Other > Suggestions

Stealing penalties

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Sheepify:
From what I understand, a failed steal attempt lowers reputation with the town the action took place.

However, this does nothing to placate a would-be or actual victim of the theft, regardless of whether it was a successful attempt or a detected bungled one.

I would like to submit for your consideration the following:

a) Regular failed pickpocket attempt to add an invisible timed flag to the thief that allows others to engage in combat with that character without guards' intervention, possibly with the exception of a 1000+ reputation thief character that would still retain the protection. The main issue seems to be low level characters to whom the reputation penalty is not such a great determent. The purpose of such is to allow the victim retaliation against the assumed thief. The flag would be on an also invisible timer (I think 30 seconds would work well, with the cavet that the timer does not decrease while the character is in combat), with the flag being removed when the countdown reaches zero. Neither the thief nor any other character should be able to verify the flag's existence, or remaining time for it to clear.

b) Critical failure pickpocket attempt to add a visible tag in front of the character's name (if possible, or some other means of indication - name in red color for the duration of the effect, perhaps?). The flag is set for longer, and even an Idolized character should not be protected by guards (I imagine critical failure to be akin to dropping the valuables in plain sight of everybody, with no question as to what occurred).

This alone should make anybody think twice about the consequences of a pickpocket attempt, without interfering with their ability to actually conduct such action. On the other hand, players that might otherwise have no recourse against the thief would not have both the ability to react to such an attempt (a), or be forewarned about the presence of a thief that recently failed at stealing (b).

Another detriment might be an introduction of Thief reputation that increases with every detected failed attempt, and affects NPC guards' behavior. An example would be an Idolized character with high enough Thief reputation being warned by the NPCs that any stealing attempt would result in severe penalties. Should the player ignore the warning, the result of a failed attempt would include, along with guards' reaction, massive reputation penalties with that faction.

From what I've witnessed (and, frankly, in that area I am sorry to say I had experience aplenty despite short play time), the issue is not the ability to rob other players as much as the relative lack of consequences currently implemented, in particular the ability of a victim or targeted individual to act against the thief while in presence of guards.

Please note that the above mechanics would not affect the actual viability of stealing as such, merely impart greater penalty consideration prior to deciding on such an act.

I imagine in a society as presented in Fallout, where the simplest things, or lack of thereof, mean death or survival, thieves would find very little acceptance.

Kardia:
Hmm well it isnt a bad suggestion, however stealing is already badly nerfed and i dont think it needs any additional nerfs at all.
I'd like to note however that i dont have a thief char so its not the reason im defending it, but i just dont think
that further killing an already nerfed part of the game isnt needed.

Gilgameš:
There is something I noticed a sec ago.

Is it possible to try to use science, repair, or such skill on another player? because if it is... then there is a possible way to abuse the out of control thieving. Let's imagine a non thief character using, let's say science on another character while that character is doing business or just standing idle somewhere. Now to that character it would most definitely look like the science using character is pickpocketing. I know this could be countered by being wary, but it would be quite annoying for new players. The science using character would be practically in no danger, whereas if the fooled character tries to attack the science cracter he will be the one shot, after which his body is free to loot.

I think I was a victim of such activity, and that is the reason I realized this. And it annoys the hell off me. Even though I will be more careful from now on. And that is because it is abusing a game mechanic, and that should be countered somehow.

of course it is possible I am wrong, but I could just try it out myself. Lest it not be such an evil act.

gordulan:
actually, it is the perfect way of moving people from a crowded vendor, normally they just walk away after you've scienced them 2-3 times.

jerer:
It doesn't make sense that a shopkeeper would allow 10 thieves to hang around in his shop and openly steal from his customers. Maybe make stealing in a shopkeeper's FoV an automatic fail and a message from the shopkeep saying "Get out of here dammnit, stop harassing my customers"



--- Quote from: Kardia ---Hmm well it isnt a bad suggestion, however stealing is already badly nerfed and i dont think it needs any additional nerfs at all.
I'd like to note however that i dont have a thief char so its not the reason im defending it, but i just dont think
that further killing an already nerfed part of the game isnt needed.

--- End quote ---

There is little to no detrimental effects of using the steal skill, i really don't understand your post.

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