ABSTRACT
Searching is so second nature to people that apart from the inconvenience of having misplaced something, they are naturally able to effectively track down missing items. A cautious style of searching is one in which the nonplayer character (NPC) has been alerted, but does not know whether their target is hostile. This style of searching is generally used when the NPC has been alerted by a stimulus without any knowledge of the source, for example, if a player throws a bottle to draw attention and lure an NPC. The first key to making a search seem realistic is triggering it at the right time and telegraphing that transition to the player. Since the player is usually still nearby when the search is triggered, it is likely that they are still able to see or hear the NPCs who are about to hunt for them. Therefore, a poor decision on starting the search will be obvious to the player.
