Xiant’s early lessons from Assassin’s Creed 3

I’ve been streaming for the past couple days, and I’m beginning to identify a few weaknesses in my playstyle. It’s still too early for me to do an in-depth analysis of my gameplay, but I have some footage stored up for you guys to dissect.

In the next few days, I’ll be posting two of my best recorded games. Keep in mind, these are good by my neophyte standards. I get first in both games, but that’s more due to the lack of skill in my enemies than any ability on my part.

In the meantime, here’s a quick rundown of where I’m faltering. For those of you with expertise, I beseech you to teach me. Any players like myself who are new to the series, take these points to heart. More importantly, listen to WiNG and all the commenters with serious cred. It will serve you well.

 

Squirrels can’t stun

This is perhaps my biggest, most consistant failure thus far. I cannot figure out precisely how the stunning mechanic works in Assassin’s Creed multiplayer. This is not to say I haven’t stunned my fair share of people, but my tally of honorable deaths far exceeds my stuns.

Now, the tips box during the killcam says to avoid direct confrontation. Which I’ve done, I think. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t facing away from your opponent while in a blend group and waiting on them being indirectly non-aggressive? Well, in the game’s case, no, because I get 100 and the other guy gets 500, despite the contested kill. From the stuns I’ve watched, many of them occur on sprinting players, or those players otherwise unaware of their target’s presence. I myself have been the unfortunate victim of many a backhand due to my ignorance of my target’s proximity.

Here’s my question to the masters among you, of which I know there are many. What the parameters required for a stun as opposed to a honorable death? Is it distance/speed/line-of-sight/something-else-I-haven’t-considered based? What do you think I’m doing wrong?

 

I’m blind!

A personal fact about me: I hate not being able to see. Wearing glasses alleviates some of the issue in the physical world, but the virtual is another story. Maps with fog, night maps, changing visibility levels, constant line-of-sight breakers: I hate them all. AC3 has them all except for night maps, at least right now.

It’s good the maps are all well lit, or I might not play the game. What’s starting to irk me, though, is how I’ll have a visual on my target, yet as I scan the crowd, they simply aren’t there. Yes, I know Disguise might be a reason, as might Glimmer. Most of the time, at least for right now, those aren’t the issue. It’s simply my poor vision and my inability to pick a character out of a crowd.

I’ve been playing primarily Deathmatch, as that’s the only mode I can find game sessions for, so I know I’m looking for just one person. At a bad time, I’ll look around me and see only NPCs. My eyes flash between the portrait and the screen as it slowly pans. Nothing. The blue outline seems to snicker at me until it turns grey and my blood pressure spikes.

To the experienced Deathmatch/Assassinate players: what tricks do you have for picking a player from a crowd? Will such a skill come with time, or is it reliant on the keen eyesight I lost years ago?

 

The Pursuit

I can hear the whispers, and I’m beginning to learn how to ID my intended murderer from a fair distance. It’s a skill I’ll develop through a thousand deaths, much as some of you may have. What worries me right now is my reliance on Sixth Sense. Even the slightest flick of red on my radar and my view flicks in the indicated direction. Nine times out of ten, I’ll catch the barest glimpse of who wants my head on a platter. With my growing knowledge of map layouts, I can better and better predict what path they’ll likely take.

And all that’s well and good, but what happens after I take Sixth Sense off, as I probably will at some point? The transition will be jarring. I know WiNG rated it a 3/5 based on its utter lack of offensive capabilities, but the defensive edge it provides is intoxicating. It’s also a major crutch, one I worry is growing into a necessity.

Now, like anything in gaming, I can learn my way out of dependency. I want to stress to new players that they shouldn’t have this perk on every class like I do. If the match is going south real fast, have it on the “I’m Gonna Win” class. Learn through failure and experience. One of my biggest peeves is someone doing something because some computer told them about it.

Strange that I’m doing just that.

 

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