How can stealth and stealth detection be improved in elder scrolls?

Tasear

How to do you currently feel about stealth in eso?

How do you want to interact with stealth in gameplay?

If you could create new skills for dark brotherhood or thieves guild what would you do?

Is there anything you would take from other games and add to eso in regards to stealth?



...
So my personal thoughts is to add new group event to thieves guild zone that deals with hide and go seek, real scouting missions,

jainiadral

Not a fan in this game, honestly.

Where I've liked stealth: SWTOR as a class skill for Operative, Jedi Shadow, Sith Assassin. There, it was a combat skill that could be used tactically to manage the flow of combat and/or sneak past trash. You could stun enemies before combat began, use the skill to disengage, etc. It made combat more engaging, and less like a reflex-fest. Also in both KOTORs and Dragon Age: Origins, for making combat more tactical, and enabling scouting. Heck, playing bow-sniper in Skyrim was fun.

Here, it's more of a game mechanic than a combat skill. That feels unfortunate, and like a missed opportunity. Stealth in combat is a lot of fun. But as a mechanic for doing evasion-type missions, it's really not my cup of tea. I enjoy it in small doses for stealing and pickpocketing, but other than that... nah. It's not fun. I also hate that to be effective in entire DLCs, you need to deal with potions, craft new armor sets, etc.

My suggestion would be to make stealth-mandatory missions optional as side quests, remove them from main storylines, and give them a different marker so I don't blunder into them by accident But I think I suggested this before somewhere else.

Gilvoth

stealth should be on off switch, no one should be able to take others out of stealth.
remove the "eye" and all ability to be pulled out of stealth.
it should work that way in both PVE and PVP.

and by the way, i took that from morrowind single player game as well as several MMO's do it that way, so please do it in eso as well.

max_only

I will copy paste what I said before:

Line of sight already works in this game outside of the dlc. Granted it only works on my Nightblade but I can cloak and run behind a pillar/stack of crates only a few feet away and it absolutely does work.

The only mechanic I would add to this game to make it more like a real stealth game is a noisemaker/distraction mechanic. In other stealth games you can throw some pebbles or something in one direction and get the guard to look over there for a few moments. That’s a skill that could be added to TG that works like the Blade of Woe or ww Devour: popping up a synergy prompt X when you are in the right circumstance. Edit: Or make it a memento like how the new Murkmire grasper thing is a memento.

Since this is an mmo, distraction as team tactic would be good too. Pair up for pickpocketing for example. One player engages the npc and the other crouches behind. Every successful pick deposits an item into both players’ inventory.

Edit: Give stealth radius reduction to more races. Khajiit aren’t the only ones known for stealth. Bosmer need it back, and the loss after 5 years (and 5 previous games) was heartbreaking. Dunmer have a lore precedent for their Morag Tong and Argonian have a lore precedent for their natural born Shadowscales.

Sylvermynx

I don't use it in ESO. @max_only 's suggestions look good for those who do.

Last game I used (and still use) stealth in is Skyrim, where the only class I play is stealth archer, using a mod with a WAY OP bow to kill from long range. By this time in my gaming life, I'm just really tired of having to kill my way across every zone in a game - so never having to close to melee range works for me.... I've been playing CRPGs since 1985....

Artim_X

It's fine for the most part. My vampire characters can easily complete tg/db missions despite not having cloak (dark stalker passive, rapids, and invisibility pots). The game also has sets that ignore movement speed in stealth for those who don't want to be a vampire and sets that decrease detection radius.

I would like to feed on people without getting a bounty (sleeping npcs). Reverse pickpocketing poisoned apples (feature in oblivion) would be awesome for killing npcs in particularly crowded areas.

I like how zos adds new battlegrounds content every now and then, but I would also like for them to do the same for tg/db. I want new heists/sacraments and I also want repeatable quests that ask you to go to the new zones to complete them (if I have Summerset I could be asked to go there to steal something or kill someone).

Leeched

Gilvoth wrote: »

stealth should be on off switch, no one should be able to take others out of stealth.
remove the "eye" and all ability to be pulled out of stealth.
it should work that way in both PVE and PVP.

and by the way, i took that from morrowind single player game as well as several MMO's do it that way, so please do it in eso as well.

