I was finally able to get a silenced sniper rifle for my stealthy wanderer. However, much to my dismay, it seems that the silencer does very little. I want to be able to pick enemies off without them knowing about it but it seems every time I take one down another enemy (who would not have noticed the shot/kill) instantly goes on alert.

I found a silenced pistol that does the same and alerts other enemies.

I've noticed this as well no matter what I am using. Silenced sniper rifle or silenced pistol, it always goes to cautious. It's not too bothersome, as you can still pick off plenty of them with a sneak crit and they still can't spot you, they just remain alerted. Sometimes even go back to hidden shortly after or if I wait long enough.

And it make sense. If someone next to you get down with a bullet in his head, even if you don't hear, you still would be nervous and cautioned

Maybe he heard body hitting the ground? Imagine you are raider quietly patrolling perimeter and suddenly hear the sound of someone falling to the ground - of course you are going to investigate. At least I hope its realism and not a bug.

It seems like the silencer makes it so that they don't know where the shot was fired from

Please don't take this the wrong way as I see what both of you all are saying and it makes sense. I've thought about that. But trying to justify what happens by saying that the enemy would be alerted if they heard a body hit the ground implies that the AI is aware and smart. When we play with AI that can watch five of their buddies get blasted, look for someone for two minutes and then proceed to go back and sit down on a lawn chair with his friends' dismembered bodies scattered all around him. Ha. It can't work both ways.

Silenced weapons work wonders of you have Perks that boost damage.

The problem is if they don't care, everyone complains about stupid raiders, if they - like in reality - would be in permanent alert after first dead is discovered and search everything, everyone will complain because stealth isn't possible anymore (at least in this mechanics) so they have to find a way in between.

This is exactly why you should be able to sneak kill more effectively, hide bodies, plan your attack, etc. If you shoot someone when he's standing right next to a buddy, he should not at any time soon resume what he was doing. He should take cover, call for backup if possible, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHbF9ynGZV0is one of my favorite satirical videos of a Bethesda game I've ever seen. Hilarious.

^ that video is [censored]in funny! ^

And honestly they do, if ya facing high level raiders, or more organized factions like the gunners, they will even use flush tactics like blind fire and grenades if you snipe from the same spot to much.

Main problem is, that stealth kills done in melee range (e.g. knife to the throat) also puts all others on alert, even on different floors in buildings. Understandable if they were in radio contact or some such, but they are not. That said, stealth killing is still very viable with ranged weapons. If done from a long range, you will get your hidden status back almost immediatly (or if having 4th perk in sneak, just stand up and back to sneak) And most often, they will only be on cautious, which doesn't eliminate chance of stealth killing....Unless ofc, your possible companion doesn't decide to hop out in the open, in which case, your cover will get blown more often when they turn to that direction. (Bethesda, a hint: sort companions please!)

Maybe they were going toward the realism path in this game mechanic. This isn't Hollywood. Putting a silencer on a gun doesn't silence it.

I think some people are forgetting about "time compression" in the game.

So, if you "silently" snipe, and kill, a camp guard the other guards will go on alert, yes.

But, where some people say "they are only alert for a few minutes" you have to keep in mind that those "few minutes" are actually closer to an hour in "game time".

So, to me at least, it seems pretty reasonable.

It would really svck to have to snipe one guard and wait an actual "real-world" hour for them to go back to their normal patrols.

Yeah, they're more accurately called suppressors and require subsonic rounds to work with full efficiency.

But yeah, the combat AI has been greatly improved, taking a page from Dawnguard and adding to that as well.

