Close Enemy Detection in Stealth Game

[cursedereaper]

Hey everybody,

I just realized the following:
When we want stealth kills or similar interactions from behind our Enemies like knocking them out (stun them) we need to put the min detection radius to 0 but that causes a problem.
With detection radius of 0 the FSM_Melee and similar FSMs won't work that well. By standing directly in front of the Enemy with a field of view <=100 the Enemy stops seeing the player. And without detection the Enemy change into Chase which let him simply walk against the Player for ever unless the player walks away or pushes the enemy away.

My approach to solve this would be a Trigger Box Event that let the Enemy play a kick animation if the player walks inside the Radius which could cause damage thanks to the damage colliders on the legs and get a recoil on the player which pushes him away.
I could also simply increase the Field of view but for my Enemies with a smaller detection radius of 90 I need a way for them to detect my Player infront of them but without being able to see him if he stands behind them.

Suggestion
Maybe one could also change the script of the min Distance by adding a "Short Distance Field of View" which is on default 360 but can be changed to 240 to create a blind spot for a stealth kill. At least it would be nice for the enemies to being able to use the Min Distance to detect except directly behind the player.
It would at least be cool if there would be more detection options like the Enemy can se the player if he stands next to him but not when crouched next to him but is able to always detect the player infront of them unless he is behind an obstacle. But those are just nice to have suggestions.
As I said I'm sure I can solve the situation with the tools at hand by adding a trigger box to trigger a Kick-Player-Away animation but more detection obtions would be sweat.

Maybe we can find other options to get nice detections for Stealth Games. When I find the time during my production I will post some Videos about the topics and my approaches on Stealth Detection and the FSM I use.

PS: Without this AI tool my Stealth Game would be screwed and won't work at all. Ai is everything for a Stealth game. So thanks for the awesome tool. And I'm looking forward for the next Version.

Best Regards,
Mave

[cursedereaper]

Update on the case:
The Problem still exists if I add a "Detection Point Reference" to the head of my Enemy even if I put the Field of View on above 100. So I guess I'll work without the "Detection Point Reference" feature because on tall characters it causes detection problems with a too low "Min Distance to Detect" radius.

[sjl]

Do you have the sound listener active because if your character is making noise such as walking or running the foot step sound would cause a detection/inspection action I would believe... But honestly I in my opinion being detected from behind by sound actually makes it more authentic and makes you react quicker before the ai can react or set alarm for back up ect...

[cursedereaper]

I haven't added any Sounds via vNoiseObject to my characters feet. If I had it would go into my Investigate Noise State.
For the time being I wanted my Character to be detacted only by Vision to check if that works.
The detaction radius and the min detaction work only over the vision of an opponent. And the min detaction don't work with Sound objects for that we have the vNoise Listener.
Triggering Sound objects to the Feet via Noise Listener would make more sense during running and not during walking (depending on the ground).
I'm actually refering to the Stealth Kill add-on. Which tells us to set min Detaction to 0 because the opponent would instantly detact you and look behind. So my Situation isn't noise based.

The Problem at hand is: That the opponent should not see (see not hear) me from behind which needs a min detaction radius of 0.5 or lower (depending on obejct size). But if I do so while using a low Field of View e.g. 98° instead of 102° it simply can't see the character when I'm litelery standing exactly infront of it.
I could walk up to my opponent it saw me and attacked but when I stayed still chest to chest it turnes "Target in Line of Sight" False and shortly after that it sets "Target is lost" False as well.
The Visual Debuger also shows that the Enemy can't find the Player in front of him if the Field of view is under about 100°.

The point of a stealth game is that there is some kind of attack from behind that the Opponent can't anticipate. Yes something like a Noise triggered from an attack or loud footsteps (running) should reveal the players Postion but that works just fine. And I already used those mechanics.
But loosing track of the Player when he is infront of the Enemy breaks the game experience. But if the vield of View actually works like in reallity it is about normal that a radius under 114 degree would also limit the View to the bottom.

[sjl]

I see what your returning to and personally I haven't dived that deep in to the field of view stuff yet... But from what I have messed around with a bit was the trigger collider and adjusting its size a bit to give a bit more room to trigger instead of being so close it's like whispering in the ai's ear before trigger to stealth kill... But the visual thing that lets you see the sight and sound field of view I see the sound is rather large and seems to trigger the ai to look back at you once your in a said range regardless of running or ninja walking to the ai... But if there is a particular dead spot that can be created in order to get what your looking for be it by adjusting values or changing something in the scripts I'm not particularly sure but, has cought my attention...

[cursedereaper]

Okay I found something that helped in this case as well.
I simply increased the detaction during the Combat state which solves the situation in which the Min Detaction of 0 for a Stealth Kill causes the enemy to not see the player when standing directly in front of the enemy while being in combat.

For the optimal Sound detaction one could switch the Noise Object at the feed. The problem would only be that one needs a script that actually switches the Noise Object or increase the Noise Radius while the player is running.
That way one could have a small radius on the Noise Object with the Noise Type Sneak for sneaking. And a bigger radius on the Noise Object for Sprinting with the Noise Type Sprint.

Now one only needs two listeners decisions one that detacts "Sprint" Noise and reacts fast and one that detacts Sneak which has a longer transition to enter the look at and investigate state.

Do bad that I currently stuck on a hand of other mechanics. When I find the time I could check out how to switch a Noise Object with Code by checking if the player sneaks, runs or walks. Something like a "Velocity affected Noise Obejct" Script.

[colpolstudios]

Hello, I have been reading comments in this thread with great interest.

I have been able to modify the shooter melee controller with the action of the stealth kill addon. Currently, I am using the AI civilian passive as the enemy.

I can walk up to him and execute the stealth kill now using the shooter melee controller.

What I would like is to add the ability to sneak.

What is the best way to add to the animator controller to allow for the extra animation of sneaking?

The original code would need to be altered I think?

But it also seems to be possible via a custom action, and in so doing leaving the animator non-destructive?

Naturally, I am extremely nervous about changing anything within the animator controller so your advice and help are needed.

I am new, [very new], But by detecting is sneaking true [bool] only now could you sneak up behind the enemy.