I am glad you aren't a Class Rep - and I hope stealth will get nerfed to high heaven just so people like you actually have to start to l2p

Minalan

Gilvoth wrote: »

stealth should be on off switch, no one should be able to take others out of stealth.
remove the "eye" and all ability to be pulled out of stealth.
it should work that way in both PVE and PVP.

and by the way, i took that from morrowind single player game as well as several MMO's do it that way, so please do it in eso as well.

https://youtu.be/qHBQ0c5f-Zo

Soo, you want a god-mode toggle button?

urthsong

That was click bait

usmcjdking

Stealth (not cloak) is almost okay, and is ultimately not the problem. A part of stealth's issue is that it can be re-entered while you still have damage on the target.

This should not be the case. Snipers sitting in stealth can re-enter stealth and drop out of combat benefitting from doubled regen whilst their target is still trying to heal through the burst and is still in combat, and then producing a second stun. This is massively imbalanced. The stealth lockout needs to be increased in duration to a minimum of 10 seconds (duration of most DOTS).

Cloak on the other hand is pretty busted. There are a host of issues, the primary being the 100% dodge window. The DOT suppression is also pretty busted as well, but not gamebreaking. COH had probably the best method of dealing with stealth. Stalkers (AKA assassin's) practically reigned supreme in 1v1 but fell off hard when the opposition increased or the fight was heavily spread out as it's combat cloak (Placate) was a small, targeted AOE. More of a smoke bomb/blind than an invisibility spell. However, it was generally infallible - you couldn't pull anyone out of cloak but you could detect by spamming insights.

idk

Personally I have found the counters to work well. With that being the case I do not see a reason to change it.

Granted, I understand some do not want to use the counters or have not gotten them to work properly, but they work and work fine.

VaranisArano

The one thing I think is missing from PVE stealth is a Ranged One Shot similar to the Blade of Woe. I'll admit it. I miss Skyrim's stealth archery. Snipe doesn't cut it.

However, I'm not a huge fan of ZOS deciding to shoehorn stealth into the new quests like in Morrowind and Murkmire. My Vestige is not stealthy, but on the other hand, if your quest givers are all like "Try not to kill anyone please!" I'm stuck going "Okay, I guess I'll try this sneaky thing and hiding in baskets and staying out of sight while I creep through this house/warehouse trying to find all the info...even though I suck at stealth and hiding in baskets is ridiculous..."

Sanctum74

Introduce steadily increasing oblivion damage for each second in stealth

Sylvermynx

VaranisArano wrote: »

The one thing I think is missing from PVE stealth is a Ranged One Shot similar to the Blade of Woe. I'll admit it. I miss Skyrim's stealth archery. Snipe doesn't cut it.

However, I'm not a huge fan of ZOS deciding to shoehorn stealth into the new quests like in Morrowind and Murkmire. My Vestige is not stealthy, but on the other hand, if your quest givers are all like "Try not to kill anyone please!" I'm stuck going "Okay, I guess I'll try this sneaky thing and hiding in baskets and staying out of sight while I creep through this house/warehouse trying to find all the info...even though I suck at stealth and hiding in baskets is ridiculous..."

You said a mouthful. I was so annoyed at that one quest in Murkmire that I just quit messing with that entire DLC. So yeah, didn't finish the questline, which until that point seemed like one I might be able to get most of the way through before failing due to inability with the combat style and "mini-bosses"....

/"git off ma lawrn" grumble

Facefister

With randomly generated dungeons. With several segments where can be stealth checks, movement checks or DPS/HPS/CC checks. After x segments, there is a Boss room. Up to three Boss rooms. Rewards could be literally anything like equipment, upgrade items or transmutaton crystals.

idk

Sanctum74 wrote: »

Introduce steadily increasing oblivion damage for each second in stealth

Umm, damage would pull them out of stealth.

Use the counters. Pull them out of stealth and kill them yourself.

max_only

I feel like all you are going to get for this thread is pvpers who jump at any chance to complain until everyone is swinging around baseball bats in plate mail.

VaranisArano

Sylvermynx wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

The one thing I think is missing from PVE stealth is a Ranged One Shot similar to the Blade of Woe. I'll admit it. I miss Skyrim's stealth archery. Snipe doesn't cut it.

