Crossfire Forum

Here might be an interesing Idea for the stealing skill.

Allow players with the stealing skill to steal from stores.

The play would issue a steal command. If successful the item will be added to the inventory, and they will not need to pay for it when they leave. The difficulty of the theft would be based on the price of the item being stolen.

The skill would be on the difficult side. Newbie thiefs would stick to crossbow bolts and other low value items.

Theft failure could result in a punishiment based on value of item, as well as thief reputation. For instance newbie thief stealing a crossbow bolt would be thrown out of the shop and locked out for a period of time. A thief attemping to steal magic armor would be dropped in the bottom of the shopkeepers celler with some particuley nasty pets. Jail time could also be a punishment. The shop keeper could also decide to charge the individual for the price of item but not give him the item.

Shops would have to be upgraded to handle the situation. In un-upgraded shops, stealing always would fail.

Not this isn't an interesting idea..

I believe alot of code has been added or in place to prevent this from happening. I have a hunch it would be quote an undertaking to make this feature possible.

I could be wrong though.. wouldn't be the first time!

I am of two minds about thief stealing from stores. On one hand the idea has appeal especially if the celing is rather low and you need to be a pretty good thief to steal even semi-valuable items. I wonder on punishment however - it would have to be more thought out to avoid doing a lot of work - perhaps an xp and damage penalty?
I really would rather see some improvements to shops before something like this was implemented. I think that garbled was once working on levels for shops and I once had an idea for further modifying shops prices based on player forces in inventory (part of a citizenship and guild thing). This would allow shoplifting to check item value, shop level and player force - and if you get caught to ban you from the store.
I think it has merit but is a real abuse magnet if not done carefully.


P.S. - the code for stealing by toggling the unpaid flag is the right way to do it for sure IMHO.

P.P.S. - I am of a mind to wait for the new skill code before even looking at this...