whatever number you guys consider reasonable.

Hiding tracks seems fine to me, maybe it could be used for something related to faction combat? I don’t know, but it’s useful.

I would think of something better for the 100 perk though—I currently dropped to 75 because it doesn’t seem very useful to me; I’m saying this in case some special node appears in the middle of the storm that’s worth risking your life for; since you literally do it when you go out into the storm, I think it would be interesting to have 100 skill.

Anyway, I’ll be keeping an eye on the updates.

xVega

Player

Posts: 41

2026-09-03 13:26:10 UTC#10

This is just to add the random factor: it would be good if there was the factor of color rats, color for example white, black, gray, brown, in addition to different sizes (which does not affect your statistics). It is always interesting to have variety.

Arven

Staff

Posts: 12

2026-09-09 11:36:28 UTC#11

I can look into why traps might not work on certain NPCs, but please note- trapping was always intended to be a secondary bonus function of trapping, not the primary purpose of the skill. We allow tracking from 10x farther away than in default UO, so it is already a very very powerful skill on its own.

xVega

Player

Posts: 41

2026-09-09 13:28:26 UTC#12

xVega wrote:
xVega wrote:I mention this here because it stems from the same discussion thread as Tracking.

A Rat Cage

I’ve noticed that a cage with more rats accumulates much more filth, whereas a cage with few rats accumulates much less.

A cage with 12 rats generates far less filth and takes much longer to reach 100%.

A cage with 2 rats generates filth very quickly and in less time.

I think these filth generation values are inverted.
I've checked it: it takes 15 minutes to reach 50% dirt in a cage, and 30-40 minutes to reach 100%. This is a problem because growth, milk production, and the birth of new rats stop when the cage is dirty. It should take much longer to get to 100% dirty. Basically, I have to connect every 30 minutes to keep it clean so that growth continues.

This still happening. Also, I know tracking it’s like a secondary skill. And my proposals are not so crazy and could give it a little more use even though it is a secondary skill.

For example, increase the number of traps to be placed, as you also mentioned that you can select in the menu to track humanoid NPCs or players separately, since in the city it is quite annoying to have to see among all the NPCs in the menu until you find a player. Now that the map is changed to white in the storms I see more practical the 10% tracking with 100 skill during a storm, I'm still evaluating whether or not I choose the live version, since it would be very useful in a large map, but I don't finish deciding, the large map and the zoom take away quite useful to track. In conclusion, they would not be big changes, one small and it would be much more functional. And about the rats I say it only for variety (the colors thing, etc.). And that the traps do not work in mob, well so far they work in all except the ancestral machine.

xVega

Player

Posts: 41

2026-09-19 22:33:19 UTC#13

Any news about Tracking? The menu for tracking a player (not NPC) will be really usefull.

Archin

Staff

Posts: 27

2026-09-21 18:43:33 UTC#14

Trouble with NPC vs PC is concealment provides random tags to blend in with grey non-hostile scavengers, so if you can cut through a crowd to just find the player it may be a bit too meta. We're working on some other skills right now that need help, but can think about this and circle back once we're looking at tracking again, as I owe it a better menu.