However, I'm not a huge fan of ZOS deciding to shoehorn stealth into the new quests like in Morrowind and Murkmire. My Vestige is not stealthy, but on the other hand, if your quest givers are all like "Try not to kill anyone please!" I'm stuck going "Okay, I guess I'll try this sneaky thing and hiding in baskets and staying out of sight while I creep through this house/warehouse trying to find all the info...even though I suck at stealth and hiding in baskets is ridiculous..."

You said a mouthful. I was so annoyed at that one quest in Murkmire that I just quit messing with that entire DLC. So yeah, didn't finish the questline, which until that point seemed like one I might be able to get most of the way through before failing due to inability with the combat style and "mini-bosses"....

/"git off ma lawrn" grumble

It was definitely frustrating for me, since I actually want to roleplay with the "Don't kill anyone" request despite not being a stealthy character.

For one thing, it relies on the player knowing how stealth works from Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood. I'd done those on other characters, so I knew to look for things like baskets to hide in when the guards come patrolling by.

For another, you can use invisibility pots to get through it if you aren't playing a nightblade, but invis pots are a lot easier to get from doing Thieves Guild content and if a player hasn't been doing alchemy, that's not really an option. There's also various options for stealthy gear, but again, how much regearing and investment should we really have to do to accomplish a quest?

When I did the Morrowind quest with Naryu, I did it with a group of friends, so our stealthy attempt went to pot in short order, LOL. Naryu was quite disappointed. When I did Murkmire, I mostly managed to use line of sight to stay out of the guards' view, with a couple times having to jump in a basket when there was no other option I could see. And when I was done, I just stood up and booked it out of there and picked up a bounty in the process - which, fine, I was just glad to be done.

So I guess, if I'm being generous, the stealth wasn't too bad. I was able to complete the quest without stealthy gear or potions, just taking it slow and using the stealth mechanic with baskets. On the other hand, it was really frustrating and there's no real reason for either quest to be like this other than "this is the stealthy quest where you have to be stealthy" just to be different.

Sanctum74

idk wrote: »

Sanctum74 wrote: »

Introduce steadily increasing oblivion damage for each second in stealth

Umm, damage would pull them out of stealth.

Use the counters. Pull them out of stealth and kill them yourself.

It's called sarcasm, personally I have no problem dealing with stealthers even though it's a cowardly play style which contributes nothing to the campaign.

Cundu_Ertur

The improved hiding skill in the legerdemain tree needs to actually improve hiding for all races. The racial bonus (which Khajiit and Bosmer should share) should be smaller to compensate. It shouldn't be all-or-nothing where only one (or two) races can be good at it.

@usmcjdking may make a good point, I'm not familiar enough with how stealth works in PVP to comment on it, but if what is described is accurate, then what is proposed is valid.

redspecter23

Stealth by crouching, I'm fine with. Cloak to instantly remove yourself from combat 3 inches away from an opponent and halt all dots and potentially chain the ability together multiple times is like stealth on steroids. Whether you agree with cloak (and invis pots to a lesser extent) or not, it is in a whole other league compared to standard stealth through crouching.

Sylvermynx

VaranisArano wrote: »

Sylvermynx wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

The one thing I think is missing from PVE stealth is a Ranged One Shot similar to the Blade of Woe. I'll admit it. I miss Skyrim's stealth archery. Snipe doesn't cut it.

However, I'm not a huge fan of ZOS deciding to shoehorn stealth into the new quests like in Morrowind and Murkmire. My Vestige is not stealthy, but on the other hand, if your quest givers are all like "Try not to kill anyone please!" I'm stuck going "Okay, I guess I'll try this sneaky thing and hiding in baskets and staying out of sight while I creep through this house/warehouse trying to find all the info...even though I suck at stealth and hiding in baskets is ridiculous..."

You said a mouthful. I was so annoyed at that one quest in Murkmire that I just quit messing with that entire DLC. So yeah, didn't finish the questline, which until that point seemed like one I might be able to get most of the way through before failing due to inability with the combat style and "mini-bosses"....

/"git off ma lawrn" grumble

It was definitely frustrating for me, since I actually want to roleplay with the "Don't kill anyone" request despite not being a stealthy character.

