Thief Content Discussion

There's a couple of weapons that can't be stolen due to weight. I don't agree with this particular aspect of the stealing mechanic, but yep it's true. Some just cannot be stolen.

@JimmyTheHand

I don't lose out to thieves a lot....anymore. I've had my house looted twice, once when I had been here about 3 weeks. I lost just about everything I had, which after 3 weeks wasn' much, but... My playstyle has since evolved.

If I didn't see you until you were making off with my holiday coins, then you won. I'll be more careful next time or I'll adjust my security. In fact, if you stealthed into my home because of some lack or delay of security on my part, even if the bot did ban you, i'd likely remove the ban so it wasn't permanent. If you broke in over night because of some hole in my security and got banned, I'll remove the ban. I can however say that 100% of the people banned from my home rode in so I've never actually had to remove anyone. In some ways I sympathize with thieves.

Whacking thieves with a big axe is sometimes viable and even gratifying. Earlier in this thread you mentioned a topic about the public's perception of thieves, which indicates that it matters to you. If that's the case, I doubt that you'd truly view killing some of these guys as anything more than fun and not a long term solution.

As far as the content, I don't know. That is however the only way that I would see nerfs happening. I think the people that make the most enjoyable thieves just want to steal my stuff because of way it's done. It's like a chess game to some of them. I think that those folks are going to try and steal me lucky charms no matter what.

It could be that content would bring something more, I don't want to discourage that. If you think that adding content would help, by all means go right ahead, i'd use caution as to not inadvertently congest the Moon gates.

LOL

@Killian

I like that you have this stance on thieves, I'm not opposed to people perma banning from their homes - it's their prerogative. Nice that you do this though! It's also great that you seem to take lessons from when you're bested.

Regarding killing thieves that are obvious enough to be seen and/or caught, well, in my opinion that's part of the game. It forces the thief to develop their strategies and therefore become better. When I was first starting out one or two lovely people became aware of what I was up to. They killed me on sight a few times. I'm not sure why one particular player stopped doing that, I'm not asking for more death! Perhaps they just like letting thieves know, that they know? *shrug*

Mounted thieves... well, it is a playstyle I suppose. All playstyles are valid, except that one that we won't bring up here. Which probably isn't even a playstyle and rather an attitude... Anyway!

I fully expect to be killed if I'm spotted plying my trade, I frequently hide when banking for this exact reason. I will always drop a thief if they try to steal from one of my alts. As stated above, I view it as part of the game for this type of character. It should teach them a lesson regarding their tactics / build. If other thieves and myself can deal with it, so can they. Most recently I took one out who was naked stealing, the thief had taken a rune from me, seemed a silly steal. He couldn't get away and had nothing but hiding to help him achieve the escape attempt. At the last I saw the words "here just take it", no friend, no. E-bolt! THEN I took it

Content talk below:

You are correct that people start playing thieves because they enjoy stealing from players. I think this relates to how I suggested we rephrase the content to "Rogue Content". The reasoning behind this is that it wouldn't actually be strictly for the true player stealing thief. Actually, for at least the idea of a final instance, a group of rogues could potentially have an easier and more enjoyable time, which could mean a few different builds. Including but not limited to lockpickers and remove trap type builds.

I do think content can add something more for this type of play, definitely. There's a whole range of cool things that can be done that won't affect balance but will add to the whole experience. So yep, we would need to be careful (as we always should be) that any new content or changes don't dramatically affect the precarious balance in the world.

As there are only a few moongates in the towns proper, this could potentially be addressed by X being achievable only when Y distance from a moongate. One concept for this would work fine if we were to implemented something in this manner. The code for which would just be a single line range check and easily done.

Edit: This is definitely not a reference to stealing not being usable near moongates, no no!

*takes more notes*

Keep the concerns and ideas coming! I think this is the first concern that I've seen that actually relates to the concept, opposed to "We want steal players, coz thief! Down with contents!" The reality of course being, that no well thought out and designed content should prevent this.

The best thief content is other players.

Let's make more of those.

That's part of the reasoning behind the current stealing mechanics isn't it? Player retention drop when any ol' thief can steal a bunch of sexy items from players with ease. If it is too easy, then we lose players. Too hard, no thieves. That tightrope.

I think someone crapped on about "oh why not make content for cooking, or begging." Why not? BOD's and achievement system for cooking would actually be cool, also more achievs! Begging... well, lol. It was always a strange skill, but I could see a few things that might increase playability of a beggar. "I feel your pain, beggar. Here, take this, may it bring you luck in your life." - special item / clothing / quest to scavenge stuff. *shrug* Maybe disregard the begging thing for now, I didn't much think about it and just started typing.

The point being, new content shouldn't detract from existing gameplay, only enhance it or add more options for certain builds. Tamer quest is the prime example of that, whether the reward is appropriate for era or not is not the discussion, but the quest itself gives tamers a bit more to do around the world whilst they play their character.