Stealth/scouting mechanics

[Spivo]

Playing a rogue as main, and really enjoying the micromanagement.

Not playing as ranged, and don't mind not having optimal build etc...

I don't really mind the whole "combat breaks stealth" system, because I have always had a distaste for non-magical invisibility.

I would not mind having stealth being broken upon detection and/or attacking/casting/using skills, but it's not game breaking for me.

 

But there are one thing that really bug me about stealth/scouting.

 

My rogue have 6 stealth, and yet my wizard at 0 stealth gets uncovered roughly at the same speed as my rogue? I mean, the difference is maybe 1 second.

Not talking about the "combat breaks all stealth", but that the yellow circle fills at the same rate.

Many enemies uncover my rogue within 1-2 second of the circle filling, making backstab near impossible.

 

Skills like Mechanics/Lore gets a much much higher return on investment. The highest lock I have seen so far needed level 3 mechanics + lockpicks.

And yet my stealth which I've invested 15 more points in only works as a scouting tool.

On top of that, finding hidden stuff, including traps, is tied to mechanics and not stealth? Further more making stealth rather redundant.

 

As a conclusion, stealth skill seems to be either broken or very weak.

[Purudaya]

This is my biggest problem with PoE. There's no reason - either mechanically or logically – that my 9 stealth rogue should be discovered just because my 0 stealth wizard is. I think we can say from a purely objective standpoint that this makes no sense whatsoever.

 

Luckily, the other rogue mechanics are so fun that they mostly make up for it. Still, I miss having a viable backstab...

[Krozjin]

I haven't tried to stealth around yet, so this is very helpful information to know. I'll probably try it out a bit probably, but if it is as you say, then I will probably not focus on it at all, at least for now.

[Lord Wafflebum]

Agreed, stealth is too punishing. I can't imagine every living thing is that perceptive. Hopefully it gets better balanced in a patch. If nothing else, one of the devs mentioned during the beta they were planning on fleshing out the stealth system better for the expansion

[Osvir]

The enemies don't have a Facing Detection, but rather have a Circular Detection Radius around them. If they did, then perhaps it would be better and easier to tune as well, but creating Facing values and vision cones for enemies are probably hard work for the developers.

Sequel will probably have way better Stealth. Rogues have Shadowing Beyond though though, you have to start the combat phase to activate it...

[Malignacious]

Sequel will probably have way better Stealth. 

Why shouldn't they fix the main game?

[Osvir]

Sequel will probably have way better Stealth. 

Why shouldn't they fix the main game?

 

Why make sequels?

 

EDIT: For clarification. I believe that some mechanics in Pillars of Eternity will be better patched, balanced, tweaked as best as they possibly can. But at some point they are going to work on sequels and therein probably improve on a lot of mechanics as well, and perhaps even use better techs and learn Unity even more (and Unity itself will improve based on Developer feedback, over time).

Edited April 1, 2015 by Osvir