sigma1313
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Why Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Stealth feels bad - UBISOFT PLEASE FIX
I think I figured out a major reason why Valhalla's stealth feels so bad. While playing through the new mastery challenges, there's a challenge to not be detected and not kill anyone. I noticed while hiding in bushes that the enemy's head was often fixed on my location.
Check out this video '>.
As you can see in the first clip, we have a two-fold issue for stealth. The first is that while I was legitimately seen by the enemy, he instantly detected me. There was no option to return to stealth, I either had to kill him or go into combat. Issue number 2 is that the enemy knew where I was. As soon as he pauses at his post he stares right through the wall to my location. As he keeps walking, his head stays turned in my direction. His cone of vision appears to be directly tied to the way his head is turned, and he keeps his focus on me through a wall.
As a player, I expect that guards will be looking forward, or make more exaggerated movements to inform me that they are looking around if we can't see that vision cone. Instead, they know my location and almost wait for me to step into the cone for me to aggro them.
We can see this in the second clip as well where I'm in a bush and the guard at about 20 feet away just immediately begins to stare in my direction until he gets over 20 feet away again at which point he snaps forward. I've been able to consistently reproduce this behavior about 80% of the time, which adds to the inconsistency of stealth.
I, as a player, expect to be able to pass by a guard safely if they've already walked past me if I know their path will keep them walking. I cannot plan or reasonably act on a fail state occurring 50% of the time due to the AI actively watching my position despite them having shown no other signs of being aware of me.
The complexity of Valhalla's stealth using light, physical line of sight, social awareness, and sound is nothing to scoff at. The added complexity of having moving vision cones and other features that have been built up over time is, to an extent, commendable. However, at this time there is too much information, too many variables, and not enough information given to the player as a way to track this. If the design goal of the current AI iteration was to make a more realistic feeling of stealth, while potentially successful, it's come at the cost of a feeling of consistency, which is key for a stealth game. Stealth is just a form of a puzzle to solve and right now it feels like the correct pathway to solve that puzzle needs multiple attempts because the puzzle's mechanics feel inconsistent. Ubisoft, for Rift, please fix this. If that means toning down the complexity and "realism" for a better feeling stealth experience, I'd ask that you make that decision. -
Why Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Stealth feels bad - UBISOFT PLEASE FIX
It looks like the link got messed up and trying to edit the post gave me a warning that I'm spamming, so here's a youtube link to the video I mentioned.
Latest posts made by sigma1313
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Why Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Stealth feels bad - UBISOFT PLEASE FIX
It looks like the link got messed up and trying to edit the post gave me a warning that I'm spamming, so here's a youtube link to the video I mentioned.
-
Why Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Stealth feels bad - UBISOFT PLEASE FIX
I think I figured out a major reason why Valhalla's stealth feels so bad. While playing through the new mastery challenges, there's a challenge to not be detected and not kill anyone. I noticed while hiding in bushes that the enemy's head was often fixed on my location.
Check out this video '>.
As you can see in the first clip, we have a two-fold issue for stealth. The first is that while I was legitimately seen by the enemy, he instantly detected me. There was no option to return to stealth, I either had to kill him or go into combat. Issue number 2 is that the enemy knew where I was. As soon as he pauses at his post he stares right through the wall to my location. As he keeps walking, his head stays turned in my direction. His cone of vision appears to be directly tied to the way his head is turned, and he keeps his focus on me through a wall.
As a player, I expect that guards will be looking forward, or make more exaggerated movements to inform me that they are looking around if we can't see that vision cone. Instead, they know my location and almost wait for me to step into the cone for me to aggro them.
We can see this in the second clip as well where I'm in a bush and the guard at about 20 feet away just immediately begins to stare in my direction until he gets over 20 feet away again at which point he snaps forward. I've been able to consistently reproduce this behavior about 80% of the time, which adds to the inconsistency of stealth.
I, as a player, expect to be able to pass by a guard safely if they've already walked past me if I know their path will keep them walking. I cannot plan or reasonably act on a fail state occurring 50% of the time due to the AI actively watching my position despite them having shown no other signs of being aware of me.
The complexity of Valhalla's stealth using light, physical line of sight, social awareness, and sound is nothing to scoff at. The added complexity of having moving vision cones and other features that have been built up over time is, to an extent, commendable. However, at this time there is too much information, too many variables, and not enough information given to the player as a way to track this. If the design goal of the current AI iteration was to make a more realistic feeling of stealth, while potentially successful, it's come at the cost of a feeling of consistency, which is key for a stealth game. Stealth is just a form of a puzzle to solve and right now it feels like the correct pathway to solve that puzzle needs multiple attempts because the puzzle's mechanics feel inconsistent. Ubisoft, for Rift, please fix this. If that means toning down the complexity and "realism" for a better feeling stealth experience, I'd ask that you make that decision.
