Zodi Plays: Dishonored (Stealth Dad Simulator)

[DataNinja]

Re: Cadence

That's a neat game. Like, I'd heard of Necrodancer before, but not really paid it much attention. Only seen it played, like, once, and it wasn't really explained at the time. Looks cool, good tunes, cool premise.

I'm sure if you've played more, you'll have caught it, but the "Stamina" that they were talking about for the beat increasing the recovery of looks to be the 'magic meter' you need to use Nayru's Love (and other things I assume). Not health.

[Kesnit]

Namely, dumpsters. You can dump dozens of folk in one dumpster, and know they will all be safe. Just close it so guards don't see it and get on alert.

But there aren't dumpsters inside buildings.

Be careful of ledges or anywhere there's water. I've had folks drop off a ledge when it really should've been fine, or drown in a tiny puddle.

In an early mission, I stacked guards on top of a bookshelf. When I finished the level, I had 1 death. Since I knew I hadn't killed everyone, I assume someone fell off. I replayed the level and stuck the unconscious guards elsewhere, and no one died.

[jindra34]

In an early mission, I stacked guards on top of a bookshelf. When I finished the level, I had 1 death. Since I knew I hadn't killed everyone, I assume someone fell off. I replayed the level and stuck the unconscious guards elsewhere, and no one died.

The general rule I've heard is just don't leave unconscious people on the floor. Move them to tables, shelves, sofas, benches etc. and they'll generally be fine. And yes this matters for chaos.


Also on Cadence of Hyrule it actually started when the Necrodancer devs asked Nintendo what it would take for them to be able to put DLC/Exclusive Link and Zelda in Necrodancer, and Nintendo going, "No can do. But you can make a spin off featuring them in Hyrule."

[factotum]

The general rule I've heard is just don't leave unconscious people on the floor. Move them to tables, shelves, sofas, benches etc. and they'll generally be fine. And yes this matters for chaos.

It matters to an extent, but the game won't put you in high chaos if one or two people accidentally die. It's a lot more forgiving than Thief being played on Expert difficulty, where even a single human death would cause you to lose the mission--as I found out to my cost when I dumped an unconscious guard into a six-inch deep puddle and got a mission failure a minute or two later when he drowned!

[LaZodiac]

A continuation of prison escape, and more!

Zodi Plays: Dishonored [2] Sewer Adventure

Video Lenth: 31:27

This one ended up being a little longer than I care to do. Could I have cut video 1 off at a different point? Maybe. Did I though? No, I did not. So this is what you have to deal with. I'll be better about timing in later videos, this one was just a case of start of LP weirdness.

In this episode, we start to see examples of WHY we should try to keep our kill count down. Anyone who is smart about this game; does people dying without any fault of our own count as a kill by our hand or not? It's a bit unclear, and needs to be brought up because of how the sewer escape goes.

Also introduced this level; environmental puzzles that I'm too stupid to solve! I have no idea where the solution is to that safe is, and I feel like I'm going to be hurting from missing that probably expected 500 extra pounds.

That all being said, this is a pretty good episode. We make our way out of the prison and into the sewer system, after which we cut our way out of the sewer and into the slum, where we're finally safe. For the most part. I've played a BIT after this in my first time trying out the game, but we're more or less at the end of where my foreknowledge can carry me. From essentially this point onward, I'm COMPLETELY blind. I hope you're ready, because I'm gonna be even more bumbling than currently! I realize that's a hard to believe thing, but it's probably true.

But yeah, that's it for today. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time. The next episode is going to be... interesting.

[Gray Mage]

Oh man, I love Dishonored, going to be following this one up.

In this episode, we start to see examples of WHY we should try to keep our kill count down. Anyone who is smart about this game; does people dying without any fault of our own count as a kill by our hand or not? It's a bit unclear, and needs to be brought up because of how the sewer escape goes.

It depends. Scripted events like the rats eating those two guards I don't count, if I remember correctly. But as said before, if you knock someone down and they die because of that, then it does, I think. Anyway, equipment and powers make the following missions easier to complete without killing enemies and the non-lethal objectives to fulfill missions are usually not too bad. Also, there are other actions during missions that decrease chaos, and completing future missions with fewer deaths also decreases chaos.

Also introduced this level; environmental puzzles that I'm too stupid to solve! I have no idea where the solution is to that safe is, and I feel like I'm going to be hurting from missing that probably expected 500 extra pounds.

Money is plenty in this game, I think I more or less got everything I wanted/needed after the third mission or so. If I recall, about that safe

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there is a shelf with Whiskey written on it on the wall behing the safe (timestamp 23:52). If I recall correctly on the shelf there's a number, which is the combination of the safe. Most safes follow something like that for figuring out the number.

