PART 2: Stealth | Hytale Gang Wars

DISCLAIMER: This series is speculative and based on pre-release information, Minecraft, and GTA San Andreas. This is not to be taken seriously; this is just for fun.

Welcome to part 2 of my 6-part Hytale gang wars series, where I explore a non-gang war-related concept from GTA San Andreas and then branch out to other games that I think Hytale can take further inspiration from.

Sometimes, wars are won without the enemy even noticing. That's where stealth comes in. And it just so happened that ThirtyVirus talked about stealth too.

Though gang wars in GTA San Andreas do not involve stealth, there are several stealth missions in the game like "Madd Dogg's Rhymes" where the player raids the mansion of celebrity rapper Madd Dogg to steal his rhyme book and "Black Project" where the player raids a parody of Area 51.

There is also a burglary minigame where the player can break into houses and steal valuables.

What makes Hytale stealth (if it will actually exist) unique is that every NPC has unique customizable AI, so sneaking around one faction's base would be different from another faction's. Back to the Trork and Outlander comparison: Trorks seem fairly easy to raid at first glance, as they sleep during the rain, get distracted by birds, and are attracted to meat, but they compensate for their lack of defense with Hunters and their wolves, which can probably smell the player coming. On the other hand, Outlanders may be much more wary and may take shifts to remain consistent with their survivalist mentality. I imagine Outlanders would also be much more difficult to bait or distract...unless there's a decoy player who can divert enemy attention to one side of the base.

I'm hoping that Hytale has a mechanic that changes how easy or hard stealth is depending on the weather and light levels.

Like in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, rain can be noisy, so it can allow the player to make louder noises without being heard as the rain "covers up" the player's noises.

It's common sense that light makes things easier to see...and the opposite happens with a lack of light. For Hytale, maybe enemies' lines of sight should be shortened in low light levels, except of course for subterranean mobs who can most likely see at any light level. It should also be easier to sneak around at night.

By the way, remember what composer Oscar Garvin said about "Kweebec Village"? "The piece sounds like a small ensemble to create the sense that the Kweebecs themselves might be playing this tune as you walk into the village." Imagine if you could play a faction's favorite genre of music using their favorite instruments to distract them by both luring them away from their patrol posts and generating noise to cover yours up.

(And maybe take a sneaky photo of the enemy faction members dancing, then make a meme out of it? They'd have no idea that their dancing has mysteriously gone viral.)

Anyway, while stealth missions are often performed in video games to gather information, assassinate a target, or steal something valuable, I would personally do stealth missions to weaken a base's defenses to prepare for a larger-scale attack. (Yeah, why did I not think of stealth back in my Hytale play style part 3? YoSquid would be extremely effective for that job because bows are silent killers.)

Side note: I thought of the idea of stealth-killing not affecting reputation, but I realized that this could be exploited by stealth-killing friendly faction members and still remaining friendly to the faction. Don't be a murder hobo.

Of course, there should be factions that cannot be sneak-attacked at all, especially Varyn's faction. I bet those monsters can easily smell human flesh and good morals.

Notes from Ghean: Ghean, being a Dungeons & Dragons player, told me that heavy armor should be noisy "because of clanking metal".
Noxy Tweeted about starting to play D&D, and Oscar Garvin composed a soundtrack for his D&D campaigns with a whopping 32 songs. (I couldn't believe it either, but it's true. The guy's a huge D&D fan.)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has a similar noisy armor mechanic.

Speaking of D&D, the Minor Illusion cantrip can create a sound from a distance, so if there are no note blocks in Hytale, BoltOLightnin might be able to use magic to distract the enemy.

The Enemy Sneaking Around My Territory

Because it's usually players who do the sneaking around. I think Hypixel Studios will break that trend by making enemies stealthily attack player territory.

Unlike NPC AI, real players can be much more wary of their surroundings since they often look around 360 degrees and can have high-quality, noise-reducing headphones that allow them to distinguish even the faintest noises. (This is why I almost always get detected in multiplayer games.) Trained gamers who can see tiny differences in color can even see enemies covering themselves up with camouflage or darkness.

High ground is an obvious way to defend territory from sneak-attackers since they let the player see a much wider area around the base. My Trump wall idea already has that covered pretty easily.

A glass ceiling prevents fliers from sneak-attacking directly from above, forcing them to go through the Trump wall's defenses.

Like my ghost mob post, there should be torches all over the base and even surrounding areas so we can see sneak-attackers before they get close.
Trees and similar potential hiding places should also be removed.

I plan to station a lot of defenders from allied factions, so standard video game stealth won't work. There should also be a lot of paired-up ground-level patrols to ensure that, if one gets killed, the other can alert the entire base easily. (One problem with video game stealth is that some enemies are far from other enemies and away from their lines of sight, making them easy targets.) This also prevents attacks from below.

I've countered many of the traditional stealth tactics with just my structures and army, but these methods of stealth can be trickier and require skill to detect: disguises and invisibility.

