Puppet Ambush - I need help badly

[Aymes]

I am starting to get the hang of this game, but I have a major concern: I rarely hear the puppets coming. I started my character with medium awareness and my sound is maxed out with music turned off.

I would say about 90% of the time, my encounter with a puppet begins with me searching something or crafting something, and then I hear the thump of the puppet hitting me. It makes me practically jump out of my chair.

I if course do things to mitigate the problem, like keep my noise level down by walking slowly and searching every corner of a dwelling before performing searches, but when I am in an open area performing searches, I am not sure what to do.

I'll give you an example: I was in an open airplane hanger. I first made sure the hanger had no puppets around. I then very slowly and methodically began to search the containers, periodically stopping to look around to make sure I was still alone. There was not a sound to be heard - absolute dead silence - you could hear a pin drop. Then without warning - no growl or footsteps, I hear the familiar thud of the puppet hitting me.

Is that the way the game is meant to be, or am I doing something wrong to not be able to hear the puppets coming? This is so very frustrating and infuriating because I feel I am not being reckless and am taking every precaution to try to be aware of when a puppet might be coming.

[Deathwhisper]

Hello :),

I can hear puppets even if they appear from behind me. But that may also be due to my headphones because I only play SCUM with headphones. Make sure your system sounds are all set correctly. It can happen that the sounds are set lower specifically for an application and therefore everything seems significantly quieter.

But there are many approaches to how you can take care of this efficiently and it really depends on how you play yourself. So here are a few tips that I have tried over time.

The simplest tactic, which only works without active Mechs, is firing loud weapons from elevated positions. Even today I still use this tactic in busier areas because it will inevitably attract the attention of the puppets and attract them. This proves to be particularly practical if the suicide puppets are also present. You can then use the volume to set a trap and fire, then quickly run to a safe position and hide. Wait until the suicide puppets are present and then specifically switch them off. Almost all puppets that are not armored are immediately switched off.

Alternatively, you can also use the flare gun. This also attracts the attention of puppets in the area, often even better than a rifle because you can stay at a safe distance. What is important here is that you have a secure position yourself. The more you become familiar with the area, the more you know what to expect and where the “bad” places are.

If possible, always search through boxes with a clear view of the path from which you came. You often overlook a puppet or a danger when sneaking, that's the risk of being quiet. So pay particular attention to areas in your surroundings that have poor clarity and keep an eye on them. Anything further away usually takes longer to get to you than something moving around the corner.

"The Shining Room" is my current tactic which requires a flare or said flare gun. Thanks to searching through puppets, flares are a regular find. It doesn't matter that they are damaged. Actively throw the light source into the room or building; as mentioned above, this will attract everything in the area and thus give you a view of the hidden enemies. Now you can turn them off little by little. Normally this is enough to turn off everything nearby and search through the boxes in peace.

[marktkm]

Deathwhisper's tactics are good. I'll just repeat that if you're trying to run silently (don't want to give yourself away on multiplayer) the best thing you can do is have as much awareness of the area around you as possible (where the puppets are) and keep in mind they can hear you searching things from various distances depending on the container. And yes, even wearing headphones a lot of the puppets are dead silent until they're on you. It happens to me too. It wasn't always this way. They used to have louder footsteps. I'm assuming it was intentional.

[NF]

DW said it well, I'd say a rooftop gunshot is the safest way.

Flares work great anywhere there's a suicide puppet.

Manually clearing the area and using third person view while searching

Keep an eye on that eye.

Sometimes your going to get jumped either way. Hopefully your not on a 8-10 damage server when it happens.

Go get em killer!

[Radonator]

Originally posted by marktkm:

a lot of the puppets are dead silent until they're on you. It happens to me too. It wasn't always this way. They used to have louder footsteps. I'm assuming it was intentional.

this. theyve not only been made silent they spawn right behind u an u hear nothing until ur being attacked. made worse n worse year after year.. what more will they do

[gun goes pew pew]

i can see this being a problem while playing with speakers as the sound can be not as clear, my advice would be to get better headphones and to play with headphones overall, as i have no problem hearing them approach at all, the amount of sound they make once aggro'ed and even when coming at you is honestly more than enough for the player to be warned beforehand, i even play with the boombox on in my backpack, only time when i got ambushed was when i was running through the forest and it started to rain and thunder, it was so loud that i didn't even notice that i already aggro'ed a puppet, bastard came out of a bush and made me jump in my chair..

[Aymes]

I have a very nice speaker system. I know headphones would work better, but that is not a solution I am willing to do. I already have the sound effect settings maxed out, so maybe this is not the game for me. I shouldn't be forced to wear headphones.

Maybe the devs would consider having a game setting that would provide some more prominent indicators when a puppet is coming? I am not exaggerating - I literally hear nothing until I hear the sound of the puppet hitting me. The visual indicator is of no help either obviously because the ambushes always occur while I am performing search. The funny thing is I hear the scavenging and crafting sound effect just fine.

[JonExx]

Originally posted by Aymes:

I have a very nice speaker system....

Do you have any "special effects" coming from your sound system?
Like any "3D-effect", or "ambient sound". Or anything in your computer settings that is supposed to support the recoginition from where noises come?

I wouldn't exclude the possibility that these settings or effects aren't working well together with the game's directional sounds.

That's my experience playing with (some pretty good) headphones that have a bunch of gizmos in their driver.
Since I switched all of them off and hear the pure sound of the game, puppets suprise me far less than before.

[serilium]

i see some posts here suggesting that it`s the op speaker set up or headphones that are the problem, but this isn`t the case at all in game puppets do sneak up and surprise you, and they can also spawn quickly i`ve been on servers, where i take out a puppet and straight away another one spawns right in front of me, and the same happens again i have left some servers because this happens so often a fresh player doesn`t get a chance to prepare for it, i do often hear the puppets when they do that animation before attacking, but if another sound occurs at the same time i sometimes don`t hear the animation and get hit, but i guess it is one of those we will fix it later only to not bother at all issues.

[JonExx]

Originally posted by ferret:

i see some posts here suggesting that it`s the op speaker set up or headphones that are the problem, but this isn`t the case at all....

It was part of the problem in my set-up.

There's still puppets that a completely muted, just like they spawn in ways that can't be intended (like right in front of you, or in your back).
In SP that happens for me if I dial up the max allowed numbers of puppets too far and the cool down timer too short.

But that's a different topic.

[PabloSpacebar]

I have the same problem. Puppets became quieter or stealth. It wasn’t like that before. If i hear a player/mate running 30m around me, i should also hear a puppet.
They also had a growl just when they become agro, but that was easy and im glad it’s almost completely gone.
This becomes a jump scare and its not nice. Or dangerous.

[Beda]

Hey there, we are aware of the issue. Puppets used to scream when they spot you to let you know you are in danger but something prevents them from it now. We are looking into it.

[Aymes]

Beda, glad to hear the dev team is looking into it. As far as any "3D effect" or "ambient sound" - no, it is just regular stereo sound.

I have gotten so paranoid and so good at keeping my head on swivel, that now the only time I am surprised, is like said before - when I am searching or crafting. I do a lot of searching and crafting, so I get unfairly silently ambushed a lot.

I hope the devs fix the problem soon and also consider having a game setting that can be selected and adjusted that would provide some more prominent indicators when a puppet is coming.

[Radonator]

they spawn right behind me in bunkers where i know i cleared it behind me an closed doors. silent an u dont know till theyre already hitting u. COS they spawned it ON U out of thin air.
not cool