AI Super Hearing

[Kiriakos]

I guess this is a rant but what's with the AI and their super hearing? It's to the point that you can't even blackjack anything anymore without three guards coming after you, even if they aren't even nearby.

I know that this isn't suppose to be exactly like Thief, but is there a point to blackjacking? You might as well use a sword and kill them outright.

[Stakhanov]

Nonsense. With the thief sword slash rate considerably slowed down , you don't stand a chance before a mace guard

About the arrows , they're just too expensive now...

[Lurox]

I agree with that.. the blackjack is supposed to be a silent weapon.

[Garlisk]

I remember a chinese proverb that said

"Silent weapon is not weapon used"

Obviously the chinese are friggin stupid. Or I just made that up.

Either way, I agree.

[Slappy]

I agree with that.. the blackjack is supposed to be a silent weapon.

It _is_ a silent weapon. However, a guard in tinfoil armor falling to the ground is not.

[Kiriakos]

But why can they hear when you knock out guards that don't have helmets on? And why can they hear them from so far away (two or three rooms away with CLOSED doors)?

What's the point of the blackjack? Is it now no longer suppose to be a 'silent' weapon?

Regardless of that, why are footsteps so easily heard by them as well? Not even a real human guard would be able to hear the same footsteps, let alone pinpoint the exact location they were coming from through a closed door.

[-=V12US=-]

Ever looked at the blackjack? It's a friggin baseball bat!

There's quite alot of force needed to put someone out cold with such things, so it's only obvious that hitting something with it gives out a "loud" *crack* which the AI's hear...

And as slappy said, the falling guard makes a lot of noise too.

[LaughingRat]

Just to test this out, I KO'd on guard in the graveyard in Korman, then hopped up on the hedge to hide and watch. Within 15 seconds, there were 5 AI prowling the immediate area, from the rectory and the church. There's no way a REAL guard could have heard a guard being KO'd from that far away.

[Slappy]

Here's my "OMG the AI are insane" story:

On Gerome, there is that AI who stands just to the side of the double doors in the courtyard. I was at the eastern side of the courtyard, in the corner shadow by the south barracks. I shot an arrow about 5 feet to the left of him. He turned to the side, and lit a flare. I dashed across the entryway to the courtyard into the corner of darkness near the north barracks. Then I crouch+creep+walked about 10 feet from where I entered the shadow, and the AI still ran up near me and shot me. As far as I knew, being crouched while creep-walking was completely silent - I sure didn't hear any of my own footsteps; but the AI still knew exactly where I was.

[Mordengaard]

Let's sacrifice Joel to our gods.
What, we did it all the time in the 30's?!

[SNAFU]

My AI story...

On Stronghold, I was near one of the tents. I run out into the light, and INSTANTLY get hit by like 3 tag bolts. I turn just in time to see a grand total of 3 AI at the fort walls, roughly 30 yards away is my best guess, before I am hit by 3 successive bolts, including a para. I use an invis potion, but they STILL finish me off...

It wasn't very funny.

[Kiriakos]

-=V12US=-, I'm not thinking how these things work in real life. I'm thinking of how these things worked in previous versions of the game and in the Thief series. The blackjack was suppose to be a weapon to take out guards without being noticed. It no longer holds that purpose. Now it's just a beacon for the guards to come at you.

Here's another story. I was in Korman and took out the guard that was patrolling around the main floor of the church when the other guard overlooking the area started coming down. Ok, he may have heard that, and I let it slide. As he was going back up, I made my way down to the basement/graveyard (whatever it's called). I was running around in there for the longest time when I faintly heard the sounds of a guard yelling for me to come out. How the hell did he hear me when I could barely even hear him yelling out?

Now, is there something going to be done about this, or should I not even bother with the game. To me it ruins the experience.

[-=V12US=-]

-=V12US=-, I'm not thinking how these things work in real life. I'm thinking of how these things worked in previous versions of the game and in the Thief series. The blackjack was suppose to be a weapon to take out guards without being noticed. It no longer holds that purpose. Now it's just a beacon for the guards to come at you.

Here's another story. I was in Korman and took out the guard that was patrolling around the main floor of the church when the other guard overlooking the area started coming down. Ok, he may have heard that, and I let it slide. As he was going back up, I made my way down to the basement/graveyard (whatever it's called). I was running around in there for the longest time when I faintly heard the sounds of a guard yelling for me to come out. How the hell did he hear me when I could barely even hear him yelling out?

Now, is there something going to be done about this, or should I not even bother with the game. To me it ruins the experience.

maybe the guards all check the F1 screen alot? Hehe.

Anyway, if Laughingrat is right, then I admit their hearing is a little on the superside...

[Tieom]

Obviously, instead of complaining that the AI ownz j00 (and m3), what needs to happen is the servers need to take their AI skill setting off of genius. The 1.3 clever AI is about the same as 1.2 genius AI with some improvements, from what I've seen.

[Mordengaard]

It is indeed as Tieom says - servers really need to downscale the level of the AI - in testing we usually had them set to Normal, and they frequently caused problems for us.