Has anyone tried stealth after the patch?

[Low Standards]

I want to start over as a stealth character. Has it got better recently?

[chipartist]

I have maxed out Stealth, Concealment, and Melee, and the patch does not seem to have affected those in any way. Going that route was a good decision, much more fun than ranged combat, even though the weapons choices are scant. I use a legendary Titanium Wakizashi with nice traits (Berserker and Crippling) and have resorted to ranged only rarely. Go for it!

PS. Max your boost-pack skills for amazing aerial fights with melee!

[Dyspeptic Icarus]

At a really low level, yeah.

At upper levels, it doesn't seem to do much. Stealth when maxed out is pretty strong.

[webjedi2]

I think there was discussion about how the spacesuit affects stealth...is this what was addressed in the patch?

[Heimdall313]

Melee, I'm an axe man, you can imagine how very quickly I was disappointed by the rescue axe.

Originally posted by webjedi2:

I think there was discussion about how the spacesuit affects stealth...is this what was addressed in the patch?

Your 28 KG Advanced Bounty Hunter Spacesuit is really loud with heavy footsteps and clanks in the vacuum of a 0.12 gravity moon. It makes sense if you don't think about it.

[AKmongoose]

Yeah, after a shot or maybe two, stealth is blown and you'll be up to your eyeballs in hostile npcs. Stealth does seem to work better on animals than it does on humans however. I can drop whole herds of critters before they notice sometimes. Humans and Robots? no dice. Instant aggro after 1 or 2 kills.

[AoD_lexandro]

Originally posted by AKmongoose:

Yeah, after a shot or maybe two, stealth is blown and you'll be up to your eyeballs in hostile npcs. Stealth does seem to work better on animals than it does on humans however. I can drop whole herds of critters before they notice sometimes. Humans and Robots? no dice. Instant aggro after 1 or 2 kills.

Take it slower. Your shots are getting traced back to the point of origin by the AI. Too many shots too close together alerts the AI to your position. So an AI will try to get closer to visually spot you.

I have literally picked off an entire garrison of Ecliptic and never been detected. Just fire less often, and take your time. If you are sneaking about, you do not need to rush. You can take all the time you need.

[Tbone]

I like to go full on Rambo.

[tranquillant]

Originally posted by Low Standards:

I want to start over as a stealth character. Has it got better recently?

Have to say that maxed stealth + concealment + selective group of ranged combat skills + maxed lockpicking is sooo much fun. It is also ridiculously strong with critical head shots being the main tool of this character. Playing on Hard.

EDIT: Also maxed persuade of course :P

[chipartist]

Originally posted by AKmongoose:

Yeah, after a shot or maybe two, stealth is blown and you'll be up to your eyeballs in hostile npcs. Stealth does seem to work better on animals than it does on humans however. I can drop whole herds of critters before they notice sometimes. Humans and Robots? no dice. Instant aggro after 1 or 2 kills.

Originally posted by AoD_lexandro:

Take it slower. Your shots are getting traced back to the point of origin by the AI....

Try using a blade. Titanium Wakizashi is my primary weapon. Using stealth attacks (10x damage) combined with boost pack blitz maneuvers, I can clear an enemy installation faster than with ranged. No shots to trace. Even pack and swarming predators on the ground and in the air are no big deal, losta fun, although I do carry a Magshear for terrormorphs. NG+2 coming up (because my saves are getting ridic bloated) and I'll be upping difficulty as well.

[Low Standards]

The problem is there are few opportunities I find myself at level 1 of sneak that I can get away with it.

[chipartist]

Originally posted by Low Standards:

The problem is there are few opportunities I find myself at level 1 of sneak that I can get away with it.

Stealth kills on wildlife are a decent way to power-level the first stages of Stealth. Find a planet with lots of critters, park yourself up high, crouch, and plink away at them. A small- or medium-scoped Beowulf is a good choice here, semi-auto or burst fire, or auto if you like burning ammo lol. If you have weapons workbench skills they pump up nicely for single-shot kills, especially with burst fire and stealth damage multiplier.

[Jarsonne]

Originally posted by chipartist:

Originally posted by Low Standards:

The problem is there are few opportunities I find myself at level 1 of sneak that I can get away with it.

Stealth kills on wildlife are a decent way to power-level the first stages of Stealth. Find a planet with lots of critters, park yourself up high, crouch, and plink away at them. A small- or medium-scoped Beowulf is a good choice here, semi-auto or burst fire, or auto if you like burning ammo lol. If you have weapons workbench skills they pump up nicely for single-shot kills, especially with burst fire and stealth damage multiplier.

Did level 1&2 that way mainly, but with a sniper rifle, and for fun targeting aggressive animals.

You don't need kill just hit in stealth, so past level 1 one animal can allow collect multiple chained hit in stealth.

To unlock level 4, it was just during standard combats but moving in stealth, as it's not kills but hit, this still allows collect many points to unlock the skill.

Originally posted by Low Standards:

I want to start over as a stealth character. Has it got better recently?

Stealth in Starfield is no more an invisibility spell. It's a skill to fit a Stealth gameplay.

This can create good stealth parts, but in general tough, not because you need be more invisible, but because the game doesn't provide enough clues.

A typical example, is you see a corner further, wait, see nothing coming, move to it and bam an enemy patrolling turn the corner and you don't have the time to move out or hide.

The problem is patrol walks are mostly silent, it's not proper with a good stealth gameplay. For example they could make more noise so you have a chance hear some is coming and it's better hide in a safe spot. Or just sound visual clues.

You can't even bet seriously on time because some patrols have a very long time before go back to a point of their path. Plus there's RNG variations in various cases.

Another problem is some NPC can be just stuck checking something a long too long time. The patience/wait it requires is just too long. As far I know you don't have tools to attract an attention elsewhere, or I need learn some throw command and not alerting at throw trajectory start but end only.

No system patch can fix it. It would need a whole new QA of stealth gameplay of parts suitable for them.

Still for me it's still a lot more fun than the pointless OP invisible mode of older games. I only take care save and allow me some reload and retry during a long stealth progression, still very fun that way.

EDIT:
And for tranquilizer guns, they are ok for civils, but too weak/long for anything else, so for any guard or more.