Ubisoft: Make these Assassin’s Creed Revelations multiplayer changes
Yes, kids, the “leaked” 1.02 patch list from last week was fake. Sure, I threw in the requisite minimum number of serious-sounding changes to capture the tone of the typical, preachy developer patch notes… but the rest was ridiculous enough to warrant eventual suspicion.
But why make a fake patch list? Was it just for the lulz, or was there a point? Dearest reader, I hope by now you think better of me than to think I’d simply make a sport of trolling you.
Consider the last piece a decadent appetizer. Today’s article is the significantly more balanced main course.
Smoke Bomb
Let’s just get right out and say it: Smoke Bomb is the best skill in the game. It was already the best skill in Brotherhood, but Ubisoft’s developers decided to remove the ability’s only weakness (range and reactionary use) and allow players to throw the Smoke Bomb.
Why is Smoke Bomb so good in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations? Tons of reasons:
- It guarantees a Focus bonus and an additional level of Discretion bonus
- It guarantees one’s opponent cannot contest a kill or stun
- It guarantees an opponent cannot use abilities that might limit one’s score
- It prevents opponents from escaping or pursuing (area denial)
- It has a relatively short cooldown
By counter, its only downsides are:
- Smoke Bomb does not affect players on different Z-axis levels
- Smoke Bomb’s effect is too slow to prevent most close-range kills or high profile kills
- Smoke Bomb doesn’t cure cancer
Proposed changes
I have no problem with Smoke Bomb being the best skill in the game. But if it’s going to be the best, it should come at a price. That’s why I propose Smoke Bomb’s cooldown is increased from 60 seconds to 90 seconds.
Smoke Bomb can stay powerful. We can keep all the interesting metagame mechanics of static and thrown smoke in Revelations or Assassin’s Creed 3, or whatever, in the game. But a 90 second cooldown would put it on par with Mute. It would be a solid, powerful ability the use of which must be weighed against being left defenseless for a minute and a half.
Templar Vision and Hidden Gun
In general, players hate these abilities because they’re easy to use* and put the user in very little personal danger, since their range is so great. Templar Vision in particular can be used half a football field away from behind a wall, making it nearly impossible for a target to know his identity has been revealed. The Hidden Gun serves a certain purpose (easily eliminating high-profile players) but too easily punishes people from across the map. Unlike Smoke Bomb, neither ability is terribly imbalanced, and small adjustments can be made to alleviate both situations.
Proposed changes
For Templar Vision, I’d recommend that players using Templar Vision broadcast an auto-lock notification. This would mean that all opponents (usually targets, but possibly pursuers) within range would have an immediate indication that someone is using Templar Vision in their vicinity. Is it necessarily their pursuer? No. But it removes the possibility of using the skill while completely concealed by a building or other obstacle.
Similarly, I propose that Hidden Gun’s lock-on time is doubled from 2.0 to 4.0 seconds. However, Hidden Gun lock-on time on high-profile targets is halved from 2.0 to 1.0 seconds. This change would make it easier for situationally aware players to escape a gun lock by rounding a corner or dropping off a building’s edge, but it would more greatly punish roofers, chase baiters, and other players using high profile to lure noobs into traps. I’ve always said the best counter for the Hidden Gun is being incognito; with these changes, it would be an even better bullet shield.
Tripwire Bomb and Closure
Situational and clunky, these skills simply do not cut it in most scenarios compared to versatile abilities like Throwing Knives, Charge, Mute, or even Morph. They’re easily circumvented and, more importantly, significantly less powerful once your opponents know you’re using either one. Also, they have really shitty names.
Tripwire Bomb is interesting for area denial (especially in modes like Artifact Assault and Chest Capture), especially since it’s an auto-triggered mini Smoke Bomb. The problem is the mini part. The range is terrible, the duration is terrible, and it’s visible on the ground, making it easy to avoid once players know to look for it.
Closure is possibly the worst skill in Revelations, if only because it has no use outside of close range chases. It doesn’t directly earn you points or stop a target dead in his tracks. It just forces them to climb a nearby wall instead or, in most cases, Smoke Bomb you.
