The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Do you mean this?
Mission - "RIVER RESCUE" - Blocked the player from diving in the river too early which could break the mission.

"Break the mission" refers to a bug that makes the mission impossible to complete. It is not to make the optional objective easier.

I'm thinking you read too much into these patch notes. Perhaps it's not nearly as bad as you think?

I agree with the last statement.

I jumped in the water early and restarted the mission to complete it. Didn't break anything.

Of course, maybe if you jump in early it's not possible to complete and I restarted early. Or maybe if you jump in early then complete it, you can't redo it and I restarted early.

Hard to know what "break the mission" refers to, given that I jumped in early and still completed it full sync, I'm just confused.

I'm also having trouble with the wolves. I only got one objective and that was the health objective. I tried air assassinating my first time around, but for whatever reason I would miss. I attempted it again today because I missed out on the timed objective and managed to get that but the wolves screwed it up again. That, and my controller, even with brand new batteries in it, disconnected as a wolf jumped me. Before I could get the controller back on Connor was a goner. I've seen a couple suggestions here that I'm going to try out.

Xbox 360 Has anyone ever run into a deer attempting to run through a tree? I started a new file at a friend's place and discovered it.

Well, I planted a trip mine in front of the wolves' den and managed to take out one of them. I then proceeded to the nearest tree before the other two could have a go at me. I didn't want to get on the ground because I knew that would be a losing battle so I threw poison darts at them. Apparently they don't count poison darts as ranged weaponry. It just told me I'd completed the objective.

I was in a needless fight in New York last night and Connor got caught in the roof of an outdoor shop. Top half of body was above the roof, bottom half was a pinata for jagers.

I placed the mine right on top of the rock with the white marker and it took out all of them at once. I haven't experimented with it though so i don't know if it would work every time.

I can experiment with it later. I didn't think of putting it on top of the den. I just saw an opening there, assumed that's where they came from, and placed it there. I love how creative I can get in this game. It's just like the old days with ACII.

I just saw some footage of the PC version that recently went up on YouTube and the "Skip" text is present during all cutscenes. It never goes away.

The PC version is said to already contain all of the changes going into the consoles' "Thanksgiving" patch, so I guess that's our answer.

I cannot think of a single reason why we should be forced to see that at all times during cutscenes. Very disappointing, Ubisoft.

Alright. Finally experienced a nearly game-breaking bug.

In the last memory of Sequence 9 (A Bitter End):

Maybe it was just glitchy this one time for me only, have other people had this trouble with the open combat on the boat?

I have had trouble with being able to attack in Open Combat in many other situations. I press the button and no animation comes out. Sometimes on the streets, randomly. The way this glitch is usually fixed is by Countering with another weapon (usually Fists) and then switching back to the weapon you intend to keep using.

Maybe that's what I did... but I swear I tried multiple weapons. My game has been relatively un-glitchy or buggy thus far. Can't complain too much. This was the first time I had a major issue with something (aside from the game freezing... but I chalked that up to playing 8+ hours yesterday and the hardware getting tired).

I've had the game freeze on me as well. Sometimes it's from playing as long as you mentioned, but sometimes it's 2 or so. It almost always happens when I'm in free roam.

Yep. Free roam. Maybe that's because I spend most of the time in fee roam though... So lots more chances.

The only glitch I hated in this game was the Database spoiler, after all that time avoiding forums and the site my own game spoils me... xD;

proper weapon animations:

before the patch, if you had a daggar, you still had the tomahawk animations. not sure if this is still the case.

after the patch:

i now get a sword shadow when using the tomahawk. i never had this before. the patch seems to have ADDED a glitch to me game...

You've never programmed, have you? Bug fixes always give rise to new bugs.

I encountered this today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiiLgd-J_Ns

Also, Connor can go through the rocks near a cascada in the domain (or is it the frontier?). It's a place where you collect something nearby, at a different altitude.

Which tomahawk? This is on 360, right? The animations on the PC version are the same as they were on 360 before the latest patch, but the PC version received the same patch. Sounds like a version-specific issue generated by the update.

