Greater Invisiblity - Ideas?

[danshive]

I like being able to turn invisible in Skyrim, but I feel like there's not much I can do with it other than briefly be sneaky. That's probably all it's intended for, but I'd like to be able to do more while staying invisible.

 

It's probably impossible to make invisibility better without making it overpowered, but there might be some limitations to keep it from feeling broken, at least.

 

One thought I had was, assuming the CK can pull it off, would be to make it so you can interact with things while staying invisible so long as you don't make any loud noises. If you bump into something that alerts actors to your presence, you become visible. If you shout, you become visible. If you cast a spell without the quiet casting perk*, you become visible, etc.

 

* The exception would be destruction spells. I don't think there's any way you could even pretend flinging fireballs while invisible wouldn't be broken.

[Vannus]

I'd quite like a greater invisibility spell, or at least a tweak to the current one. My main dislike is not being able to have any interaction whatsoever, even walking through a damn door. And having to recast it manually, and therefore making a noise without quiet casting, takes away the idea that I could be the ultimate stealthy character.

 

And actually I'm not too sure about your dislike for destruction being silent! The point is you're casting it silently, and therefore not alerting to people to the fact you cast it, not necessarily the spell itself making noise. People would obviously hear a fireball, regardless of the fact if you can cast it silently or not, but they won't know who or what cast it.

 

My ideal approach would be:

1. Make Invisibility allow you to walk into different areas/use doors.
   
2. Have an option to make Invisibility last indefinitely, and/or slowly use up mana while moving (Crysis style!)
   
3. Have Greater Invisibility allow you to interact with objects: pick pocket, steal, etc.
   

[danshive]

I was thinking more from a balance standpoint than from a story logic standpoint with "no destruction spells", but I think it falls apart from a story logic standpoint, too. With magic like calm, fear, etc, I can chalk up the visible spell effect to game play feedback for the player and I wouldn't find it odd that enemies wouldn't see it. With destruction spells, I think the visual effects are literal and too flashy. Even if you weren't invisible, someone might not be able to see you through flames / lightning / frost, but they're going to know where you are anyway.

 

Arrows being shot from a distance, on the other hand, are difficult to argue from a story standpoint. In fact, it seems odd that you can invisibly draw a bow and then everything's undone when you fire. Of course, if the snap of the bow is loud enough, it would undo my "deactivated by sound" version idea regardless of who could hear it.

 

At the very least, however, I agree that you should be able to pickpocket and take things while invisible. It should just potentially draw attention to you. You can still get "spotted" while invisible as it is if you bump into people and make noise. If you grab something right in front of someone while invisible, that should get their attention that SOMETHING is there, but I don't think that should mean you're immediately visible for just having grabbed it.

 

Of course, if I'm being perfectly honest, I am sorely tempted to make a super-invisible effect that nothing will disable. If I were to go that route, though, I think I would do it via an apparel that would make you invisible while sneaking, i.e. EXACTLY like the Chinese Stealth Suit from the Operation Anchorage Fallout 3 DLC.

[Vannus]

I think the whole concept upon reasoning why we even suddenly appear out of invisibility at all is confusing and nonsensical when we look at it logically. It's purely a game mechanic to stop you doing something stupid; namely, running around invisible forever and killing everyone because they can't see you. But then again... Predator anyone?

 

The important thing is, the NPCs are smart enough (I think, anyway...) to know where you are when you're invisible if you do something like attack someone. They're smart enough to hear you and investigate, so I totally think it's reasonable to have a permanent invisibility. I think it makes for an interesting idea in a world that it should be completely possible to do.