UT idea: Stealth in game

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
1

Effect: Military units are invisible to enemy or neutral (bar civilian) units when not moving or attacking. Will surprise the passing enemy units within a 4-5 tile radius and open fire.

Cost: 860 food, 830 gold

Name of tech:
Vietnamese: Guerilla Tactics
Algonquian: Native Warfare

Possible existing candidates: Vietnamese (allusion to their using ambushes as part of guerilla tactics)

For New civi: Algonquians (based on the fact that they live in forests so they are adept in blending in with environment)

2

There is stealth in SWGB so the engine allows that, but some units (jedi/sith, bounty hunters, towers…) can detect them within their line of sight. And the invisibility effect only applies to select few units.

Without detection, stealth could be very annoying. Imagine hiding some stealthy troops on the map to make it nearly impossible to KO you…

3

I think stealth is better suited for a game set in modern times.

Imagine stealth bombers. Imagine camouflage giving infantry units stealth. That’s pretty awesome!

It’s not really suited for AoE2, though, since there aren’t any units that are designed to detect stealth units.

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4

I think stealth detection could be given to castles, towers, light cavalry, eagle warriors and/or kings.

5

Oh, good idea. I hadn’t thought of that.

6

Make the stealth a uu only mechanic and defensive buildings can detect them.

7

I would vote this mechanic for ninja as an official UU for the Japanese. This unit already exists in the game but you can only spawn them in editor. Tho, I think all units should be able to detect then within 4 tile radius and 8 for towers and castles.

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8

I don’t like it, it’s not realistic for the time period. And the game already has too many gimmicks; it doesn’t need another one.

9

Lol what? When do you think people figured out to move stealthily without anyone noticing?

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10

Yes, it can be… the Haudenosaunee in AoE 3 have stealth units (you also have the Malians cannoners in AoE 4)…

Also, in fact in a modern AoE all military units could have a camouflage ability…

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11

Yeah, I should have said it’s not realistic for any time period. Invisibility is not real.

12

The way it would work is instead of a binary LOS system (being either in visual range or not), have camo decrease the detection range.

For example if an unit can see 10 tiles away and you have level 2 camo, the enemy unit would only detect you within 10-2=8 tiles away.

Stealth itself would be the same for heavy vehicles vs radars.

13

Every herd of camouflage?

14

Sure, you can have a camouflaged unit, but it is revealed after a satellite scan (cnc generals had some of this)…

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15

Or units close enough, possibly with thermal optics.

16

Of course, of course…

17

Of course. But camouflage is not the same as invisibility. Army dudes in a field wearing camo gear are still visible if you look carefully.

18

Yeah, but in gameplay terms camo needs to be represented as invisibility. If the only effect is that human player can barely see them on their screen, it doesn’t mean much for the AI. Not only the AI players would have no difficulty spotting them, but even units handled by human players would just attack camouflaged units if the enemy come to close depending on their stance. It’s quite obtuse to pretend like an unit being invisible from a gameplay point of view would necessarily imply fantasy or sci-fi, we have plenty of exemples of video games (rts or not) already using such system to portray any kind of stealth.

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