Pick pocketing

[paxx]

Ok, I?m now going to add another little poll on pick pocketing.

Again this falls in similar ways to Pking and such so this will have a couple of variables as answers.

[Solaire]

I think pickpocketing is quite realistic, but maybe you should limit it to certain small objects, and small amounts of gold.
- This makes it more realistic (like a thief could grab your two handed sword from your backpack, walk away and you wouldn\'t notice --> that isn\'t realistic).
- This also prevents players who worked very hard to get their (good) items, from being robbed of the result of weeks and weeks of hard work.
- Finally (I don\'t think the PS team was planning this) pickpocketing equipped material isn\'t something that would be realistic. So imo it shouldn\'t be possible.

So pickpocketing yes, even on playing characters maybe, but then we should come up with a sort of limitation so not everything can be pickpocketed (limitations could be: weight, volume, value, etc...)

[tygerwilde]

it could be quite simple really, weight value of the item, would be the most important factor, 10 gold(just as an example) is nothing to be missed, however, if someone tries to take 1000 gold peices, you\'d notice the weight difference immediately, course, realistically, you couldn\'t carry that much gold casually, using a medievil measure, I\'ll say that a max limit of weight for a thief to steal would be something like 20 stone(roughly 10 lbs), and that\'s if he\'s damn good, and very fast

I would also restrict any thief from stealing from any other given character to once per day, so bob has already stolen from frank, frank feels a little lightening of his things, but doesn\'t think about it, that thief, in real life would find other pickings, naturally, if the player steals from the same person again that day, most likely that person would get wise, and the thief would be caught

yes I agree with player thieving, your items shouldn\'t be a hundred percent safe, it adds some challenge to the game, but I agree with sol, it should definitely be restricted to keep people from being robbed to defencelessness by one character.

[Kuiper7986]

I\'d believe Pick Pocketing should only be done to NPCs and Monsters. Pickpocketing is just too unfair in my opinion, you can always say that there are harsh punishments for stealing and they could only steel once a day but no matter how much there is too back it up you can\'t ignore the fact that something has been stolen. Lets say you got the most expensive item in Planeshift but then someone steals it. Your not going to care anymore that person who stole from you got punished. Your going to acknowledge the fact, that something valuable was stolen. Also it would messed up if everyday you got something stolen from you.

[tygerwilde]

heh, if the most expensive item in the game is that light, I\'ll turd an emerald brick... unless it happens to be a quest item which should be no drop items in the first place.

in any case, if someone stole something expensive from me I wouldn\'t really care, I mean it\'s just an item man, I can always get more loot any time. while I myself wouldn\'t be a thief (I wanna be an architect or a blacksmith.... can\'t decide which...
, I would respect a decision to include player theft,

funny thing is, in games that allow pk looting, the ones that gripe about losing things are the ones that loot others the most, prolly be the same way with thieves...

[Caldazar]

I dont want players to be able to pickpocket other players. It will only attract griefers.
I say: pickpocket allowed on monsters and npcs.

[tygerwilde]

but how do you attract griefers if they\'re only able to steal from any person once a day, they just want to make other people miserable, they can\'t tell people that they stole from them(that should definitely be punished, just because if a thief is stupid enough to tell his victim what happened, he ought to be stuck in the gallows for a month) they\'re only getting a pitiable amount, and at the beginning, there\'s a huge chance they\'ll get caught, which should mean pking, wherin they\'ll lose their items to a pk death, and I doubt anyone will falter in looting a thief...

[Kuiper7986]

ya sure that person can be only be stolen from once a day BUT only from that guy who already stolen him. What if 100 different people steal from the same guy?

[tygerwilde]

heh, thing is, they would have to be extremely organised to do that, not even the bloods on DT have that kind of organisation, they can only get three peeps in one place at any one time before one of them gets killed, flat out, a hundred guys aren\'t going to steal from one person at one time, and even if they did, if one of them failed once, that person would be punished, mostl likely by pk, I personally would put a caught thief up for universal pk flag, anyone can attack him, but only be attacked if they do attack him, leaving him pretty helpless from any one who isn\'t associated with him, also, the chances are that griefers wouldn\'t stick together long, because the chances are, the one that got caught would be attacked by those he was working with as well, griefers do that kind of thing...

on with the general idea here, most likely, less than half of them would succeed unless they had a damn high score, (these are pcs after all, and would be difficult to steal from naturally) and most likely the ones that got pk\'ed would drop enough loot to more than pay for what was stolen the one steal a day rule means that a greifer can\'t concentrate on stealing one person blind, by the time he can steal from said person again, the other player has more than made up for what has stolen, also, I wouldn\'t let the thief inspect the inventory of the player he\'s stealing from, just make him pick an item within a certain amount of time, after all, theives don\'t get much chance to pick and choose, they cut a pocket and get the hell out of there.

