Adventures in Thievery: Ocllo Will Never be Safe Again!

Discussion in 'The Salty Dog Tavern' started by Black Tortoise, Sep 29, 2017.

  1. Black Tortoise

    Black Tortoise Active Member

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    So, the vibe I got from that thread about killing AFK's in town* was that people were not fond of how "easy" and "carefree" ( carebear? ;-) ) it is to AFK at the bank, namely in Ocllo**.

    While I was reading that thread, I kept thinking - you gals and guys know that there are many ways to make it challenging to be AFK in public, right? I also noticed in a year of playing here that few people play thieves. I decided to do a little experiment and prove just how un-safe it is to afk in public in UO! Even in Ocllo! ESPECIALLY IN OCLLO!

    Then I read some other thread on here about people stating that stealing is nerfed here, and not viable in PVP. I decided to experiment, and I absolutely loved my PvP thief on OSI UO back in the day. While I agree, a lot of work needs to be done in regards to allowing more PvP playstyles with stealing, and essentially, make stealing outside of a town viable, things are not nearly as nerfed as some people claimed. There was a rumor that a thief can only steal a small pile of gold or a small stack of regs - my friends, this is far from true :-D.

    One of the bigger things I was looking into was the ability to reduce a mage's combat power by stealing common combat or healing regs. A mage should be forced to have several bags of a couple regs each to deal with thieves, as a GM thief should easily be able to snatch 50 regs at once from a mage. In the heat of some battles, like those big faction battles we all want, a thief should be able to essentially disable a mage by grabbing all the Ginseng or Black Perl while the mage is distracted fighting or whatever. The resulting hesitation when one realizes "oh crap I can't ebolt?!" should allow an allied mage/dexxer to kill the victim mage. Thieves should be an excellent pvp support class!


    Also playing a thief is so much fun due to the low investment and asymmetrically high return!

    And so far, it appears to be that way!

    Here is a brief account of my experience as a thief over the last two weeks. Ladies and Lords, allow me to introduce Shadow Tortoise. Tremble and fear that thy booty shall never be safe again!

    To start, macroing a thief is super easy. I think it took me about a week total, but I was rather casual about it. I also moved houses in the midst of the training, so YMMV. There are plenty of training guides here and elsewhere, and I wont repeat them here. All I did was follow some guides I saw on here for how to get GM thief.

    My build:

    GM ArmsLore
    GM Hiding
    GM Snooping
    GM Stealing
    GM Wrestling
    GM Stealth
    50 Magery
    50 Tactics

    My zany adventures:

    Before even making my thief, I could tell people in this shard are not adapted to dealing with thieves. Ive commonly seen non-Young players afk for long periods of time with huge stacks of regs, phat piles of gold, excellent weapons, and all kinds of other fun and valuable things to snatch, just whimsically AFKing away. Then once I started snooping a lot, this belief was greatly reinforced. I have only on occasion witnessed players with packs designed to thwart thieves (or at least make it much harder / less appetizing). I suppose most of people who play defensively also dont AFK at a bank though!

    100% of the following took place at Ocllo bank. I play all kinds of hours of the day, so the crowd size at the bank varied - however - most of this was done at peak times.

    My very first steal was a simple Axe of Might from someone's pack who was obviously not AFK. NO ONE NOTICED! Not one person saw a grey running around them typing "hehehehehe". I was almost disappointed. The very next steal I performed was someone's house rune! (Don't worry @shagrath, Im really a nice guy, and I tossed it in the trash!). I have also stolen at least 4 house keys!!! This was all on day one!

    Regs: you can absolutely snatch big piles of regs. I scored 76 Blood Moss in one snatch before someone and friends killed me while I was having wifey aggro (I swear I was one pixel from banking it!). Here is a record of reg stealings, and the consequence for me:

    - Blood Moss: 25/25
    - Ginseng: 1/45
    - Blood Moss: 1/60
    - Night Shade: 15/645
    - Blood Moss: 5/550
    - Blood Moss: 5/5
    - Blood Moss: 45/75
    - Blood Moss: 44/50
    - Blood Moss: guardwhacked
    - Blood Moss: guardwhacked
    - Nightshade: guardwhacked
    - Black Pearl: 70/90
    - Black Pearl: 73/73 (so yah, its somewhat viable in PVP - though I think stealing the entire pile at once should be more common!)
    - Nightshade: guardwhacked
    - Blood Moss: 25/31, player found me on my return trip to the bank and pwned me
    -
    Blood Moss: 76/??, Enthralpy got me at my return trip to the bank, and I chose to bank the gold and the other items so he got his regs back ;)


    Now, I am having a fun getting away with all of this, but srsly yall, its too easy. Note the above - other players rarely notice, let alone retaliate. There are several instances above where someone pursued, but I hid, stealthed, and they couldnt even find me on a horse. It was freaking hilarious watching Entropy even miss me while I was running on foot and he pursued on horse (guess you had some bad lag last night ;) ).

