[Odyssey] Stealth, Leveled Enemies, New Counterplay
Adjusting this element of gameplay seems to be much more numerical and tweakable than something, like, say, Attack Patterns or the visuals of a guard’s animations. What this says to me is that if there was enough of a hatred for it for Ubisoft to genuinely care, they would have taken it into consideration between Origins and Odyssey, and changed it to better reflect the demands of the people putting money in their hands.
So. Outcomes:
- Players were largely fine with leveled enemies and Stealth Attacks. They stay as-is for Odyssey.
- Players were not fine with leveled enemies and Stealth Attacks. We can stealth-kill anyone again.
- Players were somewhat fine with leveled enemies and Stealth Attacks. They stay in the game, but are skewed much more heavily in the player’s favor, and Stealth Damage can be increased much more readily and easily than it could be in Origins.
Option 3 seems to literally be the route that Odyssey is going. There is now an [Assassin Damage] statistic that we can raise by equipping Hoods, Light Weapons, getting certain Engravings (basically an extra Trait) on weapons unlocked via Stealth play [1] and pumping Skill Points into abilities that increase Assassin Damage by huge percentage chunks.
If this is true and it has an appreciable effect in the final game, I will be satisfied. Say, if I really pump Assassin Damage and make myself very fragile, and perhaps focus less on being strong with Bows, but the game lets me one-shot people that are like seven levels above me if I use [Critical Assassination] [2] on tanks and tap off normal stabs on regular guards, then yeah, I’m okay with that because there are now enhanced methods of playing with that system. The friction is not against the player to an oppressive extent, it’s something that presents you a choice. Maybe I sacrifice my crazy Predator Arrow headshots, but in exchange my Dagger // Piece of Eden (Broken Spear of Leonidas) just nukes people upon a sneak-up. That’s pretty nice, and a massive improvement over AC Origins where, if you’ve upgraded your Blade to max and you still can’t assassinate someone, there’s just nothing you can do except Berserk -> Sleep Dart combo and hide.
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1. “10 Assassinations,” “15 Non-Lethal Knockouts” etc are seen to unlock Stealth-Related [Engravings]
2. Critical Assassination; Assassin Skill; HOLD Assassinate button instead of tapping to do MASS Stealth damage. Requires more time to execute – vulnerable to detection if you choose the wrong moment. Method to destroy more durable guards from Stealth.
I am 100% okay with the way Origins treated this. I wasn't at first, though.
I 100% HATE the idea of outfits affecting your damage output a la Unity. Unless it's a binary hood on/off deal.
In Origins, you can't kill everyone even with headshots in one shot ... cause some are wearing helmets, for example. If someone is wearing tons of armor, including neck chainmail, it makes sense that you can't get the drop on them for one-shot anytime kills.
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
Your stealth-weapon is literally a Piece of Eden and you can Leap of Faith onto non-haystack, rock-solid ground without taking any damage. I'm over justifying RPG elements via Realism, and soooo onto finding ways to empower the player to engage with those systems in a meaningful way. The fact that you're a demi-god and have an Isu Artifact in your left hand at all times is more than enough for me to hand-wave this stuff away and be like, "Alright, let's do this."
The first time I saw the character dive off a too-high ledge and just roll away, I was honestly shocked. All of my AC experience told me that fall should've made the screen flash red, but I guess the realism aspect is phasing out.