Reverse engineering: How much do tracks increase skills

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Knut
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Reverse engineering: How much do tracks increase skills

Post by Knut »

As I was really curious about the tracking skills, the bonus for certain tracks and how that adds up to the skill levels, I tried to figure it out.
It turned out to be a bit more complicated, than hoped and the answer isn't entirely precise, but I guess good enough to get an idea, as in the end it's practical, applicable help we need, and not highly precise numbers.

So, long story short, these are the points summarised from the thread:

1st three tracks give the most XP for skill rise
2nd ID-ed track gives ~1.5x more skill rise than 1st ID-ed track
3rd ID-ed track gives ~2x more skill rise than 1st ID-ed track
4th ID-ed track still seems to give some skill rise, but 5th+ only very little
If skill rise is your goal, it is only worth to ID the first 3-4 tracks of an animal
It could be that different type of clues (calls, blood cues) give different, maybe higher XP than tracks



And here is how I got to it:
I noted down how many times I needed to ID a certain number of tracks to reach level 2 from the start (level 1 - 0%)

Results
  • 37x ID-ed only the 1st track of an individual animal = lvl2 0%
  • 15x ID-ed 1st & 2nd track of an individual animal = lvl2 1%
  • 8x ID-ed 1st, 2nd & 3rd track + 1x 1st = lvl2 0%
  • 8x ID-ed 1st, 2nd & 3rd track + 1x 4th = lvl2 0%
  • 6x ID-ed first 6 tracks + 1x first 3 = lvl2 1%
unfortunately, the necessary numbers are rather odd. Plus that it seems that even lvl2 isn't reached at a clear number (i.e. it's not 100% fulfilled but sometimes 101% -maybe it's even 100.4% and 100.6% or numbers like that....)
plus that in the first case--ID-ing only the 1st track--I cannot fully exclude a counting error.

Assumptions
To solve the ratio, I needed to take a few assumptions:
  • skill levels rise the same for all animal species
  • hoof prints, droppings and calls give the same experience gain
  • from the fourth ID-ed clue on, the experience gain is identical for every single clue
Calculations
To solve the ratios, I calculated using the following calculations (mathematical expressions of the counting results)
I) 37A = L
II) 15(A+B) = L
III) 8(A+B+C) + 1(A) = L
IV) 8(A+B+C) + 1(Z) = L
V) 6(A+B+C+3Z) + 1(A+B+C) = L
with the following variable meaning
A = 1st track ID-ed
B = 2nd track ID-ed
C = 3rd track ID-ed
Z = 4th, 5th & 6th track ID-ed
L = level2 gained (be aware that L might be not a precise variable)

using I) & II) the result is that B = 1.46666666666A -which I considered to be likely 1.5, as L is in I) Lvl2 0% and in II) Lvl2 1%
using this to solve III) results in C = 2.8333333334A [comment: this is wrong, see here for info] C = 2,0333333334
further using this to solve V) shows that A is approximately Z -something that III) & IV) already suggest

Comments
I am not at all sure that I concluded right or even calculated right, so I'd be happy if someone tries to re-calculate according to my raw measurement data or even reproduces the "experiment" with own tracking countings
Another data point I'd like to see as a control is to track only one single animal until lvl2 is reached and count how many track clues were needed

Open questions
The following two points remain unclear for me
  • how many animals/clues need to be tracked to reach all the different levels?
  • do blood clues give a different skill raise?
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" ― Isaac Asimov
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Slatkus
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Re: Reverse engineering: How much do tracks increase skills

Post by Slatkus »

Nice Knut. I had this in my head for very long time. Wanted to know how it works. And I was right that 1 tracked animals gives more that 1 spotted.
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HooCairs
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Re: Reverse engineering: How much do tracks increase skills

Post by HooCairs »

Thanks for that work :)

What is disturbing is that the numbers used for spotting and shooting do not seem to apply.
http://forum.thehunter.com/viewtopic.ph ... 44#p299644

You need 15 spottings / hits for level 2, so I would have expect that
- if track 1 gives 1 point, I could click 15 times on a new track and then reach level 2
- if track 2 gives 1.5 points, I could click 6 times on a new track and a 2nd from that animal to reach level 2
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Knut
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Re: Reverse engineering: How much do tracks increase skills

Post by Knut »

Thanks, guys.
HooCairs wrote:What is disturbing is that the numbers used for spotting and shooting do not seem to apply.
Exactly that. I would've at least expected some round numbers.
That's also why I am not overconfident in my results.

HooCairs wrote:Have you started your analysis from level 0?
Yes. Level 1 - 0% to be precise. But that is the baseline from which everyone starts, when he/she hasn't tracked any animal of that species yet.

I have done the tracking with the patterns "one track only", "two tracks", "3 tracks" or "6 tracks" of each individual animal until the ingame message for the skill rise to the next level (lvl2) popped up.
Haven't checked the skill percent rise with each track, though.
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" ― Isaac Asimov
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Knut
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Re: Reverse engineering: How much do tracks increase skills

Post by Knut »

HooCairs wrote:You need 15 spottings / hits for level 2
Actually, 15 (-ish) animals are needed, if you ID 2 tracks of each. Maybe that was what the responsible dev felt a good level of balance between the skills?
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Re: Reverse engineering: How much do tracks increase skills

Post by HooCairs »

Knut wrote:
HooCairs wrote:What is disturbing is that the numbers used for spotting and shooting do not seem to apply.
Exactly that. I would've at least expected some round numbers.
That's also why I am not overconfident in my results.
Well, I think the results are still good. If the other numbers applied, you could easily reach level 20 in a very short time. You would need to click a maximum of 2850 tracks of any animal. Imagine following a herd with 7 blacktail deer and reading 20 tracks of each (usual scenario), this would result in

7x(1 + 1.5 + 3 + 17) = 157.5 points,

which would get you to level 5 right away.

The formula used to determine the number of spottings and hits is: level * (level -1) * 7.5

Can you figure out the formula for tracking, given the numbers? :D
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Re: Reverse engineering: How much do tracks increase skills

Post by Slatkus »

I somehow believe that the number to reach lvl 2 is still 15 (like spotting and weapons) and first track doesn't have to give 1 point. I was looking it to this but couldn't find the right numbers for 1st, 2nd, 3rd tracks.
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Re: Reverse engineering: How much do tracks increase skills

Post by wintergoose »

I mean I have read some Place that if you clic the 3 first trac of an animal you got an extra bonus point but thereafter each tracks only conts for itselves.
I have always tried to click on at least 3 tracks from the same animal I comes accross.

Dont know if it still Works like that.
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Knut
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Re: Reverse engineering: How much do tracks increase skills

Post by Knut »

wintergoose wrote:I mean I have read some Place that if you clic the 3 first trac of an animal you got an extra bonus point but thereafter each tracks only conts for itselves.
[...]
Dont know if it still Works like that.
Well, that's exactly how it works. Clicking the three first tracks will give you a substantially higher bonus than only the first or every one after.
But interestingly, already the second track gives a bonus, too.
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Re: Reverse engineering: How much do tracks increase skills

Post by INTIMID883R »

Excellent work. The other Question is as you level up (say 2-3 or 6-7) is the point spread higher so you have to click more tracks as the levels get higher. Would be interesting to check it from say level 10 to 11 and see if the same formula applies at higher levels, or have to click more tracks to level up.

Just a thought.
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