Reading the most recent introduction's mention of parkour got me thinking about how I like to move at night, and I realized that there's really no set way of moving. It all depends on the terrain and obstacles in front of you, as well as chances of being seen.
Movement at night is a careful balance where no particular attribute is best but you need to be good at everything to have the best chance of remaining unseen. Sometimes you want to move as quickly as possible in a high risk area but at the same time you don't want to move fast because a fast object is the easiest to see. All the same, moving quickly will produce the most noise but sometimes if you don't move fast you risk exposing yourself to infrequent "traffic" in an area.
It's a tough call to make and I find that my operations as far as movement plays out kind of resembles a weird game of red light/green light, with a little Mother-May-I? thrown into the green light portions. It's an erratic cadence of movement necessitated by the need to try to strike the best balance. I probably don't get it right sometimes, maybe even most of the time, but who does? We're limited by being human and the fact that there's only so many hours in a night.
I submit this topic not as any kind of "how-to" but just as a prompt to think about the idea. There is no "how to", this is something you have to play by ear every single time and make the decision of what's right. When you enter high risk areas it even becomes a mental issue because you have to make the decision of how to move constantly over and over, finding the best way to move from cover to cover. How long to safety stay at certain cover. It can become nerve wracking but also incredible. If you're in over your head, choose a different route and/or objective.
Me, I try my best to move as slowly as possible as much as possible as long as I can do so while keeping a good amount of surplus time for things to go wrong during the operation. I figure that moving slowly makes me harder to see but also allows me to better assess areas as I enter them. Plus I'm usually exploring and it's hard to explore sprinting through an area. Move slowly from cover to new cover, and make my move from there. If it's something like crossing an illuminated street and I know I need to run, I run. Sometimes you're far enough away from any potential humans that moving slowly even in full gear is ok because they're only going to see a dark silhouette in the distance and you don't want to draw attention by running.
It all depends! I'm sure this topic seems totally erratic and random, maybe even pointless. That's fine, I'm not trying to be a guru here and tell you what to do. Just want to bring up a very important basic fundamental that's always in play for everyone to mull over. Share your thoughts.
Relevant Reading: http://nightops.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1461
Quickness, Slowness, and Stealth
Quickness, Slowness, and Stealth
Sacrifice the body, not the heart.
Re: Quickness, Slowness, and Stealth
Reserving this post for when I can get on a computer.
"A man's greatest treasures are his illusions."
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theconfusedone
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Re: Quickness, Slowness, and Stealth
I have been thinking about this concept a lot lately. Mainly because I have been discovering that unless you can be 100% silent, sometimes one loud noise is infinitely safer than a bunch of creaky footsteps. Sneaking out of the house the other night, my window was being extremely creaky with every movement. Yet, when I basically launched my entire body out the window with one solid movement, it made the same level of noise but for a shorter amount of time. I'm always so used to taking everything tiny tiny steps at a time that I guess I forgot that sometimes one quick movement is way more efficient.
No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. -Siddhartha Gautama
The above post is completely hypothetical.
The above post is completely hypothetical.
Re: Quickness, Slowness, and Stealth
I think that all speeds and economies of motion have their place. Sometimes it's good to be slow, sometimes it's good to be fast. Neither is good all the time during the operation. The question is which will draw the most attention and which is more likely to be brushed aside when you have absolutely no choice but to make noise.
Sacrifice the body, not the heart.
Re: Quickness, Slowness, and Stealth
A lot of this is just going to be echoing what AEternaeon said, but here's my two cents:
I think that a lot of people fall into the trap of thinking that you can either move fast, or you can be stealthy. This is a common misconception, because when you look deep down at what stealth really is, it has little to do with the speed at which you move. I like to think of stealth as moving (or not moving) however you must to avoid being perceived. That, in turn, is a balancing act. Moving fast but forsaking concealment vs. using concealment but forsaking speed. To me, fast and slow are two sides of the coin that is "stealth". A couple examples illustrate this point of view very well .
In both examples, we have a well-lit street in the middle of a suburban neighborhood that you need to follow. There are many houses on both sides with lights still on, windows open. For the first example, you use what people thing of as "classic" stealth, by creeping slowly and quietly from shadow to shadow, taking your time to get from yard to yard. You stand a great chance to defeat any casual glances outside, because you're limiting your exposure by a great bit, but you're also spending a huge amount of time near these houses. Obviously, the more time you spend in an area where someone could observe you, the greater chance you have of being seen. Yes, going slowly and cautiously limits the chances of someone observing you, but the fact that you're spending so much time in the area means that there's a good chance you'll need to deal with that problem in the first place.
