Dannykiers wrote:i would have to agree , there are many unrealistic elements in the game atm, not to mention floating logs etc.
So to get completly purist about things isnt fair . and i couldnt agree more with the statements made so far.
Animals were a huge part of mediaval life, all aspects of it . since they want to do so much with agricultural animals, why not expand it a bit.
Maybe falconry would be an elite form of hunting , it wouldnt be a neccesity i.e fishing isnt also needed to get food . there are other ways.
Things are not as black and white
To be fair, lets keep engine issues (floating logs) outside of the discussion. Most of the underlying mechanics/theme of the game is fairly "realistic"/low fantasy in design and application. But there are few mechanics, the chance to change iron to gold at 100 Alchemy for example, that are just as fantasy as using trained birds as a way to gain direction based information on groups of people.
Gentry wrote:So there is no credible historical records of this ever actually being used?
praying home is just a handwavium rename for an important MMO game mechanic that we're going to have eitherway. So its acceptable. What it isn't, is a floodgate excuse to implement every fantasy element people want adding to this game.
Adding spy-birds and fire dragons are not congruent. Its just too much high-fantasy.
As I said previously, I'm not arguing they should be included. However accepting "handwavium" on a convenience factor/mechanic opens the excuse for other factors/mechanics.
As to how/what birds can be trained for, if we can (and have) trained them to defend specific aircraft from other birds (
http://www.essex.ac.uk/lifts/memory_map ... lcons.html) why is it so hard to make the jump it might have happened a couple hundred years in the past, considering modern understanding is built on previous experience.
People have trained birds to override their natural instinct (in hunting, the bird does not eat the captured game) by use of simple behavior rewarding, is it really so unthinkable that they could have taught a bird to find groups of people and circle for a minute before returning?
I don't read that as being a GPS style feature (pointing arrows) with full details (X number of people wearing plate and using halbards) that seem to be what Gentry is implying it would be.
As long as the falconer had to remain within visible range (or a system defined X meters/yards), the bird was a "pet" type of resource that required training, and thus specific skills to use, could be killed, and there was a limited time it would circle, it just doesn't seem to be that big of an issue to believe it could be done.
Honestly, I'd prefer for this as way to know a group of players were in the area over the "handwavium" convenience mechanic of teleporting, at least this could be countered by a sharp-eyed archer.
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