While there can be great satisfaction from making a long (or VERY long) range shot that would in reality kill a target literally seconds before they even were able to hear the shot, if the "sniping" mechanics in this (or any other) game were to be even a little more true to life, players would very likely be beefing on how boring it is and switch to melee or close-combat weapons like shotguns.

As it is now, the game offers a pretty fair trade of realism for action. Momaw is right about the easy part, but the issue isn't so much the shooting mechanic as it is the short-bus AI that allows you to shoot the middle guy in a group of 3, drop him at his buddies' feet, and they still stand there smoking cigarettes (or glitching into a wall...)

So you people wanna turn RPG set to non realistic world where you are supposed to kill completely unrealistic creatures into completely realistic sniper simulation? hehe

Actually in this game the NPC's do react. Almost as if the game had the "Responisive Kill Reactions" mod for Fallout 3 in it... With long range sinping the only difference it makes is that you have to wait longer to get another sneak attack, but indoors it does make a difference.

Haven't seen it happen yet then... But, if true, that is a step in the right direction. The ability of "sneak" to work should be proportionately less the closer you are to any particular target. Indoors is a no brainer, because pretty much any shot fired will be well within an NPC's "active range", as opposed to long outdoor shots, where you can score kills from outside of it.

It might help (or really annoy people) if creatures/NPCs were designed to be invulnerable unless their AI is in an active state. Or better yet if the game was designed so that any creature/NPC that was rendered was automatically in an active state.

This. In NV the NPCs are not nearly as brain dead as they are in FO3. They're still pretty stupid when under long ranged sniper fire.

On the other hand it would also svck if the NPCs reacted the same way as the original Ghost Recon. Snipe one, at max render distance, the all his buddies instantly knew where the shot came from and emptied their AK-74s right at that exact spot. Normally killing the sniper right there before he had a chance to move to a new position.

Well for most indoor areas, any gunshot (unless highly suppressed) would be audible, as the sound would echo throughout the room and NPCs would react to it. If the shot was suppressed, they would hear a big thump and wonder what the deuce made that noise, and investigate appropriately. Buuuut that would involve a level of design detail - map, sound, AI - that would probably drive any sane game dev completely off of his rocker.

The same holds true, though less complicated, for outdoor areas. Stuff still echoes across spaces, and the stillness of the wasteland would only make gunshots even more audible.

What both of these ideas fail to include are ambient sounds, masking the sound the player makes. The only game I've ever played that had that was Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. There was one mission that took place during a thunderstorm - you could time your shots right after a thunderclap and guards wouldn't know you were there, based on sound. All over the game - in huge boats, patrol outposts, etc. - if there was a loud racket in a fully lit room, as long as you stayed low and behind your targets, you could get away with a lot of stuff.

Until the noises stopped!