Stealing/Theft/Hiding/Stealth

Then people would end up with mismatched items from all types of different people. I still laugh thinking about it

 

I like that idea, and the thief could still steal out of town

 

I think it was not the guards that caught you, these guys just recalled in after someone would have called them.
It was always a good idea to steal outside the view of any NPC, because it dramatically reduced the chance of a guardwhack.

But fun times indeed, maybe the best times ever in a computer game!
... first this "Whoooshhhh" then a "Whaaackkk" and instantly a dozen of people running for the dead grey body ...

 

Ahh OK. My one regret is not playing on Seige Perilous. I think I missed out on a lot. Good to see you guys are still around!

 

You would be amazed that people would learn to steal with their toes if they had too.

 

Entirely possible. You might be able to find an account of it in the KGB Archives.

 

Correct. You could go gray, but unless someone called the guards, you might be able to hide and allow your flag to expire. This was why people typically had a macro saying "Bank guards vendor" which would open their bank vault, call the guards, or access a vendor without having to type it. It was also why I would lurk around the bank using 'detect hidden' to reveal hiding flagged thieves, and call the guards on them.

 

Ah I can remember that so well having the guards called on me just as I had stolen something and hiding. I also remember laying in wait just out of the city to return the favour, so many so called justice players layed out to the sword.

 

Depends on if the system determined you were hidden before or after the guards were call, I suppose.

 

Maybe I recall that wrong, but I think guards did not care if you were hidden or not.
I think I can remember situations were I was guardwhacked even if I was hidden ...

Not sure ...

 

I'm pretty sure right there, I can remember that as well, thinking I was safe then being smashed!

 

Maybe it was because you had some one like me, invoking 'detect hidden' to reveal you to the guards.

 

I am pretty sure I would not have missed the *you have been revealed* message!
So no, it was not you!

 

It was people the likes of you that did do that, and also found a quick death just out of town as well.

 

It was attempted , to be sure, many times. Very rarely was it successful.

 

Im sure maybe against you personally, I was very successful at it.

 

Because it assures you'll remain focused on what is taking place in the game. I was playing on a custom t2a server for UO a while back and I actually had a character I sat in Britain just stealing various things. I have also been on the other side of the spectrum and have had things of value stolen from me, I.E necessary reagents.

Here are my thoughts on it:

It does encourage focusing on the game and caution which is always a good thing I feel because nobody likes to start over from square one and it should be preventable. However I feel that the necessary prevention should be up to the players themselves in how they handle a situation as opposed to just a blanket "Can't do this." thing. Allowing the system to exist with no opt-in or opt-out doesn't make the game too ******** friendly (Yes, the guy with the My Little Pony picture is against making things overly friendly) and it isn't like a whole "you're always doomed" kind of thing because YOU can prevent it from happening by just being careful.

Also it isn't like a whole "few seconds for them" because I used to think the same thing until I actually had to live it. You'd be surprised how risky choosing to do that alone is. It isn't like everyone just carries around a fat stack on cash on them. Some people are cautious and carry little making them marks not even worth consideration. Very rarely do you get that one goon that gives you what you want. And you can be there for hours and make very little to nothing, or you can get very lucky being there for a small bit and getting a good steal. It's all chance. Actually farming is more profitable because it's somewhat consistent.

 

Personally I'm not so sure that stealing should be implemented in a traditional sense; in any kind of normal PvP scenario a result of increased wealth without any resulting combat follow-up is an unfair result for the one being stolen from.

Considering the current skill trees planned out for combat it doesn't look like there's any room for a pickpocket skill anyway, but I can also understand the overwhelming desire to include a stealing mechanic in PvP. I know its a little contradictory to say stealing can be both unfair and desirable at the same time from a design standpoint, but so is human nature sometimes I suppose.

My idea for stealing is the same one I had for things like the recall spell -

Make the mechanism by which stealing (and protecting from stealing) operates into commodity items with limited server supply. Heck, go a step further and make it painfully obvious to the victim what is going on - "Player A begins combat by using a 'Thief's gauntlet'; 2 random items have been stolen from your inventory" - and the animation looks flashy and obvious but works every time (unless blocked appropriately). So long as the stealth aspect of theft is eliminated everyone then has a chance to follow up with additional PvP if they feel willing to.
Taking stealth away from thieving, concept wise, is probably unappealing to rogue-like players, but balancing a mechanic like that for competitive PvP outside the scope of a pure rogue-like setting would be the most difficult challenge to give anyone in this industry.

We technically already have stealth in the moon magic skill tree, so its redundant to think about other implementations of it.

 

Disarm and steal was fun... but OP. As a thief, I could have definitely done without it. Maybe disarm with a 15 second re-arm, and a 1 minute no-steal flag on the item would have worked.

 

Tough guy, eh? Lots of guard calling and hiding it seems.