Stealing adjustment ideas

[Whisper]

Hello.

As someone who occasionally likes playing thieves I wanted to share some ideas I had for adjusting the code for stealing. If anyone has any ideas or feedback on this please do share.


Idea #1: Adding better chances of success to certain areas. Places like Taverns, River Square, and the Crossroads have a lot of traffic and probably not many guards depending on the law metric. So I think it makes sense to have a bonus when trying to pickpocket someone in a place like that.

Idea #2: If the first idea is not to people liking what about adding better chances to rooms with three or more PCs? I like this idea because it could make theft more versatile than just sitting in high traffic areas. You could have better chances anywhere there was people and this could make stealing more high risk high reward depending on how you pick your marks as everyone has a chance to notice you.

Idea #3: Incorporate a skill, Hide maybe into not getting spotted? I'm not sure how its done now but maybe using a skill or attribute of the thief rolled against those present in the background could help balance things more? I mean a proficient thief should be able to pick a distracted persons pocket yes?

Idea #4: On the subject of distractions. The helpfile for the steal command should be updated with clear instructions on how it works. I had to muddle through with my first thief and got caught. The helpfile says you can use things like kiss, hug or bump. But I could never make those work. They are great ideas though and distraction code SHOULD be a thing for theft and should help you get away undetected by your target at the very least.


That's all I have for now. Feel free to comment or share your own ideas.

[Lei]

I really like the high traffic area and 3+ PCs in a room ideas.

[Puciek]

I don't think that steal itself needs a buff, you can practice it to master in safely, but even at 36 it's not a terribly big risk as long as you stick to coins/letters etc. Especially as you can do it masked/cloaked which reduces the risk further, and with new help turns you can bolt very much right after being spotted stealing.

The suggestion of bumping/hugging is a suggestion how to emote the moment when you actually go for the item - remember that it has to still have realistic cover in your emotes, even when undetected. If you are just sitting at the bar, both keeping hands to yourselves, how exactly do you fish out something out of marks satchel? But if you will emote leaning in to whisper a secret, or giving him an embrace and so on, now it makes sense.

One thing I would balance out around steal is some incentive for people to carry more silver around them to increase the reward factor. But besides that, I think it's pretty fairly balanced skill right now. And indeed being part of brotherhood is highly recommended, especially on your first thief, as there is a lot to learn about the art, both skill and ooc wise.

[Whisper]

You can practice it? I did not know that. How does that work? I though you had to actually steal from a PC for it to go up? Also since its considered a guildskill it won't go above 36 will it? I admittedly am still learning new things here.

I do like the idea of people carrying more silver though. An incentive for that would be nice. Maybe a bonus to earned rpxp for having 25 or more silver on your person?

[Puciek]

You practice by having friends who will allow you to pick their pockets for practice! This type of friends, and getting it past 36 are only a few of the benefits of joining brotherhood on your thieve-y characters, especially first ones - there are a lot of tricks to the trade that figuring on your own is hard, but guilds can explain icly and provide you with a lot more!

[Starstarfish]

I'm not sure personally that I'd want there to be buffs to making stealing easier/more likely unless there was a re-think on the policy or expectation about fleeing and stuff like this if caught. Otherwise, it's something that gives a lot of benefit to one party with the chance of there being little to no RP for the other.

[Whisper]

I'm not sure, but I think that as it is the chances of success are very low even at proficient and higher? I mean I know catching thieves makes for fun RP but I myself like the chase and such. It takes the fun out of playing a thief if things are too heavily in favor of one person or another. I want balance not super thieves. I want there to be a chance for both to win and both to lose depending on the odds. Right now it seems discouraged and difficult to play a thief. Its a fun high risk concept but there is a big difference between high risk and foolish risk. Right now I think the risks are really overdone and the rewards are slim.

Maybe if bonuses and bonuses are an issue the idea of adding incentives to things like carrying more silver or not being cloaked when indoors?

All someone needs to do to stop thieves is cloak themselves. I know cloaks are expected outside but wearing them all the time is just annoying to us poor pickpockets...

Honestly just a simple rebalance so non master thieves have some chance would be nice too.

[Puciek]

The success chances are not low even at 36, just have to stick to small items/coins. But at the same time, they will have a lot more risk than non-brotherhood thieves and that is fine, as we want people to join the brotherhood, just like we want mage hunters to join knights and lawmakers to join the reeves. But then stealing is also not designed to go and rob every single pocket you see, but the occasional easy mark, with a proper setup so it may be a matter of perspective.

I am serious that joining brotherhood on your (first) thief is about the best choice you can make, as there is a lot to learn about the trade, but that is for thieves only, so won't spread it here.

[Starstarfish]

Personally, I'd prefer there being a way to attempt to steal from NPC shops or pickpocket NPCs in some capacity - and that failing pings the Reeve channel etc. Perhaps it would work like foraging where folks with Steal have a list of things they could try to steal in different flagged rooms.

All this being said, I'm a person who wears a cloak but isn't "cloaked" all the time and walks around with silver, so I take the risk and have indeed been robbed more than once of late. However, given the number of times I've been on where everyone is just solo RPing peeking at the Where list, I do worry if "going to a public place" starts to equal "going to get robbed" that will reduce people being in public for RP.

[lkbalboa]

It isn't hard to play a thief, it just makes no sense at times. It's easiest to steal in a room with just one person, as everyone gets a check to notice you. It would make more sense if a crowded room meant a smaller chance to be caught. I do know Niamh is working on revamping stealth, hide, steal, and stuff like that, which I'm looking forward to!

However, my first character on this game was a thief, and I got steal to mid 40s through use if I recall and was never caught. Just, as Puciek said, stick to small items or coins (coins especially) and you should be fine.