Stealth skill question ... practicing the art of the ninja with Robbers

[UniversalRanger]

UPDATE2:
Maybe my character is just not advanced enough. I was running away in an open field, I was set on run. I would look back, and they seemed to be further back than when I started running. Then when I look again, they're still a distance away, chasing me of course. Then after the third or fourth time looking back, one of them was right next to me all of a sudden.

In the first attempt to see how well my stealth was on expert, then the 2nd on master, I would be hiding trying to stay away from them wrapping around trees, but sure enough, they seem to almost be able to teleport right over to you.

I was wondering if maybe their tracking is set to the highest, and perhaps that's why they know where you are at all times.

As for your alls strategy of backing away until they tire out, it may be that I'm carrying too much and haven't developed my character enough.

I tend to carry roughly 100 most of the time. I think at those times though, I was carrying around 60 to 80.

UPDATE:
Okay, I tried it again. I think it's actually impossible to get away from robbers either by running or by sneaking. When I run, they seem to fall behind, and then suddenly they're caught up. When sneaking, they always know right where you're at.

Were robbers designed to be a foe that is impossible to get away from and nearly impossible to defeat?

Original:
So, I found that I can sneak around a coniferous forest to fight the warriors. At least, so far it seems that way.

However, I tried the same thing with robbers, but no matter where I went, they seemed to be right there and know exactly where I was going even though I was in a 'hidden' state. I'm wondering how involved this game is with stealth.

My stealth at the time was expert level. Every time I wouldn't see any of them behind me or around me, I'd try to further lose myself behind the coniferous trees, but one of them would end up being right there next to me practically within a couple or few steps. This happened repeatedly. It seemed like the warriors can't really figure out where you are if you hit them and then walk around the trees to lose them. But these robbers felt like they were white on rice. They seemed to know right were I was at all times.

I realize that it's possible that maybe I simply found a large group of them, and I was simply running into different members of that same group strewn throughout the trees. I only say this because every time I restored my character to see how well this stealth thing worked with robbers, I noticed that though they were right next to me, they never engaged in dialogue. I kept being able to sneak away even when it seemed like they were right next to me without them engaging in the forced dialogue. My thinking is maybe only one of them is programmed to actually engage in dialogue, and that one simply hadn't caught up to me yet, and the others who saw me were simply keeping him informed as to where I was.

My question is, is it possible to use stealth skill to sneak around and lose NPCs like robbers, or do robbers simply know where you are? Or still, do I need to have an almost maxed stealth skill to hope to get away from robbers?

 

[PALU]

If I've understood Sami's answers correctly, robbers shouldn't magically home in to you. However, my experience is that they do magically know where you are to deliver their threat.

You can deal with robbers in three ways:
1. Yield. You lose some of your equipment, but don't have to fight. You can return with spare equipment and fight them, which I think works normally.
2. Run and zoom out as soon as you see they are robbers. That works sometimes. You can't get away without zooming out, in my experience.
3. Fight. Risky, as you can die. Normally you're just beaten severely and dumped (without some of your gear, of course). You can heal up and return to deal with them (if your character is up to it).

The working tactic against enemies is to walk, not run, away from threats by backing away. The enemies will eventually tire from running and move slower than your character does. However, they may well catch up with you before the tire, and can start to hit you, which obviously is dangerous. I typically use a bow to attack them from a safe distance once they're too tired to catch me and move away further as they approach. Enemies with bows can be lethally dangerous, though, and you need a lot of arrows if the enemy uses a shield.

[flibbo]

UPDATE:
Okay, I tried it again. I think it's actually impossible to get away from robbers either by running or by sneaking. When I run, they seem to fall behind, and then suddenly they're caught up. When sneaking, they always know right where you're at.

Were robbers designed to be a foe that is impossible to get away from and nearly impossible to defeat?

No, it's perfectly possible to run away from them, I do it all the time. Does your character have shitty speed stat or do you carry too much? How fast are you exactly when you run?

As to your question, when you encounter robbers and are forced to zoom in there will be several of them standing at a medium distance, usually most if not all of them will be looking your way so sneaking will be impossible at that point. You've already been seen. I don't recall ever having a robber encounter where none of them had seen me yet, it happens with Njerps so I suppose it's theoretically possible but pretty damn unlikely given that robbers are never alone. If on the other hand you know where they are (approximately) already and are sneaking up on them from the next wilderness tile away, sneaking works like it always does. Which means, it depends on your skill, your penalty and your luck.

The working tactic against enemies is to walk, not run, away from threats by backing away. The enemies will eventually tire from running and move slower than your character does.

I don't see how that's a sound tactic unless you are dealing with an animal or the enemy hasn't seen you yet and you are sneaking away. If you are just walking and the enemy is running, it is pretty much guaranteed that they are faster than you. By the time you are enganged in combat backing away accomplishes nothing except getting you hit over and over again. Against robbers, you need to get away as fast as possible unless you are confident that you can beat them.

[PALU]

Character usually tire FAST in UrW. I engage Njerps with missiles from maximum range and then back away. In most cases the Njerp is slowed to a speed lower than that of my character before reaching it, and thus become easy pickings, in particular if I managed to injure the enemy with the bow. That doesn't work every time though, as some manage to reach my character and thus force melee combat (because I bring a dog which is typically leashed when I engage Njerps, and I try to save the dog). When alone, wearing maximum armor and backing away will cause the enemy to tire from swinging their weapon. Whether you should dodge or perform counter strikes as your response to their attacks is probably dependent on your skill and the weapons, but if you back away on your turn they'll have to catch up and continue to tire, and rarely get any hits in because it's a lot of "they close" - "you move away" - "they close"...

[ModernNorseman]

Character usually tire FAST in UrW. I engage Njerps with missiles from maximum range and then back away. In most cases the Njerp is slowed to a speed lower than that of my character before reaching it, and thus become easy pickings, in particular if I managed to injure the enemy with the bow. That doesn't work every time though, as some manage to reach my character and thus force melee combat (because I bring a dog which is typically leashed when I engage Njerps, and I try to save the dog). When alone, wearing maximum armor and backing away will cause the enemy to tire from swinging their weapon. Whether you should dodge or perform counter strikes as your response to their attacks is probably dependent on your skill and the weapons, but if you back away on your turn they'll have to catch up and continue to tire, and rarely get any hits in because it's a lot of "they close" - "you move away" - "they close"...

Yes, can confirm. Even managed (with a quick character), to use this tactic till they are tired out, and effective kill them using nothing but a stone i hurled at him several times.

[flibbo]

Nice OK I see what you mean then, I didn't try this tactic myself yet (I learned to have a lot of respect for anything resembling combat in this game so I generally just GTFO...) Anyway, I don't think it's applicable to the robbers OP was talking about cause you'd have to hit each of them several times before they reach you.