Anyway, the first two episodes were fun so far, really looking up to seeing next episodes.

[LaZodiac]

Glad you're enjoying! Please feel free to check out my other nonsense if you'd like

And thanks for the advice. That'll help me (and DataNinja) quite a bit actually. As long as I am not directly at fault for their death (vis-a-vee me hitting them over the head with a sap making them drown, for instance) it's not my fault. Got it.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah, if you find a locked safe you can generally be certain the clue(s) to open it will be in the immediate area somehow. Sometimes it can still be hard figuring out what the clues are, but they'll always be available nearby.

[JeenLeen]

And thanks for the advice. That'll help me (and DataNinja) quite a bit actually. As long as I am not directly at fault for their death (vis-a-vee me hitting them over the head with a sap making them drown, for instance) it's not my fault. Got it.

Does anyone know if it counts if they get eaten by a random rat swarm?
Not terribly relevant on low chaos, but I saw a lot of rat swarms on a high chaos run, and it was possible to (unintentionally or intentionally) aggro them towards guards or innocents. Or just bad luck and you enter a place and a swarm pretty soon comes up and attacks someone passing by.

I wonder if guards fighting gangsters matters? I think guards will fight... whatever that gang's name is... if they see each other. But I might be misremembering.

Regardless, pretty sure those would be few enough deaths that it wouldn't matter qua keeping low chaos.

[factotum]

All I remember is that when I did a high chaos run I was literally sick of killing by the time I got to the last mission. The ability you can get where you summon a rat swarm to eat people is great from a stealth point of view, because the body disappears entirely, but it's kind of icky using it.

[DataNinja]

Well, I'm a day late due to being on the last day proper of my vacation yesterday, but, hey, writing this from the airport. (Yay, going to be arriving home almost 24h after waking up. Gonna be a fuuuuuuun day.)

Well... that's certainly an introduction to rats.

And, yeah, I feel like those messages' be different depending on what you did during the last mission.

I feel like it's a hazard of blind plays when it comes to cutting, yeah. You don't know exactly when might be apt.

Correct, scripted deaths do not count. I got 12 kills from counting, did not count the scripted rat deaths, and then 12 popped up at the end of the mission. (I'll still be tracking episode-by-episode, even if the mission tracks 'em for the end.

Spoiler: Takedowns

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Episode	Non-Lethal	Lethal	Total
1	0	4	4
2	4	8	12
Total	4	12	16

[LaZodiac]

Given that the game does NOT count non-lethals, I'm still going to enjoy the counting. Just to get an idea of my ratio between non-lethal and very very lethal take downs.

Glad to have some confirmation though that those guys, at least, didn't count.

[Ninja_Prawn]

It seems kind of harsh that the game doesn't really give you any clue as to how far enemies can see, which way they're looking, etc. It gives you bottles to throw, but doesn't tell you what will happen when you do, or how far guards can hear. You're not really given the tools you need to succeed.

Now the only points of reference I have for stealth games are The Last of Us (which is third person and there's no drawback to killing people) and Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (which is more of an RTS-style puzzle game), so maybe this is standard for the genre, I don't know. It doesn't feel fair, though, watching Zodi go through it.

[Gray Mage]

It seems kind of harsh that the game doesn't really give you any clue as to how far enemies can see, which way they're looking, etc. It gives you bottles to throw, but doesn't tell you what will happen when you do, or how far guards can hear. You're not really given the tools you need to succeed.

Now the only points of reference I have for stealth games are The Last of Us (which is third person and there's no drawback to killing people) and Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (which is more of an RTS-style puzzle game), so maybe this is standard for the genre, I don't know. It doesn't feel fair, though, watching Zodi go through it.

Yeah, it is a bit rougher without that, but

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there's a power that allows you to see the cones of sight.

Next missions also allow greater use of verticallity, which also makes it easier to sneak by.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah, it is a bit rougher without that, but

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there's a power that allows you to see the cones of sight.

Next missions also allow greater use of verticallity, which also makes it easier to sneak by.

Most definitely this.

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Everything before you get the Mark of the Outsider is basically an extended tutorial, to be honest. The game alters drastically once you have magic powers - Dark Vision and Blink are the cornerstones of ninja style play.

[PraetorDragoon]

It seems kind of harsh that the game doesn't really give you any clue as to how far enemies can see, which way they're looking, etc. It gives you bottles to throw, but doesn't tell you what will happen when you do, or how far guards can hear. You're not really given the tools you need to succeed.

