How are my invisibility potions failing me?

Supreme_Atromancer · February 2022

I made a build for doing quick stuff like dailies or skyshards in delves, putting alchemy glyphs on jewellery and using a bunch of speed/invisibility potions.

The problem is, maybe 20% of the time, I'm pulled out of stealth when passing by an enemy for no apparent reason.

The duration is still going. I'm not attacking, nor using anything that will cause damage.

No dodge rolling, blocking, no interacting with anything.

Sometimes I will run past a bunch of stuff, then at the next bunch, I've somehow aggroed and detected.

Sometimes it will happen at the first mob I pass by.

There are times when I've ran past a bunch of mobs with no problem- then, later while returning through the same mobs on my way out, moving in exactly the same way, I'm suddenly detected.

Its infuriating because its so unreliable. One fifth of my invisibility potions are just wasted gold, and I would be better off just mindlessly grinding through mob after braindead bloody mob. Why have cool stuff people can explore and experiment with if they just don't work and you just have to kill everything?

There's, of course, no documentation anywhere on how they work, or how they might fail and its sad to say that the safe bet is that its not the system, its just one more bug.

Has anyone else had this experience? Are there known circumstances that will draw aggro even when you're invisible?

Arunei · February 2022

Where all does it happen, or is it random? The only thing I can think of is you're passing by mobs that can see through stealth, like ones that carry torches or lamps in Heists, but those kinds of mobs are quest-specific I think and don't generally spawn in overland stuff.

It might help of you're able to catch it in a video and post it for people to see, just in case there's something that's being overlooked or isn't readily obvious.

Supreme_Atromancer · February 2022

Arunei wrote: »

Where all does it happen, or is it random? The only thing I can think of is you're passing by mobs that can see through stealth, like ones that carry torches or lamps in Heists, but those kinds of mobs are quest-specific I think and don't generally spawn in overland stuff.

It might help of you're able to catch it in a video and post it for people to see, just in case there's something that's being overlooked or isn't readily obvious.

There's no consistency in mob type. It seems like it can be anything. It also seems to happen anywhere. Overland, delves.

I'll see if I can record it and post soon. Thanks for the ideas.

Arunei · February 2022

Thinking about it, there have been numerous times when I've been in stealth and will suddenly be Detected, even when there aren't any mobs capable of "detecting" around me. It's happened around stuff like bantam guar, among others, mobs that technically shouldn't have any detection radius. I wonder if maybe that's what's going on here? Some random ambient mob that shouldn't have detection radius might be picking up on you and thus it's aggroing nearby mobs?

No idea if that's the case or not, it probably isn't but it's just weird when random animals in the environment seem capable of detecting you out of nowhere.

WabanakiWarrior · February 2022

Yes, I've noticed the same thing. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one. I'd have my invisibility potion up, but still agro mobs as I run past. Doesn't happen every time, but enough that it is annoying as hell.

Supreme_Atromancer · February 2022

https://youtu.be/hjxSB3I0Px8

Lomantia Molag Bal...

Supreme_Atromancer · February 2022

I tested whatever I thought might secretly influence detection while invisible: Making contact with enemies, waiting inside a group before moving again, hovering around for a few seconds.

None of these usually pull me out. I have no ideas.

Dagoth_Rac · February 2022

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

https://youtu.be/hjxSB3I0Px8

Lomantia Molag Bal...

Why are you crouching while invisible? I am wondering if entering and leaving crouch could be triggering something. Like there is a fraction of a second after leaving stealth that you are visible because the game has not yet recalculated that you are out of stealth but still invisible.

Vevvev · February 2022

Sometimes invisibility doesn't work. I think it's due to server positional desyncs making you occupy the same spot as the target, or the server derping and miscalculating your detection range. I've also seen sprint and blocking magically stop so I imagine the same would be true here.

If it's players though.... Detection Potions most likely.

