Musings on Identity V

So since my last post I've actually been doing a few things here and there. I've build a weird model car, read a book, rebased my Kulten forces, painted some he man miniatures. But there has been a greater shadow looming over all of my activities. And that is the video game Identity V, I've been playing it for about a month now, and I am in hook line and sinker and having a blast of a time.

So for those of you who are unfamiliar with the game, it is an asymmetric stealth game of cat and mouse. Four unfortunate souls have been turned into effigies of themselves and are hunted through various locations, all the while they are trying to calibrate some cipher machines to gather the code needed to escape the location. However meanwhile they are going about trying to get the cipher machines fixed, something big and fierce prowls. A Hunter, a sort of guardian of this place. They're here to catch these escapees and punish their insolence, they must catch the survivors and bring them to rocket chairs that'll send them back to the mansion to win.

It is a game format seen before in Dead by Daylight, and actually the original designers of that helped out create this game too, so it is more akin to a sibling than a clone for those that care about that business. However for me the slightly less gratuitous and more burton-esque vibe strikes a clear chord. Also something else, the game is completely free, but of course offers the option to unlock characters and skins.

Now if you know me by any margin you already know what side of the struggle I am going for. I play Hunter and do it well if I may say so myself. And having been with the game and glanced at the general chat for about that month, I've come to gather some words of wisdom and encouragement for new hunters. Because hoo boy some survivors doesn't quite like any sort of opposition. And one of the biggest things I see people moaning about in the english chat is 'camping', a term coined for a hunter hanging around after a capture, to guard it until they are eliminated

You see your caught prey is on a count-down before they are eliminated. And any sneaky survivor can go cut them free to start the chase all over, and there are four of those buggers total. And sometimes they take it a bit personal that you hang around the general area after tying them up. But hey you are allowed to guard your capture, don't listen to them. Because rescuing isn't that hard to accomplish either, and you can actually end up hurting yourself by hanging around. Allow me to elaborate.

And lets start with the super obvious one. There is a hunter talent called Tinnitus, and it causes this little handy icon (seen below) to light up if a survivor is within the relative vicinity, if I as a hunter have caught someone and see tinnitus light up, I know you are trying for a rescue, so don't expect me to go anywhere. I can literally hear you buddy, you're not as stealthy as you think.

But beyond all that: survivors have two things really going for them. The first is your attack recharge, after attacking you have a little time where you may not attack again. And they have numbers. They can lure you off to one side and have someone sneak in and free their friend, and using their numbers they can actually serve as body guards. Lets say your catch has been released and is stumbling away paired with a friend, should you hit the ex-catch they will be incapacitated again and you can return them to the chair. But their healthy friend can choose to actively block your way or jump in front of the attack to make sure their injuried buddy gets away so they can get healed by someone else. Mercenaries, Wildlings and Cowboys are especially good at this. 

And the other big one is time. Survivors need to gather ciphers to get away, so the ball starts in their court in the game. Any delay they can force on your part helps them - they get to dictate the pace. And if you just hang around a caught survivor no-one is going for, then they can decipher unharnessed and get closer to that victory. So often you might actually wanna get your butt in gear after a capture, to keep your momentum going. Lets try a hypothetical to explain my point:

You've caught one survivor that means one survivor out of commission and likely a second one coming to rescue, so they are decoding at ~50% efficiency - although likely higher since clever survivors will let fast decoders stay behind to do what they're good at. Now lets say you hang around, at best you can snag up a rescuer like the Coordinator or Wildling who cant do much decoding anyhow, or get involved in a long chase with them, while the two others tap away on the ciphers.

However if you make a catch, and then immediately use the Teleport trait to catch a decoder on the other side of the map, now they're in a real hassle. For one they have two people in need on different parts of the map and unless they're going for only one, they'll need to pull both the remaining survivors from their decoding to help out. They're now at 0% efficiency for a while. And more importantly while your first catch is too far away to protect, you hopefully have something much tastier on your hand. Let them have that Lucky Guy if you got your hands on a Seer, Priestess, Doctor or Mechanic who can all prove a real hassle if you leave them alone. But again, maybe your first catch was one of those? Follow your gut, and stick with the ones you need gone, just remember that the clock is against you early game.

And speaking of high priority targets, there is another hunter practice that really rubs some survivors the wrong way. Nicknamed 'tunneling' as in having tunnel vision, this is the act of focusing on a single specific survivor during the hectic rescue moments, instead of loosing your cool and just attacking whoever is nearest. And I get where they are coming from, it can like camping feel quite personal to have the hunter only chase your butt. But here is a small fact from a practiced hunter: the first few captures I make get rescued. However the more times you capture a survivor during a match the shorter the rocket chairs fuse will be, so if I can capture one guy 3 times and immediately eliminate him, I am gonna, instead of getting 3 captures split among the entire survivor team. Its just being smart about my time, the quicker one survivor is gone, the easier time I will have later one.

So yeah about the camping and tunneling, sorry my dudes, but I am trying to win too. And if you would like me to cut you some slack, maybe  not cussing me off and threatening reports is a good way to start? ♥