I noticed, that even at GM 100.0 Hiding skill, being targeted by a Monster in the nearness usually makes it more difficult to Hide....
Instead, the Invisibility spell or the Invisibility potions always work and, infact, what players usually do is first cast the spell or eat the potion and afterwards, use the Hiding skill for a longer duration...
Now, considering the high investment in Hiding skill points, shouldn't this skill, at least at high levels, work always, with no fails, regardless of being targeted by nearby monsters, under attack or whatever?
The potions and spells are Magic in nature. The hiding skill is reliant on you being sneaky and it’s hard to do that when a monster is looking directly at you. You can pop a smoke bomb and hide when they are looking at you.
I understand that still, it is an investment of 100.0 skill points into Hiding and, I think, it should be more rewarding Monster targeting or not...
there Is a benefit from the investment. You get a higher chance that you will succeed at hiding, when you your are at least 7 tiles away from a Mob/player that is targeting you.
Having high hiding also makes it more difficult for monsters to reveal you
Hiding lasts until you reveal yourself or get revealed, which is harder the higher your hiding skill. The spells/potions have a time limit and let you be revealed more easily. If you want to see a change you should come up with an exact benefit you want to see, and suggest it to the Devs.
Not that reality has much to do with UO but. Your enemy is looking directly at you from 7 feet or less and you can hide from him? In that situation the spell will probably be disrupted, will be disrupted if he has a rang attack. With the potion you need a free hand or a "balanced" bow. The only guaranteed hide is with Ninjitsu and a smoke bomb. I find the extra 50 point in Ninjitsu well worth it and the present system reasonable and balanced. Each method has it plus and minuses.
I'm guessing this has to do with non melee templates, because shadow strike. Not to mention all the bonuses and checks with ninjitsu. It has its great uses.
Hiding works with stealth, invis does not. They are 2 completely different things. I find hiding to be much more useful.