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Fort Washington Silent Extermination Revisited

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InTehVaria's picture
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdleO1QW4_o

Assassin's Creed III - Silent Extermination - Fort Washington Revisited

The following comments are just a copy/paste of my youtube comments for this one; I don't think there's anything important I missed. You can see the broader results of the experimentation I talk about here: http://www.thehiddenblade.com/complete-guide-fort-ai-mechanics

-Comments-

After doing all that experimentation to figure out exactly how the more confusing aspects of Fort guard AI worked, I realized that it would be possible to do Silent Exterminations at this Fort without "high alert" being triggered; I could hide every corpse necessary with a bit more effort. These runs are extremely similar to my earlier Silent Exterminations on this Fort here: youtube.com/watch?v=cZ6EQqlfUBU, so I recommend you watch that video and read its full comments first.

Once again, there's a long leadup to both runs, the first ends at 0:45 and the second at 4:12. I take down the civilians nonlethally this time to be nice. The slightly different Rope Dart uses at 1:25 and 5:30 were attempts to kill the soldier in such a way that he'd fall into a similar position to the one I later toss him into, perfectly out of the Captain's/patrolling soldiers' sight when they pass by. It's possible by being in just the right position to begin with and letting go of the Rope Dart pull early and letting the soldier stumble into you to kill him (this has to be timed right, and it's necessary because Connor will automatically step forward to perform the kill if you pull an enemy close enough, spoiling the placement), but I fail both times. Oh well.

It turns out that soldier next to the rifle rack can be corner killed. I thought that wasn't possible because he doesn't shimmer when you get into the corner position. It's a bit weird, you may even have to try to move towards him while in cover to get it to work, risking moving out of cover entirely.

At 2:06 I might have succeeded if I moved in immediately, but I wasn't sure if I'd have enough time before the patrolling soldier turned back around so I chose to wait. I need every moment I can get to make that four kill sequence happen without being detected.

The day run is the more challenging of the two. At 6:50 I use the Rope Dart one additional time compared to my earlier runs. I thought that if I didn't use it I wouldn't be able to hide all three corpses in time, but that actually might not have been the case. I ended up moving the one I killed with the Rope Dart anyway, but I'm not sure if that was necessary. In any case, my policy going forward is that nonlethal tool use (excluding the Poison Darts) as well as whistling are fine in the pursuit of a run with no corpses found. The idea is that no enemy will have any idea of my presence at any point and that every kill will be performed with the Hidden Blades, so I'll compromise on my earlier attempts to avoid tool use. The Rope Dart really is my favorite tool, I hope it returns and is a bit more versatile in the future. Also, I'm done excusing SSI; though it's true that I like to listen to other things while playing and that makes it necessary, not being able to track Captains through walls is just unfair in many circumstances, since I always kill them last. I won't be an absolute no HUD purist if it means compromising on that. On a side note I've always wanted to express how utterly stupid that arrow in addition to the marker over the Captain's head that appears when he's above or below you is. It's completely redundant. There's already a marker there for goodness' sake! What were they thinking!

The final kill is a race to the finish to make sure he's dead before his nearby comrades ragdoll.

The last segment is what happens when a swan dive places Connor directly under a boat. Turns out he can't drown, and he can hold his "dive" position indefinitely when already underwater.

See you again soon.

Double McStab with Cheese's picture
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Keep being awesome and posting your videos here.

Question, when you are doing all your videos, you consistently get the cool double kill animations with the hidden blades (see ~ 1:10 in this video). I've gotten them a few times on accident, so what's the secret? Are they high profile? Low profile? Do they have to be approached from certain angles?

If all these animations are reproducible on demand from certain user actions, perhaps this requires a followup to stabguy's fabulous classic "12 Ways to Wield the Hidden Blade." (for reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkR1NrtRTw8).

“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus

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Double McStab with Cheese wrote:
Question, when you are doing all your videos, you consistently get the cool double kill animations with the hidden blades (see ~ 1:10 in this video). I've gotten them a few times on accident, so what's the secret? Are they high profile? Low profile? Do they have to be approached from certain angles?

Isn't that just holding the attack button and forward movement at the same time? It's been a while since I played AC3, but I think they come in high- and low-profile varieties.

"...and if I had no self-awareness, I think I'd know."

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I do that all the time and usually just get the "normally stab guy one, then normally stab guy two" animations... which is why i am wondering if angle of attack, speed of approach, high/low is important.

“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus

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It's just two low profile kills, one after another. The game's amazing animation blending is what makes it look so cool. I also make sure to hold the high profile button and move in with opposite direction of the enemy I've just killed after the second kill to snap out of the animation and get moving again quicker. That technique really helps when things have to happen fast, like that four kill sequence in the night run.