Now that Brigmore Witches has been released and there are currently no plans that I know of for any additional DLC, I think it would be great to share with the developers some of our ideas on how to improve the stealth mechanics from Dishonored in order to create an even more dynamic, immersive, and challenging experience than what we saw from the original game.

Also, this is my first thread on these forums, although I've been reading posts from other members since around the time of Dishonored's announcement, and I just want to say thank you to the developers at Arkane Studios for creating such a marvelous, potential filled game and to Bethesda for being an understanding, patient and negotiable enough publishing company to allow for Arkane to develop Dishonored with diligence, precision, and quality in mind.

I'd like guard awareness to have a slightly gentler slope from Unaware -> Inquisitive -> Hostile ala Thief. Granted, that could potentially break the balance of the game (which already tends toward the too easy side as it is). I wonder if there's a way to make the AI ever so slightly adaptive, so that if the game notices you're playing very stealthily, the AI behaves in a mildly more stealth-centric way. Probably not worth the effort, but it would be nice.

As it stands, I love the stealth in Dishonored, but it's not quite up to the standard of Thief.

I agree, but one thing I love about Dishonored's stealth is that it's very fast paced compared to Thief which is pretty slow and precise from what I understand. I really feel like a ninja with the final silent boot upgrade, running around on rooftops and behind guards without making a sound. This upgrade should be made a base feature for the next Dishonored game, just edit it a bit. It shouldn't be entirely silent. When in a regular non-crouching stance, sprinting should create a bit of sound that can only be heard when you're relatively close to a human enemy. For instance, let's say 5 feet or more of game distance should be the minimum amount of space held between you and an enemy in order to be completely unheard while sprinting regardless of whether you're above, below, or on the same level of ground. If you're closer than 10 feet to a guard, they should hear you, but not become alerted unless they see you, which they probably will because they'll turn around.

In order to balance this, one thing Arkane can do, which they should do regardless, is give all NPCs the ability to randomly move their heads in any direction at any time. Of course this shouldn't happen constantly, but it takes away from the immersion and realism of the game that you can always know with absolute certainty that as long as you're a few feet above an NPCs head as they're walking in your direction, there's no possible way for them to see you unless they hear you moving. At any given moment an NPC should be able to look up at the sky while patrolling, only to find that a masked assassin is sitting on top of a street light. This is merely an example of course, NPCs should be able to look over their shoulder or over a rail at the ground from above, etc.

This should add a new level of tension and difficulty to the game. The player will have to play smart and make careful decisions. For instance, you'll have to move quickly across balconies and street lights or else an enemy might randomly look up and spot you. You'll have to decide whether or not you should sneak behind a guard by judging the distance your destination is from you current position, because the farther away you are from cover the higher the chance there is that an enemy will randomly turn around and spot you. You'll also have to make sure you're not too close to an enemy while you're sprinting.

Also, another thing that could add a bit of difficulty and realism to the game is the ability for NPCs to see your shadow if you're hiding in the light, even if they can't see your body. This shouldn't alert anyone, but it should prompt the NPC to move their head in order to see what was making the shadow. Crouching can help to make your shadow smaller, thus less noticeable. In fact, I'm not even sure Corvo has a visible shadow in Dishonored.

I don't know exactly what they're aiming for with a sequel, but assuming the technology takes a slight jump from what we saw in Dunwall, I'd like to see some gadgets thrown in.

Smoke gernades, shock gernades, and sleeping gas in addition to the frags would be nice. Maybe even something similar to the sticky camera in SC where you can shoot it on walls or guards and listen to conversations/get a good look at a specific area before going there.

In Dishonored it seems video isn't all that widespread yet (at least in Dunwall). I only recall seeing it in Dunwall Tower when the Lord Regent is consulting his men, but there could be other examples I'm forgetting. But surveillance would add to the difficulty for sure IMO.

But I'm probably thinking too advanced. Not sure what the full extent of Dishonored's technology is as we've only seen Dunwall and during a plague no less. However, with another 50 years or so based on what we HAVE seen that could be a significant evolution.