Proposed changes
As far as I know, players can’t place more than one Tripwire Bomb at a time, so I suggest Tripwire Bomb cooldown is reduced from 90 seconds to 60 seconds. With this change, Tripwire Bomb would swap places with Smoke Bomb, which is pretty fair when you consider Smoke Bomb is at least 283% better than Tripwire Bomb. Players would still be limited to one trap at a time, but could rely on them more frequently for defense.
Closure is a little trickier, but the solution comes directly from the skill’s shortfalls. I propose Closure additionally causes climbing enemies in its radius to fall upon activation. All of a sudden, Closure goes from being a situational suckhouse to being a parkour-lover’s favorite tool. Climbing enemies would tumble, but wouldn’t be injured or slowed in any other way. It wouldn’t have the versatility of Throwing Knives, yet it could affect multiple opponents and all but guarantee Multiple Escape bonuses.
Animus Hack, Animus Hack (silent) and Minor Hack
Someone asked me on YouTube why I don’t use Animus Hack. The answer is pretty simple: it sucks. Spending half the round racking up seven to nine kills/stuns isn’t exactly easy, and when you finally accomplish it, you’re rewarded with the godlike power to…score four or five kills?
Yes, you can kill players at infinite range. You can kill your pursers. You might even be able to kill locked players out of your line of sight. But the point is that Animus Hack is worth, at max, 700 points. That’s assuming you were able to kill every other player in the game during your 30-second Matrix-esque slaughter spree. In most situations, you’ll get half that kill count before the timer runs out or someone guns you down.
And if you’re on a big map like Mt. St. Michel? Your Animus Hack bonus might expire before you even run into your next target or pursuer!
By contrast, the +550 bonus only requires seven (normal) or five (silent) kills to trigger, and guarantees a huge score boost. You can’t mess it up, and it can’t be wasted by an unforeseen enemy attack. Consider that in a normal game of Wanted or Assassinate, you might get 30 kills + stuns maximum. With the +550 Kill Streak, that would net 2200 to 3300 points. With Animus Hack, you’d only trigger it three or four times with a realistic result of 400 points a pop. Mr. Anderson would be shaking his head in shame watching you walk away from omnipotence with only 1600 points to show for it.
Proposed changes
Pretty much any change to the mechanics of Animus Hack would outright break it, but a few tweaks could make it its rewards commensurate with its difficulty in achievement.
Animus Hack, Animus Hack (silent) and Minor Hack: Players may now earn Focus, Mid-Air, and Execution bonuses while using these Kill Streaks.
Animus Hack and Animus Hack (silent): Instead of a timer, these abilities are limited to five uses each.
Why force players to scramble across the map to use well-deserved abilities that probably took them all round to accumulate? A count-based restriction will guarantee the Animus Hack gets its use without forcing the player to play like an idiot to make it worthwhile. Five uses wouldn’t guarantee a better result than the +550 skill bonus, but a smart player taking advantage of the new Hidden Gun-style bonuses will almost certainly profit fairly.
Bonuses and Scoring
The current scoring system is a huge improvement over that in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood multiplayer. Players are better rewarded for spotting their pursuers and winning chases, while killers are incentivized to establish Silent and Incognito bonuses through clever stalking and mind games.
That said, the defensive metagame is almost entirely slanted towards stunning, since stuns are so heavily rewarded in favor of escapes. Yes, a stun is daring, but in general an escape requires significantly more effort and a strong mastery of the game’s free running mechanics.
Likewise, the introduction of the inverted discretion meter and the huge bonus for drop/ledge kills work to make high profile roof-based kills less profitable, but they are still a choice weapon considering it’s now one of the only ways to guarantee and uncontested kill.
Proposed changes
Wouldn’t it be great if all Escape bonuses received a +100 base score increase? Evading one’s pursuer for a minute should reward the player with a sizable chunk of virtual currency, after all. I’d also suggest that the Aerial Bonus is reduced from +100 to +50. This wouldn’t have a huge effect on gameplay, but would move the primary incentive of being on the roof from a score-based one to a safety-based one.
The Stun Indicator
And finally, the Stun Indicator. I don’t know why Ubisoft increased its prominence between its last title and Revelations, but it is bullshit.
