Multiplayer stealth is a tough one. While you don't want to make it overpowered it is undiably a major selling point, meaning it has to be easy to pick up on consoles. I get it. However one short-coming of Crysis 2 should be easy to fix regardless of platform: The assassination / "stealth kill" script.

It had and still has the potential to make stealth more skill-based AND more enjoyable for everyone at the same time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqTmTM1bD4U&hd=1

Done watching? Here's the essential comparison again:



Giving stealthy players even more energy - by removing mobility drain and introducing separate pools for the two remaining modes (?) - will lead to even more cloak rushing. So I think something needs to be done not only against the viability of a "rushing" playstyle (better nano-vision and defensive modules) but also for the alternative, intelligent stealth. More viable assassinations will shift players' focus from just trying to get close enough for an easy kill (shotgun, SMG, double melee) towards trying to get really close for a more covert kill.

The reason noone bothers with assassinations in C2 is that being visible and stationary for 2.5 seconds is not "covert" :)

Crytek: I would really appreciate a response from an employee as to how assassinations (or stealth in general) will change in C3 multiplayer.

Fellow gamers: Do you agree with my take on cloak rushing being an undesirable playstyle? What balance changes to stealth (under the constraints of already announced facts!) would you like to see?

This is a great, constructive post with video. Good job!

Yeah I posted a topic not too long ago about how stealth kills aren't even stealthy. What's the point in being locked in animation when you can just melee someone a few times? If they speed up the animation I guess it would serve somewhat of a purpose, but I think staying cloaked would be the best thing to do. Before Ruku jumps on this I'll be the one to tell you (as he told me) that if you tap armor then stealth quickly while locked in animation you will go into cloak. It would make sense to just make it a part of the game though.

I think there are 2 options that could prove effective:

One, speed up the animation, simple.

Two, make the animation cloak the assassin, or both the victim and the assassin. Imagine how disconcerting it would be to have teammates disappearing right in front of you.

Personally, I like the idea of cloaking yourself and your victim, because it makes no sense that I can lift people and items in cloak (Crysis 1) yet I can't break a neck. And in Crysis 3 they've already showcased cloaked bow-firing and cloaked melee, so why can't I use a knife while in cloak?

-Zanthir

You said that the stealth kill is too risky - they could fix this by increasing health - this also promotes skill

I did think of that, my post was just already very long.

Visually, it should work out great. Just some things to keep in mind:

- The defeated player shouldn't immediately become visible while dropping onto the ground, he should drop cloaked and then slowly fade back in over several seconds while the assassin makes his escape.

- Name-tag must disappear as soon as the animation starts! People will automatically look to name-tags and notice that something's going on.

So yeah, when going this route it is crucial that no parts of the HUD or player models negate the hiding effect. Another example would be how you can clearly see cloaked players of your own team - obviously assassination victims would have to be cloaked in the same way the assassin is, NOT color-recognizable to their team mates.

1) Give players more health. I have no idea why so many shooters go for the split-second killtimes, it's seriously lame. More health means an overall more skilled game, more satisfying kills, less cheap kills for newbs... I could go on. It's a great feature. Implement it. With regards to assassinations, it'd mean a) players are more likely to survive performing the assassination and b) the insta-kill nature of the assassination is made more attractive.

2) As others have said, cloak both the assassin and the victim. With this added, hell, stealth kills would actually be stealthy. Imagine.

3) Lower regular melee damage. This is sort-of covered in point #1, but it's worth stressing. You should be encouraged to assassinate, not activate Armour Mode and spam melee. That's not skilled and it's sure as hell nowhere near satisfying.

4) Add a module (or whatever you're calling them) for speedy assassination animations, to give dedicated Cloak players more of a chance against multiple opponents (provided they've got the skill to pull multiple assassinations off).

Crysis 2 already gave players a lot of health! It took like 20 bullets to kill someone

According to this it doesn't really take a lot of bullets to kill players. It doesn't help either that the movement speed is very slow too when not sprinting.

That's not due to high health, though, that's sh*tty netcoding.