Originally posted by Schrompf:

I'm quite tired of all the people coming up with excuses why *they* personally think that skill loss is fine and how exactly the game is supposed to be played *by everyone*.

I play this with my friends. We have a private pw-protected server, and we spend some time together in this game at late evening after job is done, house chores are done, children were put to sleep, mails and letters are handled... you get the point. We have a few hours, once or twice per week. And because of this silly skill loss we'll probably never hit lvl20 in any skill except maybe wood chopping. And simple server-side bool would make this bearable. Maybe I can actually sneak up to a Draugr if I get to lvl50, who knows? I'll never know, not with the current skill loss mechanics.

But you all spittle and jammer like it would be the game's demise to have the *option*.

You can sneak up on a draugr at level 0... It's less about the sneak skill, More about your personal sneaking abilities. Trying to approach a mob in full sunlight while it's facing you is going to get you caught whether you're at level 0 or level 100 sneaking.

Sneak does modify a mobs visibility range, letting you get closer to them when they're facing you; But the effects of the skill, unlike most of the others, are non-linear and heavily frontloaded. By level 20 you've gotten a significant portion of the effects of the skill.

It's much more important to stay in the shadows, and out of the frontal view cone to begin with than it is to have the skill leveled, as when you're sneaking you make no sound and the only way something can detect you is if it's facing your way and you're within the modified vision range. Even having 100 sneak skill isn't going to save you from being seen sneaking up on something from it's front side.


I don't personally mind if they add the Option. I'm also not spittling and jammering. I am however stating the fact(Not a personal opinion) that the levelable skills have FAR less impact on the overall gameplay than some players seem to think. Level by level, the impact of the skills are literally minor.

A 1.5% (additive) increase in damage per weapon skill level, for example- As described in my first post, It's numerous skill levels in the range of 15-30 before you see an appreciable effect on how quick you kill enemies(Read: The number of hits it takes)- Most of the time, you're not going to notice it's effect, though. You're not going to be able to tell the difference between level 18 and level 19 in practice.


TL;DR: No amount of levels in the skills is going to save you from a bad decision, a mistake, or bad luck. It might add minor amounts of padding to offer a tiny amount of wiggle room- But, chances are, if you screwed up, it's done. If you screw up and sneak in front of something, it's going to see you, with low skill or high. Your personal game knowledge and abilities make a much bigger difference than the skills do, by like 99:1.