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Blog 153-154: Stealth Preview
Hello all and welcome to another blog post!
Today we'll be talking about some of the new gameplay additions coming into Claire's Quest!
First off, a "Legacy" section has been added to the main UI.
The "Legacy" section is mainly a visual aid, like the Quest Journal, and has no direct gameplay effect. It simply serves to measure Claire's progress throughout the game, recording what skills she's mastered, and what achievements she's attained. Here it is, pictured below:
As the Quest Journal was warmly welcomed by players, we hope this new addition will be well-received by you guys as well, serving as a visual representation of Claire's progress through the game!
Now, let's move onto a major gameplay addon coming into the Mercenaries questline in particular. That is to say, the takedown/assassination skillset.
As you may be well aware of by now, Claire is no hero. As a refugee struggling to get by in a foreign land, Claire is played as a non-combatant. She doesn't partake in any kind of monster-slaying adventures - at least not directly - and her best hope in hostile confrontations is to run away or talk and trick her way out of it.
However, given a certain level of Defiance, Claire becomes capable of fighting back and resisting in clutch situations. She's still no adventurer, and won't be donning weapons and armour and going on a crusade to retake the Continent, but she gets to hold her own.
Capitalizing on this, we are excited to announce the upcoming debut of a customised "stealth" gameplay for Claire's Quest!
In Rathpike's questlines, especially the Mercenary questline, Claire will be put in a position where she's placed in hostile areas filled with enemy patrols... as well as hiding places, and trappable areas.
Sticking to the shadows, and relying on wits and stealth, Claire can poison enemy provisions, light lairs ablaze with oil and fire, and even sneak up on and stab physically stronger enemies to death before they can even react!
For example, here is Claire with sufficient Defiance and carrying a Knife in her inventory, sneaking up on a thug from behind. Note that if she's approaching from the sides or front of the thug's vision, she won't be able to carry out the takedown/assassination attempt. Claire cannot overpower enemies no matter what her Defiance, since Defiance is a measure of mentality rather than physical measurements of power. Claire's Defiance, while useful, can only come into play wisely - such as with enemies outright underestimating her.
In this zone, enemies are on guard against her, and will not make that mistake. Meaning, if they run into her front-on, they'll cautiously do their best to capture or even kill her.
However, if Claire can get the drop on them - they will never get that chance.
Once an enemy has been taken down, their corpse remains out in the open in that stage. This is problematic - as the enemy AI we've been working on just for this,
can and
will identify corpses.
So, should another enemy approach, and spot the corpse, they will rush over, look around suspiciously, then immediately search the area for an intruder, which is your cue to either run the hell out of there, find a hiding place, or both!
Once the enemy searches the area, and finds nothing, they'll even bag up their dead compatriot's corpse, then go back to their original patrol route.
If too many corpses are detected, an
alarm is raised, and additional enemies appear in the stage on patrol.
Thus, ideally, Claire wants to carry a special Body Bag item on her. This item allows her to bag up corpses, leaving them as innocuous sacks by the side of the road. In this state, enemy patrols passing them will barely give them a second place, and go strolling on by.
Now obviously, if Claire is seen out in the open, enemy patrols will immediately start chasing her down, and who knows what'll happen to her in this state!
However, if Claire, say, was hiding in that stack of hay over there...
... then the enemy patrol goes strolling right by, unable to spot her.
(Can
you spot the Claire in the picture?!
)
Do note, however, that if the enemy was chasing Claire, and then Claire runs into a hiding area like the stack of hay, she will
not be cloaked, and the enemy can still see her. Only when Claire breaks their chasing line-of-sight will cloaked areas be of any use.
Anyway, that's all for now! This was really just to give you a preview of some stuff we're working on!
The full overhaul for Rathpike is intended to include these parts of new gameplay as well, since they're designed for use in Rathpike's questlines to make them stand out more and fit the Mercenary and Shieldmaiden themes better!
Note that in the Thieves questline, due to the "no violence" credo, takedowns/assassinations won't play a part, but we may work the stealth system into it for later, more difficult missions!
Stay tuned for more news!