Stealth and Invisibility.

Just want to make sure I have my head around what we have going in the game when it comes to being sneaky and invisibility. From CSC: Visilight Chameleon (TL 13): A more advanced version of IR chameleon, which blends the armour into the background and makes it extremely difficult to detect with the naked eye or optical instruments. This gives a +4 DM to stealth rolls. Cr. 50,000. Is this what folks are talking about when they say they go "invisible" or is there something else from a different book that actually makes you invisible? +4 to stealth is pretty awesome, but seeing that sneaking about is often an opposed check this gear doesn't exactly make you invisible. And if the effect of the Sensor ops or recon roll beats the effect of your stealth roll, visilight cam offers no penalty on their roll to hit you. Are there other items in other books that help with stealth? Are there any variant rules that we run with here when it comes to being sneaky?

Pretty sure it's just the Visilight.

I guess this is a question for Bob then - Are there any restrictions we need to know about when we want to attempt stealth? Could we attempt a stealth roll in the middle of a combat for instance, or is it only something that we can do outside of combat before baddies have eyes on us? If we're trying to sneak around in a fight, do we need to keep rolling each round? Would there be any modifiers for range or movement? I don't really want to start a journey into houserule town, but the rules in the book are a little thin on the matter. It'd be good to know how the ref plans to handle stealth before I start attempting to "hide in plain sight" in the game. I'd rather know that I can't do that kind of thing before a game rather than in the middle of it.

There’s more to stealth than being unseen; there are at least 3 other senses... Hearing: Visilight doesn’t make you any quieter; even the nicest stealth Battledress is probably going to make you pretty damn clanky on deck plates. Smell: If you stepped in something, you’re bleeding, just fired a slugthrower, or are emitting some other smell, you’re still noticeable. Laser pistols might produce noticeable ozone along their beam. Touch: Obviously, if you move something, or you touch someone, they have a good idea where you are. That perception roll is not exclusive to sight; I would hazard a guess that, for practical purposes, you’re completely invisible; but it’s important to remember that it only gets you so far.

Thanks TT. I guess my thinking was that being "invisible" means it's impossible to spot with vision. This item says that detecting visilight camouflage with the naked eye or vision gear is "extremely difficult". And once they spot you, they can just see you. No penalties to hit or anything like that. I'd imagine that if you were actually invisible and someone detected you by sense of smell or sound that there would be some kind of significant penalty applied to any attacks made against you.  It seems to be like the hunter's cloaking in Predator? Or Ghost in the Shell maybe? But even that gear looks like it would provide a penalty to attacks. GHOST IN THE SHELL