Locate creature ...

[Rekov]

I must wholeheartedly agree that the spell should be nuked. As a relatively new player, I cannot tell you how counter-intuitive not only that spell is, but also the ring as a countermeasure.

Generally, when something is as finicky as this, people are going to be pissed off when their characters fall victim to a perceived bug, especially since the errors in this case favor detection over non-detection.

[bipolar bear]

I'll say from my original post, make it crazy expensive to cast. People won't be willy nilly casting it every time they rest.

[jarlexel]

Even if it is crazy expensive, it will still get used and misused and the effects can be real costly. I am sorry for this mess and there was no meta gaming involved, Both us had reason to do that. Way too much hassle and conflicts, lets just nuke it.

[sonuvalich]

Having been on the receiving end of misuse of the spell, I was a bit miffed, because I was in the Enclave and the spell should not have worked at all through our wardings. I was less upset that people used the information about who was in the Enclave to draw some sweeping conclusions that still trouble me to this day, because "eh, mistakes happen." I don't feel anyone has been malicious with the spell, but errors have been made, and given how counter to the spell's intent the current incarnation goes...nuke it! Might I suggest the MIRV?

[jarlexel]

The first I time used locate, the person was in the Citadel. The three people with me all confirmed that means that she was a member of the blackhand. The people with me were all very old school players. Then I RPed it another vet and he wrote the server rules on the wiki and there was no conflict.

Now being seen as using OOC knowledge and meta-gaming, has me a bit upset.

[OnyxTigress]

Yeah, the citadel to my knowledge was supposed to always be a place that was protected from being scryable. And even though you are supposed to know the person in order to locate, the actual spell doesn't work that way, only giving a list of everyone who is logged on.

Probably best to remove it, I don't think it would cause a bit difference in how things play put if it was not around. Making a big price tag wouldn't prevent it from being used. It's not like money is hard to come by.

[Fuzziebunny]

I actually see this with one or two of spells in game. People don't seem to be actually reading the descriptions of what they do. They just sort of... assume. I don't think anyone means to meta game at all. I just think that instead of reading the spell or looking it up they just go on what " Bob" told them it does.

[wangxiuming]

I am in favor of the nuking!

[Kitsunestume]

I still think that Scrying or some other form of divination could benefit quite nicely from the 'teleport GUI' that Poltergeist worked out. Familiarity makes a dig difference for how well you can perceive a location, and it would be a perfect system. Being able to travel often to a place and make it "Very Familiar" would enable people to check "Who is at the second wind" a simple task, while preventing knowledge of places that are impossible to get to without obscene amounts of effort. ALso, scrying places rather than people might make for a nice change.

Its just that the mechanics need significantly more refinement than can currently be applied.

[Rekov]

It might be helpful to add the SRD description of Locate Creature to our wiki in the meantime, just to give people a better sense of appropriate RP with the spell. As it stands, the wiki described how the spell currently functions mechanically, but now how it should function.

[Memnoch1962]

I know I'm late on commenting but..... been working. So, as for locate creature. When I played Dante' Swift he used it quite a bit. However as a player I tried to keep it IC. If he had never been to the area he would RP it that he didn't get enough info or the spell failed. Same goes if you don't know who you are trying to locate. Doubt brought up more limits the spell should or does have that I didn't know about. It is a useful spell, but on the other hand only the Black Hand has a way to circumvent it. I currently play a Black Hand PC and I personally don't use the ring of non detection. I have one, but after some OOC testing with Jarlexel and Kit it seems that it has to be worn for a 24 hour period (I think) to keep from being detected by locate creature, but functions immediately against detect evil. I don't know if that was how it was designed or not, but personally its just not worth wearing it all the time and wasting a ring slot just to keep others from locating me, and considering my PC's last name is Lyonstongue and he wears plate mail with the symbol of Colibrus on it........well it really doesn't make a lot of IC sense to wear it. Now, if he goes out in disguise he'll wear it for the detect evil part, other than that he doesn't use it.

As for the locate creature spell, it wouldn't bother me either way. But I've always hated to see things just given up on before a solution to a problem could be found. Granted, the solution may actually be scrapping the spell, but I think we should exhaust all other actions first. I mean if we just say nuke it before we try other things, then which spell or other item will be next?

[Rekov]

I don't think we're suggestion scrapping it forever. At least, I'm not. But as it stands, the spell is actively having a negative impact on the player experience. If it's going to take a while to fix it, it might as well be removed in the meantime.

[sonuvalich]

It's a Pandora's box spell. Even if you want to ignore the information it gives you because you are playing by the rules and intent, in your mind you now know and you can't put that knowledge back in the box. It will make it harder not to color future interactions, even by accident. I know we all strive hard not to metagame, but we can slip up and it easier not to slip if you simply do not know.

Also it could lead to vast misinterpretations. What if you found out someone was in the Citadel, but it turns out he had been taken there as a captive and brutally interrogated, then had his memory wiped? He is a victim, but now you suspect he is secretly a Black Hand member, and why would you ever believe his statements to the contrary? In your mind, you have concrete evidence, and anything he said would be a lie to escape consequence. It blurs an OOC/IC line by not functioning properly and can give confidence to misinformation.

[GodBeastX]

I can't see any good coming out of this spell for RP. Even positive use is misuse right now. If it literally only told you the direction of the character in question or if you could find them at all, I wouldn't be so against it, but considering we don't have X/Y coordinates of every area mapped, that's not likely to happen any time soon. Even if people cast it, it can poison people.

"Oh shit, he's in the citadel, and I am not supposed to be able to know that!"

But because of that minor tidbit, you're going to end up looking at your target differently in RP from then on, even though you try hard not to.

I'm all for nuking it. What people don't know can't be metagamed.

[Vladadier]

Nuke!!!