1)Hiding behind bushes,blending among crowds,taking enemy armor outfit(only the heavy armors that conceals the full body so that you can keep your outfit inside that to prevent game and story issues.

2)Whistle guards to lure them away.Although one can make noise by hitting any wall or any thing with a sword and lure guards away.

3)More stealth tools.But combat and stealth needs to be equally balanced to support any type of gameplay approach.

MOST IMPORTANT:: 4)Add trains,cars,carriages that move like AI in the game so that you can hide inside them.It feels AWESOME to be an assassin blinking from moving train cars to carriages without seen and getting to the required destinations without detected.

The stealth is fine, but the AIs is the problem. I would like them to act more realistic, the higher the difficulty is. Enemies should sometimes look up and behind their shoulders, and after they see you once, they would be more alerted and perceptive to slight movements (to the environment as well as you; birds might startle them, broken bottle might make them jump... other guards that they suddenly bump in may make them jump).

They should also have varied or even erratic patrol routes in an alerted situation or a high security situation. But even in a normal situation, guards can still change their patrol route, with the catch that you can sometimes eavesdrop the enemies changing patrol routes with each other.

Also, enemies should communicate to each other during the entire level and not just in an area. Let's say I'm wrecking faces outside the Office of Overseer, the enemies INSIDE should know what's going on outside as well and take security measures such as guarding the entrances and windows, move the objective (which is the Overseer himself) to a safe place, as well as quickly taking care of anything that should be done in the meantime. (The Overseer killing Geoff Curnow, for example. Or (seriously don't read this if you haven't completed the story)

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Hey guys.

I agree on the A.I. being a little bit too easy to trick.

If they would turn their head once in a while that would be nice.

Also, the investigative state idea is good.

If they shortly saw you they should investigate, I they want to call in their friends because they detect you you should be able to silence them if you are close enough.

Also, they should look up on the roofs once in a while, and maybe guards on the roof itself or at least on a balcony overlooking the rooftops or in towers wouldn't be bad.

Not too many, so you can still move easy enough on rooftops, but also not none at all, beacause otherwise you are TOO powerful.

I do SO agree.

You know, some might say "this doesn't fit in" or "That's more Hitman", but if you think about it then it is the actual freedom of gameplay that made Dishonored so awesome.
If they expand that freedom it would be even greater.

Of course you shouldn't be able to walk around in every form of disguise without arousing suspicion (means it should be a disguise which fits to the enemies which are around you), and you shouldn't be completely anonymus if you run around that way (meaning if you start jumping and running and stuff guards should get suspicious and detect you, so only walking should be possible.

Also, like aready said, the only disguises which work should be masked disguises or disguises which partially hide your face and hands (to hide the mark of the outsider and your identity).

But including this system would give us yet another way to sneak around and play the game. Which would mean more replay value.

I also agree on the smoke bombs and the like, though I have to disagree on the sticky camera ?quivalent, this is a little too early to have such a small camera avilable, and in my eyes it wouldn'T fit in.

I totally agree that running should always make some noise, no matter what your level of stealth tech. It should be something like:

Stealth Level 1 - Slow-creeping is silent. Quick-creeping is very quiet (but audible, in a silent environment). Walking is quiet, running is moderate, sprinting is loud.

Stealth Level 2 - All creeping is silent. Walking is very quiet, running is quiet, sprinting is moderate.

Stealth Level 3 - All creeping is silent. Walking is silent, running is very quiet, sprinting is quiet.

Here's a large number of ideas I cultivated from my experience of playing many stealth and action oriented AAA games:

1)Blending and disguises:There should be an option to wear disguises that conceal the whole body or at least enough to make sure the playable character doesn't easily get spotted by others on sight.And player should be able to blend in crowds of people or unaware guards while also capable of stabbing guards from a midst the guards or shoot poisoned sleep darts stealthily using the wrist blade without raising suspicion.Lots of play-testing required for complete freedom of playing.Hiding under or over carriages and cars,whistling etc.

