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Stealth, Acrobatics, and Traps?
savarage
Member Posts: 17
I have a few questions about the system your going to use for stealth i.e will there be the suddenly invisible "rogues" (I know there are no classes but bear with me a moment) . What I mean is will you use the standard "lazy" approach to stealth like usual mmos or will you have a system based not only on skill levels but player ability such as for example the Thief games by Looking Glass Studios where they made a master thief (high sneak skills) who still had to walk quietly, crouch low, be careful not to walk in light filled places, or on noisy surfaces (The visibilty light gem was really useful for knowing whether most people would see you). That showed that even someone with "epic skills" still has to not be blatently walking in front of someone no matter how sneaky they may be.
My second question/comment is will there be areobatics as a skill including things like quick dodges to the side, rolls, sidesteps, backsteps or improved leaping abilitiy (hopefully all of the stated but can deal with just higher/ longer jumps).
My third and final question in this topic is will there be player creatable or useable traps such as time delayed explosives, (long fuses) smoke bombs that obscure vision, poison gas bombs that act similar but poision instead of blind all of these being "mundane" i.e physics based traps not magic based. Magic based traps also work for creating lightning fire cold and other effects that normal traps can't. one advantage of having both things in the game allows you to throw things at players like anti/wild magic fields where magic doesn't work but mundane solutions still work and magic traps allow you to do things like create fire underwater because its "magic". Basicly I'm asking if we (the players) can create a pre-prepared ambush that I can lure enemies into without having other players.
Comments
Unfortunately, many of the things you are asking about are not information we have released yet. However, as in most things with CoS it is unlilkely that the system we are using is similar to other MMOs you have played. Or, in the case of stealth, also different than in the Thief games. We found that system too slow for our style of quests, so you won't be sneaking down one hallway for twenty minutes trying to move from shadow to shadow. I will tell you that we do use a somewhat realistic set of senses for our NPCs, meaning they can't see out of the back of their head, though they can hear noises as appropriate. So you WILL be sneaking at times (and can come up behind an opponent for a nice back stab if you keep quiet and approach out of his sight).
Acrobatics is something under consideration. Someone else asked about unarmed combat skills recently as well (a similar thing). In both cases, IF you can do a roll to the side, or a kick attack, it will be part of a normal equiped character, not a special 'class'. However, I don't mean to imply what will and won't be in the game when it comes to acrobatics or unarmed combat... both are still under consideration.
Finally, traps. Yes. There will be traps, both magical and physics based. The player can learn to use traps as part of the Player Abilities system. You can use these solo or with groups, that part doesn't matter to CoS. ALL game play can be done as a solo or group.
I know you didn't ask about solo and group, but people keep sending us email, so I'm going to mention this here as well. There is some confusion about the player's personal story in CoS. People think that this means others can't join it... that personal means solo. It does not. Nor is a personal storyline exclusive in any way. Simply put, a player's personal story is the ongoing story of that Player. Just like your real life, other people will join you at times and during those times your two stories join for a short (or long) period and then diverge again when you separate. You could go through your ENTIRE personal storyline with someone else if they played the game every day at the same time you did and you stuck together. This is unlikely, but possible.
So... what makes your personal story different from other MMO games? The answer is simply that there is continuity. This means that your quests are not a series of unconnected episodes that every player goes through in the same way. Your quests will feature elements, people, groups, etc. from previous parts of your personal story. Someone else WON"T have the same people, groups, etc. in their personal story (unless they traveled with you for a time and made some of the same friends and enemies). Your personal story, is.... a story. You add to it every time you enter the world and pursue that story.
This then brings up the question of what is a group mission if you can be a group while on a personal quest? The very short answer is that group missions are more episodic, with less connections to one player's past. There are times when you might want to go out on a mission that isn't connected to your long term story. Kind of like reading a single novel versus the next book in an epic series of novels. Both have their charm depending on your mood. Indeed, CoS also offers short story style adventures as well, which we call, well... Adventures. These are even less involved than a Personal Quest or Group Mission, in fact, you just run in to them randomly and can decide to get involved... or not. Anyway, this is probably more than I should get into right now, so I'll stop
This is my favorite feature so far that I have read about. Solo or group at anytime depending on what I feel like doing that day. I love the random adventures that we will run into while out in the world. It will make the world feel alive which is what has been missing in my last few MMO games I have played.
Keep up the good work. Thanks for taking the time out to talk to your fanbase when ever you can.
Sooner or Later
Firstly thank you for your reply Jatar
.
It helps clear up a few things up while giving me hope on others however I still have one concern on the matter of stealth which is ...... Please for the love of God, Jesus ,and Budda let there be no invisibility spells in the game.
If there are at least make it so that people can't dance in front of a mob doing the cancan without a reaction just because there under an invisibility spell because it doesn't make any sense because even if your invisible they should at least hear you.
I apologize if I seem pushy its just that this is one of the things that make me not want to play stealth because it truely makes the experiance seem meaningless when it comes to stealth in other games.
It isn't that I hate invisibility spells because I don't there actually really cool it's just annoying when it isn't an invisibility spell/ability but an "instant nothing can tell that I exist" button. That removes all the skill from sneaking around enemies as long as there within a certain level range and if they are beyond that range it's as if you have no stealth at all for no real apparent reason. 
Edited for grammar and clarity.
Well... there will be a type of invisibility spell in Citadel of Sorcery, but I think you'll still like it. First off, no cancan dances with bells jingling, that is a dead give away that there is an invisible person present to NPCs. But it goes deeper than this. First off, NPCs come in variaties of skill levels and intelligence. You might be able to dance the cancan while invisible in front of a low level monster with low intelligence and just confuse him. On the other hand, our entire system has skill levels. You might THINK you are invisible and walk in front of someone with more skill than you and he can see you. Or make a noise and they cast a reveal spell decloaking you on the spot. There are other parts to this as well, but I don't want to get into every bit of this (like tetheres, that let you walk as an invisible projection of your body, but your body is left behind... and if someone, anyone, or a door, or anything goes through that tether... well, bad things would happen to your projected self.
Anyway, there is a lot to this, and I can't go into Abilities on here yet. But trust me when I tell you that this isn't simple invisibility that gets you past everything. We are a Quest based game, and any ability that would ruin our Quests... won't be included. Everything has a cost, everything has a counter. Nobody is safe all the time.
No comments in this post are to be taken as gospel, since Abilities are still very much in flux.
I like stealth and I like invisibilty spells. However, I dont like it when they are both treated as being the same thing. Stealth is a skill that requires you to know what your doing and how to stay out of sight. Invisiblity is a spell that cloaks you so you dont need any skill to stay unseen.
In other games that I have played, both stealth and invisibility are treated as if they are the same. "Hey, I have see invis spell on me so I can see that theif sneaking around." That is such BS. Stealth is more than not being seen with the naked eye. Its ducking shadows and generally staying out of plain sight.
Please treat stealth and invisible spells like the two sperate things they are. A detection spell would be able to spot someone with an invisiblity spell but not someone who is simply hidden from sight.
agreed like if you cast reveal then you can automaticly find the guy hiding behind the tree. this i dont think would work for the best.
and for invisability, how about ways to find them with out useing magic, such as, if its raining, the rain drops bounce off of them (I FOUND YOU) or if its foggy he looks like a bubble in the fog (HEY I FOUND YOU AGAIN) In snow he would leave foot prints and other things like that, this would make the invis spell much less useful and much more challanging to use.
also i thought would the kinds of boots help in your stealth, say fully armored plate boots would make a clang on the stone floor ever step you take, or you could wear soft soled shoes, so that you can move easyer faster and with more stealth.