Suggestion Stealth and Smoke rework

[A_Clever_Monocle]

In under rail stealth becomes largely irrelevant in a fair portion of the mid to late game fights you find yourself getting into, unless you are able to CC eveyone in the area and eliminate them your options for restealthing or fleeing can be very limited so I thought I would suggest some items to add to your escape options

Smoke Bombs and pellets
coal was something recently added to the game, make smoke grenades with coal, starter mixtures, and thin grenade cases and only requires 15-25 chemistry Smoke bombs last 10 turns and cover a 10 x 10 area One batch produces 3 just like any other gas grenades they have the same cool down as flash bangs

smoke pellets are like smoke bombs but affect a smaller area 4x4 or 5x5 these have a shorter cool down as opposed to smoke bombs and are produced using capsules coal and starter mixture with a chemistry requirement of at least 35 


both smoke bombs and smoke pellets are affected by the throwing stat
Standing in smoke adds a suffocation and an obstructed vision debuff as well as a buff called obscured when these debuffs reach 1 stack the enemy will be unable to see what is going on around them but can still hear, obscured is a buff that will make the enemy's considerably harder to hit  at 5 stacks enemy will take a set amount of mechanical damage until they leave the smoke cloud, and will attempt to leave (thus offering more options for nonleathal runs)
 
anything standing in smoke is considered to be in complete darkness including the player
Smoke does not unstealth enemies that are stealthed when it is thrown near them



feats  1 new feat plus changes
Fire Fighter (New feat): Player is unaffected by the effects of smoke and enemies can no longer be obscured
Opportunist: Enemies in smoke are considered as slowed for this feat
Spec Ops: now effects smoke bombs and pellets
Interloper: now has an active ability in which smoke pellets can be used to re stealth on a cool down
Ambush: Smoke pellets and bombs can be reliably used to create a darkness zone for the player and prevent detection
Grenadier: has the same effect on smoke grenades as flash bang grenades  but does not effect pellets
Cutthroat: will not break stealth if done from smoke so long as target will die
Snipe: Crossbows will not break stealth from smoke if target dies instantly, when used on sniper rifles stealth will be broken regardless

[Duskmare]

Love this idea. Great suggestion. I would also suggest that the smoke, when thick enough, blocks sight through it even if you're not in it. So basically, you could throw smoke down a corridor between you and the enemies and after a turn (assuming it works like other gas grenades and slowly builds thicker gas pockets) it would block sight down that corridor. Another bonus to capsules could be that it releases thick clouds immediately instead of a slow release smoke grenade that might last longer and cover a bigger area but take longer to deploy.

I would also suggest that stealth characters, when moving through it, have to make a Con save every time they're affected by a 'suffocating' debuff to prevent coughing that reduces their stealth by a certain amount. Naturally, gas masks would remove the penalties for standing in smoke since they protect both the eyes and the lungs. Though you would still have to hug the edge of the thick smoke pockets to be able to see out through the thinner smoke pockets, otherwise you would be blinded by the surrounding thick smoke too.

If enemies see smoke then I would suggest they react to it like they do with broken cameras. They don't immediately turn hostile or know where you are but they come to investigate. Though, maybe not through the smoke unless they're wearing a gas mask. That way you could also use it preemptively to sneak through well guarded areas.