I will remove the note from "Falling through the world" that implies that this bug was fixed.

I assume we're not speaking about the same direction. You're speaking of "Z" axis, and I'm speaking of "X" and "Y" axis (in-plane movement).

It's basically the same thing. The video you linked to is what is typically referred to in games as 'falling through the world'. It's where a wall or floor that should be solid isn't, and you pass through into an area that is outside the intended gameplay space. It's often accompanied by "glitchy" graphical effects.

All right then.

360, yes.

It's the best one... I think it's called War Tomahawk. I can double check other weapons, but I almost exclusively use the tomahawk and sawtooth sword... I only used blunt and heavy weapons once for the club challenge.

I, too, have run into this. I think there's a major spoiler in Charles Lees' database info. Luckily, on my first playthrough I hadn't bothered to look at the database at all. XD I heard that they had released a new patch but I've been working on my Skyrim save file so I'm unsure. I'm going to stick my game in this evening and see if anything happens. I actually need to get back into it because I have a second incomplete save file and it irritates me that it's just sitting there.

I haven't made it far enough to craft anything yet, but when I do I'll try it out and see how it looks. I know there are daggers with tomahawk animations and daggers with sword animations, so I'm not surprised something else would get messed up.

Looks like the issue with white icons not showing up is gone now, at least on the PC version. As soon as I accept a black-icon mission like assassination contracts or courier requests, all the related white icons show up immediately, no matter how far away.

I just unlocked the ability to liberate parts of Boston (finished central Boston during the mission), and this is what I see upon bringing up the map:

Spoiler: Highlight to view

For me it was the "Kaniehtí:io" entry and it's wrongly timed updates, ruined quite a few plot points for me... =P

Hey, guys... has anyone downloaded the Patch 1.02, yet?

My DL just gets stuck on 0%. Is this problem happening to anyone else?

For the time being I cannot enjoy the multiplayer

RE: Missing liberation mission icons

In my experience, Fast Travel causes all sorts of icons to disappear in this game.

If you fast travel, a lot of Liberation mission icons vanish. A lot of courier mission icons vanish. Hunting mission, brawler mission, etc etc etc... Icons tend to disappear when fast traveling.

However, the objectives are usually still there. I found this out when I fast traveled to a courier mission, the icon disappeared, but the person to interact with was still there.

Basically, when you fast travel, side objective icons seem to disappear, but the objectives remain.

Specifically in regards to Liberation missions... in Boston, I used fast travel a lot and the icons disappeared. In NY, I didn't fast travel at all and only had one Liberation Icon vanish... after entering and exiting a shop. So I think it's the loading of the city acts as a "reset" for the icons on the map.

Certain events like the liberation missions won't be there when you spawn in near them; you have to move far enough away before they will spawn. Other stationary NPCs like the courier mission givers are there by default, so they'll always be there.

I find that this is more of an intentional aspect of the game engine, as I've seen it in other games – the game doesn't want to spawn certain events near you for fear of you seeing actors/objects 'materialize' in front of you.

When loading in from the title screen or fast traveling, the game is designed to map out the surrounding area in a default state, so temporary events spawn last, usually after you've already loaded into the world. To avoid the possibility of you seeing these things spawning right in front of you, they are not spawned in until you're X units away, usually just outside of maximum draw distance. It can be tough for the game to tell if there's line-of-sight or not, especially if the event takes a couple seconds to spawn in and you're running around, so it's best to simply make it only happen outside of draw range. If you run a distance away and check your map, it'll be there again.

It can be a pain in the ass, but it's the easy way to design around the possibility of seeing things pop up in front of you. This is especially annoying in MMOs where there are many players in the world and certain events can only spawn when nobody is near the spawn point. Sometimes it takes hours.

I'm pretty sure I missed something....

I beat the game yesterday and turned of my game right after this scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGVcrnGQlic

When I turned the game back on today, instead of in the homestead, I was taken to a white-room cutscene with a random voice over talking to be about random hacking and was dropped into Boston placing pivots??

