...most people wouldn't consider stealth and backstabbing an honorable tactic anyways.
Perhaps in real life.
I feel a little bad harping on this, but the way this game is set up - with auto-hostile NPC enemies and dungeons populated with hostiles only - there is nothing dishonorable about stealth kills.
My suggestion to make such a tracker useful is to reverse the following:
I decided that even if the NPC (animals and monsters excluded) is of an evil faction or considered "not murderable" then I will record a murder and/or assault by the player. I want to track the motives of the player.
I suggest reversing this decision, because including stealth kills on "not murderable" evil NPCs and one-hit kills on friendlies in the same list actually fails to track the "motives" of the player.
gothemasticator
EDIT: I posted the above before seeing your most recent post, Demolishun.
I could call the kill something else like Dishonorable, meaning the attacker was not faced on the open field. I would have to track separately from Murders though. Oh, I don't add these to the Oblivion Murder count either. These are completely tracked separately. It would not mess up Oblivion's statistics. I will still track Assaults (player started combat) and track these kills as Dishonorable, but not Murders if against evil factions. What it boils down to is tracking actions for bonus assessment base upon how one plays the game.
To make the tracker most useful, I would suggest doing away with moral judgement titles like "dishonorable" or "honorable" altogether. Perhaps somthing like this:
- Assassinations: One-shot kills of friendly NPCs
- Murders: Initiated lethal combat against friendly NPCs
- Stealth Kills: One-shot kills of hostile NPCs
- Battlefield Kills: Hostile NPCs killed after they initiated combat
As for your situation in the fort above, why do you have to kill everyone? I have snuck around dungeons before and had one or two enemies out of 5 or 6 initiate combat and dispatched them without the others knowing. Yes, there is something very satisfying about dispatching someone with a bow or sword for that x3 or x6 attack bonus. However, if you could sneak past them then why kill them? Or is your intent to "clear out" a dungeon of "evil doers" by becoming accuser, judge, and executioner? BTW, this is not a criticism of anyone's style of play or motives for playing.
Again, it's the difference between real life and the limited scope of the game design. Sure, it's a playstyle challenge to sneak past every hostile in an area, but there is no in-game recognition of any difference between that and clearing the area of hostiles. I don't have to become "accuser and judge," because the game has already accused and judged by setting the NPCs to evil factions and making them auto-hostile. With something like the above suggestion of categories, you can simply track different kinds of kills and let the player voluntarily create playstyle challenges for themselves. If someone wants to try to complete the game only committing Battlefiled kills, they can. If someone else wants to avoid Murders and Assassinations but is just fine with Stealth Kills, they can.
If there were well-execucted Flee, Parlay, Yield and Hail mechanics in Oblivion, a distinction between Honorable and Dishonorable would probably make great sense. Existing gameplay mechanics, though, don't allow for much moral subtletly.
BTW, I do really like your idea for the tracker. I'm just entering the discussion you initiated. Cheers!

gothemasticator