Police and thieves in the streets..

[path]

I wonder what people think about the crim flag per realism. IRL I've had my purse lifted, been with my grandmother when she had things stolen from her backpack and my husband has been held up at knife or gunpoint several times.

In my experience, these things often happen in crowded places. Sometimes you see it - sometimes you don't but the factor that seems the most evident to me is how often the thief is caught. To date - never.

Not to mention - in all of those cases, never -once- has a bystander alerted anyone else or helped at all. Is the culture different? Do the citizens really feel that helpful?

It seems unlikely to me that the -right- person would be caught and hunted down in such a short period of time, regardless of being in the middle of a crowded street or what. Then.. all the guards know at once?

Furthermore, the -least- likely thing to me is that you -fail- to actually steal anything -and- they hunt you down and throw you in the slammer. Wouldn't they be more motivated to tell a guard if something was actually taken?

What I'd like to see is the crim flag activated randomly on sucessful steals no matter how skilled you are, forcing you to rely on other skills for safety. Furthermore, I think it would be cool if the alert of the crim spread more slowly, ideally in an outward radius, and lasted longer.

The same for unsucessful steals but to a far smaller ratio. Basically I think I should be reversed and the ratio of liklihood lessened, while ideally the punishment goes up. You stole the fruit - we take your right hand.

I don't know if this is already up, but I think it would be cool if any PC Templars in the city got an alert everytime someone got dumped in the jail. I don't find it unlikely that a guard, proud of hunting down a criminal, might notify their superior. Then that PC can have the choice of continuing their Kruth game or torturing the prisoner until they reveal the secrets of the underground spice ring.

I'd also like to see the wrong person arrested with greater frequency. Can't find the tall, black-bearded man? This dark-haired elf will do... That prostitute made off with someone's wallet? This juicy f-me probably knows something..

That's.. what I've been thinking about.

[RunningMountain]

I'll tell you right now, if you are near enough guards, you're screwed. But if you get wanted in certain areas, you can just wait it out unless a PC comes looking for you. Or you can even run through certain roads and not encounter a single NPC soldier. So. It's half and half. As a crimnial I can get away nearly anwyhere.

[Rindan]

If a steal is successful, then you are not caught.  If I take something and you only realize that it was missing after the fact, then what exactly are you going to report?  How is the thief going to be caught?  Now, I would be all for an extra way of failing a steal, stealing the objective AND being caught, but I would be against randomly smacking someone with a wanted flag even if no one notices you.

Next, some of what you describe is already in.  It is possible to fail a steal, get noticed by the victim, and have no one report it.  Obviously, it depends upon where the steal happens.  In some places you will get a crime flag every time if you try and steal.  In others, there is a chance no one will bother to report the crime.

Finally, there are very few other skills for safety.  Very few areas have places where you can climb away (though there are some).  Sneak does not work against NPC guards.  Hide does work.  The best you can do as a pick pocket about to potentially commit a crime is make sure that there are no guards around, and if possible scope out an escape rout where guards don't patrol.  Allanak has some, but very few of those areas.

Personally, if I could have one wish, it would be for a complete crime code make over.  That is a pretty hefty wish.  If I could have a second wish, it would be to fill up NPCs with a larger verity of things to steal.  As it stands, at least in Allanak, you get a choice of daggers, daggers, and more daggers to steal.  Once you get to a certain proficiency you are down to just one or two NPCs that you can still fail a steal attempt against.

[EvilRoeSlade]

Realism aside, this is a horrible idea.  You have to realize that some characters rely on the steal skill, just like warriors rely on fighting and rangers rely on a variety of skills.  Being randomly incriminated for using an essential skill, regardless of success, is too much.

I would however be in favor of a greater chance for the wanted flag to fail to occur in situations where it normally would.  I think that always getting incriminated if a soldier or templar is in the vicinity, and getting incriminated roughly half the time otherwise is fair enough.

[halfhuman]

I agree with EvilRoeSlade's last paragraph there. If I was walking along and I saw some guy down the alley beating the tar out of another guy, I wouldn't report it. I wouldn't go in there to save the man either. I'd just high tail it incase I was next.

But I think it'd also depend on area. If you fail in a tavern, you're almost guaranteed that someone's going to go off and tattle on you. There're people PACKED into there, all around and I think it's a good bet that at least one of them's gonna spot a bad theif. They'd almost certainly report you too because they just want to enjoy their drinks without worrying about thieves ruining their good time. However, out on a street corner somewhere, while still dense everyone's busy dodge crowds. They're not sitting and leisurely glancing around the place, they're in a hurry so chances are slim that a one of these busy bodies is gonna either spot you or take time out of their day to report you.  That'd probably be difficult to code, but *shrug* just my thoughts.