Distract Mechanic For DB and TG?

terrordactyl1971 · July 2016

Having played through the DB and TG recently, I can't help but feel that it's missing a feature seen in many other stealth games. An active skill to throw a pebble and distract an npc, turning him 180 degrees so that you can sneak past.

I think this would have made both DLC's alot more fun, especially the heists and sacraments. I know both DLC's have new skill lines, but they are passives only and I feel after not seeing any new active skills since release, the game would have benefited from a distract skill that can be slotted.

What do you guys think?

TX12001rwb17_ESO · July 2016

That would be awesome if u could throw a rock to distract an enemy.

hrothbern · July 2016

terrordactyl1971 wrote: »

Having played through the DB and TG recently, I can't help but feel that it's missing a feature seen in many other stealth games. An active skill to throw a pebble and distract an npc, turning him 180 degrees so that you can sneak past.

I think this would have made both DLC's alot more fun, especially the heists and sacraments. I know both DLC's have new skill lines, but they are passives only and I feel after not seeing any new active skills since release, the game would have benefited from a distract skill that can be slotted.

What do you guys think?

A bow shot against an opposite wall worked nicely in TES
The NPC's even started talking about it and started wandering to it
offering all kinds of possibilities

terrordactyl1971 · July 2016

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

That would be awesome if u could throw a rock to distract an enemy.

It's fairly standard in other games I have played that use stealth - which is why it feels so "missing" to me, from these DLC's

ArchMikem · July 2016

Relating to this, I've noticed that, when an NPC is following you it seems to have some great pathfinding as it always keeps up and rarely ever gets lost or stuck on something. But otherwise every single NPC in the world is locked to a set path where it goes along a route to Point B, idles, maybe does an animation, and then retraces the route back to Point A, then idles again before repeating the motion. I guess ZOS has done this to make things easier on the game?

I guess an idea similar to what I just expressed would be that instead of locking onto the player, the NPC would lock onto an item thrown, and it would trigger a custom animation where the NPC would slowly move to this new Point in a cautious manner, and then would stand idle there for several seconds.

But then there's a few problems, like how are you going to specify the NPC you want to distract to the game? Would this mechanic apply to any NPC, or would it be scripted during a Quest? Would the item thrown act like an AoE ability to where it would draw the attention of every NPC within the AoE circle?

terrordactyl1971 · July 2016

hrothbern wrote: »

terrordactyl1971 wrote: »

Having played through the DB and TG recently, I can't help but feel that it's missing a feature seen in many other stealth games. An active skill to throw a pebble and distract an npc, turning him 180 degrees so that you can sneak past.

I think this would have made both DLC's alot more fun, especially the heists and sacraments. I know both DLC's have new skill lines, but they are passives only and I feel after not seeing any new active skills since release, the game would have benefited from a distract skill that can be slotted.

What do you guys think?

A bow shot against an opposite wall worked nicely in TES
The NPC's even started talking about it and started wandering to it
offering all kinds of possibilities

That's true, would give a reason to craft a bow as well in ESO :-) something like this would really help with heists and sacraments as they lack a bit of replayability without it

yodased · July 2016

The problem comes from this being an mmo, if there are 50 people throwing rocks, does the entire town leave? Can you distract a merchant or a guild trader away from his position?

Great ideas are continually shot down because people would use them to mess with other people

terrordactyl1971 · July 2016

yodased wrote: »

The problem comes from this being an mmo, if there are 50 people throwing rocks, does the entire town leave? Can you distract a merchant or a guild trader away from his position?

Great ideas are continually shot down because people would use them to mess with other people

Well, I did say Sacraments and Heists...both of which are instanced

KimberlyannKitsuragi · July 2016

I love the idea of a way to distract the guards more. Sometimes, I feel trapped between a rock and a hard place when sneaking around.

Nestor · July 2016

ArchMikem wrote: »

But otherwise every single NPC in the world is locked to a set path where it goes along a route to Point B, idles, maybe does an animation, and then retraces the route back to Point A, then idles again before repeating the motion. I guess ZOS has done this to make things easier on the game?

@ArchMikem

It has been this way since the beginning. NPCs have always had a path defined, whether it is done with a Patrol Area or a defined path, NPCs have always had places to go and things to do. I think they both tweaked this and added new NPCs and moved some around for the Justice System.

nine9six · July 2016

Remember playing Thief: Deadly Shadows ?

(torch on the wall)

*shoots out torch with Water Arrow*

(Guard) "Huh?? What was that?"

(Guard wanders around for a bit.)

(Guard) "Must have been a rat..."

I love these mechanics. Functional and good for a laugh!

ArchMikem · July 2016

Nestor wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

But otherwise every single NPC in the world is locked to a set path where it goes along a route to Point B, idles, maybe does an animation, and then retraces the route back to Point A, then idles again before repeating the motion. I guess ZOS has done this to make things easier on the game?

@ArchMikem

It has been this way since the beginning. NPCs have always had a path defined, whether it is done with a Patrol Area or a defined path, NPCs have always had places to go and things to do. I think they both tweaked this and added new NPCs and moved some around for the Justice System.

I tried to mean that, some other titles have NPCs that seem to run on a grid that allows them more freedom of movement, or that they have dynamic-whatever pathways that can change itself whenever an event happens or something suddenly blocks their path, but then maybe that's what you meant by Patrol Area.

I guess to simplify my meaning, ESO's NPCs seem to be on Rails.