For one thing, it relies on the player knowing how stealth works from Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood. I'd done those on other characters, so I knew to look for things like baskets to hide in when the guards come patrolling by.

For another, you can use invisibility pots to get through it if you aren't playing a nightblade, but invis pots are a lot easier to get from doing Thieves Guild content and if a player hasn't been doing alchemy, that's not really an option. There's also various options for stealthy gear, but again, how much regearing and investment should we really have to do to accomplish a quest?

When I did the Morrowind quest with Naryu, I did it with a group of friends, so our stealthy attempt went to pot in short order, LOL. Naryu was quite disappointed. When I did Murkmire, I mostly managed to use line of sight to stay out of the guards' view, with a couple times having to jump in a basket when there was no other option I could see. And when I was done, I just stood up and booked it out of there and picked up a bounty in the process - which, fine, I was just glad to be done.

So I guess, if I'm being generous, the stealth wasn't too bad. I was able to complete the quest without stealthy gear or potions, just taking it slow and using the stealth mechanic with baskets. On the other hand, it was really frustrating and there's no real reason for either quest to be like this other than "this is the stealthy quest where you have to be stealthy" just to be different.

I actually got the "hiding in baskets" thing right off - as seemed to be ripped directly from Indiana Jones. That wasn't really my issue. My main issue was that while I could hide easily (without actual stealth), EVERY time I thought I was in the clear (WITH stealth) I wound up having to kill WAY too many mobs.

I honestly think it was my ping. It's horrible, as we all know by now (as I certainly haven't been "quiet" about it....) I think I simply didn't have the ability to figure out how the lag was going to affect being spotted.

There are a lot of reasons this game isn't ideal for me. Ping is the single biggest problem.

max_only

VaranisArano wrote: »

Sylvermynx wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

The one thing I think is missing from PVE stealth is a Ranged One Shot similar to the Blade of Woe. I'll admit it. I miss Skyrim's stealth archery. Snipe doesn't cut it.

However, I'm not a huge fan of ZOS deciding to shoehorn stealth into the new quests like in Morrowind and Murkmire. My Vestige is not stealthy, but on the other hand, if your quest givers are all like "Try not to kill anyone please!" I'm stuck going "Okay, I guess I'll try this sneaky thing and hiding in baskets and staying out of sight while I creep through this house/warehouse trying to find all the info...even though I suck at stealth and hiding in baskets is ridiculous..."

You said a mouthful. I was so annoyed at that one quest in Murkmire that I just quit messing with that entire DLC. So yeah, didn't finish the questline, which until that point seemed like one I might be able to get most of the way through before failing due to inability with the combat style and "mini-bosses"....

/"git off ma lawrn" grumble

It was definitely frustrating for me, since I actually want to roleplay with the "Don't kill anyone" request despite not being a stealthy character.

For one thing, it relies on the player knowing how stealth works from Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood. I'd done those on other characters, so I knew to look for things like baskets to hide in when the guards come patrolling by.

For another, you can use invisibility pots to get through it if you aren't playing a nightblade, but invis pots are a lot easier to get from doing Thieves Guild content and if a player hasn't been doing alchemy, that's not really an option. There's also various options for stealthy gear, but again, how much regearing and investment should we really have to do to accomplish a quest?

When I did the Morrowind quest with Naryu, I did it with a group of friends, so our stealthy attempt went to pot in short order, LOL. Naryu was quite disappointed. When I did Murkmire, I mostly managed to use line of sight to stay out of the guards' view, with a couple times having to jump in a basket when there was no other option I could see. And when I was done, I just stood up and booked it out of there and picked up a bounty in the process - which, fine, I was just glad to be done.

So I guess, if I'm being generous, the stealth wasn't too bad. I was able to complete the quest without stealthy gear or potions, just taking it slow and using the stealth mechanic with baskets. On the other hand, it was really frustrating and there's no real reason for either quest to be like this other than "this is the stealthy quest where you have to be stealthy" just to be different.

