Walk up behind an NPC. Nobody else around. Hidden. (Aware)(Aware)(DETECTED)(Aware)

Pixative · October 2020

After searching for a bit, I couldn't find anyone else talking about this. Very often I will sneak, and the instant hidden appears, it is immediately replaced by full detection. When there is apparently no possible source for that detection. Very often when I pickpocket I will have to shimmy back and forth between positions to get rid of (Aware), often I have to to silly things like stand practically inside the NPC. This happens as much on my level 4 pickpocket as a fresh character, and as much on my medium armor char with the sneak passive as without.

What's wrong. Am I doing it wrong, and if so, how do I do it better, or are there just bugs? Do you just randomly get detected from behind? Is the NPC's model not making it obvious where "behind" is?

Pixative · October 2020

I should add I know things like mudcrabs can detect you and I'm reasonably certain that is not the cause, unless there are also invisible mudcrabs hidden inside people's houses.

Stellarvorous · October 2020

Sometimes if you go into sneak and get close to a npc to fast their detection will pull you out also in locked houses you get those 59k npcs who seem to have a better sense of detection then average ones outside in cities

also sometimes if its really laggy or your ping is high it plays with sneak why i have no idea but when im lagging and i try sneaking around in cities or in delves i deffiently get caught more

Calm_Fury · October 2020

I honestly never understood how that system works. It just feels so random. Also when you have a huge success percentage and then when you click the button it immediately drops the percentage and fails. It is just so clunky for me.

Nord_Raseri · October 2020

Positional desync, probably. The game is strife with it. You're screen tells you that you/npc/other player are in one spot while server thinks you/npc/player are in another. Been a problem for a long while now.

GrumpyDuckling · October 2020

Pixative wrote: »

After searching for a bit, I couldn't find anyone else talking about this. Very often I will sneak, and the instant hidden appears, it is immediately replaced by full detection. When there is apparently no possible source for that detection. Very often when I pickpocket I will have to shimmy back and forth between positions to get rid of (Aware), often I have to to silly things like stand practically inside the NPC. This happens as much on my level 4 pickpocket as a fresh character, and as much on my medium armor char with the sneak passive as without.

What's wrong. Am I doing it wrong, and if so, how do I do it better, or are there just bugs? Do you just randomly get detected from behind? Is the NPC's model not making it obvious where "behind" is?

Sneaking/Sneak Detection/Thievery/Assassinations in ESO are extremely clunky and, at times, feel broken. You can tell not enough care was put into the details of the various sneak-related systems because there are numerous issues. Just a few that bug me:

Spotty detection issues like those you are describing.
A percentage fluctuating pickpocket mini-game that raises/drops based on random hidden timers instead of quality of approach to the target.
Blade of Woe and Vampire feeding being mapped to the same buttons.
Wood Elf racial detection passive nonsense that is useless in PVE.

Finedaible · October 2020

I'm almost certain these random detection issues for stealth are often caused by wonky tracking of character placement and direction. On your screen an NPC (or more often a player in PvP) will be facing one way, while on the server they may already be facing a different direction. You can notice this pretty often with Nightblade Master Assassin passive and the stun from Veiled Strike when 'flanking' an enemy. Basically, I think it is most likely some form of desync and/or lag. I've been witnessed committing crimes from behind walls on entirely different building floors before.

out51d3r · November 2020

I don't know the exact cause of this, but I experience it frequently. It seems I sometimes get a "bugged stealth" like this, where I should clearly be stealthed but I bounce in and out of stealth for some reason. It happens when I first stealth- either I I get it as soon as I stealth, or I don't get it at all. If I destealth for a second or so and then restealth, it usually resolves the problem.

Everstorm · November 2020

Calm_Fury wrote: »

I honestly never understood how that system works. It just feels so random. Also when you have a huge success percentage and then when you click the button it immediately drops the percentage and fails. It is just so clunky for me.

After years I still have no idea what triggers the green status on pickpocketing.