hmmm....for example ...imagine a big castle with guards patroling everywhere and you have to make your way to the vault or a private quarter (or whatever) to steal some documents or assassin somebody :toughninja: ...
if this castle has enough dark corners, doorways etc you should be able to manage this without being spotted...in other words... if a guard looks the other way or has moved around a corner I should be able to reach the next dark spot... when the guard returns he should not detect you even when he passes just a few feet away from your position...of course as long I am standing in the dark and do not move ....mabye as well depending on your sneak skills and other factors...
if this would will this way it could perfectly combined with mods like thieves arsenal...using water arrows and stuff..wohoo this really makes me excited :celebration:
also mods like near miss magic and shots aleart the target or fresh kills now aleart the npc will probably work fine with yours...
cheers
If you have a very high Sneak skill, what you described might be possible. You can also tweak the settings in the ini to get the results you want. Here are some features of the SDR mod that apply to what you are describing:
1. Lighting conditions.
- In vanilla oblivion, only the lighting on the player was taken into account.
- The hardcoe settings of this mod also factors in the lighting on the detector. If you are in a very dark spot, and not moving at all, and the detector is in a very bright spot, it will be very difficult for them to see you if they have a low Sneak skill. If the lighting level on both of you is about the same, it is fairly level, but the closer they get to you, the better chance they have of seeing you, multiplied by how much light is hitting the player.
2. Line of Sight (LOS)
There is also an option for bumps within close range. If the detector has line of sight, and gets within 6 feet, there is a bump. And another bump when they get within 4 1/2 feet. I ran some play tests in the training sewers, picking an area that had different levels of light close to each other, and picked a zone where I knew a rat would pass by and I would be in its LOS. In one test, I found a shadowy spot, and stayed motionless. The rat turned the corner and walked passed me. Same area, same light on me, still not moving, but several paces away and in the direct path of travel of the rat, and it spotted me. Rats have a pretty crappy sneak (8), so a more alert guard might have noticed me. But then in the test scenario, my character's sneak was about 15.
3. Penalties for any kind of movement.
Another thing to note is that I had the "make sound when turning" option on. It's about half the penalties of walking, but in close quarters with a target it makes a difference. In both scenarios above, when I turned and was within LOS, the rat spotted me. If I waited for the rat to pass by, I was able to turn. I could then sneak up behind it.
4. What you wear is very important.
Wearing a couple of pieces of heavy rusted iron armor (cuirass and greaves), was just barely doable when sneaking up from behind, but the moment I started to run while sneaking, the rat heard me and turned on me. In vanilla oblivion, I could be wearing a full suit of steel, and no shoes, and the rat would not have heard a thing. This mod penalizes you for everything that you wear, including regular clothing (although the penalties for regular clothing are fairly minimal).
5. Several skills make a difference.
My penalties for wearing heavy armor are offset by my Sneak skill mastery, as well as Heavy Armor mastery and Armorer mastery. The idea being is Sneaking is, well, sneaking. Heavy Armor is how well you move in it. And Armorer is a more esoteric addition, with the assumption that you use the skill to make minor modifications to the armor (padding, oiling, etc.) to make it quieter.
If you have 100 mastery in Sneak, Heavy Armor, and Armorer, you drop heavy armor penalties to 40%
If you have 100 mastery in Sneak, Light Armor, and Armorer, you drop light armor penalties to 20%
If you have 100 mastery in Sneak, clothing penalties are nullified.
I really dig the Thieves Arsenal, and had it in mind when I created this mod. Although I haven't tested them together, when I looked at the inner workings of TA, I didn't notice any code that would conflict. TA is quest/item based, and doesn't seem to modify any of the actual detection rules from what I could tell.
The SDR ini file has some built in descriptions of all the different features, effects, and recommendations. I am also working on .pdf manual that goes into greater detail on how the whole mod works. I may include these examples. I hope this helps to answer some of your questions. And let me know if you have more.