Possession and birds : Othor Games

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:50 pm

Possessing rats and fish is all well and good, and a seriously neat gameplay mechanic.
But what about birds? I'm guessing Dunwall has seagulls or pigeons or crows or something, and I can easily imagine that possessing them would let you fly straight to the end of the level and then move right along.
I guess they wouldn't be much help indoors, but it looks like there are large outdoor segments, and you would be able to use then to avoid walls of light and stuff.
Any word from the devs? or what do you guys think?

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:37 am

You probably would be able to posses birds, but they most likely will be in hard to reach area as guards, walls of light, tall boys, diseased people, and machinery probably scare them away from the main track. And most of the mission objectives I assume would be indoors, so they'd only be useful in the infiltration stage.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:22 am

As of now you can only possess people (with the upgrade), rats and dogs. There are birds in the game but I don't know if you can possess them and Arkane hasn't said anything about it.

» Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:18 pm

That would be cool. I mean, you posses a bird and you can fly around the area to look for the best way of infiltration

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:00 am

but they most likely will be in hard to reach area as guards, walls of light, tall boys, diseased people, and machinery probably scare them away from the main track.

Actually, that brings up another concern of mine regarding possession- how will guards react to possessed animals? Presumably, rats would be killed on sight for carrying the plague, but would they be suspicious of any other animal?
And if your host body dies, do you die as well, or simply reappear near the corpse?

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 7:46 am

Yes, you die as well if the animal you've possessed dies. And they would try to stomp rats and shoot wolves. Simple as that. But wolves are very fast so it will be quite difficult. The problem I have is that when you possess something you just move with it's body. If you possess a Tall Boy you cannot shoot his bow, at least they didn't show it. We need an official confirmation on this however.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 3:06 am

But using the bows would be the best part of possessing tall boys!
In any case, I hope they keep weapon use and attacks for humans, at least. I don't know if first person wolf combat would be feasible or fun to pull off.
I guess we'll have to wait and watch on the birds.
On a side note, I am a little disappointed that a character named Corvo lacks any crow-related powers, or really, any thematic link at all.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 3:49 am

Yes, you die as well if the animal you've possessed dies. And they would try to stomp rats and shoot wolves. Simple as that. But wolves are very fast so it will be quite difficult. The problem I have is that when you possess something you just move with it's body. If you possess a Tall Boy you cannot shoot his bow, at least they didn't show it. We need an official confirmation on this however.

In fact, i think you can shoot the bow because they show that one of the weapons you can use is the tall boys bow, but just when you posses them.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 3:23 am

In fact, i think you can shoot the bow because they show that one of the weapons you can use is the tall boys bow, but just when you posses them.

Can you show me where exactly they've mentioned or shown that? Is it on a video or interview? Because on the video they possessed him and just moved with him even though they could shoot the other Tall Boy.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:25 pm

Can you show me where exactly they've mentioned or shown that? Is it on a video or interview? Because on the video they possessed him and just moved with him even though they could shoot the other Tall Boy.

I think it was on the Wikia of Dishonored, i don′t know where exactly. I′ll look for it

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:51 pm

Can you show me where exactly they've mentioned or shown that? Is it on a video or interview? Because on the video they possessed him and just moved with him even though they could shoot the other Tall Boy.

Here it is:
http://dishonored.wikia.com/wiki/Longbow

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 7:38 am

Here it is:
http://dishonored.wikia.com/wiki/Longbow

Thank you very much! Well this is good news and it proves that the demo at E3 was an older version like I said. They probably didn't implement the function into the game at that point.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 7:08 am

When you possess someone you can walk around like that for an infinite amount of time, is that right? If so then i guess possessing birds would be too powerful, i mean imagine flying through the whole map without any danger and obstacles.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 11:08 am

Here it is:

While that is great to know, I am curious as to why you can only use it while possessing a Tall Boy. Unless it was linked to the suit or something, there's no real reason you can't carry it around.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:57 pm

While that is great to know, I am curious as to why you can only use it while possessing a Tall Boy. Unless it was linked to the suit or something, there's no real reason you can't carry it around.

Yes, it is linked to them. The tall boys wear a bottle of whale oil on their backs that gives the fuel to the bows

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 11:40 am

When you possess someone you can walk around like that for an infinite amount of time, is that right? If so then i guess possessing birds would be too powerful, i mean imagine flying through the whole map without any danger and obstacles.

You can only possess animals an infinite amount of time and I believe that is with the upgrade. The Tall Boys have the shortest possession period.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 3:19 pm

I don't think you can pick anything up when you possess an animal... so you'd be able to go anywhere if you possessed a bird, but you couldn't actually do anything...

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 8:14 am

Well, yes, but the problem is, you reappear anywhere your host is when you end possession. So going anywhere as a bird means you can go anywhere as Corvo.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:17 am

I don't think you can pick anything up when you possess an animal... so you'd be able to go anywhere if you possessed a bird, but you couldn't actually do anything...

It's mostly for reconnissance and it would help out a lot. Listening in on information and spotting dangerous traps or guards' position. It's a pretty useful possession but I doubt it will be added to the game.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 1:47 pm

When you possess someone you can walk around like that for an infinite amount of time, is that right? If so then i guess possessing birds would be too powerful, i mean imagine flying through the whole map without any danger and obstacles.

From the wiki: "The length of time for which possession lasts, from longest to shortest, for each target type is as follows: http://dishonored.wikia.com/wiki/Fish(indefinitely), http://dishonored.wikia.com/wiki/Rats, http://dishonored.wikia.com/wiki/Wolves, civilians, http://dishonored.wikia.com/wiki/Guards, http://dishonored.wikia.com/wiki/Tall_Boys." Humans can only be possessed at tier two possession, and only fish can be possessed indefinitely.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 6:30 am

Thanks for the clarification!

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 8:01 am

Thanks, then i cant see why they wouldn't implement possessing birds for a very short time.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 4:26 am

Ah, a time limit for all animals, huh? that makes a lot of sense.
Well, if they do decide to add birds in, I suppose they'd need a pretty short possession time. Maybe even shorter than wolves. That way you can use them to get somewhere without traversing the whole map.

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:10 am

Ah, a time limit for all animals, huh? that makes a lot of sense.
Well, if they do decide to add birds in, I suppose they'd need a pretty short possession time. Maybe even shorter than wolves. That way you can use them to get somewhere without traversing the whole map.

Yes, so you wouldn't be able to go out of map or hit a dreaded invisible wall!

» Thu Jun 14, 2012 3:33 pm

Short time on birds won't work because you would get caught in mid flight and plummet to your death. Not practical. But pooping on people's heads would be fun.