2)Weapons and gadgets for both stealth and action heavy approach:Dishonored shines most when it allows players to tackle the game in their own creativity and intelligence.So there should be enough weapons and gadgets to allow for both playstyles.The game shouldn't force any one of the ways but rather present the sandbox to the players (the way Dishonored did and became the best action adventure game because of that)

3)More enemy AI types and patrolling-non-living-infrastructures:Examples include heavily armed soldiers and guards similar to tallboys,and things like City Watch Towers or arc pylons: patrol vans,whale oil powered heavily armored patrol tanks that aren't a cakewalk to take down by action heavy approach and requires clever thinking and proper timing and precision.

4)Smarter and more natural AI:I think you understand what I mean.Guards should get curious if they discover any locked door open or if any guard or person is missing etc.Their peripheral vision needs improvement.

5)More gameplay options to play stealth.

But the game shouldn't abandon any action oriented element if one wants to play full chaos because that's really fun to play as a super powerful highly skilled ninja.

I agree.

Including those mechnaics would open up yet an other way to be stealthy and give the player even more freedom of playstyle and approach, a thing that was already one of the best aspects of Dishonored.

All they had to do would be to take the "icognito" state of the Boyle Party mission and include a system by which you can be detected in various ways if you are behaving unususal.

What they would also have to add (but I think that's not a big deal) would be to enable SOME clothes to be worn as disguises ( "hold key/button "X" to disguise"), while being able to carry your normal clothes with you so you can get rid of your disguise at any time.

The system does not have to be very sophisticated. I don'T need a Hitman-style complex disguise system. Just a simple "If you beahve like X or Y => guards get suspicious and investigate. If you don't disappear then or use an abiltiy to decrease suspicion the guard detects you." Something simple but useful.

Maybe that the disguise only works on some people, while others would detect you, and that you are only hidden in area 1, but not in area 2 because there are no people who have the same clothing.

Also, using supernatural abilties in front of enemies should arouse high suspicion.

I agree on that as well.

I think they should stock up the arsenal with a whole bunch of new gadgets.

Also, knocking out guards should be possible in combat, but onl from behind. The cahracter would then - provided he stands behind the enemy (bending time, blink, possesion, etc.) - just punch a spot on his shoulder with the handle of his knife, which would knock the guard out.

The skill tree could be expanded. Not much, but maybe with a little choice and definition of your direction (non lethal or lethal).

Things like Windblast Rank II should be choosable: Do you want to kill with the windblas or just insta-knockout?

Of course that shouldn't be TOO restrictive, because people who play a mix of both would suffer from it, so there should also be things which are definitively deadly and can't be used as "non-lethal version".

Expanding abilties, expanding tools and gadets.

Keep the empathy on multiple paths, playstyles and exploration.

I agree, but only to a degree.

1. There shouldn't be too many different archetypes. It is ture that the game could use some more archetypes, but not too many, because that would restrict playstyles and gameplay and would make the gameplay itself overly complicated (recent example: Splinter Cell Blacklists "Helmet Enemies" (with a lot of inconsistencies) and "Drone Operators")

2. Influcence of playstyle: Enemy archetypes should be influenced by your chaos rating (your playstyle). If you just go ahead and kill everyone, or if everyone is knocked out (I'm talking EVERYONE) you are infamous.

That means more enemies will patrol on the streets and in the mission areas, more "special" and more difficult archetypes would be among them and make your work harder. If you only knock everyone out (and I mean really everyone, if you just knock 1 or 2 out and avoid the rest there are no enemy-related consequences, maybe aside from the normal rising of difficulty level throughout the campaign such as more security and more enemies in general) the enemies might just be more, and they might be slightly more suspicious (or there might be more security devices (watchtowers, etc,etc, of course aside from the naturally rising difficulty level throught the campaign). But if you kill everyone there might be more enemies, more special archetypes AND more security devices. It would make your gameply harder, it would need planning and it would develop in the same way as your supernatural powers develop, serving as balancing act to not make you too ALL-powerful ( a thing I experienced in the last missions of Dishonored). That way you would still be powerful enough to take on a bunch of guards if you are clever, but you can't just stand there and kill every guard without difficulty.

Yeah.

1. Looking up once in a while.

2. Turnign the head once in a while

3. A investigative state between detection and combat.

4. Investigating opened doors and the like.

Indeed