Strange stealth gameplay, devs please fix [stable build 47282]
zetachron
Germany Join Date: 2014-11-14 Member: 199655Members
Germany Join Date: 2014-11-14 Member: 199655Members
From my latest silent running test driving the Cyclops to the prison I observed that the Sea Dragon doesn't attack a giant Cyclops even right in front of it. The Sea Dragon is practically blind to a silent running Cyclops. But as soon as I exit the Cyclops as a tiny diver that should make even less noise than a submarine, the same Sea Dragon can come chasing me from the other edge of the cavern far away to hunt me down with an omnipotent player fixed gaze.
The silent running as a new stealth gameplay element still doesn't work to me.
I know the Sea Dragon with his devastating attacks poses a problem to a non lethal game if he blocks access to bottleneck areas that a big Cyclops has to pass. That was a design problem right from the begin. Because the Cyclops can neither slip through nor fight back. So you made silent running into blinding the Sea Dragon.
But wouldn't there still be some alternatives:
So we could end up with different strategies to bypass a leviathan:
I don't understand the current gameplay strategy. It works, but makes no sense. There seems to be no real stealth range, only all or nothing. And a tiny diver attracts a leviathan far more than a giant submarine.
EDIT: Right now I only need the silent running module to bypass the Sea Dragon and most other creatures. Nothing else. Tested.
EDIT 2: I have a new idea of silent diving - a special liquid breathing ultra capacity tank that allows to be more stealthy when diving, but a bit slower.
The silent running as a new stealth gameplay element still doesn't work to me.
I know the Sea Dragon with his devastating attacks poses a problem to a non lethal game if he blocks access to bottleneck areas that a big Cyclops has to pass. That was a design problem right from the begin. Because the Cyclops can neither slip through nor fight back. So you made silent running into blinding the Sea Dragon.
But wouldn't there still be some alternatives:
- a roaming path for Sea Dragons that allows the sub to wait until slipping through
- a true cloak field for the non moving Cyclops that allows parking a Cyclops and repairing it, drawing a bit of power
- silent running just stops a leviathan from approaching from afar - the same range should work with the diver
- long term placable decoys that attract leviathans from afar into a far away region
- only leviathans can harm the Cyclops and decoys mainly attract leviathans
So we could end up with different strategies to bypass a leviathan:
- we observe his path and wait for the right moment
- we place a thumping decoy at the other end of a cave and pass while he is distracted
- we turn on the shields, bypass a Sea Dragon with flank speed, distract him with flash fireworks and noisy decoy swarm until we got through
- parking moveless in a corner and cloaked allows us to repair the Cyclops or investigate a Precursor site meanwhile
I don't understand the current gameplay strategy. It works, but makes no sense. There seems to be no real stealth range, only all or nothing. And a tiny diver attracts a leviathan far more than a giant submarine.
EDIT: Right now I only need the silent running module to bypass the Sea Dragon and most other creatures. Nothing else. Tested.
EDIT 2: I have a new idea of silent diving - a special liquid breathing ultra capacity tank that allows to be more stealthy when diving, but a bit slower.
Comments
It's the sad element of limbo that devs perpetually live in.
Can't make everyone happy.
However, I do wish that they could get a nice middle ground to what they have.
I just hope they extend the stealth system also to the player itself. So if you swim slow and don't use your flashlight (Silent running for the player so to speak), you produce a minimum of aggro. Normal movement produces more aggro kinda middleground. If you decide to "sprint" you cause the maximum amount of aggro possible through movement. The flashlight should also increase the aggro-level as should do all tools who produce light and or alot of noise like the Seaglide noise wise or the laser cutter light wise for example. Maybe add a noise-/attention- scale to our hud like we have in the Cyclops to gauge how much attention you currently produce. So standing still with all tools off should make you not very intersting...not totally invisible but much less attractive for the usual predator. That way you could leave your Cyclops "slowly" and not get eaten right away. But you have to wait for the Seadragon to pass if you want to do some repairs because the sparking light could attract it, if it was too close. This could also open up the opportunity for stealth uprades to existing diving suits for example or a specialised tool. Like a kind of squid like camouflage when not moving or something alike.
Would that be a possible solution for aggro management?
I for one would be happy if the same ''noise'' system was applied to all the vehicles as well. Would be cool if there was an upgrade we could make for the Seamoth and PRAWN that'd show the cavitation meter on them as well. Right now no matter what you do, even if you're completely still, both the seamoth and PRAWN get the same aggro from the Predators that they do when they are moving...