On Lateral Movement and Field of Vision
Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2021 11:41 pm
Felt like writing today and I wanted to write something I've never really seen discussed here or anywhere else.
One thing I learned early on is that when moving at night, you're much easier to see if you are moving laterally in front of a potential threat. That is, if you are facing in a direction and someone is moving from your left field of your field of vision to your right, you are much more likely to see them.
A basic concept I think we can all agree with, but it needs to be put into effective practice.
Any time I pick a route from one spot of concealment to the next I factor this in, whether I'm in a ditch wanting to move to a treeline or alongside of a fence wanting to cross the street in an area with tight housing. In my mind I'm always looking to find a balance between three things:
1. Distance from most likely threats. How far away are the people who are potentially going to see me?
2. Lighting. Self-explanatory.
3. Factoring in 1 and 2, the point at which I can safely begin to move laterally without drawing attention.
Distance and light go hand in hand. The lighter it is, the farther away you need to be before you can safely move laterally. There is a simple correlation between light levels and the distance which you can see something. Therefore, when I move I attempt to leverage all advantages by moving laterally to as few threats as possible. Ideally none.
For example, let's say I'm knelt down next to a wooden fence and need to cross the road in front of me. There are street lights that aren't immediately nearby but they are close enough that the area has enough ambient light that if someone is looking around, they'll see you crossing probably. Across from me is another wooden fence that I need to either get over quickly or get around the corner of to be safe.
Assuming the fence I'm at surrounds a house and light levels are high enough, my most probable course of action is going to be to crunch myself down into a minimal profile and swiftly cross in a straight line in front of the house (without straight up running and opening my profile back up) to avoid lateral movement and roll into prone on the other side in front of the fence. Then quickly low crawl around the corner before kneeling again.
It's a hypothetical of an extreme need-stealth situation but I've been in similar situations just trying to move across blocks and when any crossing can result in failure you take every precaution you can. Assuming of course that every other route is worse.
Let's paint a more probable scenario. You're moving along a fairly low risk area that's nearly a thieves highway but you need to move in front of an occupied building. You have two choices. Circle around it from farther away to allow lateral movement, or you may need to take an erratic path that consists of closing in to reach a point of cover, moving away again directly away from it to avoid lateral movement and do so until you reach another point of cover or can move laterally.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this, but I never see talked about anywhere. Probably because it's something only we would ever use because we're trying to absolutely maximize stealth. That, and we actually do this for real. I think any operator who's out long enough will develop this sense dynamically because when you're moving through new areas you need to adapt fast and it's just the logical way to go about it. Xanatos will recognize this habit from my weird route through the lower field below the castle at NOPCON.
Just something to consider, it's been a standard method of mine for years and it's probably helped me more than I'll ever know. As for judging everything, that's something you have to develop. Just observe. What's the light like? How far can you see? At what point do you think moving sideways would make you more visible? Who's likely to see you? That's the absolute most stealth way to pick your point A to point B routes. As tempting as it is to just get out of an opening as quickly as possible, sometimes a little trickery will pay huge dividends.
One thing I learned early on is that when moving at night, you're much easier to see if you are moving laterally in front of a potential threat. That is, if you are facing in a direction and someone is moving from your left field of your field of vision to your right, you are much more likely to see them.
A basic concept I think we can all agree with, but it needs to be put into effective practice.
Any time I pick a route from one spot of concealment to the next I factor this in, whether I'm in a ditch wanting to move to a treeline or alongside of a fence wanting to cross the street in an area with tight housing. In my mind I'm always looking to find a balance between three things:
1. Distance from most likely threats. How far away are the people who are potentially going to see me?
2. Lighting. Self-explanatory.
3. Factoring in 1 and 2, the point at which I can safely begin to move laterally without drawing attention.
Distance and light go hand in hand. The lighter it is, the farther away you need to be before you can safely move laterally. There is a simple correlation between light levels and the distance which you can see something. Therefore, when I move I attempt to leverage all advantages by moving laterally to as few threats as possible. Ideally none.
For example, let's say I'm knelt down next to a wooden fence and need to cross the road in front of me. There are street lights that aren't immediately nearby but they are close enough that the area has enough ambient light that if someone is looking around, they'll see you crossing probably. Across from me is another wooden fence that I need to either get over quickly or get around the corner of to be safe.
Assuming the fence I'm at surrounds a house and light levels are high enough, my most probable course of action is going to be to crunch myself down into a minimal profile and swiftly cross in a straight line in front of the house (without straight up running and opening my profile back up) to avoid lateral movement and roll into prone on the other side in front of the fence. Then quickly low crawl around the corner before kneeling again.
It's a hypothetical of an extreme need-stealth situation but I've been in similar situations just trying to move across blocks and when any crossing can result in failure you take every precaution you can. Assuming of course that every other route is worse.
Let's paint a more probable scenario. You're moving along a fairly low risk area that's nearly a thieves highway but you need to move in front of an occupied building. You have two choices. Circle around it from farther away to allow lateral movement, or you may need to take an erratic path that consists of closing in to reach a point of cover, moving away again directly away from it to avoid lateral movement and do so until you reach another point of cover or can move laterally.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this, but I never see talked about anywhere. Probably because it's something only we would ever use because we're trying to absolutely maximize stealth. That, and we actually do this for real. I think any operator who's out long enough will develop this sense dynamically because when you're moving through new areas you need to adapt fast and it's just the logical way to go about it. Xanatos will recognize this habit from my weird route through the lower field below the castle at NOPCON.
Just something to consider, it's been a standard method of mine for years and it's probably helped me more than I'll ever know. As for judging everything, that's something you have to develop. Just observe. What's the light like? How far can you see? At what point do you think moving sideways would make you more visible? Who's likely to see you? That's the absolute most stealth way to pick your point A to point B routes. As tempting as it is to just get out of an opening as quickly as possible, sometimes a little trickery will pay huge dividends.