nah i dont agree with you. If thief would have 5 minutes cooldown for example, player who comes to trade could walk away when thief is trying to rob him, and then trade when thief is on cooldown. Now its impossible to avoid thief for trader, since one thief could terrorize all players comming to same npc trader because of very low cooldown, and its not right for sure.
1) You don't understand, one guy SMGing you, you both die, other (friend of guy who bursted you) picking up your items.1a) I killed (EDIT: oh noes, I didn't kill him, guards crit me instantly, so I insta-killed him only to 0 HP) innocent at NCR only once (don't include bombing), but that moron didn't want to answer on my messages, that I want to buy all ammo he have, he didn't even said "Get off" or something, just ignored.2) You don't need to stay in gruop, you trading with NPC, another bluesuiter comes near, don't doing any actions behind you, so you don't expect him as a thief, and he's not a thief really, he simply going close to Sha Enin and then setting dynamite on 1 second and then Boom, Sha Enin and everyone who was standing near him are dead.3) No, I don't talk about YOU encounter THEM. I talking about THEY found YOU. Your outdoorsman won't help you.4) The same as 2th, while you bartering at NCR, everything can happend, you can barter not only at NCR... there're alot towns at California and even more NPC traders than towns.
Yes i'm telling you to move, it's your own dam fault that you are distracted by the merchant, and the thief tries to take advantage off that. It's already incredible hard for thieves to make a living, for once stop whining, and take a higher PE next time.
I agree with Vedaras, stealing timeout should be much longer (at least 3 minutes), not only because it prevents people from doing tasks like trading and talking to NPCs, but especially because right now it's waaay to easy to level up a thief. Farming XP using steal and 1 cap is what I call lame mechanics, not timeouts. Anyway, IMHO stealing should be totally reworked, the penalties, the timeouts, how XP is computed (it's very stupid right now and basicly encourages XP farming using bots), pickpocket perk (which maybe was OK for a single player game but overpowered in MMORPG) and finally some PvE jobs for thieves.
Remember that thief have to check his victim first. Not everyone is wearing pulse rifles at him while trading with npc. Increasing cooldowns will lead only to more boring game. Diversity is what we need. And don't tell me that thieves are overpowered right now. Its all the same as it was, only difference is that the flag is invisible and people are lazy or scared to do the work that guards used to do for them.Stealing should be nerfed in matter of what you can steal with what skill/perk but not through stupid cooldowns. And you still ignore little fact that problem with thieves is only in NCR since its hearth of the south but thieves can't steal anywhere else, they can be easily recognized and shot + they can't steal forever.I think what we need is some kind of thief check for players. Now people are afraid to shoot at thieves and they can be 100% sure only when the guards yell that someone is being robbed but even then thief walks away unhurt in 7 out of 10 cases. But if people could somehow "push/punch/slap/something" everyone for some really low 1-2 or non dmg to see if they are thieves or not then it could help.I mean I see someone with stealing animation. I'm not sure if the guy is a thief so I will use "push/slap/something" on him. If he is a thief (flagged) guards will not react but if he is innocent guy (not flagged) then guards will warn me not to do that again. This way people could check if they are free to shoot or not. But this is kinda not needed for people who keep their eyes open but it would certainly make robbing people way more dangerous then it is now. Also I find this kinda huge boost and it might lead to extinction of thievery and thats also something that should not happen. Simply balance is needed and now one side nerf will deliver it in this case.
Remember that thief have to check his victim first.
3: the amount of skill needed to steal a item is based on its weight, meaning caps and small amounts of ammo could go missing more easily, where as a minigun could never be stolen.
PickpocketFrom FOnline: 2238 WikiRequirements Level 15, Agility 8, Steal 80Ranks 1You are much more adept at stealing than the normal crook. You can steal with the best of them, because with this Perk, you ignore size and facing modifiers when stealing from a person. Edit: sry i have to read more carefully
personally, i'd for a thief, i'd go with these boosts/weak points.1: a thief does not show a "use" animation unless he gets caught stealing.2: a thief if caught has his name turn black for 10-20 seconds.3: the amount of skill needed to steal a item is based on its weight, meaning caps and small amounts of ammo could go missing more easily, where as a minigun could never be stolen.4: a thief has a chance to be caught just looking in some ones pockets, so if anyone tries to just look in a big combat armor wearing guys pockets they could get shot for it. but any real thief could do it fine still.the first suggestion has one useful thing about it that i like more than the others, for the simple reason that if people don't know they're being robbed they don't get mad, so while this might not be so nice for people at first, a person standing behind you is pretty fairly easy to spot, and unless caught you won't even know who did it unless you really look.as it stands trying to pick pocket some one without stealth on is almost like walking up to them and punching them in the face its so offensive, not to mention the point of being a good thief is that no one knows who's stealing.sure its bad for me as a crafter. but at least i'd like to not know i'm being robbed if i forget to look, rather than not know who to shoot or not.cheers.-Ulrek-