Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Peek #6
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At its heart, the stealth system is elegantly simple and, in fact, works much like in a tabletop RPG. You have a stealth skill, and it is checked against the abilities of your foes, players and NPCs alike, but as always, the devil is in the details.
To begin with, there is the not inconsequential matter of finding somewhere to hide, and it's not quite as simple as pressing the stealth button and vanishing out of sight. Like when you're eyeing that girl in the bar, lighting is everything.
While it's possible for the best assassins to disappear during an eye blink, just about everyone else will need to find a dark corner or out of the way place to disappear into. This continues even when players start to move, as the game code takes lighting and time of day into account when deciding who has a chance of seeing a stealthed character, and who's going to wind up dead on the floor.
Movement and noise are also factored into the calculations churning away in the background. Those stomping around in full plate are going to be decidedly easier to notice than a figure draped in silent silks lurking in the corner and waiting to strike. It's not just a matter of getting hidden; it's also one of remaining hidden, keeping to the shadows and staying out of sight... most importantly because NPCs and player characters both have their own sets of senses. Fashion can be a matter of life and death in Hyboria, just as it is everywhere else.
They can hear you, smell you, and see you, and the game system checks to see whether they can detect you, with odds getting higher as you blunder on towards them, and your chances getting better if you stay silent and still and wait for the right moment to strike. This not only means it's important to use things like cover and stay behind objects, it also means the approach is everything. Sneaking around behind someone, waiting until their back is turned, and sticking to the dark places of the world, all of these will help the sneaky and stabby get close to their target and get away undetected.