Supreme_Atromancer · February 2022

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

https://youtu.be/hjxSB3I0Px8

Lomantia Molag Bal...

Why are you crouching while invisible? I am wondering if entering and leaving crouch could be triggering something. Like there is a fraction of a second after leaving stealth that you are visible because the game has not yet recalculated that you are out of stealth but still invisible.

The crouch animation happens whenever you're invisible. I'm not manually crouching. Try it with an invis potion. When you stop moving, you go into crouch animation, though you're not actually crouched.

Supreme_Atromancer · February 2022

Vevvev wrote: »

Sometimes invisibility doesn't work. I think it's due to server positional desyncs making you occupy the same spot as the target, or the server derping and miscalculating your detection range. I've also seen sprint and blocking magically stop so I imagine the same would be true here.

If it's players though.... Detection Potions most likely.

Not players, just overworld/delve mobs.

Its a shame if this is the case. It happens a lot and kind of makes the use of invis pots a complete waste of time and gold.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · February 2022

To be clear, you arent Sprinting are you? Sprint will break your invis pot.

Supreme_Atromancer · February 2022

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

To be clear, you arent Sprinting are you? Sprint will break your invis pot.

Nope!

kringled_1 · February 2022

Are you in heavy armor by chance?

Supreme_Atromancer · February 2022

kringled_1 wrote: »

Are you in heavy armor by chance?

7 light.

Snamyap · February 2022

No experience with invis potions but mudcrabs have a very high chance of seeing through sneak for some reason.

spartaxoxo · February 2022

Yes. I have also experienced being pulled out of stealth with nothing around as I'm crouching. I will enter steath fully closed eyeball, get pulled put of stealth, then a second later be put into stealth again.

I also have crashed to desktop bluescreens sometimes when stealthing in pve for "long" periods

alli_mi · February 2022

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Yes. I have also experienced being pulled out of stealth with nothing around as I'm crouching. I will enter steath fully closed eyeball, get pulled put of stealth, then a second later be put into stealth again.

This happen to me almost all the time. Whenever I'm all alone in a room or in the world.

UntilValhalla13 · February 2022

I've actually been pulled out of cloak while bypassing enemies in dungeons. I wasn't in combat. I was literally spamming cloak as I went by random enemies, and they somehow saw me. They then proceed to chase after me while I'm still cloaking away. It's just wonky.

drsalvation · February 2022

I feel that and it's highly frustrating.
It's so random.

In PvP, I see players going into stealth even tho they have some DoT's placed (caltrops), but if I use an invisible pot, whenever my DoTs do any damage, I'm snapped back to detected. I can understand that... however I've been in situations where I have absolutely no DoT's at all, I use an invisible pot and suddenly I'm detected again, not even a second of invisibility, because some player managed to do damage (but when I have stuff like power of the light, players that go invisible REMAIN invisible, and my AoE attacks do NOT deal damage nor bring them back to detected). And no, players are NOT using detection spells/pots.

But leaving PvP aside, this happens too frequently in PvE with random mobs as well.
I've been playing ever since the game released on consoles, so I know the difference between randoms and torch-carriers, you can see a blue ring around them whenever they can detect you and prevent you from going into stealth.
But these aren't special mobs, they're just generic NPCs.
When you're running invisible as a stage 4 vamp, sometimes people detect you out of nowhere, sometimes they never notice you even tho you're bumping into them.
Potions have the same effect.

It's highly inconsistent, but if there ARE enemies who can detect you, shouldn't they have some sort of indicator like the torch carriers? Or an eye above their heads?
It's something that can interrupt a skill/mechanic, they NEED an indicator of it, even if it's a random guar or mudcrab. No player would ever have a notepad and try out every single type of NPC and write down if they're capable of detecting you or not.

Supreme_Atromancer · February 2022

Yeah, absolutely no idea why this happens, I guess others experience it too, and no one really has an idea why it fails frequently.

