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Tedd Video Game Opinions - 022 - HD (Patreon)

Published:
2021-06-22 04:53:09
Imported:
2021-07

Content

Magic Disguises

At egscomics 

Commentary

How do I make it clear THIS generic NPC is a high level NPC?

...Cape.

Cape and fancy hat.

Yes.

I'm not sure how one is able to see through illusions simply by being more experienced and/or skilled, but game balance makes fools of us all. Maybe there's a specific way you have to squint that takes years to master?

In theory disguises added via ability, such as magic or sci-fi nonsense, is superior to having to lug around changes of outfits. The Outer Worlds had hologram disguises that I hated, however, so it's not a sure thing.

Granted, it undoubtedly depends on how they're implemented. In that game, you had to find a template for the disguise, it was automatically applied to you when in an area you were trespassing in, and you had a limited time to get somewhere before it would fail.

I didn't like it for a few reasons, but the big one for me was being put on a timer while trying to figure out how to navigate a place I'd never been to before (because of course I hadn't, it would have been trespassing). I'm fine with it being a problem if I lingered in one location, or got too close to someone with enough awareness to question my presence, but the timer was just "I would rather be doing so many other things than this, and this is supposed to be my fun free time."

As with many things, I think Fallout New Vegas handled this best. There's a lot gameplay-wise I would criticize NV for (while acknowledging the production challenges Obsidian faced), but its faction disguises just passively fooled generic NPCs, and you had to avoid getting too close to certain more competent NPCs if infiltrating a place, and that was great.

Files

Comments

Tiger-Brows

AN ILLUSION! WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?

IvyReed

Tedd you appear to have turned into Grace... again. "Drat, I was going for Nanase, SARAH where'd I leave that remote?"

Stephen Gilberg

Anyone else thinking of Link's Stone Mask?

Michael Brewer

The recent Hitman games handled this the same way, more or less. You knock out a guard and grab their uniform and most people just go "oh, random guard/janitor/chef/fashion model/whatever" but there are indicated higher ranking NPCs who know the roster and will go "Hey! You're not Frank! You're an imposter!" It's interesting because who will call you out on it varies with what uniform you're wearing too. High ranking security guards apparently don't memorize the janitorial staff. I think it works pretty well, once you just accept the inherent absurdity of this giant bald white guy with a barcode tattoo on his head being able to blend in anywhere, let alone pull off the things he does. But then the games have a nice undercurrent of the absurd to them so it actually kind of works?

Michael Brewer
>>62316978

Granted a version of that game where you had, like, nanotech transformation science or just straight up shapeshifting magic would be very fun.

Chronos Cat

This storyline seems to be turning into another change blindness test...

Latency

On the experience thing, at least with guards you would expect the more experienced ones to be more alert, to notice more tiny details that a disguise/illusion might get wrong, and in a world where people using disguises is a threat, to be more aware of how disguises work in general. Even in the real world you can take any number of security courses which teach physical security penetration techniques and how to recognize/counter attempted breeches. It's not unreasonable to expect a more experienced guard to sniff out disguises.

James C

Perhaps it's not a case of seeing "through" the illusion, but a case of noticing things like "the shadows are wrong", or "the cloth didn't billow in the wind", or "their arm just clipped through their cloak". You don't know who it is under there, but you know who it is NOT.

James C
>>62316978

They should have had a co-op mode with other ICA agents, and the disguises vary in effectiveness. So, you have a 4-player campaign with White/Black/Asian/Indian agents: some disguises work equally well for all players, some disguises work better for one character than others (e.g. a chef/waiter at a restaurant, depending on whether it's Italian, Jamaican, Chinese, or Indian cuisine), and others will make everyone more suspicious of you (e.g. trying to infiltrate the middle-eastern terrorist base as a white guy) There would be interesting strategy of "I need to use this disguise, to lure character B over here, so that another player can take THAT disguise" I can understand, however, that writing the missions well — both for gameplay balance, and without including accidental racism — would be rather tricky.

Some Ed
>>62326415

Most of the people I spot using illusion to disguise themselves have a bit of a transparency issue. It's subtle, but if you know what you're looking for, especially in good lighting (which for me includes not too bright because autism spectrum.) But shadows and crap being wrong can be a dead giveaway too. Also people who try to disguise themselves as specific other people who aren't the same height as themselves tend to have hovering feet or feet through the floor issues.