Invisibility and Listen Checks

[Lothoir]

While I appreciate the "There's something moving over there" pop-ups that let me know when there's some skulduggery afoot I've noticed that if anyone passes their Listen check the text appears for everyone, regardless of whether they could have heard something or not.

So could a server message be sent to the PC's that pass the check telling them they hear something, and the floating text be replaced with an X or a dot?

[Quoth The Raven]

The X would appear for everyone

Yeah I know, it sucks. It's an engine limitation.

[Lothoir]

I know the X would appear for everyone, which is why there would also be a server message sent to the players that passed the check. If you don't get the server message you just ignore the X.

[Quoth The Raven]

Ahh, I totally missed the point - now I see it

Yes, good idea.

[nezzerscape]

Good idea.

Though if you see something you will start to wonder and perhaps pull up the player list. Yes not good but I'm human (save for legs... but that is another story).

I personally tend not to pay much attention to the server messages (they get bogged down in battle). Perhaps in the form of a tell or both.

[Cornuto]

I'd much rather have "There's something moving over here" replaced by a system message visible only to the person(s) that passed the hearing check that says "You hear someone moving around you."

[nezzerscape]

I agree with the "visible only to the person(s) that passed" bit... Just thought it might be useful in the window as well, thus in the form a a [tell].

Though thinking about it, the current method gives you an idea of the area in which you heard it from. One might rightfully use that information to cast the appropriate area spell. with it being a system message or tell would remove that.

[ParadoxicalAnonymity]

One of the largest problems with the current system I've noticed is not just that everyone 'hears' such, those among them don't know who was the real person that heard it. There's no way to discern such.

So often, I just automatically assume my characters hadn't heard it, because they have low listen. But that isn't necessarily even the case, because lots of mages have 0 MS, or slightly higher with Dex, which could easily be beaten out even by a 0 Listen, depending on the roll.

So, sincerely, I never know whether to RP that I heard a person or not (unless I'm alone), so I always assume I didn't hear the person, as I loath the idea of acting like I heard someone if that mage really did invest into the Move Silently skill and I didn't invest into the Listen skill and wouldn't remotely be able to detect them.

Furthermore, there are even invisibility potions, and rogues do use them sometimes.

All in all, the current system just makes me worried about taking an unfair advantage. Which just results in me always assuming I failed.

[Cornuto]

Actually the way the system is set up at the moment, if you aren't in stealth mode, you get the LOWER of 1d20+ (10 OR your move silently skill). So even a low listen character can hear someone if they aren't in stealth mode.

[Vaelek]

One of the largest problems with the current system I've noticed is not just that everyone 'hears' such, those among them don't know who was the real person that heard it. There's no way to discern such.

So often, I just automatically assume my characters hadn't heard it, because they have low listen. But that isn't necessarily even the case, because lots of mages have 0 MS, or slightly higher with Dex, which could easily be beaten out even by a 0 Listen, depending on the roll.

So, sincerely, I never know whether to RP that I heard a person or not (unless I'm alone), so I always assume I didn't hear the person, as I loath the idea of acting like I heard someone if that mage really did invest into the Move Silently skill and I didn't invest into the Listen skill and wouldn't remotely be able to detect them.

Furthermore, there are even invisibility potions, and rogues do use them sometimes.

All in all, the current system just makes me worried about taking an unfair advantage. Which just results in me always assuming I failed.

That exactly.
I've never known whether to assume I heard or not, and while I've had characters with fairly high listen in the past, I've never met anyone stealthed alone.

The fact that the only rogues I have encountered in stealth like to zoom in circles around me while I'm walking might give me some reason to just cast zone of revelation or a implosion out of irritation.
But I still don't know exactly where my sometimes attentive character senses stand when they are being reasonable.