Visibility zones and stealth

[Slowwalker]

All characters and animals have a certain field of view, divided into 2 zones: Full and Partial.

Full - near character/animal. Other characters/animals are definitely visible there.
Partial - after it. The visibility of the characters/animals located there depends on their stealth.
No one is visible outside the zones.

The size of the zones depends on the characteristics of the character, on the level of illumination (day / night / cave), on the type of biome on which the character is located (in the steppe it is seen better than in the forest). And, preferably, from blocking objects, such as buildings, cliffs, if this does not heavily load the server processor. Let's say a blocking object completely covers the Full Zone, leaving only a Partial one. If a character / animal is targeted (for attack), it is always visible, even in the Partial Zone.

To change the ratio of visibility zones can bring interesting effects. So, for example, being near a fire (fire, torch in hand) at night or in a cave, you can expand the Full Visibility Zone, but greatly reduce the Partial, so that the total zone becomes even smaller. A high Marksmanship value can also affect the ratio of zones, as archers should be better able to notice objects in the distance.

The modifier of stealth, in addition to the classic Intelligence*Stealth, can be the speed of movement of the character/animal, as well as on what land he is. The forest gives a small bonus to stealth, and speed other than 0 adds penalties.

All calculations should take place on the server side and return information to clients only about visible characters/animals.
At the first stage, you do not need to change the visibility of static objects such as trees, buildings, grass. Let this change only affect characters and animals.

An additional option 1: if the object is not visible in the Partial Zone, but the difference between Attention and Stealth is not significant, you can return to the client the area (center and radius) within which the object is randomly located and draw it as a "sound wave" in that place. There is someone there, but it is not clear exactly who and where.

An additional option 2: conversation bubbles that are used in local chat can be drawn in the same way as now, even outside of both zones. This will allow you to "call" and "go to the call."

[TerraSleet]

Sounds like a nightmare to implement and a heavy load on a server that already struggles on world resets, but it would make walking around the forest at night a uniquely spooky and dangerous experience. That being said, getting killed because a bear or wolf pack happened to be in aggro range but not sight range would be very frustrating. So I'm torn on whether or not this is a good idea. More uses for stealth besides "the naughty ability for naughty people" is welcome.

[Slowwalker]

It's hard for me to think about technical realization without knowing the server architecture. All you need to do here for each pair of interacting objects is to measure the distance between two points on the plane (not a difficult math problem). If the distance is less than the Full Zone, then the object is visible. If more than both zones together, the object is not visible. Well, for the Partial Zone, you will have to additionally compare the characteristics of the characters.

The sizes of the zones with which to compare the distance, for each object, can be stored in pre-calculation, recalculating them only when changing the characteristics of the character, the level of illumination (changing the time of day, descending into the cave, the appearance of a fire source in the radius).

Of course, accounting for objects such as buildings will add computational complexity, so this addition is not necessary. And without it, the system will add interesting moments to the game.

To avoid the problem of a "sudden" attack of animals, even the basic characters can have a large radius of the Partial Zone, and as the character progresses, transfer it to the Full Zone. And make dangerous animals more noticeable, or for animals it is always a hardcode to draw a circle "there is someone there", regardless of the ratio of characteristics. It is up to the player to go and check who is there.
Again, you can leave the "sound of the appearance of the beast" regardless of whether it is visible or not, as with the bubbles of characters' conversations.

[DDDsDD999]

Why

[Sevenless]

I can't see it adding enough to the game to be worth adding another mechanic. Stealth + haven style PvP has never gone well. It'd be the same as when people would camp roadsigns and you had to port in blind. Wasn't a fun form of gameplay for pvpers, but was necessary. And everyone else just had anxiety being near road signs.

[Slowwalker]

I believe this will bring to the game:
1) Normal lighting mechanics, which had to be abandoned due to custom clients.
2) Full use of the Stealth skill, new opportunities for Marksmanship and others, for example.
3) Ability to avoid PVP, improving your stealth.
4) Ambushes in key locations.
5) Scheduling PVP activities by time of day (for example, hunting for a meteorite).
6) More realistic hunting, and not just "actions on the minimap"

In addition, it will be a good platform for other interesting ideas, which now does not even make sense to offer. Hidden actions, reworking crime mechanics, taming wolves, etc.

[Ysh]

Idea of nab cannot discern between rabbit and bear in night's forest and so must be wary of all sound is amusing to me.