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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Devs Please give this idea a shot
Slinkyb
Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
One thing in MMO's that has always killed some of the fun in PVP for me is that you always have your name and such over your head. What would be ground breaking is if enemies didn't have any indicators over their heads until you click on them or attack them and it stays over their head until they get out of combat somehow. This way people could actually hide in bushes or behind trees and actually surprise other people in PVP without being seen because you have your giant name over your head like a EAT AT JOES sign showing everyone where you are.
Your friendlies would always have their names over their heads of course. It would just be a breath of fresh air to see something dynamic like this instead of enemies always having their names over their heads all the time giving away their position.
Side Note: if you put fishing in the game please do not make it a button pressing fiasco. At least make it is so we just hold down left mouse click to reel in the fish and have to stop reeling sometimes not to break the line or something of that matter. That would be awesome. Thanks!
Your friendlies would always have their names over their heads of course. It would just be a breath of fresh air to see something dynamic like this instead of enemies always having their names over their heads all the time giving away their position.
Side Note: if you put fishing in the game please do not make it a button pressing fiasco. At least make it is so we just hold down left mouse click to reel in the fish and have to stop reeling sometimes not to break the line or something of that matter. That would be awesome. Thanks!
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Comments
It's not the same. Not at all. What you are saying is still the same as WOW and other MMOS. You missed the entire point of my post and literally just said nameplates are fine, when they aren't in my opinion which I explained in the original post.
I am saying it would be ground breaking if you didn't have to use skills and didn't have to hope a giant tree is there to stand behind. Instead you can hide in a simple bush and not be seen until you are attacked or clicked on. Nameplates are like wallhacks and take a dynamic out of MMOS that could be there and AOC has the ability change this and be the first one to make it so enemy nameplates don't show up until attacked or clicked on making PVP in the world far more interesting.
Obscuration would be based on gear and weather conditions stacking on each other:
If it's night, there's fog, you are in the woods and you have even your face covered then you would have perfect obscuration.
What obscuration would effect?
It would only affect the distance which let you see the guy's name, guild and threat assessment.
Clear skys at noon and while naked and showing your face then people could see who you are from any distance.
But in a rainy night dressed as a ninja then people wouldn't know anything about you are if you are beyond maybe 20-30 feet.
Threat assessment should be the only thing that we should be able to tell easily, except for very extreme weather conditions and distance.
This, what can you tell about that person down in the alley?
**I am only talking about PVP and players. NOT PVE**
I am not asking that nameplates be changed or taken out of the game. Not at all. I am not saying for AOC to change anything they want to do with nameplates and how they look and what stats they show and all that.
I am simply saying that AOC could make it so only enemies nameplates don't show up until you attack, you click on them, or the enemy attacks you. Once one of these happens then the enemy nameplate shows up with all the stats, name, and stuff you guys have on them like you want to. I am also only talking about players and PVP NOT PVE.
If AOC doesn't want to do this then fine, I understand. It's just a thought to bring a dynamic change to MMO's and a suggestion.
Arya_Yeshe seems to get the idea though.
not everybody will always be hiding in a bush stalking their prey, and for those situations, you could have the nameplate hidden or your character completely camouflaged.
That's an easy thing to deal with though. If there are different regions and waring then anyone neutral and not at war with your region would always have their nameplates showing. Also, again you could just click on them to see that information while out of site or in town or whatever. It's the idea that you are losing that information you like having to make the game more risk vs reward and more intriguing.
Asherons Call had a identify mechanic. You could click on someone and their info would pop up, but everything would be questions marks unless you had a high enough skill to counter their deception. If so you could see what level they were, their stats, what clan they were in and all that. Otherwise if you were a pvper you would have to make a decision not knowing all the facts.
I could handle the idea that if you are in a bush your nameplate disappears for everyone even friendlies or something like that. Even if you are behind a object, the nameplate goes away if that object is obscuring other players line of site. Something like that would be cool too.
I'm not sure about having good reasons about it...
If devs did this based on distance, then the packets sent to the clients should hide the information about the target
Each area could have a different distance, if it's foggy, night, dark, bright, etc
Maybe nobody did beause they didn't think it would be interesting, since the other games were lame
But in AoC, off the bat I imagine that if you were in the woods, at night, trying to ambush caravans, then it would be great not having your name hovering over you
Because they will be able to blend in the enviroment and pretty much disapear from PvPers, I believe this could be well received by them.
I don't think PvPers will be against the idea also, they will have to put a bit more effort for finding their targets, but they could also use this to ambush enemies.
Elder Scrolls Online has this for all classes. It's great.
How it is in ESO? It's class based?
It appears that AoC has the best enviroment system among all MMOs and possible among all games ever, including single player games
If AoC adds an obscuration system on top of it then it would be really amazing, because the obscuration would be subject to the weather changes plus gear
So gatheres could actually use very stealthy gear and use the enviroment to dodge people
I am in for giving the carebears all tools for their survival, if they are inteligent and smart in their gameplay they can do well without fighting with their swords
This also gives a solo guy the opportunity to survive in an area infested with agressors
Make me salivate
New World has nameplate hiding for all classes that activates while prone, with the twist that if you are looking directly the person (ie, they are in the center of your screen for a second), your range to see the nameplate is longer. This is actually very good stealth mechanics, and there were plenty of videos of people losing the person they were chasing (no target lock in NW) because they went prone in a bush then wormed their way around a tree. There were plenty of times we saw nameplates in the distance, and went prone. A lot of times people would just not bother to look for you. But it was also an effective ambush tool.
AoC won't have prone, but don't discount the "hiding power" of not showing a nameplate and just standing still. The game world is visually a busy place, and Steven has said they won't allow an option to hide underbrush/grass.
Completely hiding a nameplate and showing less details on a nameplate should be two different discussions IMO. One is a stealth mechanic, and the other is target assessment. And I think the nameplate on your target is going to show no matter what, unless there are drop-target mechanics (ie full stealth)
What I don't like about nameplates is that they tell you off, in certain games you are in the water or in a hole in the floor, but your nameplate is up there showing everybody that there's a player in that spot... this kills content
Being able to blend in, ambush, disapear, sneak by and control how exposed or safe you are is what bring content
Creating a system that brings content is way better than creating many quests, RPG MMOs games aren't about quests, RPG MMOs are about characters
Characters are dolls and people want to play with them, the game is better off pulling more content out of your character
I think Steven will agree, as a DM in D&D - If your hiding then went stealthing but walked in front of me, I STILL SEE YOU.
Games like AA/WoW Rogues going stealth and run circles around me is absurb.
If Rogues can utilize crouch/prone and the enviroments - awesome.
AoC will have deactivating nameplates, so I am in favor of that and allowing solo/pve players utilizing the enviroment around them to hide. Rogues just does it better due to crouch/prone is all.
As for Info displayed - i think that is a different topic.
people could tweak their GPU settings and remove foliage in nw. so while you were harder to see, they could just remove the foliage (or remove some textures) and you could see people prone hiding in bushes T_T not everybody did it though. also, sometimes the camera would bug (without doing anything to your GPU settings) and you would move it around and textures or even trees would disappear and you could see people hiding behind a tree or a rock haha.
i hope that cant be done in AoC. if you are in stealth hiding in a bush, your character should become completely transparent or something to prevent people catching you by messing up the textures and GPU settings
Maybe there could be a cloak of some kind that is a "tool" or "artifact" that can be slotted in your adventurers gear rather than your combat gear, so it could be an epic form of vertical progression available late game for the players that earn it.