For UO it is exactly the case. And I bet you can easily name three independent measures against this core skill set of thieves that makes any steal impossible. Without relying on zero weight that is.
But somehow (here is the nonsense) extra protection for especially valuable items is enabled. Please consider that half of the BOD rewards are blessed/unstealable (at least the really valuable stuff). I dont have access to my shame-trammel-item list right now, but it is long.
Wanna know the benefit of having things like runebooks, bod books, bank checks and house deeds able to be stolen? 0 population to steal from
I think runebooks and bod books should be able to be target stolen, not checks and house deeds. Also, this isn't really about the stealthing house part of stealing, but directed at the stealing skill itself and how it interacts with fails and weights. And why trammelize the server for people who if they can't handle a fel ruleset are just going to quit after a few months anyhow. I think the rng drops and mining delays and monotonous repetitive gameplay are a bigger down than having a classic fel ruleset. but once again, I'm not concerned about moats or house looting, it's nice that scam trades aren't in place here. I just care about the thief class being as fun as it used to be, if you didn't have the rng drops on rares and rewards so hard, there'd be more stuff to steal and less butthurt about it. Fun = fails and weights being fixed so we can goof around and have town fights and such, anyone who carries around a full bod book or a boat key or house key deserves to lose it anyhow. I'd guess the majority of the folks that do lose that stuff do so out of laziness not lack of knowledge on how the game works.
I am in full agreement that pile theft needs adjustment or even an interactive slider to choose how much you want to try and steal. You can choose your own risk level based on other factors at the time, which seems much more appropriate. I'll never agree that BoD books (potentially worth millions) should be able to be targeted, unless they are made to weigh 11 stones. Same with runebooks because the only really valuable thing you'll get out of a runebook is a CY rune to an unsecured home. So it's basically worth jack shit, or a boatload of loot. There's still a ton of highly valuable things to rip people off for, without those two specific things. Or, if we change those to be targeted, then definitely remove newbie status from spellbooks, require mages to have them in hand to cast and let the disarm thieving be fair for all.
I like stealing runebooks cause it leads to me finding neat places (or used to) and it is something to do, cy runes aren't really a part of it, most folks that have cys have blessed runebooks. I do agree that stealing can lead to obscene wealth (more house looting which is rarely using the skill, but stealth and gate hops) but I steal for fun not profit.