Our second method is the opposite. You can move quickly as possible down the road, while still sticking to the shadows as much as possible and limiting the noise your footfalls make by doing a "stealth jog". Yes, you're a lot more visible than you would be with the first method. However, you're only visible for a very short period of time, which greatly reduces the chance that someone will look out the window while you're in the area. The logic behind this is the same exact logic we use when we dash in between shadows through an opening where there's light, instead of skirting the patch of light entirely. You're a lot more visible, but only for a very, very brief time.
Assume the average person looks out their window once every hour, and that on any given op , one person per 5 houses in a residential area is awake. If each street has 40 houses, that means you have 8 people per street who could possibly be looking out their window at any given time, for an average of one look per street every 7.5 minutes. If you spend ~3 minutes moving quickly down that street, there's a pretty good chance that no one will be looking out the entire time you're on the street, let alone someone looking your direction who's able to see you. However, if you spend ~30 minutes creeping down that street, you'll be there for 4 separate looks. You're going slow and being stealthy, so there's a good chance those 4 people who look out won't see you, but at this point being stealthy becomes a necessity, as you're going to be sneaking in an observed area 4 times.
Now, before you freak out and complain that those numbers are completely made up - they are. It's simply an example used to show that both methods of avoiding detection are equally valid. The real trick to being stealthy is knowing when to use which one, and perfecting that balancing act.
I think that a lot of people fall into the trap of thinking that you can either move fast, or you can be stealthy. This is a common misconception, because when you look deep down at what stealth really is, it has little to do with the speed at which you move. I like to think of stealth as moving (or not moving) however you must to avoid being perceived. That, in turn, is a balancing act. Moving fast but forsaking concealment vs. using concealment but forsaking speed. To me, fast and slow are two sides of the coin that is "stealth". A couple examples illustrate this point of view very well .
In both examples, we have a well-lit street in the middle of a suburban neighborhood that you need to follow. There are many houses on both sides with lights still on, windows open. For the first example, you use what people thing of as "classic" stealth, by creeping slowly and quietly from shadow to shadow, taking your time to get from yard to yard. You stand a great chance to defeat any casual glances outside, because you're limiting your exposure by a great bit, but you're also spending a huge amount of time near these houses. Obviously, the more time you spend in an area where someone could observe you, the greater chance you have of being seen. Yes, going slowly and cautiously limits the chances of someone observing you, but the fact that you're spending so much time in the area means that there's a good chance you'll need to deal with that problem in the first place.
Our second method is the opposite. You can move quickly as possible down the road, while still sticking to the shadows as much as possible and limiting the noise your footfalls make by doing a "stealth jog". Yes, you're a lot more visible than you would be with the first method. However, you're only visible for a very short period of time, which greatly reduces the chance that someone will look out the window while you're in the area. The logic behind this is the same exact logic we use when we dash in between shadows through an opening where there's light, instead of skirting the patch of light entirely. You're a lot more visible, but only for a very, very brief time.
Assume the average person looks out their window once every hour, and that on any given op , one person per 5 houses in a residential area is awake. If each street has 40 houses, that means you have 8 people per street who could possibly be looking out their window at any given time, for an average of one look per street every 7.5 minutes. If you spend ~3 minutes moving quickly down that street, there's a pretty good chance that no one will be looking out the entire time you're on the street, let alone someone looking your direction who's able to see you. However, if you spend ~30 minutes creeping down that street, you'll be there for 4 separate looks. You're going slow and being stealthy, so there's a good chance those 4 people who look out won't see you, but at this point being stealthy becomes a necessity, as you're going to be sneaking in an observed area 4 times.
Now, before you freak out and complain that those numbers are completely made up - they are. It's simply an example used to show that both methods of avoiding detection are equally valid. The real trick to being stealthy is knowing when to use which one, and perfecting that balancing act.
"A man's greatest treasures are his illusions."
Re: Quickness, Slowness, and Stealth
Not that my opinion means anything, but the shadows can shield you from most sight, and keeping your face turned away or covered does a lot more to help you. Moving at a quick crouch jog in shadows that are relatively safe is an alright tack for me, but for exposed sections of space, you guys pound the point in, a quick hop, a roll, a crouched jog, and that section is past, with nobody to know that a beating heart in the shadows yet waits!
Out of the darkness, these blades will light our way.