I love the idea of playing a thief-type character. My favorite character in Oblivion was a thief. The challenge of being a less-skilled fighter and relying more on stealth, sneak attacks, poisons, and ranged attacks lends itself, in my opinion, to great fun.

What I would like to see implemented in Skyrim, is the ability to get away quicker and easier should you have the skills to do so. If I'm caught rummaging through someone's house looking for something to steal, I should be able at the very least to impede their ability to immediately run out and call for the guards. Maybe I run grab the person and tie them up, or maybe I throw something that ties their legs up and trips them, leaving them laying there while I make my escape. And should they make it out to a guard station, instead of having zero shot to physically defeat multiple guards, maybe I have some kind of smoke powder or smoke bomb that I pull from a pouch to create a huge cloud of disorienting smoke that will allow me the precious few seconds it would take for me to scale the nearest building and make an escape over the rooftops, or duck through a dark alleyway and disappear in the shadows or drop into a sewer.

There should be an art to running away, and I hope to see a few options that aid in that in Skyrim.

So you want to tie em up into a pretzel like in "You Dont Mess with the Zohan" LOL. Although your ideas are nice I think it would make it too much like Assassin's Creed

Hey, Im pro at running away in Assassins Creed(more fun than facerolling 10 guards with 1 button). But I think there should be things like being able to break LoS, where you could run around a corner and into a building to try and hide. Where the guards would then split up to search the area they last saw you(similar to AC, GTA, or some NSF games). Nothing like actual hiding spots or anything, just some more advanced AI.

Edit: If you were to barge in to someones house and theyre there maybe they call out for the guards or something, and itd be cool to have backdoors and windows so you can lead a chase through houses and stuff >.>

Precisely like Assassin's Creed, that's what I want my thieves and assassins to play like. That is the essence of a stealth character. The more like Assassin's Creed the stealth characters play like, the better.

I think we should get rid of swords because they're also too much like Assassin's Creed.

Uh, no. Game developers should steal be inspired by successful aspects of other games. Assassin's Creed does this well. BGS should take a couple of pointers from them.

maybe we will see a freestyle type running system similar to Brink? :hubbahubba:

the art of running away?
like cap'n jack sparrow?

Ability to develop extra skill at running away would be best implemented through perks IMO

Kill before they see you. No need to run away, for they will run from you. A bloodthirsty warrior or fearsome mage is terrifying, but a predatory assassin who's work is just a passing word is more terrifying than any person. The warrior can be killed. The mage can be killed. The the idea that any moment you could die, that if you let your guard down it would be that last thing you do-- that's the kind of fear an assassin can command. The idea of the murderer will be more terrifying that the murderer himself.

How about an invisibility spell or potion?

I too love to play a stealth character (not big on stealing though, so more of a Ranger type). And I like the ideas you put forth, but I just think when you add those to the game, the Thief character might become a bit too-overpowered. But I'd love to be proven wrong!

Those sound like pretty cool ideas... assuming the Guard doesnt have a pre-established psychic link with every non-criminal citizen of skyrim like they did in Cyrodil.

Also alert statuses would be nice for bandits or what else.

Unaware: Say a bandit is in calm level 0 status just talking or resting and doing regular bandit day to day bandit things like fixing his armor or counting his loot or swapping stories.

Cautious: But if you make a noise or show motion he will be on aweareness and caution. And may or may not look around for whatever made the noise or just be more alert and walk around a bit. May or may not get other fellow bandits to help find out about the disturbance.

Alert: If you made a good show that someone is there he will begin searching definately or call for his gang to help search.


This isn't the actual sneak status of you just the status of Alertness of the gaurds/bandits.

Not really pointers. Most games are interrelated with aspects and ideas they got from other games. Assassin's Creed has aspects that were inspired from TES series so it only stands that TES should have aspects inspired by AC and so on. No one is "stealing" from someone else because there are some games that wouldn't exist if TES didn't (not saying Assassin's Creed wouldn't but it would be missing some of it's best aspects though) just like TES wouldn't exist, at least not in it's current form if it didn't get some of it's inspiration from D&D and Ultima that they added to their amazingly revolution ideas which has made TES the benchmark for RPGs.

Smoke bombs or similar illusion magic would be nice.

Well I'm sure they'll do something, since they're adding a sprint to the game (woo!)

I would like to see this happening:
Every start of a new battle, you have ~2 seconds boost in running speed to get away. Boost is based on the number of investment into related perks.

My main gripe is that once you are spotted you can't hide again. If I'm in a dark dungeon and I'm seen by a bandit, I should be able to run away and re-hide in a dark place.

They have confirmed that stealth is improved and you can sneak back into the shadows. So don't fear

Bah, you're all going after the wrong vein. This is where Speechcraft finally has a chance to shine!

Ah! What are you doing in my house?

1) checking the meter
2) looking for a contact
3) sorry, wrong house
4) was following your wife
5) hiding from your wife
6) hiding from MY wife
7) here, take my wife, please!
8) *baffles owners mind with Kirk's Green Egg's and Ham routine, but uses actual Oblivion dialogue*
9) had a report fo some scamps in here
10) I was told to meet the Grey Fox here
11) I'm a landshark
12) *chewbacca defense*

@rumblyguts:
Lol at "Hiding from MY wife" - anything you want to share?

I think evasion is key. It won't happen that we get intel on our targets so we can make a judgment call there and then. Being able to evade sounds to me like better gameplay than getting slaughtered (*all* the time).

The essence of a stealth character...is not to get caught. A lame master of sneak you are if they catch you stealing.

I don't want to bash your thread,but I have seen so many people demanding stuff that in my opinion would really destroy the way this game plays. I had a few ideas of my own for Oblivion and decided to check out how mods are made. Bethesda even provided the community with a really nice tool and it is a shame not to use it. So instead of asking,try making. It's more fun trust me.

The point is, any character can use those, even a warrior. So the greatest thief was a warrior who turned himself invisible.. Great.

If smoke bombs are in, it should be a perk for characters with big sneak skill, a perk that lets you craft smoke bombs. Otherwise warriors would use it too. And mages.

Well, since there isn't really archclasses anymore, anyone can advance in any skills...



True about not getting caught. But one of a snipers (pretty much a stealth character, wouldn't you say?) main concerns is the escape route.