Should "Stun" be more powerful/reliable? | Forums

[Cosmopanda]

My first post ever lol. But yeah, I'm in two minds about this.

Part of me thinks that by improving stun, it might lead to making the game so that nobody ever gives chase or sprints away from danger, revealing themselves in the process, so, any changes to Stun have to be carefully considered.

But gameplay-wise, and even thematically, I think a stronger/more prioritised Stun could improve the game. At the least, it'd serve to make the hunters be a bit more sneaky, which to me is what this game is all about.

Currently, the game rewards players who take their time with their executions by giving them more points. But VERY rarely do I see anyone truly take advantage of this. Most of the times I get killed are by people who run at me and finish the job immediately for the quick payout. This feels less like the work of a trained assassin and more like the work of some random nutjob with a knife... Sadly though, its an effective tactic, because execution has such priority that they can cause my character to stand still and accept his or her fate from a good few feet away, before I even have a chance to stun or sprint.

If these Abstergo Agents are being trained to kill hapless OAP's who can't fight back, well that's fine I guess. But I thought the whole point of being an Assassin was to deliver death to the otherwise untouchable. If I see you running at me from down the street, I should be able to beat you down, serves you right for being obvious, y'know? The ball should be in my court because you failed at being an assassin.

For the time being, though, being hunted feels like far more of a priority than hunting my own target, because however stealthy I am in tracking down my target, I know there's probably a ******* hunter barrelling towards me with all the stealth of a Ninja Turtle... And they'll win.

What do you think? Is there a way to implement a better stun for the hunted without making the whole chase/escape part redundant?

[obliviondoll]

No.

Stun is fine.

Don't expect to use stun as a way to escape.

Escape first, THEN stun.

If you use it that way, it's perfectly fine as it is.

[The Demonborn]

Something that annoys me is that people seem to reverse my stuns, assassinating me halfway through it, yet I can't do the same. Also, yes, way too many people misunderstand the concept of stealth.

[obliviondoll]

Originally posted by FallenUnderLord:
Something that annoys me is that people seem to reverse my stuns, assassinating me halfway through it, yet I can't do the same. Also, yes, way too many people misunderstand the concept of stealth.

If you hit the assassinate button after your target hits stun, but before they stun you, it counters.

The window for it is pretty narrow, so it's more down to luck than skill.

[The Demonborn]

Well, anyway, the point still stands that a majority of people playing are more used to playing FPS's and running about, killing whatever moves, and therefore haveno idea how to be stealth. And when my target is a sprinter, I just kill a civilian to get a new contract. Which doesn't help when they're all sprinters.

[obliviondoll]

Originally posted by FallenUnderLord:
Well, anyway, the point still stands that a majority of people playing are more used to playing FPS's and running about, killing whatever moves, and therefore haveno idea how to be stealth. And when my target is a sprinter, I just kill a civilian to get a new contract. Which doesn't help when they're all sprinters.

Runners teach you to play "Follow Best".

You follow best from in front.

Eventually, players HAVE to come to the ground. Usually they do so intermittently on purpose, by accident, or because they're after someone who's on the ground.

Watch where a target runs, there's usually a pattern - take advantage and be where they're heading before they get there.

Preferably in a hide/blend spot so you get the "hidden" bonus.

[MuddledMuppet2]

Originally posted by obliviondoll:
No.

Stun is fine.

Don't expect to use stun as a way to escape.

Escape first, THEN stun.

If you use it that way, it's perfectly fine as it is.

This.

The OP raises a fair point, but unless i'm misinterpreting, you're finding it difficult to make rewarding (satisfying) kills, surely the increased stun would just make that harder? So then you;re still gonna have sprinters/roofers, but anyone who is playing 'properly' would hav ean increased chance to prevent you playing the hunter part properly, which in turn would lead to everyone using the hidden gun to enable range kills. It's pretty obvious that would lead to it's own problems.

Here's my take, ANY game has its' share of (for want of a better word) griefers, generally they move on to summat else quickly, sometimes they'll stick around to see how far they can 'break' the game.

Don;t play with 'em

Be part of a gaming community, and you'll find the majority of people who you play with a) play 'properly', and b) nhave prety good counter-measures to the idiots.

There are plenty out there so i won't do a shameless plug for mine, tho you;re welcome to check it out from the sig (Shameless Plug Status: Achieved)

Play Manhunt. Spread out as a team, lock on to every sprinter/roofer, your team-mates will see it and can lie in wait for them. Soooo satisfying, and of course they will do the same for you. (Use mic's, a golden rule)

As games go, I'm not a great player by any means, but I've beaten LOTS of players who've had 9-10 kills while I've had 2-3. Several times.