Now the only points of reference I have for stealth games are The Last of Us (which is third person and there's no drawback to killing people) and Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (which is more of an RTS-style puzzle game), so maybe this is standard for the genre, I don't know. It doesn't feel fair, though, watching Zodi go through it.

Its pretty standard in my experience. Sometimes you get magic powers that allow you to see certain things, but most of the time you have to guess and take some risks. And plan an escape route for when things go south.

In any case, the levels are going to more open and more interesting, so there are some things to look forward to.

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I wonder how Zodi will react to *that* encounter in the next major mission

[LaZodiac]

I tried to make the audio better and you'll see the results of that tomorrow. If it's bad I'll go back and unfix it. I feel like it's better in some regards and worse in others and I'm not really a good judge of anything anyway (especially because this recording in general ended up being way louder than expected for some reason).

So yeah, hope you enjoy tomorrow's episode, where things definitely happen and I don't spend 25+ minutes wandering around reading things.

[The Glyphstone]

I tried to make the audio better and you'll see the results of that tomorrow. If it's bad I'll go back and unfix it. I feel like it's better in some regards and worse in others and I'm not really a good judge of anything anyway (especially because this recording in general ended up being way louder than expected for some reason).

So yeah, hope you enjoy tomorrow's episode, where things definitely happen and I don't spend 25+ minutes wandering around reading things.

Do you meet someone that you really, really want to punch in the face?

Actually, on second thought that applies to multiple members of Dishonored's cast. Including your allies.

[LaZodiac]

Do you meet someone that you really, really want to punch in the face?

Actually, on second thought that applies to multiple members of Dishonored's cast. Including your allies.

Yeah that and also I don't truck with the crown so I kinda don't like anyone right now, specifically. Empress McSecretWife was pretty good thought probably.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah that and also I don't truck with the crown so I kinda don't like anyone right now, specifically. Empress McSecretWife was pretty good thought probably.

Eh, when you meet the specific individual I am thinking of you'll probably know. They are extremely, extremely face-punchable, made all the more difficult by your inability to do so.

[HalfTangible]

Yeah that and also I don't truck with the crown so I kinda don't like anyone right now, specifically. Empress McSecretWife was pretty good thought probably.

As I see it, the question of whether a monarchy is a good thing isn't relevant here. The people looking to overthrow the crown are not trying to upend the current system and replace it with something better or even some new system whose merits need to be considered, they're doing so because they want their guy on the throne. They have attempted to do so through subversion, murder and kidnapping while the city is dying of plague.

I also dislike the "good guys" for reasons that will become clear later on several levels, but it ain't cuz they're Royalist.

[The Glyphstone]

For that matter, the 'good guys' aren't particularly 'good' either. They're motivated just as much by self-interest as the antagonists, they're just protecting the position and prestige they already possess for all the window dressing they put on it. Dishonored is not a series that neatly lines itself up into "good" or "evil", "right" or "wrong", etc.

[HalfTangible]

For that matter, the 'good guys' aren't particularly 'good' either. They're motivated just as much by self-interest as the antagonists, they're just protecting the position and prestige they already possess for all the window dressing they put on it. Dishonored is not a series that neatly lines itself up into "good" or "evil", "right" or "wrong", etc.

Which is why "good guys" is in air quotes ;)

Some of the non-lethal ways to take out your targets are arguably more messed up than just killing them outright.

[The Glyphstone]

Yup. And that's why you can't shove low/high Chaos into a Good/Evil' dynamic.

[Destro_Yersul]

Oh man, Dishonoured! This is honestly one of my favourite games ever, and I love the sequel too, though not as much.

There's all kinds of ways to play this game. You can play it totally 'ninja master' style, sneaking in and out of everywhere without ever being seen. I've seen playthroughs of 'no kill perfect stealth' runs, I would never expect you to have to do all that, but it is at least theoretically possible (although one of the more difficult challenges out there). There's people who play with no magic, instead using the stuff normally used to do magic to do other things instead. There's people who abuse the heck out of magic.

Was one of those mine, by any chance? If not it's fine, just curious.

Get thee hence to GoG and get Thief 2: The Metal Age if you think Dishonored is good--you can see where it nicked most of its ideas from.

While accurate, I think Dishonoured is a lot better than Thief 2. A significant part of that is advances in technology since Thief, but still. Going back to those early games can be a bit of a shock to the system.

For that matter, the 'good guys' aren't particularly 'good' either. They're motivated just as much by self-interest as the antagonists, they're just protecting the position and prestige they already possess for all the window dressing they put on it. Dishonored is not a series that neatly lines itself up into "good" or "evil", "right" or "wrong", etc.

