@Jakob has answered the rest, but regarding the disarm thing - disarm thieves still work, it's just that the spellbook was a special item that could be disarm/stolen for a month or two before Telamon patched it. And you only get revealed if you walk over another player, if someone moves near/on you, you'll be fine, but they will get the message "You move something invisible out of the way" if they stand on your tile.
It's possible to get through peoples without being revealed or trigger a system message if you move at the exact same time and "cross" path between tiles.
Heh, good luck doing that with any consistency. I think this hits the nail on the head with these two sentences. Staff adds new events, items, and content, which is GREAT. No new stuff or mechanics makes the server get stagnant (see: voldershard). But the new stuff added is too often trammeled in some way or another by being newbied/blessed or being 10 stones+ when it has no business being so. I mentioned before that all items should be stealable unless: 1.) The nature of the item makes 10+ stones logical. A war hammer for example, if a rare colored war hammer was introduced, I would expect it to have the appropriate weight and be non-stealable. One of those giant statues the size of 2 buildings that somehow fits in your backpack.. yeah you probably shouldn't be able to take that due to weight. 2.) The nature of the item means that it's value is in it's blessed/newbied status. Holiday jewelry, spellbooks, things like that abide by this. Some other things like colored masks should not be newbied/blessed because they can be clothing blessed anyway. 3.) It's a quest item that, if removed from the player, it would ruin the entire quest for them permanently. In this case it should be "locked down" in their backpack anyway. I understand why people complain about thieves, but you're absolutely right. I don't just magically "appear" in someones house and clean out months of their hard work. I had a rune library of every persons home, and I would recall around the world generating data on when they are home and not home, their farming spots, and everything. Ask @corruption about this. One recall spot I used was right near his house and I would appear there several times a day and say hello to him while I go about gathering the data I needed. LOL guild said I was pathetic for stalking them for 2 weeks to finally get 1 kill on their PKs. Yeah, that's 2 weeks of work, that I find exciting. It's unfair to posit that stealing is overpowered on UOR since you don't see the work involved at all. People mostly complain about things being stolen at events, one of the few times that "anyone" playing a thief might make some money. That doesn't make up for the near non-profitability the skill usually presents just because there is an event a few times a year. It's likely the most difficult playstyle to be any good at, but I guess I can understand how people feel wronged when they just "don't see" the full picture.
I think the whole game is about consistency. You do something, and there is an expected outcome. That's what makes the game unique. I can put something on the ground, and I expect it to be there later unless it decays (which is really necessary for server load and .. sanitation) or someone takes it. I can attack anyone, I know the expected outcome if I am in town, in the dungeon, etc. I use taming on a dragon, I expect to start taming it and have a skill check for success. It's when I try taming a pink dragon from an event and get "That is not tamable" that the inconsistencies start to happen. Ideally, I think these "inconsistencies" should be avoided.
