Ok I was just thinking a little about this. Should animals leave tracks in the snow? I mean if you shot an elk and it runs away badly wounded should it leave a trail of blood behind? This is not a big deal in the game overall, but would be kinda cool if you play as a hunter or ranger. I would love to be able to track down animals, follow their footsteps through the wilderness. It can also be a warning when the player sees huge tracks after giant bears or a wolf pack, so the player must be more careful up ahead. I also want animal fur and pelts to be worth allot more than they did in Morrowind and Oblivion. If the player manage to bring down a mammoth, its tusk's, meat and fur should be worth something. And as said this is not a "big" deal in the game, but would be a very nice detail to have in it for us eager to hunt a little.

So any comment about this matter? yey or nay?

I heard the snow was dynamic, so we could see tracks. Blood doesn't seem that hard. Just make the blood stains stay longer. Could see it implemented.

I was thinking of a Perk that allows animal or even humanoid tracks to become more apparent would be cool.

That was a really good idea man

Great idea! Being able to track an animal lets say 10 minutes after you shot it would be sweet.

I love this idea, now you have said it, i think i will really notice it if it isn't in the game haha

It would be really funny if a pack of wolves got to it first as well xD damnit!!!

That would be cool, its is time to be Rambo with a bow :toughninja:

Another thing would be cool is if enemies could track you from your snow prints as well, say for example you run into a group of bandits and quickly run out of sight, they could try to catch up with you by following you your foot prints.

yeah, that would be cool, must be fun to hide behind a huge rock waiting for them to get near with you'r bow and snipe them

yes to everything OP.

Perhaps some quests involving having to track an NPC through the brush. ie no quest markers. Just you and your wits.

This remind me of a quest in Oblivion where an Ogre stole some ones potatoes and tehy wanted you to find the Ogre. I thought it would leave a trail, Tracks, broken trees, destroyed brush, a dropped potatoe, and these clues would lead you to its lair, but no there was just a quest marker. And instead of continuing running it was just standing there.

Adding things like that would allow you to follow animals or creatures ambush them, find there camps, it would be great.

Obviously a wonderful idea. I'm all for it.

Another 'snowy' element I thought of...

Whirling flurries of snow, picked up and carried by the wind, that will outline the shape of enemies, or for that matter your own character, whenever one of them is caught in the flurry while using invisbility or chameleon, ultimately making them easier to see.

Wasnt there something about an Axe perk to cause bleeds? I certainly hope it actually makes things bleed lol.

Reminds me of that chase scene from Hellboy.

Well, I would like this. And it would not be TOO hard to code I don't think. Just make any blood or footprints stay longer. That's it, done. :wink_smile:

Nay! How dare you even suggest a thing like this! Tracking animals!?!

jk

Ofcourse!

It would be a cool idea to include, but I think the chances are very very low that it would be done. I know Fable is the franchise that has a history for promising the moon and then falling far short, but really the living world and intelligence of the NPCs in Oblivion were far short of what was promised. I'm honestly expecting a Bethesda repeat in that reguard. Between Oblivion and Fallout 3 (and NV but that's not Bethesda), I've seen alot that I like, but there have been many world breaking design choices that modders have to address. The hardest for modders to ever touch is the lack of the world being actually alive with activity and life. For me, the idea of tracking animals would fall in this "living breathing world" catagory. It's something Elder Scrolls needs desperately to take the series to the next level, but things have always been so static, I don't see them fixing it in one fell swoop over one game.

All that to say, I like the idea. I've no confidence we'll see that or anything that dynamic included in the game at all. Sorry to be the pessimist here, just how I see it.

the way I imagine the devs would approach this if they wanted to do this, would be not to script animals in specific to leave track in the snow but the other way around. code the snow to leave a track where the character models cross over the ground.

awesome idea OP, i always wanted to hunt in OB but i was always attacked by minotaurs every 2 min, When i did shoot a deer, it was just thrown in the air a couple of feet, Extreme anti climix, but if it escaped, injured but left a blood trail that would be awesome.

What would be even better is if the animals and monsters also used your tracks to hunt you!

I'd love to do some tracking, um not much more to say :shrug:

Went back to look at the hunting screenshot to make sure we didn't miss the footprints right under our noses, sadly none are there. I love the trees. Bethesda's World Artists and Modelers are my heroes, speaking of which I should probably get back to my 3D modeling assignment... :toughninja:

hehe, your character gets crippled and have a pack of wolves after him through a snowy pine forest. They will follow your tracks and hunt you down if you don't find a good spot to hide and ambush them.

I guess the reverse could also be true if you are a hunter of wolves ... you could set a bunch of traps, then head off into the higher forest and give yourself a cut or two and let your blood fall, and then take yourself down the mountain between all of your traps, and into a hiding spot. Then the wolves are lured by your bloody trail and come as one pack to fall in your pit and be impaled on the wooden spikes.

I mean, if there was "tracking" then I'm sure the peoples of that place would be using that, or reverse engineering that upon others, to get the results they're looking for.

I personally would like to see some kind of "heat vision" spell that allows you to see the bright-red footprints on any surface, not just snow alone. That way you could track creatures through the forests, mountains, grasses, snows, sand dunes (where the sand is hotter than the footprints which would actually have stolen some of the heat, appearing darker) with no problem.

I want someone to add a Smell Mod to Skyrim that would enable smells in the game, allowing for the possibility of smell indicators that would help you determine if your food was safe to eat, rancid, or poisoned, etc... and the natural extension of that Mod might also be that animals could track you by smell (not foot PRINTS) per se... and one of the Perks for it could be "Scent of the Wild" ... which would allow you to smell your prey (if you were a werewolf or vampire) or just track a certain creature by smell if you're a hunter.

Could be interesting.