why do modern online shooters NOT cater for stealth?

[sp86]

because stealth is hard...

And therein lies the rub. Why spend money improving your engines AI when such a thing is barely noticed? When you can spend more money and less effort improving the graphics that are sure to earn ooohs and aaahs from the public you're pandering to?

I can only hope that we've reached a sort of graphical cap with the quasi-photorealistic graphics that currently exist and that game devs can get down to the business of actually paying AI and enviromental simulation a decent try, all in the same game preferably.

Hopefully that game is Human Revolution.

One can hope.

 

[WINDOWCLEAN2]

Splinter Cell: DA did this to a degree.

One team played as standard Splinter cell type spies.
The other played in FPS as a guard force.


It may have been shunned by many but I loved that game...

 

[Arkhangelsk]

Straight forward action FPS's are more marketable. Simple as that.

 

[Sacman]

because stealth is hard...

And therein lies the rub. Why spend money improving your engines AI when such a thing is barely noticed? When you can spend more money and less effort improving the graphics that are sure to earn ooohs and aaahs from the public you're pandering to?

I can only hope that we've reached a sort of graphical cap with the quasi-photorealistic graphics that currently exist and that game devs can get down to the business of actually paying AI and enviromental simulation a decent try, all in the same game preferably.

Hopefully that game is Human Revolution.

One can hope.

damn straight... but from the looks of the trailers I'm very skeptical and especially because it's being marketed to a larger audience...

 

[SodaDew]

Most gamers like fast pace so they can level up fast, or just look like a "bad-ass" but stealth truthfully should be a main strategy in Shooters.

 

[sp86]

[snip]

I can understand the skepticism, especially considering its predecessor is seen by many PC gamers (notably, PC Gamer) as the best PC game of all time, but everything I've seen and read points to the fact that this is a game that is comprised of elements that all work well (Satisfyingly well to quote the editor of PC Gamer), still, it remains to be seen whether or not they can be successfully melded together into a single coherent vision instead of a multi-faceted mess like so many other ambitious titles.

 

[carpathic]

It has the potential to be kind of broken really.

I mean a person disappears and has sniper rifle.

*Boom* headshot

"where the fuck did that come from?

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

please be aware the difference between being stealthy and camping or hiding, you may have to hide temporarily but the general purpose is to get behind the enemy and go by the policy of 'if they cant see me they cant shoot me', afterall the element of surprise is more effective than any weapon or gadget

Well, it's probably because modern FPS often suffer from pretentions of realism, and in the real world, "stealth" basically means "CAMPING".

The Solid Snake-approach of basically sneaking around, cracking the spine of sentries and taking out entire armies with just a silenced pistol doesn't really happen in the real world. It's more of moving from cover to cover (not in a particularly silent way either, since most soldiers tend to be strapped full of gear which will cause noise when you move around), looking around a bit (preferably with some kind of image enhancer, like thermal vision/night vision), spot the enemy and then ambush him by firing at him from a hidden position.

The "ninja stuff" doesn't happen too much in the real world, and since modern FPS tries to be pseudo-realistic, the results will eventually downplay the "traditional" stealth elements that you are used to in games...

 

[Skeleton Jelly]

Team Fortress 2 would like to have a word with everyone in this thread who says stealth and FPS' can't go hand in hand.

What some of you are thinking what if there was a FPS BASED around stealth. Well, that would be boring, but there would be high tension.

What more games should do is have stealth AN OPTION in games. Like the Spy in TF2. And balance this and that and so forth and you have a great new addition to the game.

 

[TOTL_UNIALAYSHUN]

Ugh, I know what you mean. Stealth in an online video game has not been pulled off yet. Not for a shooter anyways. I'm not aware of any game with online stealth.

Anyways, I've been thinking about a stealth online experience for a while. I think that'd be a good COD game. For example, it's about a bunch of ex-soldiers who discover some sort of illegal establishment, not stereotypically trying to take over the world or destroy the United States, just cause chaos. Actually, they might need to rule the world a little in order to do that. Oh well. As I was saying, stealth would be the main aspect of the game, like Splinter Cell basically.

But with online. >:3

It'd take some time and effort but if the game developers actually tried they could pull it off.

 

[Sacman]

[snip]

I can understand the skepticism, especially considering its predecessor is seen by many PC gamers (notably, PC Gamer) as the best PC game of all time, but everything I've seen and read points to the fact that this is a game that is comprised of elements that all work well (Satisfyingly well to quote the editor of PC Gamer), still, it remains to be seen whether or not they can be successfully melded together into a single coherent vision instead of a multi-faceted mess like so many other ambitious titles.

It's easy to screw up a Deus Ex game because a lot of developers can't get their heads around what made the original so great, I mean even Eidios Montreal have said that they weren't sure how to make a Deus Ex game before and even in interviews said that they couldn't understand why they were creating things most players wouldn't see in the game anyway...

 

[Broady Brio]

Because that would take effort.

 

[ShoopDaToaster]

What about TF2? The spy can turn invisible!
But of cource,TF2 is one of the best multiplayer gaems out there,so thats kinda ruled out.

 

[InnerRebellion]

What about TimeShift? I consider the time control kinda stealthy....but nobody plays it anymore...

 

[Mike the Bard]

hmmm... if i remember correctly sniper: ghost warrior; a stealth game has multi-player too. never tried it, but because the entire game is built around sneaking around and shooting people in the face from a bush a mile away. chances are there is a lot of sneaking going on in it's multi-player. i guess battlefield 2142 can be sneaky because the recon class gets a tactical cloak after a while to help you get into the enemy base to blow up their stuff, or to find the perfect sniping spot. besides that i can't think of any other's

 

[REAPER5594]

be cause 95% of gamers (fake statistic but it sounds right, so shut up) lake the patience for stealth games and can not go 40 seconds without shooting someone in the face with a magnum. The fact is, stealth requires heavy thinking, and most of todays gamers don't want to be bothered with that (I'm talking about people as gamers, not how they are during everyday life) I liked games like Thief: The Dark Project and the sequels. but I don't think first person stealth games are coming back soon.

 

[s0m3th1ng]

They're more about battle tactics and shooting prowess than stealth I guess. That and mixing genres tends to fail. Hmm...has there ever really been multiplayer stealth games? Apart from the upcoming AC:B.

Ghost Recon required you to be pretty stealthy. Of course I only ever played it on a LAN.

Singleplayer stealth and Multiplayer stealth are completely different. SP requires you to meet a certain amount of conditions in order to get past that enemy that knows you are there...but chooses not to go after you. So it's pretty easy to program a stealth-based single-player game.

MP stealth is a lot more fluid and difficult to design in a game for the simple fact that we as humans evolved to notice differences in environments so well. And it's really hard to create a digital environment that allows these changes to go unnoticed by a half-aware human.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I am waiting for a really good stealth game, one that doesn't hold your hand through the hiding parts (iE: big arrow/waypoint saying "hide here").
Kinda like Thief, the old school one.
but yes, as far as multiplayer goes, stealth isn't a big concern in shooters as most people are running around at top speed or just camping in the obvious yet difficult to assault spot hence no stealth needed.
Redefine the genre, redefine the use of stealth.

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

TF2 does it well.

 

[VincentX3]

Stealth just isn't what is used to be.