The use of Blinds and Ambush

[Bluddwolf]

For those who may have missed this:

Stephen Cheney wrote:

Blinds

Given how our placement of structures changed from Ryan's original conception of hideouts, we've broken the "knocking people out of fast travel" functionality into its own structure. These are meant to be extremely temporary (basically the idea of just a hole or pile of bushes and a log you roll across the road), rather than formal hideouts. If hideouts interdicted fast travel over a whole hex, it seems likely that people would make it a priority to find the hideout PoI and destroy it. Blinds also let bandits potentially interdict fast travel in hexes they don't own.

Blinds are a temporary construction you put down (construction method TBD and highly tech dependent). They're some kind of object that's not glaringly obvious. The users will need to be able to click it, but it might have its own Stealth rating so it's not visible until you're on top of it. TBD how you place it or craft it.
It has a small radius where you get a Stealth bonus as if it were an aura. Being in this aura is basically admitting to being up to no good; if someone in your party issues a S&D from it, you'll also automatically join in (see below).

Clicking it lets you turn off or on an aura that knocks people out of fast travel. This aura is basically big enough that you can put the blind near a road and catch people on the road. You can turn it on or off so you can let scarier groups through without stopping them. (Hopefully we can spawn a log model across the road when you've got it turned on.)

It has a large radius around it that increases the range of S&D inspection. Normally, you can only inspect a target prior to issuing S&D from a short distance away, but if they're in the blind's radius, you can do it up to visual range (and you might have a lookout up the road that passes the details to you to decide whether to roll out the log or not).

Settlements can make it illegal to deploy a Blind in their territory (potentially getting at least one Bandit the Criminal flag long before S&Ding anyone).

My questions are:

Will Blinds function the same way for ambushing (attacking without SAD) a target?

How will the other stealth mechanics described in the previous Dev Blogs mesh with the use of Blinds?

How will ranged combat function with the use of Blinds?

[Harad Navar]

I'm not in favor of blinds being restricted to SAD. The whole idea of ambush I find very interesting. Faction conflict would make great use of blinds when conducting activity against enemy factions (straight attacks, not SAD). Skirmish warfare would benefit also. I support the idea of the blind having it's own Stealth check, possibly enhanced by the skill of the builder. I think that outlawing blinds not built by members of a settlement within a settlement controlled hex (actually claimed/controlled, not just patrolled heavenly enough to exclude others) will be a given for most settlements, even the chaotic ones.

[Being]

I agree with Harad.

Bandits have no perceivable need of special superpowers and advantages that only they enjoy.

Bandits may well covet special superpowers that nobody else can use, but the tools of asymmetric warfare are appropriate for much more broad application.

[Harneloot]

How many people can use a Blind simultaneously? Obviously, you can't hide a whole army, right?

[Kios]

Can you, with enough people, blind a whole road, effectively cutting off an entire trade route?

This might be really cool for feuds and settlement warfare.

[Bluddwolf]

I think it should be possible to use Blinds against moving escalation mobs (PVE). I do not believe Blinds are only used against those in fast travel. If that is true, than it does not have to be limited to PvP.

[Bringslite]

Stephen Cheney wrote:

Clicking it lets you turn off or on an aura that knocks people out of fast travel.

That is our info, so far.

[Bluddwolf]

Another element of the game I'd like to see integrated into the used of Blinds / SADs / Ambush is Assassins and their "Observation" ability.

I think nothing would be more convincing to accept a SAD demand as the traveler getting a message "You feel you are being watched / stalked by killers."

Ideally I would like for our bandit parties to have access to a wide variety of abilities so that each group is not a cookie-cutter model, but a force that is somewhat unpredictable and difficult to prepare for and counter act.

[Harneloot]

That would certainly make things more interesting!

[Traianus Decius Aureus]

Bluddwolf wrote:

Another element of the game I'd like to see integrated into the used of Blinds / SADs / Ambush is Assassins and their "Observation" ability.

I think nothing would be more convincing to accept a SAD demand as the traveler getting a message "You feel you are being watched / stalked by killers."

Ideally I would like for our bandit parties to have access to a wide variety of abilities so that each group is not a cookie-cutter model, but a force that is somewhat unpredictable and difficult to prepare for and counter act.

Interestingly, being told I'm being watched or stalked wouldn't make me more likely to accept a SAD. It would make me buff up, draw my sword and get ready to fight. Probably not what most bandits would want...

As far as the diversity of bandit parties, I hope you mean that you will recruit a variety of "classes" who bring different skills to the table, rather than bandits should be given abilities and skills that exist outside of player skill training. The former is a good thing and the later isn't.

[Urman]

Aye, it's a classless system. Bandit isn't a class. Some bandits might have the ability to throw fireballs because they have wizard abilities, for example. But in the end they have the skills and abilities of other characters; it's how they use them.