Was something triggered that wasn't supposed to be yet? Did I miss a scene? Who is he talking to? Desmond? Connor? Someone else? scottishduck88 (my gamertag)? I'm just confused and don't know who the target of this conversation was or why it was triggered to begin with... I feel like I missed something.

That's pretty much what happens after the credits. You don't get an explanation as far as I know.

Okay. Just checking.

After beating the single player story (with patch for last few sequences) I went back and watched a run through of the full sync of the Lee chase pre-patch, to see how they made it easier. They removed a couple groups of guards, which does make it easier I guess (I just used my Assassins to distract the two groups there post-patch so they didn't bother me as I ran by them). The optional objectives are the same though.

Interesting. It wasn't the groups of guards that gave me trouble. There was always a path between them and (unlike the entire rest of the game) they didn't tackle or even hit you as you ran past them. The guards were basically a gimme. Funny that they "made it easier" by removing some of them.

My issue with that mission was the fact that even at your top speed running in a straight line with no interference at all, he still gained distance on you to maintain a constant 35+m lead. That's just bad design.

Honestly, I never liked the "catch this guy" missions in this series. They're all the same and done so poorly. The enemy is always as fast or faster than you and you can't actually catch them until it's scripted. All you have to do is not fall too far behind them. Seriously patronizing, and not at all fun.

If they're going to have any chases at all, it should be completely open so that the target can go virtually anywhere. Instead of a super lame on-rails race, the AI should be able to choose its path dynamically. Other games do this to great effect. To add more interest, there should be a hide-and-seek element to it, with them blending and hiding to get away from you. You'd have to stop and use Eagle Vision (hopefully one of the superior versions from previous games) to locate them, wherein you begin to approach them and they'll flee again if you're not subtle. If you loose sight of them for too long or they completely slip away and make it like 150m away from you, then you lose.

That would feel more like a hunt and less like a scripted "race". When I do these chase missions, I feel like I'm watching wrestling on TV. "Okay, you run up that way and I'll make it look like I can barely keep up with you. Then you pretend to trip in that part up there and then it looks like I legitimately caught up. The crowd will love it!" Yeah, maybe if they're six years old.

As a speedrunner, I have to say I disagree. Remember the thief you have to catch just before saving Machiavelli from La Volpe in AC:B? Wait for my run and you'll see it's extremely easy and fast.

That's an exception, not the rule. If you could show me the same with the majority of chases in this series, I'd admit being wrong, but we all know that I'm not.

Talal was meant to be a chase but IanX04's "Kill Him Where He Stands" is a way around that. There are other targets as well, I just don't remember off the top of my head. Additionally, stunt assassinations can sometimes be used to cut a target off. Assassin's Creed 1 either had no scripted chases, or at least gave the best illusion of it.

AC1 really only had the one, and it was scripted to a degree. Talal had two set paths he could run (or was it three?) but you were free to do whatever and your distance from him wasn't at all a factor. The only way you lose is if he makes it past a certain 'finish line'. That wasn't bad. Scripted on the part of the NPC, but not of the player. Even still, it was basically exploiting the game engine to catch him that early. That just proves my point even further.

Then AC2 comes along and we have those chases in the underground areas where you simply cannot catch the target until the very end where you can air assassination them. They match your speed and will actually go beyond that if you cut enough corners to close the distance. If you fall too far behind at any point during the chase, instant desynchronization. Short of using exploits, you simply cannot catch them before a particular point where you're supposed to. It was completely scripted, and obviously so. It was impossible to ignore that fact, and that drains all the fun out of it.

The subsequent games followed suit with their chases, and AC3 is the worst. There's one chase where the guy will always outrun you but merely runs in a big circle. The way you win this one is getting wise to that fact and cutting him off. It's tricky though because you can't move too far from the target or you're desynchronized (WTF?). The others are designed so that the targets will slow down if you fall behind and then speed up (and outrun you) if you get too close. There's a designated spot where the chase will always end where the target gives up. That's horrible game design. A real chase wouldn't impose any of these artificial rules and limits and instead would challenge you by making the chasee random and elusive. You know, like real life.

