JTD Tracker Dog

[DMarkwick]

A dog who can smell, and track individual units? We've come up with a solution for this, a player controllable dog who belongs to a handler, and who the player temporarily controls in order to use the special dog smell skill.

Strange concept, so just watch the video.

(Please excuse the poor FRAPS performance.)

[STALKERGB]

Nice little video you have there, I was expecting someone to come up with something like this when i saw the alsatian in the game

[Binkowski]

That's an awesome concept, I hope to see it put to good use!

[orlok]

hello there

Great idea.

Rather than smoke as the "scent" why not use a modified version of the friendly/enemy "blobs" available in lower skill levels? Mainly as smoke can be an fps killer for those of us not endowed with big manly rigs.

Also a "leash/lead" could be enabled preventing the dog from leaving a certain radius from the handler until the handler authorises it.

Also info needs to be sent to the handler from the dog to indicate what it has found. and then handler can forward that info in chat/voice to other team mates.

Scenario: handler and dog approach wall concealing two enemy troops.

DOG: he detects "sees" 2 red blobs behind/through wall. or if enemies in close proximity, perhaps one big red blob.

Handler: recieves message "dog has detected enemy presence near and ahead"

he can then communicate this as he wishes to other squad members.

This is because the dog model cannot emulate dog "pointing" or any other reaction that is use to communicate by the dog.

Just some quick thoughts.

Love the idea though.

rgds

LoK

[DMarkwick]

Thanks for the feedbacks

The current plans are for the dog to be attached to a player on a short "leash" until the player decides to "use" the dog. The player then can detect scents and scent markers to track individuals, and can move about freely. The handler unit (who the player was previously controlling) will follow the dog at a distance, enabling the player to switch back into the handler when the dog finds something, and the handler is NOT miles away

The particle solution will stay unfortunately orlok, as each unit has a unique colour "smell" made up of two colours among other reasons. There are a few FPS saving measures built in, only units inside a certain range will emit particles, and those particles are only visible when even closer. So there is a performance-saving culling system already in place, plus, the dog's vision will probably be altered also, and one of the things being considered is reducing the viewdistance (anyone ever see a dog noticing something very far away? I think dogs are naturally only interested in things fairly close by, like < 500m say).

[orlok]

Hello there,

Particles are cool, just thought i'd throw stuff out there for you to digest.

Another thing, dogs do get obsessed by distant things, especially noises and scents. But it may be worth "nerfing" their cpabilities.

Lastly, I was under the impression that a full "slot" would be taken for the dog, as in, at mission start someone plays the dog throughout the mission.

Perhaps implement both ways of dog control?

Again just ideas, and im sure whatever you come up with will be interesting indeed.

rgds

LoK

[DMarkwick]

I've got a dog that can indeed be used as a "slot", but there's problems in having a team member who is a dog. For one, the dog doesn't always follow the group, and sometimes will not follow an order (like "move there" etc). Also the dog will report enemy units and will try to talk to you

Thinking about it, dogs are not team members, the dog handler is the team member, and he has a dog as a "tool" that he uses. To this end, I think I'm going to implement it this way, have the dog as a tool the handler uses, but the handler is the team member.

[Mark XIII]

This is what A2 needs, clever little idea's that are highly usable, good work so far DM

Could you make the dog growl maybe if it detects something unknown ? Also could it bark when it closed in on its chosen scent ?

Just some idea's, I'd be happy to work some sounds for you...

[Squelch]

I'm totally blown away by the realistic behaviour the dog exhibits. I watched the video first without sound, so the lack of audible feedback went unnoticed.

I love the concept, and I'm very interested how its done. Can the dog be taught the scent of its mark?

Good job and I look forward to seeing its release.

[Cole]

Oh wow, first those birds in trees for ArmA, now tracker dogs for ArmA 2. You seriously do have awesome ideas!
Any idea, even though it's at an early stage of development, if it will be fully MP compatible?