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When you are not in a person's line-of-sight, sound is the thing that will give you away. I think this is a fine model, as there are powers like Camouflage, and other effects that model the various 'hiding' techniques.

Ok, looked up the chameleon talent. Looks like your correct by the rules.

The question becomes how does a thief (or scout) of tenth circle sneak up on somebody in the bushes. They have only partial concealment and camouflage is a high circle talent.

In short I think a mid circle thief or scout should be able to do this.

Um I can name one perception improving talent of the top of my head. Orbital spy.

Better check it in ED3. Ok its orbiting spy and it gives you a talent based perception check for things within 20 yards for hours at a time. It requires karma but is a diseplen talent for nethermancers, dose that still mean you don’t have to spend the karma, if you dont then it can be always kept up, and fully effective while asleep. Even if you must spend the karma it is well worth using in many situations.

Also checked my ED1 book. Silent walk becomes the difficulty for perception checks to notice you, no mention of being only for muffling sound, but also no mention of including hide.

Reading through this thread, I realize that Stealth in ED is very much about who-knows-about-who first. That's where I would focus.

Sure, the Theif preps by rolling Silent Walk before going into the place. But if somebody is in there he didn't expect & doesn't see at first, he could very well be surprised himself.

So, as a professional Thief/Scout, I'd always start by 'casing the joint' investigating entrances & exits, finding possible guards, etc. Prep a Silent Walk roll to get around if he's doing it right before the job, otherwise it might be a Social situation days earlier.
Then, when the Thief comes near risky areas (corners, etc) he needs to use some PER test himself.

At this point, too, we're very much back to listening at the doors in dungeons, and other classic Thief tropes.

It's all about Who Gets Surprise. The Thief Silent Walks across the room to the door, listens for right moment to burst in, earning him (and his party) the Surprise round. D&D 1e simplified this with a roll-off of a d6 on each side. It was always handy to have the Ranger or Thief try this as they had better odds. Sometimes, each side would surprise each other.

We can model the same with ED, but we need to start with the idea that before rolling:

- Neither Party knows the other is there.
- One Party knows the other is there.

...and go from there. The fiction narrated should lead you to determine the right Action Tests to use.