Simple disguises that only involve clothes are fairly easy to detect. I can simply socialize with the suspect and look for strange actions that don't align with whatever the suspect is disguising as. For example, it wouldn't make sense that a Kweebec would be attracted to meat, so using meat would reveal the true identity of a Trork. (Just in case there are small Trorks or baby Trorks.)

However, it's the magical or biological disguises (similar to the Prototype series) that are tricky to detect as the disguised suspect may (almost) perfectly copy the DNA and personality of whatever it's disguised as while suppressing its true personality. (Side note: I also have a plan for a more detailed post about Prototype disguises in Hytale.)

I wouldn't dare punch every single Kweebec soldier just to find out who's the fake one or I risk losing friendship with the Kweebecs, unless I'm desperate.

I'm not sure, but could it be possible to magically detect this kind of disguise? Besides, my team has a mage being BoltOLightnin, and there's a spell called Detect Magic in D&D.

But what if the magically disguised enemy uses the same school of magic as the faction member it's disguised as (such as a Trork knowing exactly the same spells as a Feran shaman)?
Good question, you who probably read the D&D Basic Rules or Player's Handbook.
I think it's unlikely that enemies would disguise as a specific faction member to learn their unique memories and abilities--kinda like how two Pikachu of the same level may have different stats and humans have vastly different personality traits from one another.
If the enemy disguises as a generic Kweebec, I can look for inconsistencies such as not being able to share secrets that a friendly Kweebec would otherwise share with close friends.
The tricky part is when it disguises as a friendly Kweebec I know, but I can just solve that by putting the real Kweebec and the fake one to a punching test. I'm willing to sacrifice a little friendship just to reveal a disguise. (But not when it involves punching a lot of Kweebecs--that's too much friendship sacrificed.) Who knows--I may drive the fake one into an unusual rage as it switches into its true Trork personality to defend itself (Disclaimer: we don't know yet if Trorks have a hot temper).
Edit: I wrote this when I was still unfamiliar with the D&D schools of magic. Turns out, Detect Magic can identify a disguised creature by the fact it's using illusion magic.
However, there are ways to protect against divination magic (which Detect Magic is a part of), like the Nondetection spell.

But the Disguise Self spell doesn't change "hitboxes" (i.e. a tall person disguised as a short person can still be touched as if they were a tall person, etc.).
I wanna be ready in case Hytale's magical disguise system is as foolproof as Prototype's disguise system. (Yeah, sounds like my no-damage playthrough rules.)

Similarly, invisibility is also hard to detect if it lasts several minutes similar to Minecraft...especially if it doesn't emit particles.

But this is easier to detect than a disguise since maybe I can use a dog to sniff out unfamiliar smells to indicate the presence of an invisible attacker. After all, the Hytale corgi was shown in a lot of official media including the trailer.

Or we can simply block off the base's entry and exit points using blocks (no pun intended) or by setting them on fire. The areas in front of the walls should also be set on fire to block off invisible mobs that climb like spiders. Too bad it doesn't work on invisible fliers and ghost mobs.

Speaking of blocking off, in addition to doors, can we make huge gates in Hytale that don't need a redstone equivalent to open or close? I suck at redstone.

(In D&D, Detect Magic only works on visible creatures.)

Part 3 will be posted on December 8. I have a different blog post planned on December 1 just to mix things up. lololol

PART 1: Intro and Basic Mechanics - Hytale Gang Wars

Screenshot from GTA San Andreas

DISCLAIMER: This is speculative and based on pre-release information, Minecraft, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This is not to be taken seriously; this is just for fun.

I use "dark magic" as a general term to refer to magic with stereotypically evil themes such as raising the dead. Dark magic may not always refer to void magic, which is used by Varyn. Outlanders use water magic in their dark rituals, so I refer to Outlanders' magic as dark magic.
Dark magic also includes casting literal darkness.
That said, we don't know much yet about dark and void magic and whether they are similar or vastly different.

I also consider "ice magic" as part of water magic.

Acknowledgements

Permissions to use all of these people's names were obtained.

Funny thing is, this was originally supposed to be one gigantic blog post, coming in at 8000+ words. But I realized maybe this would be too long for a single post to maintain the reader's attention span, so first of all, I'm very thankful to my classmate Ghean for suggesting this should be split into a series. This way, I don't have to come up with new ideas every Sunday 'cause I've already written many of them in advance. lololol

I also included some of her opinions on my series...with permission, of course.

Secondly, another massive thank-you to the Hytale theorist Shadrok for reviewing drafts of this series and for re-igniting my interest in Hytale with his theories.

Introduction

This is the first part in a planned 6-part series of blog posts about Hytale gang wars to be posted throughout the rest of 2019 plus January 2020.

Prepare to get hyped 'cause I worked on this like crazy back in October 2019.

On September 21, 2019, I got Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for free from the Rockstar Games Launcher, and needless to say, I got hooked...too much. (Thanks a gigaton, Rockstar Games!) I literally had nightmares of me driving away from cops or Ballas chasing me. In just my first week, I beat about 70 of the main story missions.
Heck, I even stopped thinking about Hytale a few days into my playthrough...until I got hooked with Shadrok's theories.