Yes, it has an understandable utility when one’s pursuer is in high profile and approaching from an off-camera location. But 90% of the time, it only serves to give away an otherwise indiscreet player who probably spent a lot of time stalking, planning, and closing in on a target.
It doesn’t matter if you’re Incognito or blended into a group. It doesn’t matter if the target is even facing your direction. If you walk anywhere near the player you’re about to kill, he or she is instantly notified that you’re the person out for his/her blood. They’re also prompted to stun you on the spot. Because of this, it is actually impossible to earn a Focus bonus without using elevation or an ability.
That just isn’t right.
Proposed changes
This isn’t that hard, Ubisoft. Make it so the Stun Indicator only appears on pursuers who are below Silent discretion. Additionally, the Stun Indicator will appear on locked pursuers.
Now the indicator would still punish reckless Templar running in for a quick kill, but it would reward players who have carefully blended into a target’s group and have patiently waited to administer a Focused, Poisoned death. Smart defenders who identified their killer via quick-witted perception will still get a Stun Indicator if they have their killer locked on, but otherwise they’ll be forced to hide or flee at the sound of the Whispers.
You know, instead of getting psychic information they didn’t earn.
Summary
I’m not a game developer or designer. I’m not the best Revelations player in the world. But I have enough experience to know that Assassin’s Creed multiplayer is only a few changes away from being very well balanced.
Are these the best, ultimate solutions? Perhaps not, but I believe they’re the beginning of an honest conversation about the state of the game and how Ubisoft can make digital death a little more fun, fair, and rewarding.
If you believe these changes have merit, do me a big favor. Tweet this article to @Ubisoft, @AssassinsCreed, and @UbiGabe. Post it on the Assassin’s Creed forums or the Assassin’s Creed Facebook page. Let the devs know how close they are to a more evenly-weighted game experience.
Don’t agree with me? Why don’t you tell me why I’m wrong in the comments below?
* Also, I scoff at anyone who says the Hidden Gun “takes no skill.” While this is true, I can’t say that “pressing X to assassinate” ever takes any skill. The skill of AC multiplayer comes from positioning and timing, not manually dismembering targets.
Great points. I already started annoying… I mean tweeting it around.
Yo wingspantt, Aerial kill is not a bonus it just replaces “kill”. Aerial kills reward the game amount of points as normal kills.
He’s saying that the base kill score that aerial is should be50 points.
You make some good points, and some points that aren’t so great and seem a bit biased with how you like to play. ;) I agree that smoke bomb could use a slight nerf, but 30 secs is too much. If anything i say buff mute and other abilities to be more in line with smoke. Charge is actually pretty hard to use so it should have a shorter cooldown. So is mute. Gun should have a slight delay to compensate for lag, because about 75% of the time i dodge a bullet, it still hits me. It’s complete bullshit that a bullet still hits me when im FAR behind a wall on my screen. That being said, smoke being able to be thrown is absolute garbage, and it never needed such a buff. Smoke was fine as a dropped ability. Firecrackers being able to be thrown is way more sensible, because it does not make you unable to move entirely. I also think tripwire bombs should have a way shorter activation time, because they take entirely too long atm. And are only good for tricking people into running into them. I’d like to see them being able to be used to escape more easily. If they had a 1.5-2 sec activation they would be much better as an ability. Your stun changes are legit, and would greatly improve the game. Like you said losing all your bonus’s because of a B prompt when you’re silent/incog is bullshit. Closure is a pretty terrible ability, but what you’re proposing would be insanely overpowered in modes like artifact assault. Anyway, just thought i would throw in my 2 cents. ;)
I could see Closure being OP, but what could possibly balance it? It’s just so damn situational. What about making it cause players to fall, but not cause them to be unable to climb? The skill is just so bad to start with!
Agreed it’s terrible, and that wouldn’t be too bad i guess. But not being able to climb is too much. Closure is like only good in AA, my friend Jibrail actually uses it fairly well in AA. But besides AA, it’s a waste of a skill slot.
I completely agree with most of what you said. Especially the part about extending the smoke bomb cooldown and the tripwire bomb.
