But then the abusers would just peek in your inventory without taking anything. This would have the same effect as current abuse.
Pretending to use steal is exactly what the problem is.
Besides, they might be using the repair skill simply to scare you away from the trader.
Note that shoot & loot teams do use steal skill to check inventories.
By having a method to keep an eye on someone and certainly catch him if he tries to steal. How would that differ from running anyway? You can't steal from someone if keeps an eye on you in both cases. The only real difference would be that your char gets caught and unprotected which is only fair.
Nerving a skill to a state which makes it unusable is unfair.
There are too many people in the interesting areas to make it possible to steal.
That's another problem entirely.
Are you sure? A good shoot & loot team uses the steal skill to check inventories.
How can you say it's not about items if you are after items while stealing? You want the item, the victim wants to keep it.
The victim loses time also, maybe he was going to finish a deal with npc or player but he had to run away.
Still the victim has to be on his toes all the time, he gets no peace even if he knows who thief is.
In addition the victory conditions aren't fair. The victim cannot put preissure on the thief the same way the thief can do to the victim. Thief can be after you forever but you can't be after him.
I said winning or losing is not about items or killing.
With a failed steal attempt the thief also loses time.
Once again, you can't stop people from grieving or abusing a skill. Why nerve a skill when people who don't put points in it choose to abuse it?
How's that any differend? You cause them troubble, that's all what counts.
Losing items counts as troubble.
It doesn't matter what you do in the end, because there are other thieves with differend motives. By pointing out that you steal from your enemies I tried to explain that stealing is like pvp. You use it to cause troubble to your enemies so it's pvp. And because it is pvp, same rules must apply to it aswell. If you can cause them troubble, they must be allowed to cause troubble to you in the same scenario at the same volume.
Using a skill like steal against someone is grieving to me.
Using it on someone to do with that skill what it's supposed to be used for is fine.
If the victim walks away, he's aware of me. No need to try again.
It's not harassment, grieving or whatever. It's making proper use of a skill.
Stealing is not pvp, that you perceive it that way is up to you.
It's not up to you to state how things are.
I stated a fact. People paying attention walk away.
Fighting or competition. That's usually how games solve things to keep everyone happy.
It's not an MMOFPS, it's an MMORPG.
There's more than 1 way to solve a problem.
You can finish both FO1 an FO2 without killing anyone.