Well, This is Weird.. (stealth doesn't w@&k)

[Ricamundo]

Hey peeps. ;) I'm (sadly) nearing the end of another playthru.(Think im arounf 85%) Im playing on Hardcore mode, which is what ive played for sveral playthrus, as far as i can remember, but at some point after i crossed over into the second map, my stelthy approach seems to have become completely useless.

I remember reading posts at Ubi a long time ago from frustrated players saying that they can't sneak past guard posts, and so on, and now it, or something like it , is happening to me.

Now, i can still, play, and still enjoy the game immensly, as i've simply awitched from my stealth loadout, and foot travel(mostly) to an MGL140, a grenade jeep, and a bad attitude, but i cant ever remember not being able to sneak by guard posts near the end of the game, as i could earlier on, but the last few days, if im on foot, even out in the bush, any patrol nearby, even out of sight, automatically races right up to me. BTW im travelling exclusively at night, as usual, and i have the camo, use crouch walk, etc etc.

of course they meet their doom, but, the noise attracts guards from any piosts as well. They'll even follow me to a safehouse and wait nearby till i re emerge. >:(

I came out of the armoury near mike's a couple days ago, and some random merc was waiting there for me. I didnt see him, and while i was perusing my map, he somehow blew up all the ammo inside the armoury from outside. :o

Im off to kill Greaves at Sepoko, so its not long till i have to go see Mr J at the prison. I think next time, i'll try dialling it back to Normal mode, and see if that helps.

edit: extended the subject for clarification purposes /Art

[spaceboy]

well congrats for doing so well on hardcore.  I never did play anything other than Normal.   Strange that you notice a difference though.  Is it possible you are moving a bit faster, cutting corners close to speed things up this time around without noticing it yourself but enough for the AI to notice?

I have myself blown up the armory contents from outside the building by starting a fire in the grass behind it.  Pretty funny unless you were about to go shopping.

[Art Blade]

Hehe, I do echo spaceboy when I say congrats on getting anywhere on hardcore as I myself nearly always play on easy. I remember discussions about the camo suit rendered useless etc and at the same time other players saying that it did w@&k regardless. What I don't remember is if anyone considered the possibility of a glitch as you do. To me it does sound strange that mercs from everywhere home in on you, while it happened to me even on easy that mercs followed me to safehouses or to Mike's bar (particularly the one in Bowa, the DD from around the bridge followed me a couple of times and once blew up his car on the roof of the bar and so on).

I'd try the extra stealthy way: while you are crouched, aim your weapon at the same time at nothing particular, just aim it, and you'll move more slowly than you would just crouching. I noticed that different weapons slow you down more than others, for example the 6P9 slows you down significantly while the M-79 almost doesn't change your speed when aiming it while crouched. Give it a try if the extra slow moving-around gives you the extra stealth you're looking for. Avoid staying in one place, moving is the key, especially after having fired a weapon (they'll always find the spot you fired from, regardless your weapon or stealth approach, so you have to move away after a shot or two).

By the way, just extended the subject of this topic so people know what  exactly is weird.

[Ricamundo]

Yeah, sry, i never did get around to actually asking a question, since i did post it in FC2 "Questions". :-[ Thx for tweaking the title, it makes more sense now.

Earlier on in the game, i used the crouch walk extensively to pass by checkpoints unnoticed. I usually crouch walk while using the map, as i want to follow the farthest path away from the guard post area, without wandering too far off my route. Ive never tried that hint about crouch walking while aiming a weapon, so ill try that.

I think im around the 65 hour mark, so i dont think ive been cutting corners to move events along. TBH, i rather enjoy the slower pace that walking/stealth play affords, but lately, stealth is just not an option. I did walk/run past a few checkpoints, but the jeep patrols, if nearby would cut me off, so ive found its better to use a grenade jeep, which are now available at all my safehouses, and simply blast my way along my route. ;D I do enjoy shelling a guardpost!

[Art Blade]

No need to worry about the subject, mate :) I only apply a little change when I think about people new to this forum (or after quite some time) skim the list of topics trying to find something specific.. they would of course always click a topic like "this is weird" because it might be something they were looking for, and you may know it from your own experience how it is when you find out that the content of such a topic wasn't interesting for you at all.. you'd get out as quickly as possible. Now we'll always know what precisely bothered you and may re-read this when it happens to us.