I can’t say I entirely agree with the stun prompt, I reckon they should remove it completely, but still keep the LT prompt and red dot whenever your pursuer is in high profile. In a way even with the stun prompt still there, it’s a free way to work out who your pursuer is, even if they are in blend group below silent.
Many of times I’ve been in blend group and my contract walks through it and I’m about to get a hidden poison and they stun me, I swear that there’s no way they could’ve known I was their pursuer. Any (good) change to the stun prompt would be an improvement!
Also some other changes I would like to see:
– When someone is poisoned make it impossible to stun them after, so many times I’ve either had to: a) throw a smoke bomb to not get stunned or b) run like crazy either away or up a wall to not get stunned after poisoning. The removal of the stun prompt will also help this.
Decoy – make it actually so that the discreet decoy is actually discreet and doesn’t run off (like you stated in your fake patch notes WiNG).
Firecrackers – change it back to the old ACB so that you literally cannot see what is happening and reduce the cooldown!
Bodyguard – make it more reliable to stun your pursuer because sometimes your pursuer runs at you and kills you while your bodyguard is too slow! It encourages people to run at you.
Charge – increase the accuracy more.
With the abilities more evenly weighed, more people will use different abilities, changing up the gameplay and making it more interesting.
I like most of your suggestions, save for a poisoned person not being able to stun their killer. I disagree – someone using poison is already getting a huge 200-300pt bonus, plus whatever else they had racked up. Oftentimes they stand to get over 1000pts. Getting stunned isn’t taking anything away from them, perhaps maybe killing a streak they had going. But I’d think that poison would be a very risky ability to use in that case, anyway.
It could just be my general hatred of poison saying this ^^ But it really does feel good to be able to nab something as small as a stun, knowing that the person who is killing me is going to get maybe 8-10 times what I got.
i agree only with the stun shit
I don’t like the sound of these ability changes. I could live with them, but I’ve already learned to use them all as they are, so it would be annoying. The Animus Hack changes you suggest are great, I’ve stopped using this streak for the same reasons you’ve mentioned, but this would be enough for me to try it out again. Changes to the scoring I don’t like for the same reason I wouldn’t like ability changes. But the stun indicator bit is interesting. What about changing it so that contested kills were only possible if the pursuer has entered high profile while in the line of sight of the target? At the moment you sometimes see noobs stunning every single civilian in the area each time they hear whispers just so they can get that 100 point honerable death. I don’t think you should have to lock onto your pursuer to stun them(especially not when you have more than one), I think it’s fair enough to have to use an ability to get a focus kill. But losing your incognito or silent bonus just because some noob is mashing the stun button without any idea who his pursuer is just seems opposed to the whole stealth theme of the game. Also, you can easily get that focus, poison, hidden kill by using smoke bomb. And fair enough that you should use an ability to get a high score kill like that. Incog. kills shouldn’t need an ability though, just patience.
I think the dev’s need to understand that they need to do something soon otherwise they will have an army of fans who over the last 5 years have been training to become assassin’s and we will kill them nothing is true, everything is premitted
Just my early morning pre-work cynicism talking here, but being incognito in a blend group doesn’t stop people from gunning you down while they’re standing five feet away from you on the ground.
What Stormwake already said is accurate – Aerial Kill replaces the Kill – just like Hidden Kill does (you actually earn 200 points extra) So I’d even go as far as improving the points, because while climbing you use up a lot of your discretion meter.
For stun baitors and stuff like that there’s an easier punishment than buffing the gun! At least in Manhunt. Like you get poitns for being blended as a group, why don’t reduce score if players stay on the roof for a prolonged time (I’m thinking like after 30sec you loose 20 points every 3 secs)
That way you can still use roofs to escape, but you don’t stand around waiting for the noobs to climb up and get bitchslapped
Might be easier just to make it so you can’t gain discretion meter while on the roof.
Nope, because the people haning around on the roof either stun you or get a contested kill, so Incognito won’t be taken into accoutn anyway.
I don’t think that’ll do.
I mean, everyone is doing it, as am I, but only because it’s the only way to keep a good score should you be playing against skillful players.
