Is whether or not the player is detected measured for each actor around them, or is it an overall thing?

I have a situation where people are being held captive, and I want one option for the player to be to sneak up to them undetected, and talk to them. Choosing to untie them, or sneak away.

However it would appear that the instant the friendly NPC's see the player (detect them) the entire group of nearby hostiles also detects the player, and attacks them.

If the friendlies see the player, is the player officially 'detected' and all nearby actors see them? Or do only the friendlies who see the player 'detect' them?

I could see an oversight like this being something Beth would do, so that's why I'm asking. If it is an actor thing, where each indevidual person detects seperately, does anyone know what could be going on?

Thanks,
AJV

Oh dear, AV ... You really don't want to go sticking your head in this wasps' nest

Yes, waking up to an NPC can and does often effect detection by others nearby. It sends them into ALERT state (at the very least) which means something along the lines of, "Hey, that person near me just detected something. Cripes! I need to figure out what they have seen, I'll start searching!"

And, if the player is close to the NPCs, then they will spot him/her the instant they started "searching".


Some investigation has been done ... more may well be needed ... I haven't seen Ducey here in a while, but as far as I know he's done the most with this ...


http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1408574-what-determines-how-good-npcs-are-at-detecting-sneaky-people/page__fromsearch__1 - Ducey's first post about this. As you will read, detection is effected by so many things ... and you will see that you can effect both the stealthiness of the sneaker and the detection ability of the guard.

And so Ducey also came up with a way of nerfing detection for the "guards" ... http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1408530-how-does-blindness-work/page__fromsearch__1



Best of luck, AV ... this is a hard-coded thing that relies on feedback from a host of variables in game that you can effect (like "muffled boots")


Note: Instead of chasing your head up your backside, it may be better to "fake-it" and temporarily stick the guards in a friendly faction, while the player sneaks over to the captives ...

Oh dear, that's as I feared. Do you know if it's translated only between friendlies or allies?

I actually have the captives as friends of the bandits I think, until the player is detected by the enemies, at which point the captives break free and help.

I can't make the bandits friendly because the player isn't forced to be sneaky, it's just an option. They can also just run in swords a' blazing, and if they do so they need to be attacked on sight. So maybe I just need to make the enemies a little farther from the captives... I'll work on this.

Not explicitly tested that, but I would imagine it is any-NPC to any-NPC.

Yeah, I thought this might be the setup. LOS is the absolute kicker, so stick something large inbetween the captives and the guards ... so once the sneak has happened you can "talk" in private


Note: Also not tested is whether Dialogue between a player and an NPC has an effect on stealth. Logically you would think it did, but I could see the answer to that one going either way ...

I think I see a problem- If you're sneaking up to an NPC, wouldn't trying to talk to them just result in them being pickpocketed?

Maybe the NPC just starts an auto-greet with the player (which is in turn conditional on being in sneak mode), that way you can be stealthy (and thus avoid the guards) but you can still talk to the NPC.

No idea if this is something you've forseen, just puttin' it out there.