So. A defence, quite high up in Stealth, that makes you so sneaky that aggro mobs don't attack you. Can be turned on and off anytime, obviously. That's it. Thoughts?

I can see the point, but the first concern that comes to mind is guards. I don't think anyone wants to see a situation where anyone can blankly ignore guards without some major handicapping.

So, don't make it perfect. Something like a 3% chance of being noticed by an aggro mob per 'mob action tic'. Being attacked (by anyone/anything) drops the stealth. Attacking does not.

Give it an insurmountable drain. Enough so that no level of regen/skills/artis will overcome it. Or give it 'some' drain and disable all regen (natural or otherwise) of vitals while under its effects. In essence, make it so there's a significant reason not to keep it up constantly. If we make it mana or ego, do not require the mana or ego as fuel... just drain it. Hence, the stealther could find themselves at 0 mana or 0 ego while stealthing around. Sip if you want, but that's one more way you might get spotted. If it's endurance or willpower that's drained, it would have to be rather heavy drain in order to make up for the relative unimportance of those two in an immediate conflict.

Lastly, give it something like a 5 second eq to start and end (entering a stealthy mindset). If the stealth is forcibly dropped (by being attacked), a slightly shorter eq loss occurs. This allows guard clots to remain viable while single guards or single aggro mobs aren't nearly as likely to kill you before you walk away and re-stealth. It also creates a further incentive not to get caught stealthing around an enemy org - you'll face a sizeable initial disadvantage in a fight with the forced eq loss at the outset.

This still allows strategic stealth activity which, if done right, means you'll have that extra time at the end to turn it off. Get caught, and you're facing a fight while under the effects of a penalizing drain. And because it's not a 100% guarantee effect, it doesn't completely invalidate the need for caution on the player's part.

Stealthing at a tactical level (in the middle of a fight) would be harder to make successful use of, what with the lengthy start/forced stop times. But assuming it's part of a hit and run thing (stealth, go in, hit your mark), or you're using aggro mobs to put deterrence between you and someone following (get some distance, stealth, run through nasties)... I see interesting benefits from this.

Thinking that over a bit more, the eq-loss-on-being-attacked would seem to serve as sufficient deterrent against keeping it up constantly. Given that, I wouldn't think the need for a drain would be necessary.

I was actually thinking of mobs in all the bashing areas, not guards which I assumed would still work the same. But those are insteresting points, stealth should allow infiltration.

Isn't that the point of Stealth? I mean... really...

It does.

I take it you're not trans stealth yet.

In case you are missing the point from veri and sham...

Stealth does allow you to walk past guards and all.

This makes me just a weeee bit worried. I hope there's limitations of some sort, or else we're back to wars being fought within org (Prime city/commune) boundaries like there was back in early days. This is something that should be possible, but not made easy.

Vis?

I just haven't had the occasion to try out the skills. I understand Deepcover lets one fool the guards. That's cool.

I was thinking of having a skill that lets you run through, say, Astral with creatures not attacking. Just for aggro mobs. Should have eq and some standard mana cost for putting it up but none on disabling it, you could just attack and it would drop.

Yes, an ability that makes aggro mobs not attack you would be interesting to have.

Also:

Hiding:

HIDE

You must be sneaking. You will stop hiding if you do anything at all, including moving, curing and using any abilities other than eavesdrop, sign, infiltrate and veil. You can still use SAY, TELL and channels, as well as commands such as SCORE and HONOURS.

As long as you hide, you are completely undetectable, even through thirdeye. You can still be scryed normally or found through thirdeye and WHO. Uses of the Veil skill are invisible to others while you are hiding.

Can you be located with WHO when VEILING?
If yes, that sucks!
If no, HIDING and VEILING would make you completely undetectable, and I think that might be perceived as just too good by most (sweet in my biased opinion though).

And SAY couldn't work with HIDE, how do you imagine that?

Actually, I could see Says working more than I could any sort of signs. Someone hidden from sight could still be heard. But if you can't see a person, how can they communicate via signs which are a visual form of communication?

Verithrax not Vis

Signing only works with other Stealth users... so it would work unless you'd be invisible for other sneaks too, which I think was the intent actually... I just missed that in the sentence because it was not in UPPER CASE.
But SAYing is also weird, it'd be like Illusions or something. No man but a voice.

Veil has a hefty power cost, so there's an upper bound in how long you can stay doing it. And keep in mind you can do next to nothing while hiding.