I've already gotten past the mission "Home Coming" where the protagonist Carl "CJ" Johnson meets up with Sweet, his older brother and Grove Street Families (GSF) leader, after Sweet was released from prison. They then take back their home, Grove Street, from their rival gang, the Ballas. This is the mission where gang wars can be played again after a temporary absence due to Sweet's arrest.
Since that mission, I've taken over all but one territory (allowing Denise, one of CJ's girlfriends, to do a drive-by shooting date), so I have a solid idea on how gang wars generally work, including tactics.

Speaking of which, I want to talk about GTA San Andreas gang war tactics first.

San Andreas Gang War Mechanics

In my Hytale play style part 3, I talked about hostile factions becoming increasingly aggressive towards the player as the player performs actions that trigger their hatred. I imagine that the more they hate the player, the stronger and more frequent their attacks will be against the player and/or his/her bases.
Though not quite similar, in GTA San Andreas, enemy gang members are more likely to attack CJ if he's wearing clothes that increase how much the GSF respects him. Otherwise, they'd just ignore CJ unless he gets very close to the gang members, in which case they'll talk to him and any reply from CJ will cause them to attack.
In GTA Vice City Stories, though, enemy gang members will constantly pursue the player in cars, even outside enemy gang territory. The attacks get more frequent as the player takes more enemy gang properties until the gang loses all its properties and the game is saved afterward.

A gang war in GTA San Andreas is started by killing at least 3 gang members in enemy gang territory. After a few seconds, enemy gang members will randomly spawn at a fairly far distance from the player in an ambush, with an occasional car and a drive-by shooter. The goal is to survive three waves of defenders.

Hytale-related Speculations (if Hypixel Studios adopts this idea)

I know Hytale factions are not "gangs", but I just REALLY like saying "gang war". So when I say "gang war" in a Hytale context, I really mean a faction war.

Attacking an enemy faction's base may not just be limited to defenders in the base to begin with. Ambush parties may appear outside the base, allowing the enemy faction to pincer-attack raiding parties.

This is more likely to occur among factions with strong camaraderie between members, such as Outlanders. Being skilled in the art of survival, they may know a lot of large-radius signaling techniques to call in faraway allies.

This means the player shouldn't just look for enemies in the base--they should keep an eye for ambush parties hiding in the bushes. This also makes hit-and-run attacks harder to perform.

However, this can be somewhat frustrating for new players as they may get bored of fighting enemies that "just keep coming". So maybe reinforcements should be limited in smaller bases as they are probably less important to the faction.
There should also be ways to prevent or lessen reinforcements, such as by preventing enemies from sending signals or just quickly killing 90% of the enemies in the base. lololol

Many gang territories in San Andreas have some kind of strategic terrain like a rooftop or an alleyway. High ground allows the player to see more of their surroundings and force the enemy to get closer to get a good shot, while alleyways function as chokepoints which allow the player to easily shoot enemies with very little room for the enemy to move side-to-side.

Similar strategic terrain can be used in Hytale, though this can vary as Hytale territories may not look like a city filled with buildings like San Andreas. Although block breaking and placement allow the player to create their own defensive terrain, I'm bracing for the possibility that enemy territories cannot have blocks placed or broken, similar to portal dungeons.

This Trork encampment screenshot was recently reposted by Hytale's Twitter account based on Sylent's reveal in the Hypixel server forums.
I'd consider it medium-size; I don't think a small-scale base would have tall watch towers and a fairly tall wall.
Unlike Sylent's reveal, this shows two Trorks guarding the watch towers. One clearly wields a spear (which BoltOLightnin can throw an axe at for a weapon triangle advantage; just kidding), but I'm not sure what the other wields--maybe a bow? Or is it unarmed?
There are spikes on the walls, though not enough to prevent pillar-jumping attacks.
There's a stone tower to the right of the encampment, but I consider it to be not part of the Trork encampment because it's inconsistent with Trork architecture. That said, that tower makes for a good vantage point...
Thanks to Shadrok for sharing Sylent's reveal!

In contrast, Outlander territories are fairly large, detailed, and well-fortified.
They take advantage of the high ground to make it difficult for raiders to reach them.
Chokepoints and spread-out watch towers make it difficult to rush head-on without being skewered by arrows.
Screenshot from Hytale

In the mission "Beat Down on B Dup", after CJ and Sweet take territory from the Ballas, they raid B Dup's house. Additionally, taking over at least 35% of all gang territories is required to play the final mission "End of the Line" where, after intimidating the rival gangs into submission by taking their territories, they reveal the location of one of the antagonists.

Perhaps taking over enemy territory in Hytale can grant access to dungeons, treasures, or even deeper faction territory leading to a powerful faction commander (not necessarily the highest-ranking leader).

Continue Reading

But these mechanics only scratch the surface compared to the vast potential Hypixel Studios has for gang wars besides adopting GTA San Andreas's ideas.
Enjoy the next 5 parts on the following links:

Part 2: Stealth

Part 3: Types of Territory

Part 4: Raiding Tactics

Part 5: Defense

Part 6: Non-Player Gang Wars, Player Turf, and Behind-the-Scenes