Also, they should bring back the “release contract” button! In AC:B when someone was running around on the roof away from you I ust hit and waited 3 seconds.
apparently brackets are taken out hit “r” was what I wrote
I can’t fully agree on your opinion about the smokebomb, but that may be my lacking experience… everything else looks thought through to me =) I will start informing.
dafuq, twitter won’t let me post stuff >.<
I actually have to disagree with you for most of these suggestions. All the abilities seem to be fine with me in terms of cooldowns and their effects. I play this game a lot. Prestige 20 and rising (without boosting!). Personally, I would like them to get rid of Teleport and bring back Sprint Boost.
As far as contested kills are concerned, it should not punish the pursuer. When I build up an Incognito, Hidden, Focus for 800 points and get punched at the last second it reduces you down to only scoring 250 points for a Discreet kill. If anything it should drop to Silent and will still allow me to continue going for a silent streak.
i agree with you that it is annoying but getting a contested kill is the perusers fault for getting too close and not using abilities to stop it.
You make some valid points, especially about the stun. Really, the glaring stun alert is for the noobs. The smart players will know who is coming for them just by observing their surroundings. I’ve played the game so much that I basically know who is coming after me and can usually stun or have honorable death, especially in deathmatch when you can memorize who is an NPC and who is not.
I think this is all pretty great but I think that Ubi should also make abilities like Charge and Mute way better since it would force players to consider them, I have played at least 900 matches and I have only met what? 30 people use Charge, it is severely underused, I don’t use it because of its accuracy. Ubisoft should make a little poll of all the stuff people want to see in the game. Also They should fix the Smoke Bomb so that it is still effective on stairs but not on slanted roofs making roof stun-baits more difficult. One more thing is that Smoke Bomb shouldn’t go to 90 seconds but to 75 or 70, that’s much more reasonable.
Smoke bombs on the roof could last shorter, since the wind higher up blows them away quicker (one could argue *trying hard to keep it realistic)
How is Mute not good?
I think the entire defensive gameplay (Mute/Smoke) and going for stuns is fun and all, but it’s not what the game should feel like! It should be much harder to get a stun and Chases should award more points.
its not that mute isn’t good but it just sucks when you have a purseor who doesn’t know what they are doing and runs up to you and yor mute desn’t have time to register since the kill and stun ranges and vastly larger than the were in brotherhood. mute is a useful ability but it has its problems aong with a lot of things in this game.
I think the stun indicater should only appear if they are facing you. ALSo 90 for smoke is to much
I think 90 seconds is too much for smoke bomb is too much, but I agree with about everything else. Personally I don’t think a stun should be considered high profile though
Smoke Bomb – 90 Seconds, fair enough. With 90 seconds on Mute, it’s still pretty good, so it shouldn’t kill Smokes so much. The Mute vs. Smokes decision then comes down to range versus duration, with timing and collateral damage being secondary factors.
Templar Vision – Should be treated as a high-profile move, so a lock-on prompt is nice. Perhaps draining the stealth meter should be implemented, as to make duration a double-edged sword.
Hidden Gun – Doubling the lock-time seems a bit harsh, and can be countered by firing earlier, since you can forgo accuracy in a closer shot. In any case, a longer aim-in I’m not going to contest yet. The halved aim time for high-profile targets is good, since that what I have crafted for my hidden gun: I don’t need it often, but when a runner or climber is nearly out of sight, I need that shot here and now. That said, the Mid-air and Execution bonuses could use a boost.
Tripwire Bomb – Give it more range and longer duration and let the trap stay through deaths, in addition to dropping cooldown.
Closure – To encompass your change and add another, Closure can work like Mute for player movement, this time disabling climbing and chase breakers and causing all enemies in the radius to stumble similarly to if they ran into a crowd. I don’t know if there is is any visible effect when Closure is activated, but if there is, it ought to be removed so it can be used more as a starting move like Mute.
Closure Alternative (Perhaps for AC3) – Combine Mute’s and Closure’s effects. target loses all kill, stun, ability, and movement for a short time.
Stunning Pursuers: Make it so that the stun indicator appears on locked-on pursuers regardless of the stealth meter, but only after a short period of time, to prevent people from locking random people to see who their pursuer is.
