An Idea

[Heavy420]

Something that really pisses me off about multiplayer games these days is their lack of actual stealth mechanics. I'm talkin' no huds, no radars, just eyes and ears.


Like, think GTA IV. In multiplayer mode you could have all of liberty city to play the most epic game of hide and go seek ever, but it's ruined by character blips on the map and being able to see gamertags floating above people's heads.


I think it'd be really cool to see a competitive multiplayer game mode for overgrowth like that.


Creeping about through a jungle of tall grass, trying to sneak up on opponents, without knowing where they are or what they're planning. Traps would be cool too.Anyway, there'd be no minimap, you'd just need to listen for the sound of scampering paws, and look for ears popping out of the vegetation. Until you sneak up behind them and slice their throat, crack their neck, or thrust a sword through their spine.


Who thinks that'd be fun?

[Disco Science]

I think it'd be super fun even in single player. (I don't play multiplayer much...or, well, at all.) Involving a variety of playing styles (perhaps even multiple playable characters of different species, if the story suits it?) could only serve to make the game more interesting. But yeah, I'm sure that'd be cool to have in multiplayer, too.

[zalo]

The problem is that they would have to implement multiplayer first, and that's no small task.

Trust me, I was the one who made the Cortex Command Online mod.

But if the Wolfire team did implement multiplayer, I think this would be a given,
given that the game is based almost completely on stealth (unlike GTA).

And if it wasn't in there from the beginning, it would be easily moddable.

[Best1996]

It should be like assassins creed: brotherhood, that would be awesome

[MaXMC]

In Minecraft the Name above your head dissapears when you "sneak".

Overgrowth could have similar functions. Hiding in tall grass could make your player model more transparent for example.

[Jacktheawesome]

I say this a lot, but just do it the way Lugaru did it. Minimap for easy and medium, and nothing for insane. Although maybe only have a minimap for easy, because I agree that having no indication of where your enemy is adds a good amount of realism and difficulty.

[Endoperez]

It's not realistic not to be able to realize someone is moving very close to you. Even humans can pick up subtle clues like the sound of breathing and such. Rabbits with superior hearing would have much easier time with that. A minimap that indicated sounds, instead of enemies, would be an interesting compromise. It'd be basically the same thing in combat, but enemies who're standing still or waiting to ambush you would not be visible except if you got very close.

[MinorThreat]

It's not realistic not to be able to realize someone is moving very close to you. Even humans can pick up subtle clues like the sound of breathing and such. Rabbits with superior hearing would have much easier time with that. A minimap that indicated sounds, instead of enemies, would be an interesting compromise. It'd be basically the same thing in combat, but enemies who're standing still or waiting to ambush you would not be visible except if you got very close.

This is exactly what I was thinking, its hard to make everything based on sounds, and think about the people with a poor sound setup, they will be stuck without knowing from where evemies are coming

[Jacktheawesome]

It's not realistic not to be able to realize someone is moving very close to you. Even humans can pick up subtle clues like the sound of breathing and such. Rabbits with superior hearing would have much easier time with that. A minimap that indicated sounds, instead of enemies, would be an interesting compromise. It'd be basically the same thing in combat, but enemies who're standing still or waiting to ambush you would not be visible except if you got very close.

Okay let me try again, not sure you understood what I was trying to say. Having only the clues of your environment is more realistic than having a minimap of everyone's position.

[GreenFlame]

I already can imagine Robbert crawling in tall grass with a knife in hand in a more green suit. And the grass he moves over is moving too. Like the idea very much, and also like to see traps in game =)

May be there is a button to hold breath for a while or to get your ears down but also disable rabbit-enemy-spot-by-sound bonus. And there should be more interesting goal than just to deal with enemy, but this should be the best way to achieve the goal =)

Should keep that stuff in mind for the moment when the Game becomes really moddable =)

[Disco Science]

It's not realistic not to be able to realize someone is moving very close to you. Even humans can pick up subtle clues like the sound of breathing and such. Rabbits with superior hearing would have much easier time with that. A minimap that indicated sounds, instead of enemies, would be an interesting compromise. It'd be basically the same thing in combat, but enemies who're standing still or waiting to ambush you would not be visible except if you got very close.

Okay let me try again, not sure you understood what I was trying to say. Having only the clues of your environment is more realistic than having a minimap of everyone's position.

On one hand, it wouldn't be a map of anyone's position — it'd only indicate sounds, and would thus be much more vague and ephemeral. You'd only see anything on there that moved in certain ways or vocalized. This would be one possible way to simulate the fact that, being more animal-like, the player character would have much better hearing than the human controlling it. On the other hand, from a design perspective, having a HUD element on the screen would indeed detract from the realism.

[Jacktheawesome]

It's not realistic not to be able to realize someone is moving very close to you. Even humans can pick up subtle clues like the sound of breathing and such. Rabbits with superior hearing would have much easier time with that. A minimap that indicated sounds, instead of enemies, would be an interesting compromise. It'd be basically the same thing in combat, but enemies who're standing still or waiting to ambush you would not be visible except if you got very close.

Okay let me try again, not sure you understood what I was trying to say. Having only the clues of your environment is more realistic than having a minimap of everyone's position.

On one hand, it wouldn't be a map of anyone's position — it'd only indicate sounds, and would thus be much more vague and ephemeral. You'd only see anything on there that moved in certain ways or vocalized. This would be one possible way to simulate the fact that, being more animal-like, the player character would have much better hearing than the human controlling it. On the other hand, from a design perspective, having a HUD element on the screen would indeed detract from the realism.

Ah, sorry, that wasn't clear. I was still talking about a position minimap. I think the sound minimap might be sort of cool.

[Endoperez]

Okay let me try again, not sure you understood what I was trying to say. Having only the clues of your environment is more realistic than having a minimap of everyone's position.

That is true. My point was that a computer game can't give you the clues of your environnment you'd expect in the real world. If there are no "fake" help mechanics, things become unrealistically hard. For example, in some games you might not notice that you're being attacked and taking damage, or can't tell which side of your body is hurting. You don't see arrows pointing to your attackers in the real world, but is that less realistic than not knowing that the arrow that just hit you in the chest wwasn't fired from behind you.

[Shadowfury333]

Bear in mind that rabbits have a 360 degree field of view between both eyes, so I don't terribly mind a hud to display the information a rabbit would actually have.

[Jacktheawesome]

Okay let me try again, not sure you understood what I was trying to say. Having only the clues of your environment is more realistic than having a minimap of everyone's position.

That is true. My point was that a computer game can't give you the clues of your environnment you'd expect in the real world. If there are no "fake" help mechanics, things become unrealistically hard. For example, in some games you might not notice that you're being attacked and taking damage, or can't tell which side of your body is hurting. You don't see arrows pointing to your attackers in the real world, but is that less realistic than not knowing that the arrow that just hit you in the chest wwasn't fired from behind you.

Okay, well I never said no help mechanics at all, just not necessarily a position minimap. Thatis really the only help mechanic I have qualms with. I think it wouldn't be too much to see some telltale ears pop up every so often, a rustling in a bush, or snippets of hushed conversation. Nothing obvious, something you'd have to listen for. That paired with your sound minimap would work perfectly in my opinion.