There is a noise meter in the game

[The Wonton Cat]

It took me way too long then i care to admit that there is a noise meter in the game that reacts to the noise you make and can effect stealth (when it works).
The sound meter is the colour gradient under the compass, when its a small, blue and pulsing then it means you are moving in crouch,
if its medium and blue then you are walking (X key by default) and large and blue then you are just running or sprinting.
if its white/grey then its means you stopped.
If its red means you have been discovered.
enemies can lose sight of you after a while (except in certain locations where they will remain on high alert like bases or compounds) and the red bar will reset back to white/grey when they call off the search.

while im covering parts of stealth, the knife takedowns only happen when skif moves the knife higher on screen and is poised to kill when behind someone then click mouse or triggers on controller to initiate the takedown kill, its more silent then pistol with suppressor.
you can also distract enemies by throwing bolts like throwing stones in farcry.
we already know how a flashlight is a neon sign that says "shoot me" so i wont cover that.

ofc, this is just explaining how the stealth mechanics work, there is still some balancing and issues which may come in later updates such as line of sight, how day and night can change detection values, tall grass and shrubs could provide cover, increase the timing and stealth takedown distance a little bit.

Hope this helps folks out who still struggle with understanding how stealth works.

[Eren Jäger]

thx bro

[Nagasonica_]

Thank you very much for the advice. I noticed yesterday that enemies can see you even in the dark, which is strange considering how dark it was. I wonder if it's intentional or if it's a game error.

[The Wonton Cat]

Originally posted by Nagasonica_:

Thank you very much for the advice. I noticed yesterday that enemies can see you even in the dark, which is strange considering how dark it was. I wonder if it's intentional or if it's a game error.

probably a game error or a typo in the games ai scripts.

[fitterdave]

Thanks for that I wondered what the blue/white bar was. Oh and stealth is pretty close to impossible. I was crouched in the dark behind a wall with no line of sight to an enemy. He knew exactly where I was.

[The Wonton Cat]

Originally posted by fitterdave:

Thanks for that I wondered what the blue/white bar was. Oh and stealth is pretty close to impossible. I was crouched in the dark behind a wall with no line of sight to an enemy. He knew exactly where I was.

Yeah i have a feeling its got something to do with their cone of vision, there is a mod on nexus that helps fix the line of sight issue for now called "Axxii's Stealth Mod".
Maybe something you could use till patches roll in.

[Cryptic]

You had one in the old games too if I remember correctly. 90% certain. There was something on the hud for it

[Mike]

Originally posted by Cryptic:

You had one in the old games too if I remember correctly. 90% certain. There was something on the hud for it

Yeah this 100% was a feature in the first game.

[Toj Karin]

I gathered as much on my own, but I still haven't figured out what it means when the gradient is orange.

The logical meaning would be that either it shows the enemy presence, or that enemies are searching for you without knowing your location, but it cannot be since I've only seen it a couple of times. Both were times when the enemy supposedly know about your presence as per the script says but the actual enemy hasn't spawned in yet(or if it has, the actual enemy AI doesn't know about you).

One of them was in the Azimuth Station where I had to climb the tower that supposedly had a Monolith sniper that lobbed grenades down from there (the actual enemy hadn't spawned yet), but the other case was in an emergent situation with random enemies if I recall correctly. I could be wrong about the latter, it could have happened in a similar quest setting, I don't remember it well.

Can anyone shine some light upon this?

[The Wonton Cat]

Originally posted by Toj Karin:

I gathered as much on my own, but I still haven't figured out what it means when the gradient is orange.

The logical meaning would be that either it shows the enemy presence, or that enemies are searching for you without knowing your location, but it cannot be since I've only seen it a couple of times. Both were times when the enemy supposedly know about your presence as per the script says but the actual enemy hasn't spawned in yet(or if it has, the actual enemy AI doesn't know about you).

One of them was in the Azimuth Station where I had to climb the tower that supposedly had a Monolith sniper that lobbed grenades down from there (the actual enemy hadn't spawned yet), but the other case was in an emergent situation with random enemies if I recall correctly. I could be wrong about the latter, it could have happened in a similar quest setting, I don't remember it well.

Can anyone shine some light upon this?

The orange means you are in the objective area, it shows when it asks me to find something in a wide radius.
There is also small X marks on the compass too which tells you where bodies are with loot on them. even if you don't take their broken guns out of their inventory, just drag them off screen to drop them after unloading then click loot all to take whats left.