Trolling noob targets are so fun-especially hiding in a hay bale or hanging on a ledge just WAITING for them to come towards you while you’re spamming the kill button for an instant, uncontested troll kill :D
I agree with those especially for the stun indicator. I remember the thrill in Brotherhood, waiting for the focus blended in the same group as my target, now it’s unthinkable.
A question though, did Ubisoft already made these kind of changes in Brotherhood or Revelations?
Instead of increasing the cooldown time for SB, I’d remove the ability to throw it, or at least seriously limit the range at which it can be thrown.
>>it is actually impossible to earn a Focus bonus without using elevation or an ability.<>This isn’t that hard, Ubisoft. Make it so the Stun Indicator only appears on pursuers who are below Silent discretion.<<
The stun indicator is there to counterbalance the pursuer's compass. Removing it for those who are above Silent is going too far. However, if the pursuer is blended into a group, I agree that the indicator should appear only if he is locked on to. Also, it shouldn't appear when you are affected by firecrackers.
The part of my post about the focus bonus disappeared for some reason, so here it is. Focus makes no sense at all IRL; the longer you hang around your target, the higher the chance that something will go wrong, and the game reflects this accurately.
but that’s the point. You take a gamble by waiting a little longer for a point boost.
If you feel that something could go wrong, just get the kill.
but in many situations, like a drop kill or something similar, waiting for the focus also means waiting for the next stage of the Silent Meter. And when your high up, chances are your target isn’t gonna move and your pursuers can’t get to you so easily or surpirse you
The longer you’re near your target IRL, the better you can classify them and plan exactly how you will stab them. In the face.
It does make sense. Not speaking from experience, though.
“Yes, a stun is daring, but in general an escape requires significantly more effort and a strong mastery of the game’s free running mechanics.”
This is off-topic (my apologies), but I think it’d be cool if you did a video talking about how best to win chases and earn mad escape bonuses. It may sound obvious to more seasoned players, but I actually find myself losing more chases then I am winning, so it’s very likely that I am doing something wrong ^^ I just think it’d be interesting to see your methods when it comes to outrunning your fellow Templars.
For a smoke bomb nerf how about instead of increasing the recharge timer, take away its effect to stop abilities< THATS WHAT MUTE IS FOR. They still would not be able to move so it would not be changed significantly, but if some one had an ability of thier own it would allow them to use it to possibly escape. As it is the only advantage mute has over smoke bomb is its ability to spread upwards!
I agree with the one comment above about the stun indicator… It is for noobs. I think that point should be embraced: leave stun indicator as it is for players under level 20. Let the newer players learn the mechanic. Then either completely remove it, or implement it as you’ve laid out.
One thing that bugs me is the way the discretion meter works.
You can get a full incognito kill by approaching in plain sight, but waiting for your target to come around a corner only gets you a discrete kill, even if you were really much less obvious.
I’d like to see the discretion meter go up while standing still, regardless of line of sight, or at least while your target is within range for the heartbeat sound.
Wing i like your ideas but i have a problem with the changes you suggested for the stun indicator, if it showed people below silent it would be virtually impossible to get close to targets as you start at discreet so when you get near them to fill up the meter to silent your target would notice you as soon as you turn the corner.
Without the stun indicator, people’ll just adjust. If they don’t see a
kill button over your head, they’ll probably attempt to stun you, as they don’t lose anything for trying. The stun indicator change would probably make the most difference in team modes, where the targets don’t have targets, and thus don’t have the kill button prompt.
The stun idea isnt that bad and the smoke should have the ability of the throw should be taken away since that makes smoke throw lover think about their range and definatly the animus hack because right now it’s so funny especially when people rage about it it’s not really all that good because it’s super hard to get a 9 kill streak or a 7 silent and its great so you can save it for killing your pursuer. The tripwire bomb idea is kind of ok but I suggest it shouldnt be very visable. I mean you can still se it but not so obvious it’s actually there. Closure should have something to make more useful then chase breakers but I can’t think of something that it can do with it.
