Delay for Identifying Figures in Hoods.

[jalden]

It might be neat for there to be some kind of delay when you look at someone that has their hood up.  Something like "you study the ~sdesc" followed by a few seconds before you are given their description. It's a little bit unrealistic that if a hooded/veiled thief steals from you in the middle of the night or stabs you and then immediately runs away - all you have to do is look at them to have their exact description.

I know that description hiding equipment was put into the game and then taken back out because of abuse. But I think this would be a nice compromise that would kind of give you the best of both worlds. Thieves would still be able to steal from or attack a victim and run away without automatically giving someone the ability to identify them to a templar. But the ability to do things that are twinky/unrealistic would be pretty limited. The description would only be hidden in instances where it would be realistic.

What do you think?

[Barsook]

I dig this.  It will make it more realistic.

[Gilgamesh]

I dig this.  It will make it more realistic.

[Case]

With how unrealistically hide seems to be used, I'm not sure why sneakies need more buffs.

[Kismetic]

If you're able to be seen while stealing, you should expect to get in trouble.  Also, I don't think a delay would be helpful, it would just encourage less roleplay-oriented "hit and run" style moves.  You can already do those with competent sneak, hide and steal skills, right?

[MeTekillot]

Nothing like feeling some hidden guy's hands in your pockets seven times in a row but "being unable to identify the culprit" because your scan sucks or is non-existent.

Then, when some good soul with scan comes in and tries to look at the guy, and he runs off while said few second delay is in effect.

Situations like this and more would lead to this really not being very, ah, condusive? Is that the word? Anyway, good for the game enviroment.

[jalden]

If you're able to be seen while stealing, you should expect to get in trouble.

That's true. But should seeing the back of a cloaked figure running away from you count as being seen? As it is there isn't much difference between a cloaked thief attempting to steal from you and running away vs someone who has spent half a day talking to you in the bar trying to steal from you and running away.

Also, I don't think a delay would be helpful, it would just encourage less roleplay-oriented "hit and run" style moves.

It might. But hit and run moves also might be more realistic if you're trying to steal something.

Nothing like feeling some hidden guy's hands in your pockets seven times in a row but "being unable to identify the culprit" because your scan sucks or is non-existent.

Then, when some good soul with scan comes in and tries to look at the guy, and he runs off while said few second delay is in effect.

Situations like this and more would lead to this really not being very, ah, condusive? Is that the word? Anyway, good for the game enviroment.

Hmm... I hadn't thought about passing a scan check and then still failing to see someone. That would be a little much. Maybe it would be possible to get rid of the delay if you've found someone through scan? I'm not sure... that's a good point.

Edited to add:

If you feel someone's hand in your pocket you really shouldn't have to scan for them. It would probably make more sense for them to be revealed if they try again.

[RogueGunslinger]

With how unrealistically hide seems to be used, I'm not sure why sneakies need more buffs.

Off topic, but the way Hide works, it's very, very hard to imagine it being useful at all if it's not used in slightly unrealistic ways. There are too many situations and rooms in-game where it doesn't really make sense to me without large leaps of imagination.

[Kismetic]

If you're able to be seen while stealing, you should expect to get in trouble.

That's true. But should seeing the back of a cloaked figure running away from you count as being seen? As it is there isn't much difference between a cloaked thief attempting to steal from you and running away vs someone who has spent half a day talking to you in the bar trying to steal from you and running away.

It's funny you should mention this, but the way a pickpocket operates is through misdirection and camouflage, not disguise/cloak and hope for the best.  I think the problem is that it is inherently difficult to train up steal, at first.  A remedy is given to us by upcoming changes with CGP.

At any rate, if you catch a thief, they are very close to you.  You are not seeing the back of their head, realistically.  Unless they're using a trick from Wile E. Coyote's ACME playbook, or something.

[Dresan]

Steal? Seriously?

Who cares if something steals from you, all the real good stuff on player is impossible to steal anyways. The rest of the stuff is in their pack or replaceable. If the person's knife if made out of steel, there is a good chance they keep it in their pack anyways.

I like the idea of a delay during certain situation, perhaps certain gear should further increase the delay when these situation arise. If you are getting your ass kicked (read: raided), there should definitely be some delay between spamming l figure;flee. Its fine if you want to take the time to get a real good look at the person just realize it will cost you a round or two before you can begin spamming flee.


edited: so a sentence makes some sense.

[Dar]

that's interesting. Should look give you a delay if you're in the mid combat. On one side, it will discourage people from look/insta flee aka the demise of most raiders. On another side ... it will encourage the raiders to attack first, talk later.

[Dresan]

it will encourage the raiders to attack first, talk later.

And I'm okay with this. I believe that most mundane raiders don't want to kill anyone, i have faith in the player base. They just want to knock you out and steal your shit, if people stop looking at them, and just run chances are they will live and get away anyways.  Besides, eventually someone will identify them. After all if they are charging in and attacking people, eventually they will find themselves attacking one angry vet ranger or warrior, who will do a little more damage then just look at them.  

Again while it might encourage raiders to attack first, they would have no reason to kill a PC. These people would have probably killed the PC just to protect their identity anyways, the people who want to RP a raid would still continue to do just that regardless of this change.

[Dresan]

Maybe the delay could also be tied into the watch code. During combat max watch code could reduce the delay so its not as significant but still noticeable.