I recently made a post regarding the developer's comment on changes to thieves. In that post, I mentioned that I was not willing to discuss my ideas there, mainly because I hate that forum. Between the moderators, the posters, and the fact that I couldn't figure out how to change the language from German for a year, I've decided not to discuss things at length there. That being said, I would still like to discuss them and I thought that here would be a much better platform for that discussion. So I'll just get right into it:
First and foremost, let's talk about snooping. I think that it is dumb that snooping works 100% of the time at GM. There should always be a chance to fail, even a small one. Snooping should also be a criminal act if I get caught. I can understand not going grey if I look into a pack and decide there is nothing worth taking and sneak away, but if I fail, I should go grey, period.
Speaking of going grey, if I steal something, I should go grey 100% of the time. I should remain grey to the person I stole from and everyone in their party until either they kill me, or after at least an hour. It's dumb that I can steal something lightweight from someone in town with almost no chance of even flagging. There is nothing the mark can do about it. Sometimes they'll even attack me and get guardwhacked.
Which leads me to guardwhacks. Getting guardwhacked for stealing is lame. I have to have roughly 500 skill points dedicated to steal from someone with any reasonable chance of escaping, typically that leaves me with about 200 or so points that I can dedicate to combat if I so choose. I'm basically a strong mongbat at that point, why do you have to call the guards? If you want your stuff back, outmaneuver me and kill me, it shouldn't be that hard.
Just those 3 changes would make stealing more enjoyable for everyone involved. Most of us do it for the thrill of the chase, the item isn't nearly as important. These 3 simple changes would allow for more chases and make the encounters more meaningful without making the thief overpowered as 2 of these ideas are essentially nerfs. It would also increase the amount of encounters, because if I'm in town and wearing a decent suit, I'm not even going to make an attempt to steal because it is likely that whatever I am stealing isn't worth the loss of the suit when I inevitably get guardwhacked. While I'm on the subject of increasing the amount of encounters, I think that thieves should be able to steal gold from people even if they aren't carrying gold. It doesn't have to be much, maybe 2K max based on your stealing skill. That way even if I encounter someone that doesn't have anything worth stealing, I can always get a bit of gold and invoke a chase. Just that in itself would allow thieves to log in for a little bit, go to Fel Yew gate, have some fun, and log off. The way it is now, unless you collect bandages, it takes a lot of time and patience just to find a mark who is carrying anything of value.
First and foremost, let's talk about snooping. I think that it is dumb that snooping works 100% of the time at GM. There should always be a chance to fail, even a small one. Snooping should also be a criminal act if I get caught. I can understand not going grey if I look into a pack and decide there is nothing worth taking and sneak away, but if I fail, I should go grey, period.
Speaking of going grey, if I steal something, I should go grey 100% of the time. I should remain grey to the person I stole from and everyone in their party until either they kill me, or after at least an hour. It's dumb that I can steal something lightweight from someone in town with almost no chance of even flagging. There is nothing the mark can do about it. Sometimes they'll even attack me and get guardwhacked.
Which leads me to guardwhacks. Getting guardwhacked for stealing is lame. I have to have roughly 500 skill points dedicated to steal from someone with any reasonable chance of escaping, typically that leaves me with about 200 or so points that I can dedicate to combat if I so choose. I'm basically a strong mongbat at that point, why do you have to call the guards? If you want your stuff back, outmaneuver me and kill me, it shouldn't be that hard.
Just those 3 changes would make stealing more enjoyable for everyone involved. Most of us do it for the thrill of the chase, the item isn't nearly as important. These 3 simple changes would allow for more chases and make the encounters more meaningful without making the thief overpowered as 2 of these ideas are essentially nerfs. It would also increase the amount of encounters, because if I'm in town and wearing a decent suit, I'm not even going to make an attempt to steal because it is likely that whatever I am stealing isn't worth the loss of the suit when I inevitably get guardwhacked. While I'm on the subject of increasing the amount of encounters, I think that thieves should be able to steal gold from people even if they aren't carrying gold. It doesn't have to be much, maybe 2K max based on your stealing skill. That way even if I encounter someone that doesn't have anything worth stealing, I can always get a bit of gold and invoke a chase. Just that in itself would allow thieves to log in for a little bit, go to Fel Yew gate, have some fun, and log off. The way it is now, unless you collect bandages, it takes a lot of time and patience just to find a mark who is carrying anything of value.