On topic:

I hope that the extra stealth tip sorts the problem for you, Ricamundo :) Sometimes mercs are like ants on steroids and whizz around the shop for no apparent reason, unless they secretly exchanged your "camo" suit with some fullbright red dinner jacket that makes you stick out like a light buoy  ;D If you think that they still react strangely, respectively that your camo is broken, indeed try to change to easy, walk around a bit, save, reload that savegame, change back to hardcore and save again. This may reset a rogue setup ;)

[Dweller_Benthos]

Does a difference in reputation make the mercs more/less aware of you? Just a thought

[Stryker7]

Hello,

I can not document or prove this, but I have had the same disappearing "stealth ability" in hardcore mode and I THINK I have found out why.

The solution for me, is to save often. Then if the screw up happens, go back to the save point before the "stealth mode" got screwed up.

I also believe that I have narrowed it down, and I am not wanting to have a long winded debate about it. This may be something that only happens on my PC, in my living room, in my town, in my state, in my country, and on my planet. But I dont think so.

Try this out. Whenever I get attacked, by a "Special character" ie, a mortar man with his yellow smoke rounds specifically, for some reason, everyone around me knows exactly where I am. And it stays that way. For the rest of the game.

Now I am not a programmer, but I believe that when you are "marked" with the yellow smoke, it raises the alert level of the AI. I would think that it should reset somehow, but for some reason it doesnt. So from then on, everyone knows exacly where you are. I have been attacked afterwards, by AI that could not have possibly seen me.

Like I said, no one else may have ever had this experience, but try it out and see if you get the same results.

The only way I have been able to resolve the issue, is go back to a previous save point, and kill the "special character" before he can "smoke" you.

Just my 1/ 50th of a $.

[Art Blade]

Stryker! You surprised me. Because it took you almost one year to pull off your first post, and a second one the same day!  ;) Hello and welcome, glad you finally made your entry  :-X

Thanks for your input on the subject :) Your explanation sounds reasonable, it may indeed be a glitch in the programming (a missing reset once you've been marked). The advice "save early, save often" has saved my virtual backside many times, including situations when a game went haywire due to some kind of a glitch.

[Stryker7]

===============
Because it took you almost one year to pull off your first post, and a second one the same day!
===============

Yeah, I joined up, so that I could download a couple of the maps.

As far the gap in time, it isnt being unsociable, it is just I have been really busy, AAMOF, I havent even got to play FC2 in almost as long, I finished the round I was playing, and then one thing after another ......

The only other game I have played the last year or so has been Assassins Creed,( both of em ) and MOH Airborne. I started on Ghost Hunter a couple of weeks ago, played for 2 days, and then stopped. I have gotten used to free ranging games I guess, cause I was not enjoying it at all.

But I will say this, I am about to go another round of FC2.

I remember a discussion about not to expect MODS for FC2, has that changed at all. I really love FC2, but some more single player campaigns would really be sweet.

One more quick note, I am about to upgrade to Win7 x64 so that I can DX10 this time through. Is it a decent improvement in gameplay ?

[Art Blade]

Nice of you to stick to OWG :)

I haven't heard of any mods for FC2.

As for DX10, maybe someone else can tell you something about that; I'm on a dual boot system with FC2 bound to XP while only newer games starting with JC2 and Sniper:GhostWarrior are bound to win7.

===============
Because it took you almost one year to pull off your first post, and a second one the same day!
===============

On an aside, I see you manually quoted me. Instead of Reply just hit the Quote button (or "insert quote" while already replying). Delete what you don't want to quote and done :)

[Ricamundo]

Hi Stryker, and thanks for the intriguing theory about my lil stealth issue. :-X It does sound plausible, as im pretty sure i wasnt marked until the brewry mish in map 2 at some point. I dont remember any problems staying hidden in map 1. I wonder if its only on Hardcore, or if it affects all modes.

Next time, ill dial it back to Normal, and when i get to the mish's anywhere near that damned mortar guy on the island near the brewry, ill keeep reloading saves until i get the guy first!