One of the great things about Dishonoured is how it's not exactly grimdark, with the possible exception of high chaos, but it doesn't exactly pretty everyone up, either. It's an ugly world full of ugly people, and even Corvo being non-lethal does not mean Corvo being nice.

Oh, and also, I think it's only Gristol that's Britain. Serkonos is vaguely mediterranean/Italian, and Tyvia has a definite Eastern European flavour going on. Morley we don't know much about, but I think it's still the UK. Scotland/Ireland is a safe bet.

Edit: I suspect the right for left thing is due to designing for consoles. Left trigger is shoot, right trigger attacks. On the mouse it's inverted because left click translates to 'primary action.' That's my guess, anyways.

[factotum]

While accurate, I think Dishonoured is a lot better than Thief 2.

You wash your mouth out with soap for saying such a thing! Seriously, the thing that Thief 2 had that the first Dishonored really struggled with was level size. When you had a mission in Thief 2 requiring you to cross a city, it really felt like you had to cross a city. The second Dishonored definitely improved on that, which is why I prefer it as a game--although it does still feel sometimes that you have all the cheats turned on with all the magicky stuff you can do.

[Destro_Yersul]

You wash your mouth out with soap for saying such a thing! Seriously, the thing that Thief 2 had that the first Dishonored really struggled with was level size. When you had a mission in Thief 2 requiring you to cross a city, it really felt like you had to cross a city. The second Dishonored definitely improved on that, which is why I prefer it as a game--although it does still feel sometimes that you have all the cheats turned on with all the magicky stuff you can do.

Never. I have played Thief 2 all the way through, and Dishonoured is the superior game.

Dishonoured does kind of get away with the level size thing by having the river. Dunwall is plenty big, but nearly everything is accessible via the river, so you have a way to drop Corvo off nearby to whatever he needs to visit. The magicky stuff is great, because it allows Dishonoured to play around with verticality, which is something that Thief could never do all that well. You can't keep above the guards by hopping from lamp-post to lamp-post in Thief. Maybe that feels cheaty, but it's fun.

The other place where Dishonoured has Thief beat is environmental storytelling. Arkane are the masters of telling story through place, and of making their environments feel like real places that have been used and lived in. The places in Thief have some character, but they lack a lot of fine detail.

[LaZodiac]

Oh hey new episode time. Just a heads up, I tried to make the audio quality better by doing some noise removal and stuff. I.. believe this is more of a side grade than anything else, however. Please tell me your own thoughts on it, so that the next recording session (video 5 and 6, most likely) can have the better of the two audio options. I'll also be doing my part in hunting down a good microphone, it's hard to get one up here. Anyway, on with the video.

Zodi Plays: Dishonored [3] Dog Water Days

Video Length: 27:08

In this episode, we explore the Hound Pits Pub and it's general surroundings, for the most part. We meet the man who makes our tools, and learn a bit about HOW they're made. Mainly with a giant, whale-oil powered lathe and some so-called tech wizardry. I actually kinda like this system, though it does implicitly require the mechanic to be around when you want to upgrade things, and I think he can just wander off to do stuff leaving you out to dry.

There's also a LOT of reading this episode. Reading and listening, but mostly reading. This game is pretty lore heavy, as is to be expected for a game like this. A game that's chasing the tail of things like Deus Ex and Thief, which I believe it does well. The quote-unquote lore is a nice mix of in universe explanations for game mechanics, fictional and semifictional stories in universe that probably contain more hints then the game is letting on, and just general in universe non-fiction to further build up this whale-punk world. It's all pretty cool, and Friday I'll compile all the actual lore and stuff into pictures so you can read it all at your leisure, if pausing the video is out of your taste for some reason.

Finally, I do do a silly thing in this video. I'll leave it to you guys to figure out what, however. I hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you all next time!

[DataNinja]

I have no strong feelings one way or the other on the DLC. Given that I know nothing about this game or the DLC's contents.

"When" it explodes. ...comforting.
Oh, I see we both had the same thought.

...why is this man trusted, when he seems to be wanting to turn people into monstrosities?
(Yes, I know, probably because they really had no huge amount of options.)

Well, that was an easy counting day.

Spoiler: Takedowns

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Episode	Non-Lethal	Lethal	Total
1	0	4	4
2	4	8	12
3	0	0	0
Total	4	12	16

[HalfTangible]

...why is this man trusted, when he seems to be wanting to turn people into monstrosities?

Because he's brilliant and they need an inventor.