From tv tropes:

Despite some odd pathfinding issues, enemy A.I has been greatly improved from previous games. Shootouts no longer consist of NPC's standing in the open like a firing squad; gun wielding enemies will take cover, flank, and retreat to heal themselves, and now know how to pin you down with suppressive fire. Raiders are also quite liberal in the use of grenades, flushing you out of cover and preventing camping strategies that were common in previous games. However, human A.I isn't the only thing that has been improved. Mutated animals such as Wild Mongrels will attempt to circle the player while in combat, and Deathclaws are now intelligent enough to weave to the sides to dodge gunfire. Feral Ghouls, instead of serving as shambling bullet catchers, are now flailing, erratic, and extremely aggressive adversaries. In cases where the enemy is incapable of finding its way to you (such as Deathclaws being unable to climb a truck), they will retreat to cover and stay there until you either manage to shoot them from another angle (which makes them retreat even further) or come down to ground level, which renders you vulnerable to attack once more.

Enemies will eventually wise up to the direction of incoming sniper fire, even with a suppressor. Remain hidden without relocating and a group of enemies may start firing blindly in your direction in hopes of forcing you to reveal your location, before moving up to sweep the area. Some raiders can be armed with missile launchers or even a fat man, which do a great job of forcing snipers to relocate one way or the other.

Rule of thumb: The smarter, better trained, more elite the foe, the more clever the tactics they can use.

When I finally managed to craft my silencers, worked fairly well, they know something is up but don't know where from, Caution on screen. Without I had to finish off the 2or3 left, up close and mobby, when they all rushed my [censored], why Dogmeat my buddy, ok my packmule buddy

Managed to kill all ghouls in co-op with a silenced 10mm fully modded without recharging once. Went in while they where asleep and just took them out one house at a time. Sometime disn't even wake the other ones in the same house. My first legendary kill was in 1 of those houses. So silencers work IMO.

Did get carpet bombed while sneaking in a wharehouse though, don't really understand what the hell happened but I do run like a rabbit when I hear incoming field artillry, now

The enemies are smarter in F4, it's no longer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHbF9ynGZV0

You can snipe from a long range without silencer, or from closer range with a silencer. Enemies still figure out that someone must have shot the bullet that killed the guy.

Suppressors do little for me. I have two weapons now with suppressors and both still alert the others and cause the same chaos the louder variants do. I have to wonder if that's not a bug.

People really need to understand how the Hidden system works. There is not much difference between [Hidden] and [ Caution ], but there is lots of difference between [Caution] and [ Caution ]. Stealth is all about patience so waiting for [Caution] to drop to [ Caution ] is far safer than letting [Caution] to change into [Danger].

No, no bugs. Well, no more than usual
With a silenced pistol you can take out an enemy without anyone else noticing if no one sees the victim die. With a non-silenced weapon they would react to the sound even if they couldn't see it.

Doesn't seem to be that useful for sniper rifles, though it does give you more time before they find you.

IMO caution shouldn't revert back to hidden so easily, it'd be better if the caution status lasted longer. not a few seconds.

Like the changes from Danger to Caution lasts a whole lot longer than Caution to Hidden.

IMO There should be a yellow cautious which works as it does now for noise and misplaced items, while a red cautious if people are getting hurt or damaged.

I might be a bit purturbed about my books being misplaced, but I'd be on alert for hours on end if I got shot in the leg or a friend got killed.

Silencers seem to be working as apparently intended for some people but not for others.

If I use one at 200 yards, single shot, everybody comes running straight at me.

I know someone else who did the same thing at the same place, and while everyone went on alert and ran around, they didn't run straight at him.

Some people seem to have a lot more *technical* problems than others, consistently.

They can detect the bullet whizzing past or hitting a nearby structure. If you miss, they usually know they were just shot at.

If you land it anyways, the sound of a person dying from any sort of projectile is quite audible.

This actually is what used to happen in the previous Fallout stealth mechanics. For reference, it made stealth impossible because you always had to kill people out in the open without any real control about where they died. In other games where you can hide bodies, there are genuine AI mechanics (and lore, because security works that way, but unorganized beasties don't) in place to allow for that type of stuff. It's actually doable. But in Fallout, ruins are tight-knit and it's not uncommon for them to be in pairs.