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Author Topic: Help with Sneaking and Such?  (Read 2673 times)

puke

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Help with Sneaking and Such?
« on: September 15, 2014, 03:54:39 pm »

My search-foo is weak, so maybe someone can point me to a good thread or wiki article or just spell some things out for me.

I have not been a big adventure player in a few versions now, so I'm not sure how much of these features are new.  It all looks very new though, and I'm not finding anything helpful on the wiki or with the search terms I'm using.

First off, what is the deal with stealth?  I'm guessing that movement speed gives you a better stealth chance?  Does crawling on the ground also help?  It sounds like being near an obstacle helps, but I'm not sure how?  Do elevation differences (being near a ramp) also help, and if so how?

Related to this, what exactly is the red highlighted circle around enemies when you go stealthing?  Their detection range? 

Lastly, what are the little animated green carrots next to creatures?  Facing or movement direction?  What does it affect?  Does it affect detection?  Hit or Defense probability?  Sometimes they are not green, does this just indicate that it is for a hostile?

I think that's it for now.  Thanks for any assistance.
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FoiledFencer

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Re: Help with Sneaking and Such?
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2014, 04:55:50 pm »

The current release is fairly recent and stealth is a bit wonky.

The highlight represents vision cones that let you know which way an enemy is facing and how far they can see. You need that for quietly taking out guards at camps without alerting the others.

The 'carrots' indicate that the entity is in motion in that direction, yes. I'm not sure about the mechanics behind it, but magmawiki is generally your best pal as a starting player. The gameplay forum can probably give a more technical answer.
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puke

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Re: Help with Sneaking and Such?
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2014, 05:26:46 pm »

magmawiki is generally your best pal as a starting player.

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puke
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Ouch.  Had that coming, I guess. 

The wiki articles on steath are mainly on the "Ambusher" page, and to a lesser extent the "Observer" page, but both of these focus on dwarf mode and mention adventure mode only briefly.  Searching for "Stealth" or "Sneak" turns up nothing useful there.

There is a super interesting page on "Gait", and it indicates that speeds of "normal" and slower are not reduced by sneaking (which I think needs verification, I feel like sneaking slowed down my normal movement) but what it does not say is wither slower movement actually aids Sneaking.

The new sneak menu suggests some really interesting features around light conditions and nearby obstacles, I'm a little surprised there isn't an analysis of it yet.
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Robsoie

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Re: Help with Sneaking and Such?
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2014, 09:40:22 pm »

It looks like going stealth regardless of your ambusher level does not seem to affect undead, night creatures or bogeymen , their sight is 360 degree apparently , and considering they're all hitting extremely hard, it's a good idea to avoid fighting alone

About the companions, they do not seem to use stealth themselves, so if you're trying to sneak somewhere, they will move next to you and attract the attention of everyone (prepare to change your speed to Sprint and run as fast and far as possible in case you see plenty of undead near).

"fortunately" when it's about bandits it's not that bad to be spotted because of your companions, relationships are a bit bugged and most of the times bandits will not be hostile (nothing to do with the challenging bandits of 34.11) , and will even greet you as if they were your best friends, and it's so badly broken that killing bandits will make your castle leaders to hate you and call you murderer, even if they were the ones that told you their city was harrassed by bandits.

Since a version of two a fix was done to stealth , so when you hit someone while stealth is on, it will react assuming you have not 1 hit killed him, previously when stealth was on you could destroy a whole civilisation by yourself as none reacted to being hit.

Now none will react to their, even best, friends being killed in their sight by you when you're sneaking, hopefully fixed soon.
« Last Edit: September 15, 2014, 09:45:26 pm by Robsoie »
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Saiko Kila

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Re: Help with Sneaking and Such?
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2014, 01:21:30 am »

I'm new to adventuring and find magmawiki on adventure mode not very helpful, probably because of changes and new bugs in new versions, but also because fortress mode steals most of focus, and things which are different between modes aren't often explained. Probably more people play fortress mode so this is understandable.

As for Stealth, I was killing goblin bandits with stealth on and two companions yesterday, and these idiots (goblins) couldn't see me and my stealth was never broken, even during fights. Apparently fighting goblin could see me, but couldn't break stealth to help other goblins, who even if alarmed ran away to return some time later with no bad thoughts. More, when I was hitting sleeping gobbos with stealth, and the first hits didn't kill them (but bruised fat or something) they were continuing sleeping as if nothing happened. So now I'm boasting about killing gobbo bosses, who were in fact murdered in their sleep. Very heroic.

Also, I had to confirm (Alt+y) every attack on every new gobbo, and sometimes even all attacks on single gobbo! Like three times in a row. This is similar to many neutral animals, like Giant Rats. Maybe this is intended, as an anti-violence mechanics, to promote peace and general understanding between nations, but considering that there's not much beyond violence in adventure mode I find it confusing.
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FoiledFencer

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Re: Help with Sneaking and Such?
« Reply #5 on: September 16, 2014, 08:51:28 am »

Date Registered:
    October 16, 2006, 12:01:01 am

Oops - my bad. Didn't mean to come across douchy, I just kind of skimmed your post.  :-X
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puke

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Re: Help with Sneaking and Such?
« Reply #6 on: September 16, 2014, 05:27:02 pm »

nah, sorry for being defensive.  Your comment was helpful - and I am relatively new to Adventure mode, I've played it barely at all since the 2010 version.

I'm pretty much on the same page with Saiko Kila here, in that I think the wiki editors are mainly fortress mode players.

I think the confirms on attacking non-hostiles are to make sure you havent mistaken an ally or neutral for a hostile -- adventurers might be murder-hobos, but I think the game assumes you want to think twice before alienating groups or starting wars.

I'm not sure if the confirmation while stealthed is a bug or a feature.  A case could be made that you are risking giving away your position, and that confirmation is warranted.

Hard to say.
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Mentalpatient87

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Re: Help with Sneaking and Such?
« Reply #7 on: September 16, 2014, 08:32:00 pm »

Since a version of two a fix was done to stealth , so when you hit someone while stealth is on, it will react assuming you have not 1 hit killed him, previously when stealth was on you could destroy a whole civilisation by yourself as none reacted to being hit.

I was just playing the newest version and this doesn't seem to be true. I hit a few bandits from behind, in stealth, and didn't kill them. They didn't react, or at least not fast enough for me to put in another shot. One of them didn't even wake up from sleep after having his guts spilled.
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Robsoie

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Re: Help with Sneaking and Such?
« Reply #8 on: September 16, 2014, 10:14:15 pm »

This problem is supposed to be fixed in 40.10, anyone directly hit should react now. If you managed to find situation in which it's still broken, you should report that with a save on the bug tracker, only way we can hope to see it fixed one day.

The sleep with people not reacting to anything is another bug that is present since the 1st df2014 release and still not fixed in current version :
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=7827
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