Running
The Trails
Trails Magic Beseeches Archery Companions
Running
The Trails
Trails. I love them to death, they are the best thing the Ranger Guild has seen in a loooong time. I use them everywhere I go, and they teach Scouting like you wouldn't believe if you use them regularly. Here is a collection of information I have put together to help those who would like to use them better.
Trails come in three phases: tracking, Ranger Transit System (RTS) and Personal Trail Markers (PTM). Each is a stepping stone to the next. You start off tracking a target, do not worry too much about failures because they *will* teach. Around 40 ranks or so, the learning will slow dramatically, but hang in there, relief is around the corner.
At about 50 ranks of scouting skill, you will be able to start finding trails in the RTS using SCOUT TRAILMARKER and GO TRAILMARKER. The easiest so far is the trail between Crossing and Kaerna (check the maps for further details). Running trails in the RTS will carry you for quite a while, they were still mind locking me relatively quickly with 200+ ranks of scouting.
Once you reach 175 ranks of scouting, you should be able to use PTM's. In deference to those who enjoy a good mystery, I won't list the method of crafting a trail marker (not a typo, it's one word for RTS, 2 words for PTM, to avoid problems with the mechanics) here, but for those who want details, click here for the full story. But basically, the PTM's work similarly to the RTS. One end of the trail is where you place your marker, the other end is wherever you are at the time. As GM Jent explained it, you are basically retracing your steps back to where your trail began when you placed the marker.
You can also KICK your trail marker to eliminate before the normal decay time (PTM's are time-limited, based on skill). You can ARRANGE it to make it easier to find by others, and use SCOUT READ TEACH <name> to show someone how to find your marker more easily. Your student uses SCOUT READ LEARN to accept your offer and listen. Once your marker is set, you STUDY ROCK to refresh your memory where your trail lies and SCOUT ROCK to head off on your own private trail back to where your marker was set.
An overhead view of the RTS trails
Not much to look at but helps to understand how they are laid
out.
Kudos to Sablina (may she rest in peace) and Ranik, the symbols on the map were taken from their maps except the water which I drew freehand.
UPDATE!
1/29/2003: added Ranik-style versions of the IG maps, ready for printing,
including icons representing the various trailmarkers for the
Zoluren and Shard/Theren
areas.
3/27/2004: updated grand overhead map to include all the new mainland trails. Currently no plans to add the island trails to the overhead map, they just don't seem to need one.
The main list
These are the notes I was taking the night the trails came out.
All of the trailmarker locations are listed with references to how they could be
found on a Sablina/Ranik map.
IG maps
Remember the maps we got at Jadewater? They inspired me to start
writing scripts that would do the same thing for other places. This is one for
the trails, just save it to where you keep your DR scripts and run it while
in-game. A built-in help file will open up to tell you how to use it.
UPDATE!
3/27/2004: At last, updated to include all currently known trails except the GoS trail.
Running the RTS trails
A sweet training tool. Save and use as above for the trail maps
script, except to reach the help file you use ".trailhop help". But you
shouldn't need it, as this one is very user-friendly. If you merely stand in a
room with a trailmarker in it and run the script, the script takes over from
there. It determines where you are, where the trail goes and jumps to the right
section of the script, all on it's own. It will continue running until you stop
it (abort the script using ESC), later on I may add some sort of exp check. It
currently works for the trails originally released in the three open mainland
provinces, if any are added to the islands or found in P5 when it is opened, I
will update it then when I can.
UPDATE!
11/12/2002: found a minor bug in the script, fixed it. It will no longer get confused when running the trails south of the gondola.
1/14/2003: rewrote the script from scratch using all new methods; operation should be a bit faster, a bit smoother, and generate less scroll; it now checks exp after initiating each trail, but takes no action based on the result
1/29/2003: fixed a minor bug that would cause the script to hang but only when running certain trails and only if the SCOUT TRAIL command went too soon and received a "...wait" response
3/27/2004: it took a while, I'm sorry, but here's the latest and greatest version including the new trails for Therengia, Ratha, M'Riss and Aesry. The last new trail on the mainland in the Gate of Souls area is not included, yet.
Home -
Taffei's Journal -
Circle Calcs -
Core Skills/Abilities -
Tanning -
Trapping -
Horses -
Herbology 101 -
Misc Skills/Abilities -
Scout's Guide -
Misc Bits