    Heres some fun items Ive stolen so far, and the consequences for me:

    - Axe of Might
    - Quarterstaff of power
    - Greater Healing Wand with 13 charges: killed on return trip by player, but I was able to bank the wand first
    - 2x House Recall Stone (trashed)
    - 4x house keys (trashed)
    - 1 Diamond: guardwhacked
    - 2x Green Dyed leather sleeves
    - 2x Green Dyed leather gorget
    - Green Dyed leather chest
    - Green Dyed leather legs
    - Green Dyed leather gloves
    - Green Dyed leather helm (notice a pattern here? no one notices me!!! ITS NOT SAFE TO AFK AT A BANK! THIS IS NOT TRAMMEL.)
    - Leather legs of Fortification (killed by player, cant remember who)
    - 1 Diamond (killed by Enthralpy I think)
    - Contract of Employment with +15K on it
    - Contract of Employment with +9K on it (same player as the first one)
    - Loaf of Bread 1/1
    - House Deed - cant steal, which I think is kind of trammel...
    - Cotton: 0/37: guardwhacked
    - 5x Grandmaster Smithing Contract, all from same player, who was obviously not AFK but still couldnt notice me running away, coming back, stealing contract, running away...
    - GOLD: 465/635. I came back and got the remaining 170g from the same player.

    The last one I am especially pleased with. Not like its a huge score on its own, but there was a rumor that you could only steal insignificant/small amounts of gold at a time. If someone has like 15K gold in their pocket, and I steal it, I better be able to get like 4K or something! As long as that ratio scales, its all good. If its capped at like 500 or something silly, thats trammelish. Not enough of you are leaving big piles of golds in your packs, so at least there is some degree of caution here.

    So yah, all in all, thieving does make one somewhat viable in PVP. Big piles of regs seem easy to steal, though the amount you get is kind of random. I havent yet tried bandages or not.

    This weekend I aim to set up my target/disarm/steal macro, so stay tuned for how much fun I report back on! That is, unless, players start acting like this isnt trammel and realize you gotta take care of yourself here. Consider this a public service announcement: THY BOOTY IS NOT SAFE FROM MY HANDS!

    *pls do not discuss that thread here, just discuss stealin' and bringing some better player - on - player mechanics into UOR stealing skills...

    **Given the steep learning curve of both the game and its culture for a brand new player, I think the Young status is fine - afk away, just know its a terrible habit to form!
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2017
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  2. Kiryana

    Kiryana Well-Known Member

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    Excellent application, interesting story and useful information! Throughout the reading, you could feel how you want to convey to some people what they did not try and say otherwise, it's good, because despite everything the thief plays very exciting and interesting! Moreover, since recently, when I myself began playing as a thief, I began to comprehend this profession deeper and understand how flexible a thief is!

    And by the way, I saw your gray running in Ocllo! I've been attacked a lot recently and sometimes I almost do not get out of the shadows, in a couple of cases I stood next to you when you worked and you hung up a bit!

    You have all rightly described and it's nice to read, I hope your horoscope adventure will see the world again, I wish you good luck and do not leave the shadows!

    salute,
    Kir
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  3. Hadrian

    Hadrian Well-Known Member
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    Can you steal from people in factions? While you are not in a faction?
    (As one of your examples above stated) * or was that just the general mess of grey/blues that happens daily?
  4. Black Tortoise

    Black Tortoise Active Member

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    Pretty sure I stole a huge wad of regs from some Minax faction folk. Im not 100% certain though, as evading their attacks eventually proved to be fatal (it was hard to recognize who was who after a few minutes of frey). Its possible I only stole from one person who was not faction, while his/her two cronies were, but I am pretty sure all 3 were faction and that I stole from 2 of them.

    Since this is both a PSA and a test of the server's thief ruleset, I have but no choice to continue this experiment and target faction players specifically :-D
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2017
  5. Hadrian

    Hadrian Well-Known Member
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    Please do. This information may actually prove useful.
    The idea of faction folk being faction folk (instead of chaos and order) is that there is no outside interference.

    aka; blue healing

    If a band started to have a throng of thieves making their faction fights less sustainable, due to as you said "oh shit, I can't ebolt anymore"
    The idea of a thief becoming a 'support' class against faction fights, is unfortunately, kind of horseshit.
    Though, those in factions are usually dressed to tango and should indeed expect shenanigans.

    (As some in the past would argue that thieves have been nerfed to stink, this could actually be a valid gripe)

    I wish you well in your endeavors, "for science!"
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2017
  6. Kirby

    Kirby Well-Known Member
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    That made me lol
  7. Hadrian

    Hadrian Well-Known Member
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    Upon testing: stealing is possible against faction players by non faction outside blue/greys

    How the realm chooses to view this is beyond my measure.
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  8. Black Tortoise

    Black Tortoise Active Member

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    Uhm, a halberd of vanq is too heavy to steal?

    Trammel :). That absolutely needs fixed. All weapons must be stealable. Anything you can hold in your hand (besides noob'd/blessed items) must be stealable.
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  9. wylwrk

    wylwrk Well-Known Member

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    They are... simply yank it from their cold dead hands.
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  10. Hadrian

    Hadrian Well-Known Member
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    It isn't just hallys tortoise. Heavy war mace and two handed hammers as well.
    (yes that's why I carry it though, just encase ya disarm my silly scimitar - I still have something to smack ya with)
  11. Black Tortoise

    Black Tortoise Active Member

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    Pretty nice tactic! I dont recall this from the OSI days, but again this is my first thief in like a decade.

    On the other hand, found out the BODs are steal-able, so that made up for not being able to snatch the hally of vanq from someones pocketses.
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