Make listen useful.

[TheKaige]

Listen is a joke of a skill as is in this game and the reason for that seems relatively simple to me; for some reason, to detect a mob you can hear, you have to be looking at them.

To make listen useful, I suggest
1: If you beat a mobs move silently DC by 5 or more with your listen, instead of just the occasional red blip showing up, you actually see the outline of the mob as if you beat his hide with your spot skill, however the mob still has 20% concealment. If you beat the DC by 10 or more, the mob has no concealment bonus.

2: To be in line with above changes, if you beat a mobs move silently DC with your listen skill by less than 5, then that monster has 50% concealment relative to you until you either "spot" him or knock him out of stealth mode.

3: Any mob which you manage to successfully "hear" appears as a red blip on your map where ever you last detected them, or as consistent red blips that show them as they move if you beat their move silently DC by 5 or more. This makes listen more useful/realistic in that you can then detect mobs behind you, to your flanks, and around corners/ behind doors.

4: The red blips from the listen ability should still show when blind, and if you beat a mobs move silently DC by 5 or more as above, you can still see the outline of the monster despite being blind. The concealment bonuses listed above do NOT stack with being blind.

5: If a monster/player in stealth mode isn't moving at all, they should be completely immune to listen checks. Monsters/players outside of stealth mode standing still, are still subject to being "heard" however.

[Robai]

Good idea.
I think we don't hear them now, we hear only some music when they are near.
I.e. I'm not sure if listen skill is working at all now.

Listen should work this way: you hear monster's steps.

And you should hear that from big distances too (how far should depend on skill level).
From sound you should be able to tell how far monster is.