Why don’t you guys just make your own game? haha
the gun, oh please let them make that change ;A:
people abuse it for kicks and shoot you just because they can without enough time to hide, but the thing about it that annoys me the most is being shot THROUGH A WALL <– if they fixed that alone i'd be happy
also the aerial kill should probably just stay the same, yes some bad players like roofing but it's not like it benefits them enough to nerf it
as for the stun indicator i am most definitely in favor of that one, not only is a focus much harder but so is a poison, bad enough you get stunned right after
I only have something to say about the trip-wire bomb. This ability is obviously only usefull in terms of defense, however I don’t think it should be underestimated so much. For players (like myself) who think they know how to use this ability, it comes in handy. In a game mode like corruption, the trip-wire bomb is God’s little miracle. All I need to do is find the perfect spot (usually up against the side of the map, by a chase breaker, and hopefully under a roof) and drop it a little ways in front of me. What usually happens to me, is an unsuspecting pursuer will charge at me and be immobilized, giving me a nice 200 points. But thats not all, other pursuers see this and come closing in for an easy kill, when they get a face full of smoke bomb. Before you know it, I’ve got 3 dazed counts behind me and 600+ points in my pocket. And by the time I find a new place to hide, my trip-wire bomb still has 40-50 seconds remaining, which I find pretty fair. So basically what I’m saying is that this ability can be pretty useful in the hands of a somebody who knows how to use it. But I guess decreasing the cool down time would be fair. As for the range of it, I think it would be pretty unfair for my pursuers ;D
I feel the trip wire bomb is a “noob” ability for they will just wait in a group making it hard for you to kill them since they trip wire would blend in if it is properly placed.
Also, for the stunning matter I feel that it should just go back to brotherhood because any skilled player could still find a way to stun their puseor, but not to the point where the stun range makes it almost impossible for anyone to pull of a poison. I have been able to do it without and ability but it is extremely difficult and sometimes a pain in the ass. I do agree with you Wingspan in the matter of putting a stupid prompt over a player who is minding their own business possibly stunning or killing someone else they being exposed to the whole world for them to do whatever they want to you. I fell the prompt should only be displayed in reckless while running or after about 2 seconds of running to be fair to those who have been stalking their targets for a long time.
Everything else you have mentioned is well-thought out and should be taken into account when the game designers ever decide to patch Assassin’s Creed Revelations or when they are creating Assassin’s Creed 3. Very nice job and props to you for putting this out to the public and making your ideas open and debatable.
I don’t really know if it should be called a “noob” ability because the trip-wire bomb does require a level of skill to use. Placing it in a strategic position causes your pursuer to take much longer coming up with a plan to kill you, earning you more points in a mode like corruption. And skilled players can easily counter noobs by going around the bomb or getting close enough to set it off without being caught in the explosion. But I guess I see why other players might not like it.
well yes it takes strategy to place it but once someone puts it down they havedone all the work required for it. all they haveto do is wait for the triwire bomb to do the work and they get a cheap stun. I know it takes a little skill to be able to place it bt most of he time skilled players won’t look for it then get stunned. Players like me would most likely get annoyed. Also, it annoys mewhen a target would wait on a roof for their purseors and have an annoying tripwire bomb placed making it almost impossible to kill them.
Yea I see your point there, but once again you should only get caught by a tripwire bomb if your not being careful and walking around the outskirts of its range until it goes off. And yea some people do abuse it by going on the roof and doing that cheap stuff
hey wing i also feel that they should take out animus hack in general for it takes away the point of the game to go hunt your targets. people who get the streak would then be able to kill anyone they want without hardly any effort and possibly ending a skilled players streak which would be very annoying. Also, the gun should only be used on hgh profile targets and targets who are on the roofs because they are annoying to have to go up and kill. Those are the instances where i would prefer to use the gun. Other than that is probably just to troll someone or jus because the user is too lazy to just go get the kill. I also hope you read my comments andtell me how you feel about my opinions.
I disagree about Animus hack. Yes, using it is easy, but getting it is not.
that’s true and all, but if you have the kill buffer it becomes really simple and annoying especially if someone uses it in manhut on the defensive round because that just defies the point of manhnt or possibly any other mode it is used in.
hey wing thought i throw my two cents in… you forgot to mention that animus hack is absolutely godlike in deathmatch… on a map like ippokratous or galata i can wipe the entire lobby easily leading to more points than 2 550 streaks… plus its super fun to use, although its pretty bullshit when compared to what ac really should be about, stealth and shit… and i would remove minor hack completely, its just another gun-like abbility for them nubz… otherwise im really curious about how ac3 will turn out, hopw it wont be the same disappointment as acr
I pretty much agree with all you said and especially the stun indicator! Ive unfortunately used it to my advantage when going for animus hack streak. If I have 2-4 pursues, put a disguise on and I’ll easily get a naked stun on most of them. I find it really annoying on team games like manhunt cos I just wanna use morph to reveal my target but if I get anywhere near that group, bitch slapped is what I get!
