Sleight of Hand / Stealth update

[Malken]

It's official, Allanak is now Barcelona!

Pickpockets and loose women everywhere!

[Dances_with_toks]

Untrue, there are no Gypsies.

[Desertman]

More scanning? Literally everyone with scan is scanning at all times, everywhere. Who are you kidding?

They live in a world where bodies are piled in the streets and are being eaten by the other starving masses.

They live in a world where getting killed just stepping out of your front door is an extremely good possibility, and for no good reason other than someone wants the boots you are wearing.

Yes, they are highly alert almost all of the time, because they live in a world where it makes perfect sense for them to be highly alert almost all of the time if they want to survive.

Anyone with half a brain would be on guard almost every waking hour if they lived in Zalanthas.

[Desertman]

I think we should look at having Allanak's gate guards updated to NOT check your pack for spice and kill you on sight instantly with the force of five half-giants going forward.

Pickpockets just became the most dangerous assassins-by-crim-code in Allanak in the game.

I already check my inventory every time I go through the gates just in case.

Now I have to check every single pack/container I am wearing every single time I go through the gates.

I like this change as far as pickpockets being able to steal more readily.

I hate this change due to the fact the crim-code can be abused to instant death anyone going forward.

(I like the idea of PC soldiers giving more shakedowns to catch spice smugglers anyways.)

[Malken]

And then you better quickly move out or in of the gates because the pickpocket could be slipping spice into your stuff while you're checking your other stuff!

[Delirium]

nosave arrest

[Desertman]

nosave arrest

This rarely ever works in this instance. You still get instant-killed by the gate guards.

I would say find out IC, but the only way to find out is no way to find out.

Staff probably needs to look at that issue as well while we are at it.

[manonfire]

macro 'paranoia'

open satchel

l in satchel

close satchel

open cloak

l in cloak

close cloak

l in belt

l in boots

l in sheath

l in bag

l in pouch

inv

emote pats himself down.

[Desertman]

macro 'paranoia'

open satchel

l in satchel

close satchel

open cloak

l in cloak

close cloak

l in belt

l in boots

l in sheath

l in bag

l in pouch

inv

emote pats himself down.

Good idea.

[Delirium]

nosave arrest

This rarely ever works in this instance. You still get instant-killed by the gate guards.

I would say find out IC, but the only way to find out is no way to find out.

Staff probably needs to look at that issue as well while we are at it.

Huh, then yeah, I'd agree with you wholeheartedly if that's the case. I've only been 'gate ganked' once due to absentmindedness, and I didn't have nosave arrest set (in fact I think this was before nosave arrest).

[Desertman]

We might even change the gate code for spice smuggling from "instant death in the glorious name of all that is good and holy" to, "The gate guards pat you down and confiscate your contraband before allowing you to pass."

That almost seems "more" Zalanthan. The gate guards would probably make a fair amount of coins off of "confiscating" contraband, or even accepting bribes to let it pass.

In general I still prefer to leave it to the PC soldiers and Templars to catch spice smugglers. It seems so much more rewarding than having an insta-gank code in place.

[RogueGunslinger]

We might even change the gate code for spice smuggling from "instant death in the glorious name of all that is good and holy" to, "The gate guards pat you down and confiscate your contraband before allowing you to pass."

That almost seems "more" Zalanthan. The gate guards would probably make a fair amount of coins off of "confiscating" contraband, or even accepting bribes to let it pass.

In general I still prefer to leave it to the PC soldiers and Templars to catch spice smugglers. It seems so much more rewarding than having an insta-gank code in place.

YES please. Have the gate-guards take the spice and then report your sdesc to a PC templar. God that would be a million times better.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

That would be just superb. What a great change that would be.

[Zoan]

"Well lookie here, spice. You know that's illegal right? heh heh heh."

[Tiernan]

Omitted in my initial post and conveniently left disabled in the first push yesterday... mea culpa.

Delays are now applied to 'slip', 'palm', 'unlatch', and 'latch'.

As with most new features, I try to balance out positives with negatives so that players need to make choices.   Here's one in the interest of time vs. stealth. 

I hope that this will dissuade those folks who are aliasing their 'get', 'put', 'open', and 'close' commands to their stealthy equivalents from doing so.  I find this practice wrong for many reasons, but perhaps coded delays will make those folks think twice about what it really means is happening IC.

[Desertman]

That would be just superb. What a great change that would be.

It's likely one of those things that won't get changed until we have a few long-lived PC's gate-guard-insta-ganked by random pickpockets doing it for the lulz.

It will happen, it is just a matter of it is sooner or later.

Pickpocket, the new no-karma revenge pc. 

[Malken]

I actually have a feeling that this code change will eventually be removed because of too many pickpockets doing all sort of naughty stuff for the lulz.

I had so many great ideas myself as how to use it for the lulz but unfortunately I'm not enough into Arm lately to pull it off.

[Harmless]

I am very sad that I do not have my pickpocket PC anymore to use these. But they look like great changes, and I look forward to the next time I try a pickpocket to give em a whirl.

[Malken]

My pickpocket was definitely one of the most fun characters I've ever played!

But like I said, playing an elf anything in Allanak right now is too difficult/almost pointless without any coded tribes to belong to.

[CodeMaster]

I think this is a great change, and widens the scope of roleplay for pickpockets considerably, including by making them more employable by their neighboring guilds!

For those of you worried about your inventories being flushed, there are still simple ways to completely shut down a pickpocket that are just a bit more complicated than 'close pack.'  If you don't know what they are, you'll start seeing them in game real soon, I'd expect.

[RogueGunslinger]

I think this is a great change, and widens the scope of roleplay for pickpockets considerably, including by making them more employable by their neighboring guilds!

For those of you worried about your inventories being flushed, there are still simple ways to completely shut down a pickpocket that are just a bit more complicated than 'close pack.'  If you don't know what they are, you'll start seeing them in game real soon, I'd expect.

Never sit still long enough to allow something to target you!

[BleakOne]

Also.

Kill Elf. 

[Malken]

Also.

Kill Elf. 

Make sure that you kill that one elf PC that is foolish enough to be sitting at the Gaj because you know he's the source of all your past thefts, curses and future curses, thefts and probably murder as well!

[Riev]

.... They finally implement something that turns a class nearly nobody plays, into a class people might actually be able to be SUCCESSFUL with, and suddenly its floods of "people will abuse" and "this is so twinky".

These are things a Pickpocket should have been able to do since day one, and the staff finally had the time and the critical thinking to implement it in a way that might not be too abuseable. Considering the plethora of Pickpockets I played in the past, who were able to do NOTHING, because everyone legit command-stacks "open belt;get coins belt;buy #05;put coins belt;close belt". And if you say you don't, you're full of shit. Even if you are a fast typer, its equivalent.

Now, Pickpockets can get into your backpack, or if they see you keep coins in your belt, have a chance of skimming a few off the top after you buy that drink. This is infinitely better than my demand, years ago, that I literally "steal the boots off a walking roundear".

[icewindsong]

Its two months later now.  Did that flood of pickpockets happen?

I'm curious since I was thinking of trying it, before I read anything in the forums about updated skills.  I'm new and don't have many options for a character main class.  I wasn't really looking for a fighting class, and the only other non-criminal non-fight class open to me is merchant, which sounded complicated.  My sister who used to play here told me she never had a successful pickpocketing with her elf burglar, but she thought it would be better for me as the actual pickpocket class.  If there's been a rash of pickpockets it might not be a good time to try.  Any suggestions?