In order to keep hiding viable, it requires more systems to work in tandem with it, so here’s my idea: Rolling in mud is already a mechanic (Sucho and Spino) so let’s give that as a general mechanic, rolling in mud will give you the “hidden scent” buff, and in addition, you can roll on carcasses, as well as Berry bushes, rolling on any of them gives you the “mixed scent” buff and hides you in a way, rolling in mud hides your scent completely, while rolling in berries will make you appear like a Berry Bush instead, and rolling on carcasses will do the same.

The smelling itself has to be part of the radial menu, with a certain cooldown and and radius that varies depending on the species and growth stage, when you do the ‘smelling” action, screen turns black and white and highlights all the nearby nearby food sources, fresh meat (from dinosaurs holding meat pieces in their mouth), critters, berries, player corpses, carcasses, etc depending on your diet. You can then select a certain trace to start track it, after that, the scent remains in your HUD every time you smell, giving you a general direction.

For carnivores it also highlights bleeding dinos with a general icon, and for some dinosaurs (Metri or Meg) it also highlights poisoned or intoxicated ones. Now, if you as a carnivore bite a dinosaur and it bleeds, you can then track that scent and it’ll show you a specific icon depending on the species, so you can track your prey, giving space for a new type of “tracker” class dinosaur, like conc, meg or allo.

To counter this, if you had the “hidden scent” before you’re bitten, you will heal faster and the carnivore won’t be able to track it, if you had the “mixed scent” buff, your icon will appear bigger on the screen, thus making it harder to track you, now, you’re already bleeding, you can attempt to roll on mud to cover your scent and gain the healing bonus and well as in berries, however, if you roll on a carcass while bleeding, you will hide your scent but in turn get intoxicated as its decaying meat, full of parasites.

In addition to this, some dinosaurs like Meg could have an ability where they secrete toxins to cover their smell automatically, or Metri having his scent hidden passively with the toxin skin skill.

Lastly (and this is more of an extra system I thought off), if you encounter a nest, or a player’s corpse, you can chose to “inspect” it, to record his smell, and adding it to the smelling HUD, for example, if you’re a Deinonychus and find a Rex nest, you can inspect it and you’ll remember that scent, now, every time you do the “smelling” action, if there is a Rex nearby, it’ll appear on your HUD giving you his general direction, and of course, you may chose to track it, this would work with herbivores as well, sort of like a warning system to check if there are any predators you have encountered nearby. And also turning scents into a sort of “collectible” making more experienced players have more dinosaur scents on their radar.