[Kromm]

Changing terrain is worse than starting and staying on it, though. I dance, and I can promise you that it's better to start on a crappy floor and get used to it than it is to stray off the good floor and onto the crappy floor. The loss of balance is noisy and abrupt. I would say that's realistic.

I'm not sure why taking longer should be worse, either. If anything, I'd penalize the sneak for speed. If you read manuals on things like stalking as a sniper or hunter, you'll find that they all agree that you can never move too slowly or take too long, unless your target is leaving. Basically, the senses cue on rapid motion; static outlines, if ignored once, tend to be ignored indefinitely. Again, I think that's realistic.