sneak should be requried as i said long time ago, would cause thieves to hav to scope someone and catch them when not many NPC or players around.
This.
But I think in a sense that needs a GOOD sneak skill. Like, if you sneak in a town and guards see you, they'll let you know. Because you're acting suspicious. Just a simple,"I see you." So then, if there was a thief that was THE SHIT, he could sneak in and out of a town without being seen by anyone, and being in sneak mode is the only way you could actually activate your steal skill. So he slips in, grabs some loot from innocent bystanders, then leaves and no one even knows. Of course there's always a chance to fail, in which case you're notified like usual and you can go about dealing with it how you see fit.
My other idea is PLAYER GUARDS, but I already feel like that would be hated by everyone even as just a suggestion. Unless it where made with the most strict rules ever. It's not like they would let a bunch of dumbasses be the guards, and I mean only a few anyway. NPC guards are okay, I just feel like they need more I in AI. Like a person. Or some people. Hell it would open up the game a bit more. Then I'm just going on and on in my head though. I just thought of it as a profession or something, then I thought of a merchant profession because I started thinking about how cool it would be for players to be integrated into towns more, making everything feel a bit more "alive." Now just rambling. Anyway, I don't even think this is a very good idea at all, some food for thought. If it were done I would hope the devs would nail it and everything would work. I just don't think it would.
There's got to be something we can do to make thieves a bit less tedious like using alts. I've never, ever, made an alt. I never will. It's just a little...silly? To have to login to a different char, deal with some ass-cunt, then log back in and go about your day. Until there's another...