hide and sneak questions

[Dran]

I'm trying to make sense of hide and sneak.  I'm playing a scout, recently bought the autohide/autosneak rank.  I went to test it with my friend and there doesn't seem to be anything "auto" about it?  I still have to type hide or sneak, and it doesn't seems to work consistently.  I can walk in and out of the other player's room and they see me come or go about half the time.  I thought it was my equipment, but I'm wearing only cloth and leather with the exception of my weapons and one metal ring.  No glow or hum, and not in my inventory either.

Will a metal ring interfere with sneaking or hiding?  Do lights need to be closed in a container, or can the container remain open?  Should autohide/sneak be automatic, or it's still required to type 'hide' or 'sneak'?  And should I expect it doesn't work 100% of the time?

Thanks for any help.

[muddeer]

Unless they changed things the last couple of wipes, no, a metal ring does not interfere.  Does a container containing a light source need to be closed?  Not sure on that one; I used to keep them closed.  The autohide/sneak rank works like an autohide/sneak item.  It is activated automatically; no need to type hide/sneak.  However, they only work part of the time; so not 100% activated and instead works randomly.

[Dran]

Hmm I wonder if the frequency or success of the autohide is based on your skills?  It would be sort of lame if the rank purchase was less effective than having high skill and just manually hiding or sneaking.

[muddeer]

Auto hide/sneak isn't going to be as good as high skill level hide/sneak.  Auto hide/sneak items and ranks are really only for the classes without the skills.

[Jarrad]

Fact not as widely known as it should be. Typing a social command like nod or dance will activate auto hide and sneak and invis items... Why it works like this I do not know

[jingo]

I doubt autosneak activates due to socials, it's probably checked on every move.  E.g. it can work when you flee from a fight, unlike regular sneak. Because of this, autosneak is extremely useful for every class.

Unless it's been changed since I last had one, which has been a while.

[Jorake]

It 100% does reset with socials. I use blink to activate it