The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vauBv1TlG4U
--- promoted by Ian ---

Assassin's Creed III - Silent Extermination - Fort Independence

The saga continues. I'll post my full comments here for convenience since they couldn't fit in Youtube's description word limit. They include two specific ways that this run can be improved on, with proofs of concept in the video, and if there's anyone that can perform them they're probably on this forum. There's also one final challenge that I'm not sure is even possible, but I encourage you to try. Here are the full comments:

This was tough, and in the end I compromised a bit on my requirements for this series. Even so, I think this is an impressive achievement. I enabled the SSI HUD element because I'd rather listen to something else while playing and without SSI I'd need to listen for detection meter warnings. Enabling SSI makes the Captain easier to keep track of, but I don't need that in the main run.

The soldier that investigates at 0:41 was a real nuisance; a lot of the time instead of taking a smooth, quick course to the corpse of the other soldier he'd stutter in his walk repeatedly (a common behavior in this game, sadly, and one that causes problems more than once in this Fort), making me unable to reach the stalking zone at 0:57 in time to avoid the pair's sight. You can see him stutter a bit just before I kill him. Waiting for the soldier I kill before him to pause in his walk and continue before killing him seemed to make a timely investigation more likely.

It's a real drag relying on barrels. Sometimes they'll be interacted with by other entities and start rolling around unpredictably. The powder reserve soldiers always take the same general route but subtle differences in their interactions when keeping out of each other's way can cause them to kick the barrel sometimes. Other times their feet will go straight through it. Unfortunately I need this barrel to be at or near its original position to lure a soldier from across the Fort. He's all the way at the eastern corner when the reserve explodes, so he pays no mind to the bigger explosion.

You may be wondering why I bother to blow up the powder reserve at all. There's actually a very good reason: the two soldiers on the southwestern wall always begin facing southeast, but when something disturbs them they'll do a permanent about-face, opening a new opportunity at the Fort's southern corner. Igniting the powder reserve is enough for them to turn. You can see them facing their new direction after the reserve explodes, but they actually have already turned when the ignition scene ends.

There's usually a fifth soldier who follows after the four at the door come to investigate the reserve explosion, but he didn't come this time for some reason. It had no real impact on the run luckily, and he's easy to kill unseen anyway.

The jump at 2:57 doesn't just save time. If you move on the ground in high profile near the door there you'll instantly be detected by the soldier standing guard outside it, without him having to see you. It's like this with most guarded Fort entrances.

Now I've got to apologize. I didn't save the Captain for last. It is indeed possible to kill all of the soldiers on the southwestern wall without him seeing, but it takes a great deal of patience and absolute cooperation from the AI. Doing it even with the Captain dead is very difficult because of the two soldiers at the western corner who are completely unassailable unless distracted since they face opposite directions, watching each other's backs. They're a real nightmare. Watch from 5:19 to see the method I used, but be aware it was recorded with the Ninja Animus Hack active. Just pretend that the western soldiers advanced perfectly like in the main run. Their inconsistency was the reason I couldn't record a full run with this method and didn't have the patience to record a demo where it went perfectly; I got to that final step several times only to have them flake out on me. The strategy in the demo would begin at 3:23 (imagine I move to the corner position after killing the soldier instead of heading to the rooftop).

I know it looks like I enter the view of the soldiers at 4:56, but I'm actually out of their range.

Finally, the other flaw in this run is the use of a tool, specifically the Rope Dart near the end, to make sure the soldiers at the western corner are lured by the second northwestern facing soldier's corpse. I really didn't want to use a tool in this challenge, and I did actually find a way of avoiding it while experimenting, but like the scenario where the Captain dies last it was extremely dependant on perfect AI reactions so I didn't have the patience to get it as part of a complete run. In addition, it requires that the Captain is already dead because it takes too long to perform without him seeing if he's alive. Watch from 7:36 for the demo, which was also recorded with Ninja active. This strategy would also begin at 3:23.

For whatever reason soldiers are unable to take the seemingly most logical path on the southwestern wall, through the small trench with stairs on either side. Instead they walk on the edge of the wall every time, sometimes even falling from it if one gets in another's way. It's ironic that the guy in green you might notice towards the end of the main run (the guy you're supposed to steal from, a messenger?) can take the obvious path, but not them. This is hugely problematic for this strategy because not only does it make their navigation unpredictable in its awkwardness, but even if you do manage to kill them if you accidentally push them from the ledge as they die they'll instantly enter the ragdoll state, causing the western soldiers to turn and look too soon.

So it's possible to kill the Captain last while using a tool, and it's possible to not use a tool but kill the Captain early, but as far as I can tell it's impossible to kill the Captain last without tool use. I challenge you to find a way. I'd be blown away if someone succeeds. Good luck!