yes of course.
imagine you are in dark cave, looking for hidden treasures, then suddenly battle music starts playing. you try to look around, but there are nothing but wall caves and mushroom. you try to move forward, and you encountered a mudcrab. you kill it, and suddenly something hit you from behind. you turn back and there's nothing, but you still get hit from behind. you try to use detect life spell or light spell then suddenly a monstrous dark figure appeared. . .

That's a good idea. And It could work where you have to wach your back since the dark brotherhood could try to kill you. As an example.

I remember in Fargoth's quest in Morrowind, he'd sneak over to his hidden stash in the middle of the night. It was quite disappointing that no NPC ever used sneaking again after that scripted encounter.

I actually agree. I don't think the PC should have to watch their back constantly unless they have sufficient cause. Something along the lines of: pissing off the dark brotherhood, invading a bandit filled dungeon, walking around in the dark in areas with heavy Thieves guild activity.

The only downside to this would be being instantly killed and having to reload when you hadnt saved in awhile. Dont know about anyone else but I already feel like I have to quick save to much already and this would just make me paranoid into doing in more often ( which is I why I dislike the whole " You died , Reload " aspect of TES anymore ).

Oblivion never really had stealth based NPCs, and with good reason. It was easy to stealth attack a static NPC who had a certain awareness level and such, but we're a real person and it's much harder to figure out how to decide whether we're 'detecting' them or not. There would be a very fine line between constantly dying from stealth NPCs and never dying from them. So I've given it some thought, and I think I have, at least a primitive, solution.

Basically, all the sneak level on an NPC would do is alter the volume of his/her footsteps. When sneaking, they will not go into "battle mode (loud music)" and if they hit you it will be considered a sneak hit (oh, actually, that's the other thing their sneak skill will affect). Basically, to 'detect' them, you have to turn around so that they are within a certain radius of the centre of your view (which would be a smaller region than your default view so you don't detect them if they're in your peripheral vision) and then they will no longer get the multiplyer. They would also be designed to never really give you one hit kills (Let's just say they svck at headshots), always leaving at LEAST a tiny bit of health (though it would vary greatly how much health exactly)so that you have a chance to survive. Also, these NPCs would have to be positioned only in dungeons and quiet wilderness areas, so you can't be killed because you didn't notice one person in a busy city amongst the millions of footsteps.

What do you think?

Agree then with the health bit, maybe the health you would have lost comes off stamina. Bit forced, but keeps the game going. Only problem is, in a dungeon with sneaking/backstabbing thieves, the mage with detect life just won't be challenged at all, but I suppose that's inevitable, and just tough luck for anyone else..

Detect lifeshould probably be a bit more costly. Not to mention that I am hopinh your magicka regen is slower in Skyrim, so you must use it more sparingly. But yeah, it will make things easier for mages, but only in that you'll be able to notice them easier. You can't see the purple glow from behind you. Maybe having a high sneak skill should have a perk to louden the footsteps of sneaking NPCs, as if you are "more adept" at noticing it while sneaking.

there was an essential must have mod for morrowind that did just that called Horatios npc mod. it would give a chameleon effect to npcs and get them to sneak up on you. i cant describe the difference it made when i went into the darkbrotherhood headquarters in tribunal after i installed that mod. i was actually ambushed on several occasions because i didnt see them standing in some shadow or in front of a dark rock. it was awesome. i dont recall anything similar for oblivion which is a shame cause it was a great morrowind mod. im just glad that it didnt give the sneak modifier damage boost as well cause i would have been dead on a couple of occasions. :teehee:

I don't think it would be a sneak attack by the NPC, because we can see them as soon as they move into our vision. But unexpected appearances/attacks with damage multiplier by an enemy who had only just spawned would be good too (like in that Dungeons of Ivellon mod)

It is 100% possible to code certain enemy AI to only approach you from behind, or otherwise try to avoid getting into your line of sight. It is just the opposite of what they do with detecting the player; they can only see you if you are within a certain detection range and facing their eyes. So have sneaky enemies who try to go behind you and always try backstabs is not bad a concept.

The AI doesn't need to be perfect; it just needs to be good enough to keep you on your toes, to force you to look behind yourself in paranoia, and to only be able to stab you if you really got complacent. Even detect-life won't help much if they approach you from the back.

I don't think it would be a sneak attack by the NPC, because we can see them as soon as they move into our vision. But unexpected appearances/attacks with damage multiplier by an enemy who had only just spawned would be good too (like in that Dungeons of Ivellon mod)