“since I actually want to roleplay with the "Don't kill anyone" request “

Lol you want to role play in an rpg XD XD who cares for your role play lolololol topkek, as long as you have phat deeps on a dummy who cares for role play XDDD
😒/sarcasm

Girl_Number8

Since wrathstone nightblades and cloak are not even an issue in PvP. They are fodder atm. Even before wrathstone they were lack luster unless you got a really great one which is always fun. Though I would not call the nb playstyle cowardly, as they risk a lot, same as bombers. It keeps inexperienced zerglings on their tippy toes.

The most broken thing I see in this game is the performance. And Zerg team purple and Zerg team green, skilless zerglings are the most cowardly playstyle imo.

Tasear

Facefister wrote: »

With randomly generated dungeons. With several segments where can be stealth checks, movement checks or DPS/HPS/CC checks. After x segments, there is a Boss room. Up to three Boss rooms. Rewards could be literally anything like equipment, upgrade items or transmutaton crystals.

Like with wolf Hunter dungeon?

Minalan

Girl_Number8 wrote: »

Since wrathstone nightblades and cloak are not even an issue in PvP. They are fodder atm. Even before wrathstone they were lack luster unless you got a really great one which is always fun. Though I would not call the nb playstyle cowardly, as they risk a lot, same as bombers. It keeps inexperienced zerglings on their tippy toes.

The most broken thing I see in this game is the performance. And Zerg team purple and Zerg team green, skilless zerglings are the most cowardly playstyle imo.

What?

Stamina nightblades are an extremely strong class, and still by leaps the best designed one in the game. One of the best parts about that design is the low skill floor to perform well, because the skills and passives are designed to work together perfectly.

Nightblades are only "fodder" in the hands of an exceptionally poorly skilled player.

PS: Cloak is fine as it is. Leave it be.

Ri_Khan

It's hard to say what should be done not knowing what the technical limitations are. I can say that the stealth game here plays like it was a lazy afterthought; sloppy; disconnected; not engaging; devoid of fun. It's like an annoying chore to deal with.

Most of the TG/DB/Legerdemain skills are useless outside of their respective content. After fully maxing all three lines there's no real sense of progression happening, you just make/save some gold. They should be edited to make them more versatile for the rest of the game. Perhaps combine Legerdemain and TG lines. Is there not some redundancy happening there anyway? Turn one of them into stealth specific and fix what currently exists to fit that accordingly?

Maybe making stealth mechanics more consistent would also help. Why can I remain hidden while jumping up and down or rummaging through a desk right next to an npc but the second I roll dodge, disarm a trap or even try to pick a flower everyone grows eyes in the back of their head?

There should probably also be some distinctions between pve and pvp stealth but I don't even care to comment on what should be done about all that, there's no need to get banned on a beautiful friday.

Alucardo

How do I feel about stealth in ESO? Lol, there's a loaded question.

To put it simply; I hate it. It's nothing but a crutch. Take cloak away from a Nightblade and they have no idea what the hell to do.
I'm tired of fighting these aholes that do nothing but poison injection, cloak, incap, cloak, just to wear you down. If you don't have detect pots, or one of those terrible skills that are supposed to find them, then you're just going to have to deal with them poking at you and darting away.
Why the class with the highest amount of single target damage also gets access to invisibility at will is beyond me. It's like giving a Shark a shotgun, just to make it even more dangerous.
The worst part is, I see a lot of nightblades using Troll King. When they're injured they just go back to the shadows for that fat rally heal while troll king takes care of the rest. It's disgusting.
Cloak gameplay is the lowest form of PvP I've ever witnessed in a game, and that's no lie. Do you know what's worse? It's braindead easy. Just give them a proper resistance buff like every other class and get rid of cloak. It's the most abhorrent crap I've ever seen.

Other than that I think it's ok.

randomkeyhits

For PvP nothing needs adding,

Whether I'm the stealth player or searching for the stealth player it feels like player skill does play an important part though of course an initial attack from stealth gives the attacker a big advantage at the start.

For PvE its much more of a mechanical process.

So for this I'd say adding a distraction mechanism would be all thats needed. The detection stuff itself works well and if you react fast enough you can often break off from NPCs before they fully become aware you are there.

