Sneaking into a town

[Thrannduil]

Is there a way to mod what weapons you get when you sneak into a town? Like maybe a short sword or something to help? Even with my lvl 40 character, I almost never successfully sneaked into a town because the guards are so hard to fight without armor and weapons, because PoP troops are really high levels for their tiers and really tough.  I dont want to have like a full plate armor and stuff, but you could at least sneak in a shortsword with you.

 

[Vaanshir]

I would at least like it so its not like this in nearly every town...

Oh dear. I was spotted...
Time for combat...
BLAGH!!!
Captured...

The fact that some towns have the Guards appear right next to you is so annoying. Ravenstern is a good example, two guards spawn at the doors directly behind you, and the AI is already swinging by the time the scene loads for you...

 

[Thrannduil]

Ravenstern and D'Shar are the worst, because all of the units have awesome melee and bows. Ravenstern gets voulges and the D'shar get scimitars longer than your stick.

 

[BeardyDan]

The whole thing makes no sense to me.

How exactly does the guard who has never met you before "recognise" you?  Unless I've missed somthing HUGE in the lore, facial recognition cameras aren't around in Pendor. 
If you are trying to get past the town guards even the dumbest of the dumb might ask "Why is that poor pilgrim bringing 3 wagon loads of weapons/armour and 60 prisoners with him?". 

Edit:

Rescuing a Prisoner gets you 0 renown. 

 

[kard]

I can appreciate increasing the difficulty of sneaking into a town, but having the enemy spawn in right on top of you, with an attack chambered by the time you turn around is a bit much. Every single time the first thing you are doing is turning around and blocking.

Late game the throwing knives can at least kill one of the unshielded ones in a few daggers, but generally I start out blocking then running. I try to lose the AI on terrain and spread them out so I can at least get one or two killed before having to face the three others.

On some maps you can jump on the roof of nearby buildings and let them spread out and then go down and fight one or two, but its definitely difficult to say the least. Valonbray is a good map, because they aren't all clustered up on you and you can easily lose them to fight one or two at a time.

I like seeing five guys with shields and spears/scythes. You can just face hug and overhead them to death while only taking glancing damage because of the way spear/shield works.

 

[iskar]

ever tried to sneak into a sarleon castle? you are immediately rushed by five armored footmen with two-handed hammers that can crush through blocks --> bump!

 

[MitchyMatt]

ever tried to sneak into a sarleon castle? you are immediately rushed by five armored footmen with two-handed hammers that can crush through blocks --> bump!

Which are now Morningstars :p

 

[Selvhan]

Well, as I already said for ambush, why would a lord like the player go sell stuff by himself ? Why can't you send one of your men that has no renown ? Of course he won't sell item higher than his trading skill, but still, he could sell stuff and get some food.

My proposition would be the following : If your party has not been spot by the city, you could send one of your soldier to buy/sell stuff. Put a % of chance that he can be recognize. Because seriously, do you think a Lord would risk his life for a bunch of rusty sword and cabbages ? No.

As for ambush, you should always have some companion with you. Or at least some guard.

 

[azenky]

ever tried to sneak into a sarleon castle? you are immediately rushed by five armored footmen with two-handed hammers that can crush through blocks --> bump!

Which are now Morningstars :p

They hurt WAY MORE than hammers, but at least they don't do knockdown = instadeath.

Is there a way to mod what weapons you get when you sneak into a town? Like maybe a short sword or something to help? Even with my lvl 40 character, I almost never successfully sneaked into a town because the guards are so hard to fight without armor and weapons, because PoP troops are really high levels for their tiers and really tough.  I dont want to have like a full plate armor and stuff, but you could at least sneak in a shortsword with you.

Get high athletics and use throwing knives, but also know which towns you can get into. ex) Valonbray is REALLY easy to get in b/c of the scattered dudes whereas sarleon is a deathtrap. Also, a lot of castle structures can be used to counter the guards' number advantage - stairs, narrow corridors, etc...

...and I just realized that I don't know how to put spoilers, can someone tell me?

 

[Thrannduil]

Well, as I already said for ambush, why would a lord like the player go sell stuff by himself ? Why can't you send one of your men that has no renown ? Of course he won't sell item higher than his trading skill, but still, he could sell stuff and get some food.

My proposition would be the following : If your party has not been spot by the city, you could send one of your soldier to buy/sell stuff. Put a % of chance that he can be recognize. Because seriously, do you think a Lord would risk his life for a bunch of rusty sword and cabbages ? No.

As for ambush, you should always have some companion with you. Or at least some guard.

Yeah, the Scaedumar mod had npc bodyguards depending on your renown would determine how many bodyguards you got, and they were the top soldiers on your list, so if you put your companions in the top of the list, you would get 4-5 companion bodyguards to help you.

 

[FieldMedic]

In Native it was a balanced quest, even if it was rather hard (especially when you play at fast combat and equal damage) but you could stand a chance when you were at a good level.
Though in some town the way the enemy spawned made it nearly impossible as you were surrounded by enemy spawning directly on you from each side so you couldn't do anything but take several hits (and unless playing at reduced damage, you were going down in 2 or 3 hits considering the poor equipment you have in that quest and you can't block every side at the same time).

In Pendor, the quest is simply broken because every enemy in Pendor is very much stronger than Native and much more protected, while your character is as underequipped as in the Native version of it with the weak wooden pole and those poor clothes.
Even at high level you will need a very lot of luck to survive , and if you play in "no save reloading" mode it's simply impossible in most of the towns and lead into one of those annoying capture without you able to avoid it.

Only in a few locations you can see some building you can move to in order to lower the amount of enemy ganging on you at a time.
By example in a D'shar town in which i managed to rescue an Empire lord, there was a building with a stair that had place for only 1 guy, so i was able to take the town guards out nearly one by one.
But i was nearly dead in the end, as you can't dodge everything before reaching such building (and staying in the open = dead in seconds with the archers around)

I agree with the companions being a very good fix for that broken quest in Pendor, as it would not make much sense to give your character his equipment if you're playing "i disguise as some traveler/merchant", but to give you 2 or 3 companions armed with the same very weak weapon/armor as you are would be interesting (a bit like in the collect money quest you can make working for a lord, if the villagers revolt , you fight them with only 2 or 3 companions with weak weapons).

After all merchants/travelers are usually in groups, so having a few of your friends with you would make sense in the situation.

And with the Pendor troops being much stronger, it would rebalance the quest, as it would stay very hard (as your companion would certainly die quickly too considering the difference in equipment and the AI being unable to exploit other AI shortcoming ) while being enjoyable, instead of the insta-capture it is in 90% of the castles/towns.

 

[riraito.]

These quests are impossible.  There isn't even a chance of avoiding detection, so you basically have to rambo everybody with your staff.  The last time I tried this, I had to rescue a lord from the prison in Dagon castle.  When you spawn you fight 3 Ravenstern archers with voulges, beat them and then 2 more archers come down fro mthe walls to fight you.  That was the easy part.  Next you have to beat up the prison guard, take the keys and rescue the lord.  Now you gotta get out while fighting the top tier troops.  That part was so frustrating.  I would kill 2 or 3 rangers and then get shot in the back of the head.. tried over 20 times