AC3 - the NOT so good

[Art Blade]

you were just lucky.


8-X >:D ^-^ ;)

[JRD]

Actually some chests seem to be easier than others. I had three of them on my map and decidd to go after them all to build some cash. The first one took me, again, several attempts with my hands sliping out of position as I had to change from side to side to up and down with the mouse. I did it eventually and moved to the next one which I opened in my first attempt. The third one took me a few attempts but it wasn't so hard!  ????

Picking an underground lock was quite easy as well  :-X

[PZ]

That's good news!  :-X

[mandru]

I've never been killed so many times in one of the AC series games as the I have with the wild animal attacks in AC3.  ???

I'm hitting the prompts as they flash on the screen. There's the "E", "Space" and for some reason even the "Q" is indicated regularly (even though there's no way to get the bow off and aimed) while I'm pinned helpless to the ground having my intestines torn out, throat crushed or trampled underfoot by an authentically huge (horse sized) bull elk because I interfered with its rut.  Nothing happens other than I'm desyncronized again and again almost every time I'm attacked.  And that's even with the hidden blades equipped.  :D

Meet a pair of wolves?  I'm a dead man.  :(

I have really come to dislike the wild animal attack interface that engages once the animal charges.  I have to believe I would at least achieve a more favorable outcome against a wild animal if I could slap it on the nose even if it's just the unloaded bow as it rushes in.  It's like UBI decided to include a little mini-game where you get to watch yourself die over and over when approaching required objectives.  >:((

[PZ]

I experienced the same and one time it was particularly annoying to desynchronize because I has ridden a horse deep into the snowy wilderness and therefore had fast transportation.  When I came to, the horse was of course gone.

What I discovered is that you heed to hit the "O" button on the controller at just the right moment and you'll kill the wolf.  Miss the momentary opportunity and you'll certainly die because there is no chance to recover (that I have discovered).

One thing though, and I do not even know if it is real, but the further I am in the game, the less animal attacks occur.  In fact, even the bull elk flee when they sense my presence, and I have not seen a wolf in many sequences.

[Art Blade]

did you change your aftershave?  :-()

[JRD]

mandru... I had serious trouble in the sequence where Haythan goes after Xio in the Frontier. I was killed by wolves so many times I almost dropped the game for the day. Good thing I had my pistol with me  >:D

I found out that timming, as PZ said, is the most important thing. Press E to get ready to counter and then Q or SPACE to use your blade. If you are still holding E when pressing the other keys it won't w@&k... make sure you hit Q while E is free... same goes with SPACE.... as to why Q or SPACE are given as a choice, I believe is because they don't want to give us the same sequence of keys to counter a wolf attack... this way you have to be alert during the attack!

I had a wolf hit by an arrow (before they attacked me) and still charging at me (they saw me after that hint) near the harbormaster in the Homestead. There's one of those peg leg things right to the east of the harbor, near the water, that seems to be guarded by wolves  ??? ... now I have a fairly decent collection of wolf pelt and fangs with me!!!  8)

After that experience I was attacked by wolves a few times while free roaming the Frontier and Homestead and I managed to survive them all. My only encounter with other predators like cougar or bears ended up in me skinning the cougar and running from the bear  >:D >:D

[mandru]

When Connor is training his friend to hunt there's the event where the bear attacks.  I hit the "E" and the bear fled running straight into a boulder.  Not knowing any better I thought "Oh no you don't!" and went after him with my stone knife and axe jumping him from behind and was surprised that he went down with a single strike.

Full of self confidence over my abilities I strode out into the world with an inflated "Killed a bar on this boulder" mindset (to paraphrase Daniel Boone's inscription) and was quickly confronted the the actuality of my place in the food chain.

That is to say somewhere between deer and bull elk.  :'(



edited wording for clarity - m

[Art Blade]

 :-D

[PZ]

 

[Art Blade]

"Killed a bar on this boulder"

edited wording for clarity - m

you missed one  :-D

[mandru]

I did?  ????