I\'ve got lots of xperience with griefers, and honestly, they make up a minority of mmo players, they just get confined in small areas, like AC has something like 100k active players or more, but griefers only play on DT, so for the population of DT, the two types of players are diehard pk fans and griefers, naturally, griefers make up a good half or more of the population, but that still only makes up about 500 people out of all those players. I\'ve played lots of hours in DT, the bloods and griefers are damn nuts, but other than losing a certain amount of armor, they\'re pretty harmless, and if you put in procedures to restrain player theft

[Faramir]

well just to say : I know it is supported by many users but thieves and so on...reaaly could spoil the pleasure : imagine you found a magical item somewhere and then \" you have been stolen xxx\"...

I mean u spend so much time building a good player, you don\'t want to see your work being destroyed by a thief ;

And avoiding thievery would on the other side encourage commercial exchanges, people selling rare items and so on !!! really better than stealing isn\'t it ?
And also more \"community friendly\" no?

Really this won\'t be a gameplay loss to avoid thievery, as long as you developp alternative ways of exchange just as the ability to run a shop who knows and so on .........

[Shuri]

Maybe every item is assigned an \"unseen number\" or something and depending on that number, it is either easy of extremely dificult to steal that item w/o getting noticed. Also, that itme can\'t be equipped. That would be a bit odd having your sword go *poof* while you\'re holding it.

[Jefka]

well by the way ........I thought about it and really it has to be in the game ; thieves guilds and so on are really part of a mmorpg ; but I agree with faramir somehow ; maybe if thievery is only tolerated on npc, then it would be fine !!

[Giladrial]

Just a thought...In a normal society, you have different groups of people, with different idea\'s on what is right and wrong.  It even shows up here in this topic.  Some say sure, pick pocketing should be allowed, others say restrict it, and still others say, no, don\'t allow it at all.

This is how societies work.  People should have the right to choose whether they want to live the life of a criminal, or as an upstanding citizen.  However, they also have to pay the consequences of that decision.  Criminals get in to trouble, make a lot of enemy\'s, so on and so forth.  If they\'re really good and never get caught, more power too them.

No one wants to have their belongings stolen from them.  It\'s not fun, but, it can happen.  It\'s a part of life.  Just means you have to keep your eyes open and be a little more cautious.  That\'s just my opinion though.

[predawn]

I am playing a MMORPG called \"Shadowbane\" atm. It has a class call \"Thief\" and this class has the ability to \"Peek\" and \"Steal\". Stealing can only be done from stealth mode and when successful or unsuccessful will broadcast a message and the person will unstealth. The chance to successful steal is based on the skill of the thief and level of the victim. Items can only be stolen from the inventory, this includes goodies and gold. Gold can only be stolen at a certain percentage, based on the Steal skill.

Being a Thief class has it\'s consequences, nobody trusts you, most people are unlikely to invite you to an xp group (except your own guild). In Shadowbane, where it is open PK outside newbie zones, whenever you see a thief, you will probably give chase and kill him. So being a thief class is also leading a difficult life (unless you belong to a guild who can protect you).

So what if all the thieves form a guild so they can protect themselves? In Shadowbane, to form a guild you need to build your own town or to be a sub-guild to another guild who owns a town. This town serves as your bind point. As towns are build from gold, they can also be attacked and destroyed. So being an idiot guild will probably get your town reduced to rubble if you manage to piss off too many guilds (they form alliance and everyone attacks you).

Though it may be that case in Shadowbane, it could be otherwise on PS. However, being able to steal from someone should have its thrills and consequences. Knowing that you will be killed if caught or that someone could actually steal from you really makes a game more exciting.

Not many people wants another EverQuest, where you camp all day for that precious loot and the leveling threadmill that takes you 6 months to gain a new level. Nor would many want another DAoC where you PvP to gain more skills (read another form of leveling) and play capture the flag. However, a MMORPG with accountabilty for your actions, and actions (or inactions) that can and will affect the world around you is certainly enticing.

[Bonez]

yea, it could help with the pkin, if they steal something simply kill them or if u even notice them u could report them to the authorities and they should have too spend so many hours in jail