The ninja perk doesn't really give them a huge boost either unless you dump all your points into it. In this game I wonder if going up the luck tree and using critical attacks would ultimately be more effective in pure damage output. If I could reroll with a new build I'd only take intelligence high enough to get "gun nut" and go higher in luck and take the "idiot savant" perk for experience and perhaps go for critical hits. I'm not a big fan of "banking" criticals... or telling the game when I want to use them. Critical hits should be random, based on dumb luck and where the shot lands.... I've found the VATs system to be rather hit or miss as well... shots in vats that supposedly have an 80% chance to hit and missing 3 out of 5 of them happens more often than it should... or having a 60% chance to hit and missing all 5.... maybe my perception at 5 is the problem?

Science is needed for some gun mods and for energy weapons though... I haven't played enough of the game to decide if the tradeoff in intelligence would be worth it yet... if I'd be happy without the "science" perk.

I have found Critical Attacks extremely useful for very long range sniping. No matter what your percentage chance to hit in VATS is, if you trigger a critical attack, the attack will always hit. So you can make insanely long distance headshots from stealth by using that.

Stealth is working well, it is just no longer the Overpowered tactic it was before.

- enemies have good hearing so walk from time to time

- enemies may shoot at you even if they did not see you yet. That is because they can guess where the shoot came from and are shooting in your direction. However, as long as you are not detected they will not rush at you because they are still unsure if you are really there

- they don't become oblivious of your existence once the Hidden flag returns. They are now more sensitive to sound and suspicious events and may not calm down as soon if they get alerted again... well, this is based on my own observations (this is even hinted in-game as if multiple enemies searched for you, one will often say that they can rest now while the other will disagree and say that they should stay alert)

- try to get Compressor mods. You don't want them to hear your gunshoots, do you now?

- most interiors are filled with lights. Keep that in mind

- don't let a spotlight see you. If you see it, gun it down

- Motolov Cocktails might be better than Frag Granades for stealth kills as they explode immediately

- use mines

I rarely use VATS. Especially at long range I feel it's useless it's. Many times I'll snip at range and hit (usually killing the mob) where VATS would miss.

But closer, especially fast moving targets like the various flying bugs, I use VATS then.

Your experience is about like mine. I don't have any points in the stealth perk but I do have fairly high agility. I run pretty much all stealth mods on my armor (metal, combat, synth). While enemies can hear me they often can't find me very easily if I'm in the shadows. At a distance I can engage in combat and get a number of sneak attacks while in caution without a silenced weapon. In this state the enemies seem to just be shooting in a general direction and I usually don't take much damage from their fire. If I'm in doors a silenced weapon does help but I often don't stay in the caution zone very long. I would expect adding to the stealth perk would help my indoor encounters.

I don't know if stealth is broken, it just feels different from previous Bethesda titles. There have been a few times where enemies have been almost in front of me and haven't seen me. It could be that the stealth mods on armor are very important. Maybe the stealth perk mainly affects your stealth detection while sneaking AND moving? And armor mods help more when you are still?

I had exactly that same fight and order of events last night before bed.

I liked that they could only fire wildly in my general direction because I was hidden so they didn't know exactly where I was.

Luck 10 build here, can confirm that the luck perks are extremely good for burst damage and crit builds. I use the crits to roll over legendary enemies on Survival, banking is not even needed except for the big bosses. Crits accuracy is 100% so you can start off a tough fight with a nice headshot from far away and then build up another two or three crits during the fight.

I've found the VATs system to be rather hit or miss as well... shots in vats that supposedly have an 80% chance to hit and missing 3 out of 5 of them happens more often than it should... or having a 60% chance to hit and missing all 5.... maybe my perception at 5 is the problem?

Science is needed for some gun mods and for energy weapons though... I haven't played enough of the game to decide if the tradeoff in intelligence would be worth it yet... if I'd be happy without the "science" perk.

Hi im from the future. I can tell you that Science is needed for high tier mods in combination with Gun Nut or Armorer. Which means that if you only take one of those you'll miss out on the very best mods. So it's up to you whether you want to take INT that far. And the problem of shots not hitting in VATS despite showing high accuracy % is because your target is still moving during the slow mo, and probably ducked behind and obstacle causing your shot to miss. If you pay attention to line of sight you should be able to avoid situations like these.

How are you going to sneak up and put a mine or grenade in an enemies pocket? That made for some good times in fallout. The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. movies even shows with enough points in it you can walk up to the bad guys and take stuff and plant mines on them. So what do we have to do to get this then?

1.) You need multiple ranks in the Pickpocket Perk.

2.) You need ranks in the Sneak Perk.

3.) You need light or no armor.

4.) You need to be alone. No companions to blow your cover.

5.) You need to TURN OFF always run, and WALK while sneaking.

6.) You need to stay out of areas of bright light.

7.) You need to stay out o the enemy's line of sight.

8.) You need to watch where you are walking and not knock a tin can around, or any other junk that might make noise.

9.) Be patient, move slowly, and stop often.

10.) Profit.