It’s short-timed, takes way too long to get and practically forces you to use Kill Buffer.
But believe me, especially in Deathmatch, Animus Hack feels simply godlike to have the finger that you can point at anyone to make them die for even so short.
It really could use a buff, though. Maybe raise it’s score bonus by 100 points, or make it give you 100 points MULTIPLIED BY the number of templars you have already killed, including the one you’re targeting, per templar.
Wingspan, I’m a big fan. I’m one of those mediocre gamers whose innate gaming abilities are so-so, but with the right knowledge of gaming mechanics, can play on par with more avid and experienced gamers. Thanks to your tips and tutorials, I’ve become quite good with ACR! Which is why I largely agree with your proposed changes for a more balanced AC Multiplayer experience. I think that a handful of the comments disagreeing with your post take for granted that you are proposing exactly that: a BALANCED game where no matter what your playing style, you’ve got a fair chance to learn how to play, practice your skills, and compete with the best of the best without feeling like you’ve wasted your money on a game that caters to particular play styles. I mean, it IS Assassin’s Creed, so stealth and escape are fundamental priorities, but for me — a gamer who is Prestige 5 due to number of times played, not necessarily ability — the fun of the game is not exploiting its loopholes, but in feeling that I am matched rather evenly to other players and I should not feel like some folks are “cheating” vs. being lucky or practiced.
The only bit I’d like to add to your proposed changes post is to the issue of Stunning. Remember in Brotherhood when Stunning had a shorter radius than Killing? It seems that in Revelations, it is largely equivalent. This, like you mentioned, makes it difficult to score hidden + Incongnito + Focus kills unless you are already blended and your target runs into you AND remains still. They are either alerted that you are their Pursuer, or they just spam the stun button hoping to get an Honorable Death. Especially considering a Stun is 200 pts, there is a case for hunting in reverse — stalk/lure pursuers to stun and die honorably while earning points. Especially when you have multiple pursuers, it’s much easier to get points that way than by stalking your target, who may be on the other side of the map or a roofer, (whom even if you do manage to catch, is rarely a kill with bonuses). Therefore, I think that if stunning is going to be so rewarding, the Stun radius should be decreased OR keep the stun radius the same (I DO think the honorable death aspect of the game creates more dynamic gameplay) but reduce the point payoff from stunning to 100 pts.
The few times I’ve managed to finish first with scores of 7000+ (in Manhunt, Deathmatch, and Wanted) were due to maybe one or two high-point kills and a LOT of stun streaks. In Brotherhood, it was more difficult to stun your pursuers, and that made it an actual risk. It required more skill, so the payoff was fair.
I’d like to add something to your comment mack and to WingspanTT’s proposed changes in general. Adding the Honorable Death aspect to ACR does make the gameplay more dynamic, but there is a huge problem with the scoring for the pursuer. Let’s say for example you, the pursuer, approach your target disguised while hidden in a blend group. If you manage to kill your target and get a focus as well, you deserve kudos (and shame on the clueless target). However, if you take that same scenario your target contests your kill while you’re hidden, incognito, with the focus meter filled, you end up with only a discreet bonus to go with your kill bonus.
While I like the concept of getting 100 points if you stun your pursuer as you get killed, the pursuer should not forfeit hidden or focus bonuses if they’ve earned them. Instead, the penalty of having your kill contested should be 200 points maximum: the difference between incognito and discreet kills and the bonus the target gets for a successful stun.
Great suggestions. I hope ubisoft read this article and consider these changes.
[…] Creed 4: Black Flag multiplayer? Well, if you recall a year back, they actually addressed almost all of my proposed changes from Assassin’s Creed: Revelations to Assassin’s Creed […]