As to the use of stuns, personally I just use it as an insult, if I'm in any doubt about it's success I'll try and escape first every time. The assassin is SUPPOSED to have the edge imo, a stun should really only be available if the assassin makes a mistake, not as a matter of course.

Just my opinion, but I'm generally right about everything

[piggypig890]

Stun is perfect the way it is now. It was broken during the beta but they've got at the right level of reliability.

[Cosmopanda]

Originally posted by MuddledMuppet2:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by obliviondoll:
No.

Stun is fine.

Don't expect to use stun as a way to escape.

Escape first, THEN stun.

If you use it that way, it's perfectly fine as it is.

This.

The OP raises a fair point, but unless i'm misinterpreting, you're finding it difficult to make rewarding (satisfying) kills, surely the increased stun would just make that harder? So then you;re still gonna have sprinters/roofers, but anyone who is playing 'properly' would hav ean increased chance to prevent you playing the hunter part properly, which in turn would lead to everyone using the hidden gun to enable range kills. It's pretty obvious that would lead to it's own problems.

Here's my take, ANY game has its' share of (for want of a better word) griefers, generally they move on to summat else quickly, sometimes they'll stick around to see how far they can 'break' the game.

Don;t play with 'em

Be part of a gaming community, and you'll find the majority of people who you play with a) play 'properly', and b) nhave prety good counter-measures to the idiots.

There are plenty out there so i won't do a shameless plug for mine, tho you;re welcome to check it out from the sig (Shameless Plug Status: Achieved)

Play Manhunt. Spread out as a team, lock on to every sprinter/roofer, your team-mates will see it and can lie in wait for them. Soooo satisfying, and of course they will do the same for you. (Use mic's, a golden rule)

As games go, I'm not a great player by any means, but I've beaten LOTS of players who've had 9-10 kills while I've had 2-3. Several times.

As to the use of stuns, personally I just use it as an insult, if I'm in any doubt about it's success I'll try and escape first every time. The assassin is SUPPOSED to have the edge imo, a stun should really only be available if the assassin makes a mistake, not as a matter of course.

Just my opinion, but I'm generally right about everything </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Cheers for the reply, but yeah, I enjoy playing Wanted for now, because I only have like, one other friend with this game and Alliance seems even more stealthless than Wanted!

I do get my fair share of kills, not all of which are that spectacular, but I find that most times I'm killed it isn't because I've been stalked successfully or anything, it's because someone has more or less just sprinted at where the radar suggests. If I don't have an ability to disguise myself or a smoke bomb for any reason, my options are:

A). Run away, which means I end up far away from my target and thus unable to score, or;

B). Attempt a stun, which works (imo) less often than it should, especially when I can see my attacker and stealth has gone out the window, which generally results in me dying and being unable to score.

My problem isn't with Stun exactly, it works fine when like, I've morphed a crowd and the attacker hesitates. My problem is with the sprinting tactic being so effective. Even though it doesn't get them many points, it stops me from scoring any, having to respawn and track down a new target.

I think a prioritised Stun could be a good way to make people think "Hey, running at your target never really works out, maybe I'll take the subtle approach". But at the same time, I agree that it could imbalance other aspects of the game. Running away would be pointless if you could punch someone out every single time... Also I suspect people wouldnt risk standing around waiting for a high score if there's a chance the other player could be pressing stun toward anyone suspicious.

Other things could remedy this too, maybe crop quick kills down to only 50 points? Perhaps give Stun a reset timer, so it can only be used once every 15 seconds like an ability?

But yeah, being able to lay the smack down on a stealthless beserker "assassin" would be fun and satisfying. As it stands, I feel a bit punished for playing the game in what I feel is the spirit of the game; Staying low, mimicing the AI to sneak around undetected.

[MuddledMuppet2]

Hmmm, tbh I can't see how someone can just charge and sprint at a target with anywhere near enough a degree of certainty to be successful a majority of the time, they're just too many ways that could fail. Usually there's at least one npc around looking similar, so that's immediate 50% chance of fail, that percentage will increase the more npc's there are around looking the same. Then there's a chance the target will be disguised, or morphed an npc while the target hides in some hay or similar. I think what's happening is either you've had an extremely bad run of luck, otr your perception of what has happened hasn't actually been the reality. To explain;. you get charged at and killed, but what you didn;t know (and couldn't) is how long he'd watched you before he did that. Ie his bottle may have went at the last second, despite follwoing you for a full minute to make sure youwere his target.

Could I suggest, you actuallt try doing what you think is happening for a few games, and see if it is indeed a successful tactic. Go and run around like a loony, sprinting at every charcter model who looks like your target and see if it works? My feeling is it won't, but I'll happily accept if you tell me otherwise!