[Art Blade]

Don't forget to try this method to get rid of that mortar guy ;)

[Stryker7]

im pretty sure i wasnt marked until the brewry mish in map 2 at some point. I dont remember any problems staying hidden in map 1.

It has been almost a year since I played, although I am about to install Windows 7 w/ DX10, just so I can have another go at it.

But IIRC, the mortar guys are not in the 1st map (Leboa-Sako). The first time I ever remember seeing a mortar attack; other than my revenge mission when I returned to Leboa-Sako, was from the bow of the weapons boat in the first mission on map 2 (Boa-Sako).

I could be wrong though, I often am, just ask my wife  >:( of 30 years.  :-\

[Art Blade]

I think you are right, I don't recall a mortar in Leboa. I may be wrong, though  ;D

just ask my wife

Phone number, please?






lol  ;D Too tempting, couldn't resist ;)

[Stryker7]

Don't forget to try this method to get rid of that mortar guy ;)

Thanks for the tip, I have another favorite method, although I dont have any screenshots.

Once I get a mission to the brewery, I leave Mosate Selao moving to the south, there is an island just to the northwest of the brewery, and just north of the mortar position. Landing on the NW corner of that island, I make my way SW around the corner of the island. Using stealth (the only way I play) until I reach a small rise. From there, with the Dart rifle, the mortar guy is history.

Now some people will argue that if you havent encountered him, then you dont know that he is there. True, but I overheard one of the drunken mercs talking about how the guy assigned to that post, was griping and complaing that he got stuck with that duty and would be stuck out there that night.

I made that last part up  ???, but that is how recon/ intel works, sometimes it is not the info that you seek out, but the info that falls into your lap.  ;)

[Stryker7]

I think you are right, I don't recall a mortar in Leboa. I may be wrong, though  ;D

There was one, the one I was firing. 8)

just ask my wife

Phone number, please?

lol  ;D Too tempting, couldn't resist ;)

Yeah, like I am going to give her another reason to  >:(

[Art Blade]

Hahaha, you got me there, quite a chuckle  ;D :-X

And nice tactic you've talked about in the other post :-X I like stealth approaches. I've tried that, too, walking around on other locations to get that mortar guy. The problem with getting to those small islands has got a grenade launcher mounted and two mercs on it having an eye out for anyone exercising a swim. From that rock shown in my screenshots you can take care of both patrolling boats and the mortar guy.

[mandru]

There is an island to the North of the mortarman's island that has a bench right on the shore overlooking the mortarman's position.  It's perfect for sitting quietly and reflecting as you wait for the mortarman to twitch so you can snipe his miserable @$$.

I'm thinking it's the same island Stryker7 referred to.

It's on your map, look for the dot .  I'm not kidding.   8)

[Art Blade]

Crazy, I think I've never seen that bench. I'll take a look next time around  :) :-X

[Stryker7]

Bench, what bench ? I am not saying there isnt one, I just havent seen it either. After I snipe the mortar man, I take a look and head out swimming to the small island where his body lays. It is an excellent spot to recon the pumping station and the brewery.

BTW, someone talked about the patrol boats earlier. Yeah, I know about them.

Did you know that you can submerge, just long enough for them to pass by ?

Now that strategy has put my a$$ in a sling a time or 2, but it works more than not.

Plus, if you get to the island, and then you are spotted, needless to say all hell breaks loose, at least then you do have a mortar with a few rounds to "raise your own hell."

[mandru]

Look for the dot on you most detailed map when in that area.  :-X

[fragger]

@mandru: That bench thing is interesting, I'm going to have to go looking for that. Nicely spotted :-X

@Stryker7: The smoke-mark theory sounds very plausible, good thinking :-X But since when are you ever right about anything after 30 years of marriage? ::)

Very good to hear from you though, welcome aboard :)

[Art Blade]

Let's allow that man to be right when he's with us  ;D

[fragger]

I agree, it's the least we can do :-X

[KingRat]

Replying to the OP. I reported on that glitch, or one very similar, last year. One of the files got so corrupt I wound up re-installing everything, including my WindowsXP Pro install.  :D