Stop Detecting Me! - Dishonored help?

[Zydrate]

(The first one)

This game has been very difficult for me to get into. I'm okay with a mixed level of Chaos and I'm not exactly going for a full passive run. However I have a stealth itch that needs scratching and it becomes all the more annoying when this game doesn't seem to work like other games.

Mostly, light levels seem to mean nothing. I try to hide in darkness and enemies that come patrolling see me pretty much instantly. During the first prison escape, EVERY single encounter turned into a murder spree. I'd choke out one or two guys only to be caught instantly regardless of me hiding in the shadows, so that's three dead. I once faced two guards after getting the sleep dart crossbow. Sleep'd one, and the other one instantly turned around to fight me. I ended the level with High Chaos and ten dead.

I said I don't mind doing a mixed play but I read that more dead guards = Harder levels. More alert guards, more lights, and I want to try to minimize the difficulty (I play on easy) but I'm looking for advice how to deal with their instant-detect mechanics. Those three lightning bolts seem to mean nothing when it only takes one second for them to see me. I can't react that quickly.

 

[sXeth]

The Prison seemed to have the most inconsistent lighting effects on stealth that I noticed in the game. Though shadows in general are nothing close to a safe harbour that they are in some other games in the genre. Staying out of vision cones is going to be much more your bread and butter (you can shortly get the power to see the enemies vision cones too, which will give you a better idea of the size of them).

That is my main criticism of the game (and somewhat echoed though). Your stealth state doesn't really have a lot of indicators to it. There's no Deus Ex snap into hiding, or Thief/AC system where you get a visual feedback of being in an obscured shadow/bush/etc. The peeking mechanic also gives a bit of a false idea of how much you can outside cover while avoiding a sightline.

 

[happyninja42]

I don't know what to tell you, I didn't have any issues with hiding in shadows during the prison break. It's not totally proof against detection, but if you are a decent distance from them, and in a shadow, you are usually pretty safe. If they are facing directly at you, yeah you need to be careful, even in the shadows.

The detection is pretty good in Dishonored guards (I'm assuming you are talking about the first game, not DH 2, haven't played that yet).

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

Run to the end of the level. It gets better after it.

 

[Zydrate]

Getting the hang of it. It's gotten better once I discovered the power of Quicksave/Quickload. I'm not doing a passive run on purpose but that's what it's becoming just based on the ease of quickloading, which only takes two seconds.

 

[DeadProxy]

Generally you just want to be out of sight, and don't count on the darkness. It's why there's a peeking mechanic, or I assume so.

This is something I learned on my second run through the game, but light posts seem to be just out of most guards sight as long as they aren't chasing you. You can blink up on top of them and use the height to your advantage.

If you don't want all the hassle, save scumming is recommended, I remember doing plenty of that.

 

[Barbas]

To the shtarsh, Bowen. To the shtarsh.

Basically, use height to stay out of guards' vision cones. Also, try fiddling with your gamma settings to make the shadowy areas more distinguishable from the light. With practice comes precision; you will become familiar with the patrol habits of NPCs.

 

[Zhukov]

Mostly, light levels seem to mean nothing. I try to hide in darkness and enemies that come patrolling see me pretty much instantly.

Shadows don't hide you in Dishonered. Especially not up close.

Stay out of line of sight, use the peek/lean buttons (you don't expose yourself to sight while leaning) and stay elevated when possible (enemies don't look up).

I once faced two guards after getting the sleep dart crossbow. Sleep'd one, and the other one instantly turned around to fight me.

Yeah, that'll happen. It would be ridiculously OP otherwise.

If you sleep one while another's back is turned then you'll have time to sleep the second one before he goes full alert.

Better yet, hide, peek, fire crossbow while peeked. Enemies will alert (since, y'know, their mate just went down with a bolt lodged in his nostril) but they won't know where you fired from.

I said I don't mind doing a mixed play but I read that more dead guards = Harder levels.

Not really.

In gameplay terms high chaos means a few more weepers and a few more rat swarms. Neither are any real threat. Honestly the game never rises above piss easy even on the hardest difficulties, unless you're doing a no powers run for the 'Only Flesh and Steel' achievement.

Mostly low/high chaos changes the tone of the story. I won't spoil anything but many dialogues will be different, characters will act a bit different at points, the final level will change a fair bit and it affects the endings.

 

[Zydrate]

I've gotten better with it, largely by abusing Blink and Vision.
I've read most of the TVTropes page so I know most of the spoilery stuff, but when I was talking about High Chaos = Difficulty, I read that not only would there be more rats and weepers, but also more light walls and more aggressive guards.

 

[sXeth]

I once faced two guards after getting the sleep dart crossbow. Sleep'd one, and the other one instantly turned around to fight me.

Yeah, that'll happen. It would be ridiculously OP otherwise.

If you sleep one while another's back is turned then you'll have time to sleep the second one before he goes full alert.

Amusingly enough, you can sleep multiple guys in the second game now. One of the powers can link them together so they all die or go unconscious together. Seems like they took some of the criticism about the powers to heart, because a lot more of them have stealth play applications now.

 

[Baffle]

If you walk backwards towards enemies they can't see you.

 

[wings012]

Its fine the kill a few guys here and there. You won't get a bad ending for some dead guards nor will the chaos level rack up too high. How you dispose of your assassination marks is more important in that regard.

As your powers develop it gets easier. Being able to see through walls and teleport makes it fairly cake. For the few troublesome guards, it's fine to shank a few. A cheap way to do things is to use the rat ability. They will nom the fuck out of a guard or two and the rest just won't give a shit for whatever reason. I suppose they don't know there's a guy who can summon pirahna rats and man eating rats seem to be part of the setting so they just let it slide? Ah shit, bad luck for that guy.

I got rid of all my marks using the more political ways and that kept chaos low despite the odd guard getting shot or eaten in places.