I've been playing my thief lately and stealing in town is way out of balance. I have 100 stealing and I would estimate that I fail with insta-guard kill at about a 50% rate. This is totally crazy as it makes stealing in town a game of waiting for respawn... For those of you not familiar, here are the outcomes for stealing: A. Success and undetected (remain blue) B. Success and flagged (turn grey) C. Success, flagged, and guards possible (it tells you that guards can now be called, so any random player walking by that spams "Guards vendor buy bank" gets you insta-killed) D. Success and insta-kill (NPC tiles away, sometimes inside a building, calls the guards) My issue is with the last two, especially the last one. When stealing at a crowded bank, D happens about 50% of the time. Here's my suggested distribution for the four outcomes: A. 10% B. 85% C. 5% D. 0% I am not looking for a free pass. I am looking for players to solve their own thief problems and not the guards all the damn time. That's why I suggest the vast majority of the time a thief flags grey. Truth be told, some of the most fun I have playing my thief is when I have two players chasing after me, trying to kill me while I hide and stealth away.
While I'm at it, I've always thought guards were insanely overpowered. I think they should be like a fast moving npc that hits as hard and has as much health as an ogre lord. If you stay and fight a guard, a new backup guard should appear every ten seconds until you are dead. Essentially, it should be possible to run away from the guards (although not very easy) and insta-death should be done away with.
Staff here made it clear, that they want near 100% safe zones around banks. That's why they placed so much guards and other NPCs there. That's also why C (guard calling is possible) happens that often. On the other side, D) only CAN happen when NPCs are within 10 tiles of range and have LoS. They wouldnt call from inside buildings, I never saw that. And Alice provided a standard tool of the experienced thief to break LoS here. If you have NPCs in LoS and within 10 tiles, the chances for GWs depend on the amount of NPCs, and the difficulty of your steal (weight you are stealing and whether its a directed steal or a random steal). The last things I wrote, are from my research of era accurate mechanics etc. Not 100% if that is the way here too, but I havent experienced anything contradicting. I try to prevent the slightest chance of GWs in general. EDIT: But still nothing you can do against guard-calling. Such a cheap solution to players against thieves.
On the positive side, if you're bank stealing you don't need to be carrying anything valuable on your person. I consider that a fair trade-off to the paltry success rate.
I do quite well in town as a thief. A disarm thief at that. It's all about knowing the mechanics and playing to your advantages.\ That said, I'd say we're probably a couple of months from towns being made total safe zones, so got to take advantage of it while you can.
My problem with this is that it's way too easy for people who have no intention of fighting to escape. If we make it only a 5% chance for a thief to be guardwhacked when performing criminal actions in town I want to be able to bring my red into town because guards will be effectively worthless.
This has been key in my experience. There have been times when I was only 8 tiles from a guard, but his/her back was squarely toward me when I stole successfully. The rest of the outcomes are just part of the game. Thieving isn't easy, but it's not impossible. Some banks are better than others. Be patient with your mark and the bystanders. Wait for the right moment to strike.
Facing direction of the NPCs doesnt matter (for now). The distance doesnt matter too, once the NPC is in the 10 tiles range and LoS, you have to hope for your luck that you dont get the GW. If its a 1 stone item, you have good chances. (would be interesting to know the percentage exactly)
Thieves always complaining, all you do is steal and run to the nearest moongate or event gate and leave while the "aggressor" is stuck on the other side asking himself "why the fuck can I not use this gate..." enjoy your eternal hell of guard whacks!
I wouldnt even agree, if anything what Russell said would be right. Grey thieves can neither take moongates (not talking about player gates) or event gates. Actually, the green event gates are the worst crap for us, as they provide Trammel for safe trading and idling. Nobody shouldhave to listen to people with zero thieving experience in this matter, IMO. Honestly, all you have to do in cities is manage your bags OR not be afk and call guards.
Yes, even taking Russel's set-up as true (that grey thieves can escape through event gates and public moongates, which is NOT true), why would that stop the person who attacked the criminal from using the moongate, as well? Doesn't make sense.
If you steal from me and I chase you long enough for your criminal timer to wear off you will be able to escape through a moongate while I am unable to do so due to heat of battle. This is a condition that does in fact exist
Bullshit, it takes 2 mins to go blue. Heat of battle is what? 30 secs? If it took longer than 2 mins for you to catch the thief, it's over anyway.
You have no idea how hard it is to kill someone who is in a dead sprint, so I'll chalk that remark up to willful ignorance. Running away is VERY easy, let's not pretend being a thief is difficult because it isnt, even when you die you lose nothing unless it's something you just stole.
I see that this is futile. I assure you neither of you has a firm grip on the concept of killing people who do not wish to fight. I would be on board 100% if HoB was had by the defender as well (no moongate or recall abilities until you have broken combat)
Oh, so when you get a boss statue drop in your bag and I steal it, you dont loose anything, because hey, it just dropped in your bag and wasnt there before, right. Crap, Kane, so much crap you write. In cities, which is nearly the ONLY place here where ppl have something valuable on them, it's a simple guard-call you need. Like you demonstrated today. Apart from that, it's usually running away on foot against mounted persons, often with mares. In no way is it easy to escape. Only thing that thieves have to count on is the unpreparedness of players. EDIT: I wouldnt even mind about HoB as defender. It's all decided in 2 mins anyway. Either I am gone, or not. It's usually even decided in the first 30 secs. EDITEDIT: Oh no, wait, I CANT steal a boss statue. I forgot, I can only watch you farm it, because hey, someone decided 11 stones is exactly the right weigth for a boss statue. Co-incidentally 1 stone too heavy for stealing.
