Missions: Scanning objects and mobs in AO

[Chak]

I've just spent quite a bit of time doing the Xan mission lines. Allthough the missions in themselves are interesting and valuable both for XP and items there is one thing that bothers me.

Scanning is used ALOT in the Xan line and that in itself is fine. What is annoying is the amount of ways you've come up with to scan objects and mobs. To scan Hecklers in Adonis you target and either right click on the mob with the scanner or just keep the target for a while (not sure tbh). To scan some items in Scheol you target and right click on the scanner. To scan mobs in Scheol you right click on the target with the scanner (or was it target and right click..?). And to scan other objects you drag the scanner and right click on the object. To scan some items in Adonis you just target them. You also have to left click on something with the scanner in one mission iirc.

And this is just for the Xan mission line. I am pretty sure I've found other ways to scan in other missions...

Do you see where I'm going with this? Is it really necessary to invent every iteration of object interaction in the known universe for scanning objects when target + activate scanner or just target would suffice for all of these?

Please make all of the scanners work in one way so that we don't have to go through the whole god damn repertoire of how to use an object on another every time there is a scan mission!

Shouldn't be that hard to streamline this...

[Ophiuchus]

Bit of consistency would be nice,yeah. Pick one and stick with it please FC

[Awikun]

I agree 100%, it is very annoying.

However I can guess why is that happening:

1. Those quests and zones were developed over many years and coded by many different programers.
FC (or former GDs/lead designers) never bothered with defining "procedure of scanning mobs and objects".
2. Whenever any programer was told to code a quest that involve scaning mobs or objets with scaner they did what seemed to them logical, but as all humans are different they all had diferent ideas like: target mob then r-click scaner in inventory, target mob with scaner then r-click or l-click, drag and drop and many other ideas

The worst thing is that it may look like something easy to fix but in reality if you take into account "quality of FC's code" and "quality of FC's documentation of coding" it is probably a nightmare to find and fix such small but annoying bugs.

[Chak]

I agree 100%, it is very annoying.

However I can guess why is that happening:

1. Those quests and zones were developed over many years and coded by many different programers.
FC (or former GDs/lead designers) never bothered with defining "procedure of scanning mobs and objects".
2. Whenever any programer was told to code a quest that involve scaning mobs or objets with scaner they did what seemed to them logical, but as all humans are different they all had diferent ideas like: target mob then r-click scaner in inventory, target mob with scaner then r-click or l-click, drag and drop and many other ideas

The worst thing is that it may look like something easy to fix but in reality if you take into account "quality of FC's code" and "quality of FC's documentation of coding" it is probably a nightmare to find and fix such small but annoying bugs.

I agree with you if we consider all missions in the game, but the big bad boogeyman in this instance is a single mission line, which I highly doubt was made over severak years and patches. The Xan missions are all made at the same time, yet we still ended up with all of these ways to scan. I highly doubt this was created by more than a few people and changing it shouldn't really be that hard - for the Xan missions that is. I expect a little search and replace is all they really need to streamline this.

As for the other missions... I agree with you. That's a tougher nut to crack and could in practice be an impossible task in the end. That said, the original missions on RK are all set up with a single way to scan, left-click an item. Not sticking to this is just poor tradecraft imho...

[Vhab]

2. Whenever any programer was told to code a quest that involve scaning mobs or objets with scaner they did what seemed to them logical, but as all humans are different they all had diferent ideas like: target mob then r-click scaner in inventory, target mob with scaner then r-click or l-click, drag and drop and many other ideas

Designers make missions. Not programmers
Programmers only create the mechanics and tools for designers to use.

[Mastablasta]

Yeah, this is the kind of thing that confuses people and especially new ones who are not used to trying out the 50 different ways things can be done here. I guess noone ever sat down at a meeting and went "let's brainstorm interaction possibilities and come up with the best way for each type of interaction we'll be using, and then you all use that going forward." :|

[Zwelgje]

Haha, then the programmers are at fault creating so many tools for scanning :P

If there was just one way to scan, then if Bob was designing stuff and his scanning part didn't work he had to ask Fred how he made it work the previous time...

Imho I think there should be 2 types of scanning. One, for scanning objects, and one for mob's/ npc's ....

[Mastablasta]

Haha, then the programmers are at fault creating so many tools for scanning :P

If there was just one way to scan, then if Bob was designing stuff and his scanning part didn't work he had to ask Fred how he made it work the previous time...

Imho I think there should be 2 types of scanning. One, for scanning objects, and one for mob's/ npc's ....

Probably more of a result of the designers using the available tools for interaction in ways that were not intended if something is possible in some way, someone is going to use that way. I wonder if we look at questchains made by specific designers that have interaction with NPCs/world-spots in a way that requires using one item on the other, in any of the above mentioned ways, we would find that each designer only used one way of doing the interactions.

I'd imagine that someone would use the "pick item up and drop on target in world" scanning to somehow be more "immersive" than just rightclicking an item in your inventory and that's why they'd choose to do that, while another might think that targeting and then touching buttons on a scanner to like "hook in to your nanobot-targeting computer in your brain or whatever" and record the data to be more true to the in-game technology (although one might also wonder why there's a need for a scanner device in a world as technologically sophisticated as AO's).