Yeah, sorry I've been robbed a lot by veterans in death robes so I'm not buying it. I'm sure you're a noble fellow in your line of work, but most thieves are trash looking for an easy win with practically no work (but a lot of patience and luck). I have no desire to try it once because I have no desire to be a bottom feeding criminal who rips people off for fun. I feel you should be able to lockpick my doors as well, with GM skill and 1000 attempts. Then you can stand at my table wall watching me Recall into my CY. Lockpicking, detecting hidden and removing traps ARE thief skills, not exclusive to treasure hunters. A good thief should know how to do all of those things and I think that maybe there's room for a middle ground where if you have those skills perhaps a snoop won't trigger the trap because you can see it. But in order to access the container to steal anything you'll need to remove the trap (success won't notify the mark), then attempt to steal. There's room for a lot of changes in the thief template but freedom to rip people off with practically no risk, is not something I can support.
You basically want to play a different game. And your ideas would kill the thief class in UO. It's as easy as that. I told you the reasons above. And these skills are NOT belonging to the UO thief class. There have been generations of thieves in UO, all telling their tales and showing their templates. Sorry, but I am done with that discussion. It's crappy enough to do proper thieving with all that forbidden stuff around here and some tough mechanics. As soon as I start exploding, others will explode and loose all their belongings. PKing seems to be anyway much more honorable in the perveption of many. PS: Tonight, I dreamt that I have been PKd by Kane. WTF.
Probably people still not using all that is at their hands. Even now it can be ~100% thief safe gameplay, if people would mind.
If you want to remove thieves from the equation entirely, may as well create a facet entirely free of non consensual pvp as well. I think it's been done before.
I will happily explode on snooping someone taking time to setup/carry a trapped box. And then he would explode looting me and we will have lots of ghostly laughter!! You got to think out of the tinker box here P.S. I think the boss was tired when he posted. Thief class is not only about the stealing skill. I have a roguish template including tinkering and stealth that would wreck havoc in your place if he managed to sneak in. ( no stealing so it can turn red)
Bah. I am talking about classic thieves. Not about house looting, disarming, mugging, scamming, griefing, placing poisoned food and finally bomb placing. Sure there are many ways to have 'fun' messing around with other players...
You may pick the lock to my front door, but you'll never get past the Impenetrable Barrier of Waist-High Tables!
