Thinking about stealth and invisibility in Paragon; What has Epic learned from Riot?

DrugsForRobots·9/29/2016, 4:29:45 AM·3 votes·1,333 views

And what Riot could learn from Epic.

I have not had the fortune to play Paragon just yet, but I've been following the game and watching some gameplay, and I was keeping an eye out for anything related to the vision game and stealth in gaming. This is what I found:

Currently, Paragon has one instance a hero’s ability granting invisibility. It is available on the character Kallari, an acrobatic assassin in a high-tech stealth suit who duel-wields daggers. You can also purchase and place wards that provide sight via the mini-map, similar to League. Paragon has its own version of the Vision Ward, called the Shadow Ward, which reveal invisible enemies and are themselves invisible. Sound familiar? That's almost precisely the functionality that Vision Wards used to have. Epic also takes a page from Riot, giving each 'class' a card (Paragon's version of items) that functions as a mid-tier item and a ward on demand, similar to the Eyestones.
In Paragon, invisibility is explained via the Shadow Plane – a separate ‘field’ of vision that can only be accessed via pools located around the map. These pools of purple light are ‘entrances’ to the Shadow Plane, and grant invisibility to those who step inside, not unlike brush in League. Unlike bushes in League, they simultaneously give those inside a form of True Sight – they can see anything else inside the Shadow Plane, including Kallari and Shadow Wards, even if those two are out of bounds of the pool. Remember, all invisibility operates via the Shadow Plane, so its a two-way street.
Paragon, unfortunately, has not learned from League in some ways. Their invisibility is true invisibility – no camo-cloaking, no predator shimmer even though that would be appropriate for Paragon's art-style, camera view, tech, etc. Nope, it's just total and absolute invisibility. However! Epic has blessed Kallari with two tell-tale signs that alert players to her presence: 1) an audio cue of her ‘giggling’ in a robotic Darth Vader-esque, giving you a way to judge her distance and direction, and 2) a huge obvious pink eye icon above your champion model, meaning she has line-of-sight on you.

My personal opinion is that this is the way to do invisibility: individualized solutions, as 20thCenturyFaux calls them. Call them audio / visual clues, tell-tale signs, the quirks and perks of each particular instance of invisibility, whatever. The point is that it gives acute and perceptive (skilled) players a chance to prepare to outplay their assailant, while also not totally denying the champions with invisibility the chance to gank and outplay in turn. It also turns Vision Wards into a form of insurance, rather than a mandatory invisibility tax.

What else does Paragon tell us about the vision game and vision in games?

Well, one aspect that really excites me, though Epic isn't capitalizing on it just yet, is Paragon's verticality. Paragon's map is shaped like a bowl, and has numerous geographical structures that one can scale to get a better view of your surroundings. This is super neat, because the players can act as scouts in a very organic way, no special items needed (although they're there as insurance), and even have the potential to be stealthed. (I distinguish between stealth and invisibility, and I try not to conflate the two terms.) Think about it, if you're looking down on someone, unless they look up, they probably won't see you (until it's too late). It's classic horror monster movie stuff.

It's gets better! Paragon's jungle has some beautiful flora - huge umbrella-like pink and blue and red and orange flowers - that act as a natural - organic - impairment to vision of the jungle interior! For the most part, the canopy of the jungle offers concealment as good as any wall or terrain. The canopy of the jungle creates Fog of War - an area of high ambiguity of the enemy's position - without the need for a shadowy visual representation that the isometric games like League require.

It blew me away when I realized this - but its incredibly obvious and a lot of games have vision that functions this way (you can't see through things, duh) but very, very few games have the pace that allows for scouting, observing, watching, stalking, planning, etc. on a horizontal plane, let alone on vertical one, much less make it a central point of gameplay. And I find it fascinating that so much of the fun from the stealth game genre is getting vision and planning ahead. There are tons of possibilities for the genre!

So what could Riot learn from Paragon? Probably a lot, they're gamers and it would be silly to think they weren't absorbing the good ideas that come out of their industry. I for one think it would be really cool if they took a page from Paragon's book and tried introducing a touch of verticality in the vision game - imagine a ward that could be placed on top of terrain to get vision unimpeded by terrain. Does anyone know if A.Sol gets unimpeded vision over terrain while he's a Comet of Legend?

This is part of a series of posts I'm making about the vision game partly for my own amusement, partly because I see no one else talking or even speculating about these things, and partly because I hope it'll be useful to Riot (given the upcoming 'stealth' update) and the community and any aspiring game makers out there.

Until then, GL;HF

Thinking about stealth and invisibility in Paragon; What has Epic learned from Riot?

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