You know, I kind of feel sorry for anyone who actually likes these chases. No offense, but these people really need to play a wider variety of games to see just how bad the AC series is doing it compared to others. Honestly, that goes for a lot of things in this series. If you don't play many games and the AC games are the best you've experienced in just about every area, I'd like to inform you that there are a lot of games out there you haven't had the opportunity to enjoy yet.

I don't think there's ever been a video game that has excellent chases, other than the Need For Speed games, Juiced and Midnight Club (I'm a bit of a racing guy when I'm not stabbing people, commanding entire civilizations or stacking colored blocks.)

One of the Orsi brothers in the Battle of Forli DLC is a chase that you can "kill him where he stands" with careful thought as well.

You're referring to the chase at the beginning of sequence 8. I didn't have to cut him off... and I did catch him... I think he stalls at a few points, and if you're lucky you can catch him.

On one run through, I was actually running in front of him for a lap or so, because apparently I caught him wrong one time and desynced, so I thought I was supposed to wait for him to get somewhere.

The point is... you can catch him at certain points, and even run in front of him if you wanted to. So no, he doesn't "always outrun you." It's all in getting a good start.

That must not be the one I'm thinking of. The one I'm thinking of doesn't ever slow down or stop. I chased him around for four or five minutes to see if anything ever changed and I was going full sprint speed the entire time. Never gained on him. So I just ran the opposite way around a building and stood in the middle of the street as he came right up to me. I was in clear view and he had plenty of opportunity to avoid me, but nope, he ran right into a hidden blade. I restarted the mission to see if it was just a glitch and nope, it happened exactly the same way again. Lousy design or lazy programming, take your pick.

Point is though, guys, that you can try to point out one or two spots here or there, but there are lots of chases in this series and they're all pretty terrible. Set paths for the chasee and scripting that prevents you from from catching up to them as early as you reasonably should be able to. All of the chases in this series feel very similar and they're all pretty lame. It feels like the poor workarounds that we used to see in the 80's and 90's of gaming. If any of you are even old enough to be familiar with that.

A quick way to get your consumables back (still a glitch) is to equip your horses with saddle bags (Special Item crafting). This makes it so whenever you call a horse (from anywhere) you can interact with the saddle bags and refill many of your consumables. No looting needed, I guess.

One of the many little things I'm learning about this game as I put together my crafting guide that I wished I knew when I was playing the game. (For some reason, it doesn't refill your bait. At least not in my experience).

I'm definitely old enough to remember the 'Golden Age' of gaming, Asaic
Was born in 94, so I basically started out with those games.

That chase is a pain in the butt if you don't have a good start. I would know because I've had to restart it numerous times because of guards swinging bayonets at me and knocking me down. Most of my other restarts were because I failed the objective. There is a good spot to catch him close to the marketplace. Chase after him through the small market and immediately turn left then right and sprint down the street. On the right side of the street there's an alleyway where you can cut him off. I've had a lot of success with this.

Still, once you know the NPC's path they're pretty easy to catch which is a bit disappointing. I would have loved a bit more of a challenge in catching the guy. Something like chasing thieves or Borgia couriers in ACII. I'm always having trouble chasing those guys, mainly because I suck at parkour.

The couriers in AC3 are a pain in the ass. You have to catch one for the thief club... but I found that if I used a rope dart on him, it didn't count... so I had to chase FOREVER... with guards chasing me, etc, etc, ugh.

dang... i feel really old now, and i'm only 26... i think? yeah, 26.

26 isn't old at all, man Yer still a young whippersnapper ;D
Sorry sorry lmao

The couriers in AC3 are a pain in the ass. You have to catch one for the thief club... but I found that if I used a rope dart on him, it didn't count... so I had to chase FOREVER... with guards chasing me, etc, etc, ugh.