Starlock

Using other Elder Scrolls games as a benchmark, Elder Scrolls Online easily has the best stealth gameplay (granted, I've never played anything before Morrowind). Mechanics introduced in Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood in particular added some very nice touches that are lacking in other Elder Scrolls games. I have a character who is a dedicated ne'er do well. She's built around stealth, infiltration, and doing no good deeds. It's a blast! Here are some of the things that really add some fun to being a stealthy sneaker in Elder Scrolls Online currently:

• Easy to use. The stealth system in ESO is simple and uncomplicated. It's not hard to figure out like so many other things in this game are.
• Meaningful loot. If you've ever spent any time picking pockets or going on mass murder sprees, you will be delighted at the level of detail the developers put into the loot. It's worth your time to do this stuff, including for the laughs.
• Guards. My main ne'er do well runs around with a permanent bounty. She has to plan her routes in and around cities carefully. Sneak plays a big role in that. Being able to steal from guards in particular? LOLZ.
• Speed. You usually slow down when sneaking, but the game provides you ways of increasing your sneak/movement speed. This is a somewhat unusual feature and absent even in stealth-focused games I've played.
• Notoriety. Some players might not know this, but if you have a professional ne'er do well with a permanent bounty, most NPCs will not talk to you. You can't talk to guild traders, merchants, stable folks, and so on. It's annoying. It's awesome. Bad cat loves to be bad, and everyone knows it!

All this said, stealth in ESO is a far cry from games like Deus Ex that have a proper system. I don't think it is possible for this game to approach that level of refinement due to limitations of the game engine (particular the "in combat" vs "out of combat" status flags). There are some low-hanging fruits that could ripen stealth for ESO, however:

• More hiding spots. TG/DB introduced hiding spots. These should be added throughout the base game. After all, TG troves were added in the base game, so why not these hiding spots?
• More guards with lanterns. Similarly, TG/DB introduced guards that you cannot sneak around or pickpocket. Add these to the base game as well. I say this knowing full well how much harder this will make life for my sneaky kitty. I would relish the new challenge. As it is, she is such a professional she never gets caught (lag/dc deaths notwithstanding).
• No more lockpicks! With the exception of outlaws where it would actually make sense, lockpicks need to be removed from the loot tables for pickpocketing. Bad cat angrily stabs anyone who gives her a stupid lockpick on the first pickpocketing attempt. Even in full sight of guards. She hates the lockpicks. She does not need any more!
• Call the guards. When NPCs scream about calling the guards... can they please actually call the guards? Let's make getting caught more meaningful!

Dreaming big, there are other things that would greatly improve stealth gameplay. Again, these are things that I don't think can actually be implemented in the game, because it would require engine-level redesigns, but maybe I'm wrong about that?

• More levels of stealth. ESO has only two levels of stealth - hidden and detected. Games with better stealth gameplay usually have a sliding scale with at least three levels - hidden, suspicious, and detected - and mechanics associated with each.
• Lighting impacts stealth. ESO allows characters to hide regardless of lighting conditions. This is not realistic and not how stealth games treat it. It should not be possible to hide in the middle of a town square in the middle of the day without invisibility spells/potions or at least investing in some sort of skill with skill points. Lighting should impact detection.
• Cover impacts stealth. ESO implements cover only insofar as it can obscure NPC line of sight. More sophisticated cover systems would be amazing. In stealth games, you can crouch behind one piece of cover, and dash to another to help reduce detection chance, even when dashing through a well-lit area.
• Blend. Blend is another aspect of stealth that is most well-known through games like Assassin's Creed. Blending is hiding in crowds. There are some amazing possibilities here for blending in with fellow players after stealing from an NPC, or with NPCs themselves. I would totally run new guild events based on such a mechanic.
• Bounty Hunters. While I am vehemently opposed to a PvP justice system, I see no reason why there can't be NPCs that roam the world tracking down characters with high bounties. Whether or not they'd be invincible like other guards are? Well, I'll leave that up in the air for now.

max_only

Starlock wrote: »

Using other Elder Scrolls games as a benchmark, Elder Scrolls Online easily has the best stealth gameplay (granted, I've never played anything before Morrowind). Mechanics introduced in Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood in particular added some very nice touches that are lacking in other Elder Scrolls games. I have a character who is a dedicated ne'er do well. She's built around stealth, infiltration, and doing no good deeds. It's a blast! Here are some of the things that really add some fun to being a stealthy sneaker in Elder Scrolls Online currently:

