Do you think lighting will influence or factor into the stealth/detection system in Skyrim? If not, would you like for it to anyway?

In games I've played(Thief, Splinter Cell) that are designed for stealth gameplay, lighting is very important. If the player is near bright light sources or in full sunlight, they are easy to detect. Conversely, if the player is hiding in the shadows/darkness, they are much harder to detect. In my experience this type of system works well and encourages you to pay more attention to your surroundings. It could also make the difference between playing during daytime and nighttime(if outside) hours more interesting and meaningful. But there needs to be some kind of HUD indicator for the player to see how the lighting is effecting them. If I remember right, the Thief series used a dynamic lantern icon to indicate how much light the player was receiving.

Another feature that goes along nicely with this kind of stealth system is the ability to extinguish sources of light. In the Thief series, you could shoot magic water arrows at torches to put them out. And in the Splinter Cell series, you could shoot many lights out with a gun. I would also like to see a similar feature in Skyrim... perhaps with some kind of water based spell or enchanted arrows like in Thief?

I think(not 100%) that in the early stages of info they said that we had a shadow system for stealth. Can anyone corroborate?

Raibow six and other stuff was good, just short! I think it (the engine) should at least allow a different roll when the player carries a torch/steps in light etc...Your chance to succeed would be determined by those conditions and could be severly crippled by them (cue stealth-eye open and alert). I'm not for "non-diegetic" indicators, your character should be aware if its light/dark, I think the new eye system would include that anyway.

I could've sworn this had already been implemented in Oblivion. I though being away from light sources made you less "detectable"?

With a shadow system you could be near the light but hidden in the shadow of an object.

It was, just not good enough. I have no proof, but the proof is in the pudding. I tested it several ways. Unless you a master at sneak then if you are near or in light OR cast a spell (such as healing) that creates light, you are more likely to be detected. Although chameleon fixed this as well.

In my experience lighting and shadows did not have much effect in Oblivion. At least I never bothered paying any attention to the lighting.... but maybe my assumptions are wrong.

Indeed, I'm hoping this is what happens in Skyrim (lights not casting though statics).


No, I agree, the proof is indeed in the pudding.


If you were in the darkness, and had a pretty decent sneak level you would probably be alright. I don't remember what quest it was in Oblivion, but you had to replaces a guys medicine with poison and I remember being in the ruin and standing in a dark area and an Orc that was patrolling walked right in front of me in the dark (he was literally touching my character) and all he said was "what was that"? :teehee: that was such a hilarious moment (my sneak level couldn't have been above 30).

It was, but it may have been a fairly basic system, I'm not sure, what I am sure of is that having a light spell active while trying to sneak made me much more likely to be detected in the proccess. Obviously, though, light wasn't the only determining factor, your sneak skill was also still important, and of course, that will remain so in Skyrim, it's an RPG, after all, there are skills and these need to play a role in determining how well you can do things too.



Of course, in Oblivion that would have been irrelevent anyway since objects don't cast shadows... but maybe since that has changed in Skyrim, object shadows will also be factored into stealth, we'll see.