Oh wait there it is.  The good old end of one line/start of the next in the composition screen allowed the "the the" error to slip right past me.  That wasn't even the part I'd edited.  ::)

I remember back in the 70's seeing a mind puzzle that was written like this:

Can you find the
the error in this
   sentence?

or

Can you
find the
the error
  in this
sentence

Many people if they are unaware of the duplication will simply give up on it after a bit.

[Art Blade]

I simply thought you meant a bear rather than a bar. Am I wrong?

[mandru]

Yes and no.  :-D

Daniel Boone was not highly educated in the three "R's" Readin, 'Riting and 'Rithmatic though he could shoot the tail off'n a squirrel clasped in an airborne hawk's talons at 20 rods (100.58 meters) without ruffling a feather to make up for the shortcoming of his book learning.  If you take into account his heavy frontiersman's accent he pronounced and spelled it "bar" but he was saying bear.  ;) :-X 

[fragger]

So that's how the dead squirrel ended up on his head :-()

[Art Blade]

 :-D :-()

[PZ]

 

[mandru]

Raccoon on the head fragger.  ;)

Squirrels one of the original fast foods get skewed and roasted or go in the pot.  With those itty bitty ribs they came prepackaged with their own toothpicks.  :-D :-X

[Art Blade]

 

[JRD]

Speaking of Daniel Boone... I met him the other day!!!  ;D

As I was roaming through the frontier I saw a bonfire and that characteristic whhite glow aound object you can interact with so I went down to check it out and there he was.... along with some colleagues around a bonfire ready to give me a mission.... which I declined by the way  ????

[PZ]

Cool!  I've not encountered him yet.  What did he want you to do?

[JRD]

I just saw him and the "start mission" icon but I didn't hit E to check it so I don't know what the mission is!

[mandru]

 :D

Three convoys initiated and three convoys unsuccessfully terminated.  my cash losses total somewhere around  £[/b] 30,000.  Every time I get a notice out of the blue that I've lost the current convoy and I've no idea how to make this part of the game w@&k.

There is no tutorial and there really needs to be one.  You're shown the book and told go for it.  My gaming experience shows that it's just a fast way to throw hard earned cash down a rat hole.


If I'm attacked by an animal I'm dead.  The QTE (quick-time event) system is so seriously fouled up I may as well be defending myself with a feather duster.  :'(

Wolves and bears are the worst bastiches.  >:((   Even if I manage to shake them off the first time they move away three steps and come plunging straight back in for the kill.  I've been able to save myself from bobcats (even a pair)  but beyond that QTEs are a constant point of irritation.

Homestead mission example: Purposefully prodding persuasive pregnant Prudence's pigs penwards.  Yeah, you read that right.  I get the pigs penned in jig time and while Prudence is thanking me during the followup cut scene when any chance I have of defending myself is negated (because of the controls being locked out) a #@*%ing wolf hops the fence and kills me before the cut scene completes forcing me to restart the memory.  :D

Have I mentioned I freaking hate the wolves in AC3.  \:/


On the plus side riding a horse so far as I've seen strikes fear into the various vicious wild animals and can even be used to drive bears, bull elks etc. away from places you need to dismount and examine clues and such.

[PZ]

On the plus side riding a horse so far as I've seen strikes fear into the various vicious wild animals and can even be used to drive bears, bull elks etc. away from places you need to dismount and examine clues and such.

I generally like the horse travel in the game, except for the place where you are funneled through a completely linear chase scene, and you have to guess the path. (even though everything looks open, it is not)

[mandru]

Some of the rock climbing has been a bit troublesome when trying to find the right path to ascend a mandatory cliff face.

Last night I woke up from a sound sleep with the words "Well Duh!" on my lips.  I had dreamt I was in the game AC3 (yeah I know, Lucid Dreams, weird huh?) scrambling up a cliff and when I reached an unclear decision about how to proceed.  In the dream after struggling with it a bit I had used Eagle Vision and the path was illuminated and the thought "That was too easy, why didn't I think of that sooner?" awakened me.

Why wasn't that incorporated into the game?  ::)