User:D. Cello/sandbox
Social Stealth, or how uncounspicous one can remain in public enviroments, is a main ability to a succesful assassin.
Philosophy
A true master assassin knows that people cannot approprietaly prepare themselves to a invisible strike. For the true assassin, remaining unexposed is the safest way to move about without catching the city guards' attention, arousing the crowd or alerting the target. Therefore, avoiding attention at all times is key to a Hashashin's survival during an assassination mission.
As the second tenet of the "The Creed", remaining anonymous is a top priority at all times and it is required within the Assassins Order, since investigations and assassinations have a way larger chance of success when no one knows from where comes the blunt. To understand the people and know extensively how use that element to your advantage during your endeavours is the key. Let them mask your approach during assassinations and reveal yourself only when absolutely certain, using the crowd to creat distractions and moving for the kill when everyone's attention are in something else that not you.
Either performing silently executions or public assassinations, one must strike at the most appropriate moment, time and place where he can not only hit, but also run or hold his ground if necessary be. Normally approaching someone from behind and putting a hidden blade between their ribs or gently pushing past a crownd and bursting through the guards on a rampage charge at the target's head, social stealth mastery is indispensable. Mastering the kill is your priority, mastering the approach should be too.
In-Game
Assassin's Creed
A major theme in this game is social stealth. Other games have worked with the idea of stealth play while out in the open, notably the disguises in the Hitman series, but few if any have included the crowd dynamics found in Assassin's Creed.
The social stealth system keeps track of how much attention is being paid to Altaïr and his actions. Citizens and guards will react anyway you treat and interact with them. While walking around the city and kingdom, you can either force people out of the way and to the ground or you can gently push past them. The first will attract a lot of attention in your direction but get you through the crowd more quickly, and the person you knocked to the ground may get up and push you back risking exposure if close to a assassination target. Gently pushing past or moving past people will attract no attention but will take more time. Any socially unacceptable behavior will also increase the attention that people pay you. If you quickly climb the front of a building then you will attract a lot of attention, as will jumping from a rooftop and landing in a crowd. Slowly climbing a ladder or dropping quietly into the street will attract much less attention when moving about. Remaining anonymous, completely avoiding all arousing suspicion and publicly expressing only socially acceptable behavior will allow for safe travel through city streets.
With the social stealth system you won't find any shadows to hide in if you are being chased by guards. Instead you have to escape their sight and then blend in with the surrounding crowd, like joining a group of scholars or ducking into a rooftop garden. The scholars have the added benefit of being a mobile source of social camouflage. Other places to hide include bales of hay and even benches (while sitting between two people). The public is your greatest ally when used properly.
Remaining anonymous will also refill your sync bar. If you attract too much attention, the omnipresent guards will recognize you as an assassin and try to kill you, ruining your anonymity, and forcing you to hide. The guards are implacable and to a large degree always scanning the crowd for your presence another reason to remain one with the crowd, if easily dispatched, foes who will follow you over rooftops and chase you through streets, often while gathering reinforcements. A very important (slow paced) but guaranteed way to assure anonymity is to Blend. Dressed as a religious scholar Altaïr's mannerisms mimic theirs, an example folding the hands and being in the prayer stance ensures very slow yet extremely safe passage.
Assassin's Creed 2
"Assassin's 2"'s social stealth engine seems to be unchanged, but still largely improved. Crowds are more intelligent, you can coache people to distract targets and other places like carts of fishs and jumping on water can be used to lose the guards, altough some smarter soldier may poke the hay carts to check if the player are hidden there.
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View points are any structure high enough from where it's possible to observe the surrounding terrain. They range from church towers and mansions' roof beams in the cities to watchtowers and guardposts on the roads.
Assassin's Creed
In the first game, view points were found in all the cities (Damascus, Jerusalem and Acre) and in the Kingdom, excluding Masyaf. Each map contained 10 to 12 view points located on the highest buildings; such as a cross on top of a Catholic Cathedral and the top of a lighthouse on the port-city of Acre, or a Mosque's roof and a palace guardtower on the city of Damascus. Aside from the height of those constructions, they could be located by watching the birds that there set nest. Climbing atop one of those provided the means to activate the view point via Altair's Eagle Vision.
Those view points allowed Altaïr to view the layout of the terrain around him and watch the movement of it's people. After the first view point in a map was "activated", it revealed the location of the remaining points and the missions within a certain radius.
Some viewpoints had archers defending the position, or guards set around and below it. Those could fire either arrows or rocks to prevent a climber from reaching the top. All the view points had carts of hay on the ground at the very bottom, providing perfect and spetacular locations for the performance of a incredible-but-potentially-fatal Leap of Faith.
In the Xbox 360 version, synchronizing with all View Points earns you the achievement of "Fearless".
Assassins Creed 2
Little is know about "Assassin's 2"'s view points, but they appears to be located in higher places than in the first game, and it's proven that the player can dive not only in pieces of hay, but also in carts of fish, wool and to rivers and lakes. Ezio will be able to grab guards standing on towers and throw them to their doom and find some of Leonardo's inventions on top of some buildings.