• Easy to use. The stealth system in ESO is simple and uncomplicated. It's not hard to figure out like so many other things in this game are.
• Meaningful loot. If you've ever spent any time picking pockets or going on mass murder sprees, you will be delighted at the level of detail the developers put into the loot. It's worth your time to do this stuff, including for the laughs.
• Guards. My main ne'er do well runs around with a permanent bounty. She has to plan her routes in and around cities carefully. Sneak plays a big role in that. Being able to steal from guards in particular? LOLZ.
• Speed. You usually slow down when sneaking, but the game provides you ways of increasing your sneak/movement speed. This is a somewhat unusual feature and absent even in stealth-focused games I've played.
• Notoriety. Some players might not know this, but if you have a professional ne'er do well with a permanent bounty, most NPCs will not talk to you. You can't talk to guild traders, merchants, stable folks, and so on. It's annoying. It's awesome. Bad cat loves to be bad, and everyone knows it!

All this said, stealth in ESO is a far cry from games like Deus Ex that have a proper system. I don't think it is possible for this game to approach that level of refinement due to limitations of the game engine (particular the "in combat" vs "out of combat" status flags). There are some low-hanging fruits that could ripen stealth for ESO, however:

• More hiding spots. TG/DB introduced hiding spots. These should be added throughout the base game. After all, TG troves were added in the base game, so why not these hiding spots?
• More guards with lanterns. Similarly, TG/DB introduced guards that you cannot sneak around or pickpocket. Add these to the base game as well. I say this knowing full well how much harder this will make life for my sneaky kitty. I would relish the new challenge. As it is, she is such a professional she never gets caught (lag/dc deaths notwithstanding).
• No more lockpicks! With the exception of outlaws where it would actually make sense, lockpicks need to be removed from the loot tables for pickpocketing. Bad cat angrily stabs anyone who gives her a stupid lockpick on the first pickpocketing attempt. Even in full sight of guards. She hates the lockpicks. She does not need any more!
• Call the guards. When NPCs scream about calling the guards... can they please actually call the guards? Let's make getting caught more meaningful!

Dreaming big, there are other things that would greatly improve stealth gameplay. Again, these are things that I don't think can actually be implemented in the game, because it would require engine-level redesigns, but maybe I'm wrong about that?

• More levels of stealth. ESO has only two levels of stealth - hidden and detected. Games with better stealth gameplay usually have a sliding scale with at least three levels - hidden, suspicious, and detected - and mechanics associated with each.
• Lighting impacts stealth. ESO allows characters to hide regardless of lighting conditions. This is not realistic and not how stealth games treat it. It should not be possible to hide in the middle of a town square in the middle of the day without invisibility spells/potions or at least investing in some sort of skill with skill points. Lighting should impact detection.
• Cover impacts stealth. ESO implements cover only insofar as it can obscure NPC line of sight. More sophisticated cover systems would be amazing. In stealth games, you can crouch behind one piece of cover, and dash to another to help reduce detection chance, even when dashing through a well-lit area.
• Blend. Blend is another aspect of stealth that is most well-known through games like Assassin's Creed. Blending is hiding in crowds. There are some amazing possibilities here for blending in with fellow players after stealing from an NPC, or with NPCs themselves. I would totally run new guild events based on such a mechanic.
• Bounty Hunters. While I am vehemently opposed to a PvP justice system, I see no reason why there can't be NPCs that roam the world tracking down characters with high bounties. Whether or not they'd be invincible like other guards are? Well, I'll leave that up in the air for now.

I wish I could give you more Awesomes.

The closest they have to “blend” is the footpad that appears. Saying that though, I’ve yet to see him, then again I find it very easy to flee.

Day and night states impact vampires in this game, I think that’s as close as we can get to lighting impacting stealth.

“the level of detail the developers put into the loot. It's worth your time to do this stuff, including for the laughs”

Yes! I take a screenshot when the blurb is particularly interesting. My last pic is of a blue item called “Secret Ointment Jar” it says, “The label claims the jar contains horse liniment, but a hidden internal label declares it “Proud Stallion Bedroom Ointment””. And I got it off a male npc.