So I know everyone is kind of aware of the way things work in stealth in Skyrim. You sneak into some dark corner, fire your arrows and kill them quickly right? After firing that first arrow your targets will inevitably begin a 20 sec search for you, but without lighting up any torches or using candlelight spells how could they possibly expect to find you? Then when the search is over your target pretends that the arrow that just shot him was just his imagination or just sits there asking for another arrow in his backside. I would like to see bethesda expand on this.

I would recommend adding alert levels to the game of stealth. When someone gets shot by an arrow they should light up torches and cast candlelight/magelight all over the place. After that they should immediately approach the spot where you shot the arrow at with torches in hand of course. When the search is over, they will be alerted to your presence and guards start patrols around the dungeon which will be alert status one. After the next search for you ends alert status 2 begins which will now include guard patrols with torches and actively casting candlelights and magelights. After next search, alert status 3 begins which deal with guards running instead of walking and placing lights around the area.

Alert Status:
Alert status 1: All guards begin patrols with a slightly faster walk.
Alert status 2: All guards patrol faster with torches, candlelights and magelights
Alert status 3: All guards will now run instead of walking fast, constantly looking for you.

In Oblivion I know certain dungeons with guards that had torches would walk around making it hard for sneakers. You have to wait and predict the guards patrol route then react accordingly. Depending on the kind of dungeon your in determines the difficulty of evading sight. Close-quarters would obviously prove to be very difficult. And open dungeons probably should'nt bother you too much. Adding these traits could definitely improve the game of stealth in Skyrim. Please comment below and tell me what you guys think.

Its a nice idea if it operated under the hood and the guards gave a quick examination of the dead bodies and prepared themselves accordingly. I would also like to hear them converse with each other about what they found from the examination and their plans as they're looking for me.

And then they find you and bam! You stand up then crouch again and everyones like "Whaa?! Where'd he go!?... I must be hearing things". Then poof!

I like your idea.

I use arrows from stealth more for misdirection than a killshot, but I still like this idea. It gives Skyrim a sort of "Metal Gear Solid" feel and adds to the immersion

Part of the problem is the arrows are not lethal enough. Put an arrow in someone's eye and they should die. If there is someone else around to see it happen, then fine, start looking for the archer.

This all depends on your level and gear.

If you use magic or potions to disappear, I think it would be really cool if the enemies recognized that and acted accordingly. They could put their backs to the wall to prevent you from sneaking behind them, and scattering things on the floor to see if you hit them when you walk by. Mages should spam spells trying to hit you as well.

Thank you! I like ur imagery.

They already do this to a degree. Stealth and archery is how I play so I have run into this quite frequently. When I let loose they immediately come to spot I shot them from. But usually my stealth bonus damage takes them out, but there are stronger enemies that have gone to the place I shot them from and looked for me prompting me to leave and hide.

If guards are going to immediately go to the area where the shot came from, why have sneak/skills? And how do they know where the shot came from? The game/computer will have to tell them, and then what's the use of sneaking/skills? And what If I let go of the arrow and immediately move 10 or more feet and then stand still? Will the game tell them I moved, so they can follow me?

I normally only use 1 arrow in a contract/any type of killing (my character is an assassin).

If you're having to shoot more than one arrow, I suggest you get busy smithing your bow, put some good enchants on it, and maybe purchase some poison.

In theory this may sound good, but it leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

When an arrow is fired it takes flight. Hypothetically speaking if I'm wearing leg armor and get shot in my thigh and feel the contact with my back turned and did not see the arrow my first guess would be to look behind me. Based on where it hit my thigh I could narrow down the angle and get a general idea of where I was shot. Don't need to be a physics professor to know where you're taking an arrow from.

Anything must be better than an enemy with an arrow through their head saying, "It must have been my imagination."

Part of the problem with sneak is that enemies give up the search too quickly. If you shoot, then retreat to a safe enough distance, an enemy who looks like a pincushion will act like they're hearing things and not seem to notice that they're full of arrows.

Not really. The AI of Skyrim is dumb. It certainly needs a revamp.

Your not making much sense at all. If I was shot by an arrow (in Skyrim) then I would look at the direction it came from which would be determined by the angle of the shot it came from. If it is shot behind me and its a perfectly straight arrow, then I would know that the archer is just straight ahead behind me. If he is not there then I would at least light the place up to see where he is at. These are dark dungeons you're exploring and if the guards have common sense they would light it up so you can see they're surroundings. Also it takes more than one arrow to kill most enemies in-game unless you have a mod or are backed up by lots of arrow enchantments so I'm not really sure what questions would be unanswered. Im just looking at the game realisticly...

i think this is a great idea , and i noticed this last night when i was playing .
DanielMitchel you are on to something here
i hope bethesda see's this topic .

I really like this idea, just make sure that after 20 minutes or so, they will think you left or something

I hope so too. Seriously, I love Skyrim and would love to see it rise to new heights.

I'd prefer it if they NEVER came out of suspicion if you attacked them. It kills my immersion hard when I shoot someone in the face and after 25 seconds of looking for me they say it must have just been the wind/their imagination. NO. Keep looking for me. Make me a better sneak by having to evade you.

Awesome idea. Unfortunately, Beth is too busy with Kinect shouts.

If you get shot in the head with an arrow and die, other guards can easily deduce where the shot came from. If you were facing north and you have an arrow to the back of the head, other guards can see your body and immediately deduce that it came from behind you, narrowing down your direction. So if you move ten feet to a different room, the guards won't know. But they will know that it came from the general direction in which the arrow was ORIGINALLY shot from.

For sneaking skills, if you don't attack, then the sneak skill will determine whether or not you're seen. Sneak will basically work the same way as it had before. If you have a high sneak and you shoot the arrow, you'll have a much higher chance of leaving the area undetected.

I'd also like to see disguises implemented that have to do with the sneak skill. If you wear Stormcloak armor for example, you can walk amongst regular Stormcloaks. Commanders and Ulfric Stormcloak will be able to see through that disguise but regular soldiers won't. That would be nice with the system that the original poster is suggesting.

Someone modded this already so it's certainly possible. Your success at using disguises is detrmined by your sneak skill. I love this idea and it's genius because it's more immersive.

Well I would love to see that on console...

Bumping back up...

hm I would do it slightly differently, instead of guards increasing the search level for how many times they get shot, I would decrease the search level over time. First, it begins like the regular guard search for however much time the guards usually search for you (lets say 30 seconds, because I am not sure how much time exactly do vanilla guards give up the search for you). Okay, so they do vanilla search for 30 seconds, then they go to alert status 3 for 30 sec, then to 2 for 30 sec, then to 1 for 30 seconds, that would be two minutes of real time and one hour of game time (think MGS with the alert, evasion, and caution phases). After 1 hour, I think the guards would just assume you left the area.

Oh, and if you shoot a second arrow, they add another 30 seconds, so it would be a total of 4 minutes of search time (real life) 2 hours (game time), if you shoot a third arrow, the individual search times is 90 seconds, for a total of 6 minutes search time, or 3 hours game time.

yes, exactly.

anyone remember the famous oblivion line, when a gaurd finds a dead body. "the body is still warm, the killer must be near" then he draws sword.

but of course, imperial gaurds were ninja in oblivion and you could be ontop of a roof in the middle of no where, kill some one, then *bam* gaurd pops out of no where "stop right there criminal scum!"