@ZOS_Kevin ; are you able to bring this to the attention of the relevant developers? I don't think there's a way to submit video evidence of the problem via the bug report system, and the video I've linked here might really help.

I don't even know if its actually a bug, or some undocumented rule.

madman65 · February 2022

I`ve used Invisibility Potions and at the most, 16 seconds of invisibility gives the highest duration. If you watch the time on the video, it`s close to the time running out. Now, I had a gamer awhile back to use a cheat that they saw me were ever I went so I reported them. No matter crouching or Invis pots they ganked me.

Supreme_Atromancer · February 2022

madman65 wrote: »

If you watch the time on the video, it`s close to the time running out.

@madman65 This is not true at all. If you watch, you can see the moment that I activate the potion, and 7 seconds in, it spontaneously expires. You should also be able to notice the duration, as indicated by the base-game buff tracker above my attribute bars. The invisibility should last another 26 seconds or so, due to the jewellery glyphs I have applied, and the traits on the jewellery. I've taken a great deal of care to demonstrate what's going on, and its all very evident in the video.

The invisibility didn't expire because the duration was up, but because the mobs that I was near aggroed on me when they shouldn't have.

Supreme_Atromancer · February 2023

@ZOS_Kevin it has occurred to me that its been a VERY long time since I've had an invisibility potion fail under any circumstances.

I never saw this addressed in any patch notes, though it does look like its been entirely fixed.

I'm chugging through invis pots again while I run through the world, loving life. If you are able to, please send community love towards the bug-fixers- for this and every other bug they silently squash. Much appreciated!

gabbo1928 · February 2023

I have been experiencing this with nightblade cloak for probably the past month or more. Most of the time there is no issue, but sometimes I will be attacked by a random group of enemies when I run past them while cloaked.

It just happened to me today while doing the daily endeavor for killing 2 Vvardenfell public dungeon bosses. I went to Forgotten Wastes, and cloaked my way past all of the cliff striders and stuff to reach the Cliff Strider Matriarch boss at the beginning of the dungeon. No problem getting there. Killed the boss. Then did the exact same maneuver when leaving, but one of the cliff strider mobs put me into combat even though I was still fully cloaked while running past it.

It is definitely a new-ish development, because I never had this issue before.

kyatos_binarini · February 2023

Had the same issue on nb’s cloak few years ago and still have on invisibility potions and vampire’s sprint. Also noticed that trolls can detect me 100% of the time (if come too close).

spartaxoxo · February 2023

I've noticed some mobs just don't respect stealth and will see you from in front whether or not you're invisible. They aren't marked either.

Djennku · February 2023

I've had that happen with many enemies. LoM azure lurchers and golems for example. I'll be running past them in vamp invisibility, and they see me. Same with Minotaurs in Falkreath Hold. It'll even happen with random enemies not in dungeons where you run past them fully cloaked and they see you instantly, and the vamp invisibility for whatever reason has less detection than the NB cloak.

Kappachi · February 2023

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Yes. I have also experienced being pulled out of stealth with nothing around as I'm crouching. I will enter steath fully closed eyeball, get pulled put of stealth, then a second later be put into stealth again.

I also have crashed to desktop bluescreens sometimes when stealthing in pve for "long" periods

If you blue screen it is a problem with your computer. The error code it shows will give you more than enough information to troubleshoot, do that sooner rather than later.

spartaxoxo · February 2023

Kappachi wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Yes. I have also experienced being pulled out of stealth with nothing around as I'm crouching. I will enter steath fully closed eyeball, get pulled put of stealth, then a second later be put into stealth again.

I also have crashed to desktop bluescreens sometimes when stealthing in pve for "long" periods

If you blue screen it is a problem with your computer. The error code it shows will give you more than enough information to troubleshoot, do that sooner rather than later.

It was on Playstation and it was only when running in stealth for a long time. They seem to have patched this some time ago as it stopped happening. I totally forgot it even used to happen lol.