Can an adventure game even work without stealth ?
Can an adventure game even work without stealth ? Well yeah, obviously it can. But Little Frontier has a stealth system anyway. Here’s how it works.
Stealth was much easier to implement than I expected, mostly because I kept it simple. Driving force of the mechanic is the alert system
In a nutshell, if the player is in an enemy’s line of sight and within a certain distance, the enemy will detect the player after a short delay. If the player manages to stay out of sight for a few seconds, the enemy will lose track of them.
Each enemy has a configurable view distance that determines their detection range. When a player enters this range, the enemy transitions into a ‘low alert’ state and an alert value begins climbing from 0 to 100.
Player actions directly impact detection. Crouching reduces enemy view distance by half, while taking cover behind vision-obscuring objects (or just being inside a bush or tall grass) halves it again. These modifiers stack, meaning a crouching player in cover becomes completely invisible to enemies.
So the alert value increases when the player is detected.
If it reaches 100, the enemy enters a ‘high alert’ state, actively searching for the player.
When the alert value maxes out at 100, enemies will also emit a battle cry to warn nearby allies, creating cascading detection scenario.
An issue that I thought it’s gonna be complex is breaking the line of sight during combat. But it was actually quite simple to implement.
The enemy basically remembers the last position of the player object in the world, and when the LoS is broken, AI runs towards that position. It’s gonna circle around that area randomly for a set amount of time before giving up and going back.
When the enemy goes back, it doesn’t nullify the alert value immediately, rather, it gradually decreases over time.
To complement the alert system, I’ve implemented a takedown mechanic that rewards careful positioning. Enemies at all times have a 360dg awareness radius, (same as the view distance, just full circle instead of cone, and obviously much shorter). I use this logic to simulate the enemies hearing the player approach from behind. Much easier than doing some sophisticated sound detection systems.
If the player is crouching, then that proximity radius is turned off.
You need to approach enemies from behind to trigger a finisher. Each weapon has its own set of 5 different animations to keep things varied and satisfying.
Join the Discord if you want to chat about the game or have a chance at testing out the game ! I’m always looking forward to answering any questions you might have about the game, story, or anything else really.
Cheers !
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