I think that amount of difficulty sounds ideal at level 1 but should become increasingly easier as you level.



I toyed with the idea of having different colored light spells. For instance you could have a red light spell that khajiits couldn't see because they can't see red. Or if you're an argonian you could have an infrared light spell that only argonians and certain creatures could see. Probably too difficult to work in though.

Finally, a use for calipers and tongs!



I felt like my chances of remaining undetected increased as my Sneak improved, but I suppose it could've been my imagination...

Yeah, like if it's a well-known rich family, they could have their ancestor's armor with their family crest on it and stuff. (This is skyrim, the rich people will most likely have pwn weapons/armor..)

probably one of the best stealth games ive played was "Tenchu" for those of you that have not heard of it its a feudal Japanese era game based on a almost extinct clan of ninja (only 2 full members remain) the only draw back to the game was horrible AI, but it did give a new lvl of detection. the gaol of every lvl was make it to a target and kill it. the target was usually guarded by many samurai or thugs. you could sneak through shadows, behind objects, against walls, and on top of buildings to get to your target and take down all guards on your way. there were several different stealth kills that were determined by your location to the unsuspecting guard/target. from behind you may do a quick headlock throat slit, or a neck snap. from the side one move i saw was elbow to the gut, grab sword arm and twist till it snaps, kick knee in breaking it, and when target hits the knees snap their neck, this all happened with 5 seconds.

anyways the detection lvls were shown a little sphere on the bottom left corner of the screen. green was undetected, purple with sound wave symbol was hearing you, yellow was spotted but the guard is unsure what they are seeing due to distance or lighting, orange was smell ( if you had to fight some one you could be covered in there blood and could then be smelt, also there were trash heaps and waste pits you could fall into giving you a scent as well) and red was full on alert youve been spoted and they know what you are. guards would attack you and yell for assistance. if other guards were within sound range they would come to aid. your only choice would be to stand and fight or loose them. the faulty AI though would tell guards to act normal after loosing you. no heighten alert status or anything.

Distraction,non-esper guards and re-hiding is essential IMO.
Not really stealth,but I'd also like a sleeping NPC to wake up when I smash his tableware in his face.