Water from a fountain is stealing?

I just started playing around with agriculture, and you need water. I guess we're supposed to get it out of fountains, right? So I go to the town fountain, get about 30 or so and started my plants. Next day, it's time for the second watering, so I'm sitting there tapping the E key when the Justicar shows up. WTF? Yeah, apparently the loot window says "Steal All", and the 40th one brings out the Justicar. Oh and of course my Truth virtue is back in a negative abyss again. Yay.

I see now that the crafting supplies merchant sells the stuff, but it's buried in the hundred other things he sells, so I never knew. I didn't expect there would be a difference between the deco fountains that other players have and a town fountain, and I had never even heard of this in almost three years of playing the game.

If anyone out there is making a guide for agriculture, can you please make sure to put in a little note about this? It's not exactly obvious if you're not expecting a "Steal All" button, and just reflexively hit E when the loot window shows up.

 

Congrats??

 

Interesting. I was getting water from a fountain on a neighbor's lot but felt guilty taking his water. So I bought one of those small fountains and stuck it in my row house.

It's been so long since I got the fountain I don't remember if it said Steal All, but if it's a town fountain I think you should be able to get water from it.

 

That's one of the bad things about the "E" key.... you just press it without the need to look at the button the "E" key is pressing for you.
There should be some sort of visual cue on the cursor, like outlining it red when the item(s) you are about to take are Stolen...even if it is items inside a contain (or fountain).

 

Out of the corner of your eye, a button that says "Take All" looks the same as a button that says "Steal All". It's subtle enough that when I'm expecting it, I basically have to look squarely at the button. When I'm not expecting it? Well, that's exactly what happened here. I didn't even have player lore about this to warn me that it might be a problem. I also didn't realize that the Justicar could be so slow to respond.

They put the red cursor on world deco items, perhaps the "Steal All" button could at least be made red so you can have a chance to see it out of the corner of your eye? @DarkStarr ?

That doesn't help when you're not looking at the cursor. That's why it works with deco items, because you're looking at the item. When it's the E key, you aren't necessarily looking at the cursor. I've also "stolen" items because they were in front of the NPC that I was trying to talk to when I hit E, but I think that was before the red cursor.

 

This is how I lost my Truth rating. Tried talking to an NPC and it grabbed the shield. Guard showed up and fined me. And you can't give it back!

 

May they should stop supporting the E key when this means a steal. So one can only steal using the mouse.

 

Thieving outlanders!

 

This should help.
Only $4
Purchase this in the Add-on store and it will place and not take much room.
p.s. it can also be place inside a house and still works on the 4th floor.

 

PINK: WATER THIEVES RAIN THIEVES (1990)
In a vast desert, lived a young female bandit named Pink. And her greatest desire is stealing all of the water that's under the protection of the Silver Company.

 

Not a bad idea. I didn't even notice anything wrong until the Justicar opening a chat window stole (heh) focus from the loot window. In fact, that sounds like a really good idea. The same should apply to world deco too. I mean, didn't they just stop supporting the E key from player containers?

I was specifically avoiding that while looking for an in-game solution. Is there a way that doesn't require using the cash shop or a COTO merchant? Otherwise that would be very much a "pay to win" item. It wasn't until today that I realized just how big freaking enormous all those fountains were that we have been getting from the monthly livestreams. You basically have to have a lot with no house on it, or maybe a city lot with a village house.

 

You can also craft a well for no real money.

But as @Mac2 has told us many times, the time investment to collect water vs. buy water is terribad. I look forward to the day when collecting water is efficient, but as of now, it is roleplay at best.

 

How big is the craftable well? I know there's a craftable "large fountain" that is also big. Maybe the well is what I need. I guess I better get my ass to Etceter.

 

The one in the image I posted is the size of a small desk.

BUT the best reason is because you can move it from planting bed to planting bed and not have to carry water up 4 flights of stairs in a Ornate Greenhouse or across several blocks while encumbered with tons of water buckets.

 

Well we wouldn't want people doing it for... fun!

Yes, it was the distance I was more concerned with. I was doing this in Westend, and I'm about as far away from downtown as you can get. I don't have enough plants to have encumbrance problems yet, it was just the distance that I was concerned about. Oops I need five more buckets, time to go all the way across town again!

 

Hmm, I didn't know taking water from a public fountain was stealing. Isn't that the whole purpose of having a public fountain?

Is there a well in that town you were in? I don't think using a well is considered stealing so may be an alternative.

The craftable wells that you can make are not very big, but will not fit on the lot of a row home. Not sure if you can place those inside or not.. I never tried.

 

What we really need is a craftable wall fountain, that could be hung anywhere. If it was thin enough, it might even work on the front of some row homes, but if nothing else, inside.

 

I just saw quite a few of those when I visited France a few weeks ago. Mostly in the huge churches.

I was really curious how they got them to work back in the day without a pump. Figured it had to be some sort of artesian system, but couldn't see behind or inside to quite figure it out.

 

A lot of the ones I saw in eastern Europe were originally driven by rainwater; it was collected from the roofs into collection pools and then channeled into small tunnels in the walls, like pipes. However, they were hard to keep clean so most of them were converted to use small pumps.

 

I think it’s a bug, and you should report it. I never had problem collecting public fountain water but that was long time ago. Most of us use a crafting water well.