Stealing

[Smiley]

Is there a limit to how good you can become at a skill?  I've trained my steal skill quite a bit and I haven't seen much improvement.  Can a burglar become as good at stealing as a pick pocket?  Can you max out a skill?

[mansa]

Each 'Guild' has maxxes for different skills.

You -can- max out a skill.  It just takes a very(tm) long time.

[crymerci]

Can a burglar become as good at stealing as a pick pocket?  

Guilds page[/url]"]Pickpockets are masters of the art of stealing.

[Kronus]

The boilerplate response to this question is:

Don't worry about your skills while playing Armageddon.



It's an answer which I both love and hate (kinda like the rest of the game!). I love it because it just feels so right.
In real life I can't wonder if my drawing skill is maxxed out, all I know is that I can do some things and can't do some others, and know that some people are better than me and some are worse. I can assume that practicing will make me better still, but I'll never know with the same certainty that a Drawing: 100/100 entry on my sheet would give me.
On the other hand, Armageddon is a game, and we all like to win games (even when we tell ourselves that the game isn't winnable). Winning games means getting the coolest equipment, the highest level, and the maxxed out skills. This is why I hate the answer. It overlooks the fact that Armageddon is a game -- a game which has coded skills and cool equipment, and then tells you ignore all of that because you're supposed to be a dirty commoner so, even though you CAN afford that shiny obsidian rapier, you should stick to your broken bone knife and prove to everyone what a hardcore roleplayer you are.

I know that's a little rant that kinda goes outside of the question, but the best Armageddon experience (in my mind) falls somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. Worry about your skills, but do it in a way which makes sense for a character who is a living person just like you.

[Bestatte]

Agreed with Kronus on all accounts.

To apply it specifically to the question at hand though, if you are looking to be a "professional" lockpicker, who is capable of mastering the art through training, practice, dedication, access to proper tools, and innate talent, then pick the class that specializes in it.

If you want to be a "professional" thief, who is capable of mastering the art through training, practice, etc. etc. etc. then pick the class that specializes in it.

If you are only looking to be "good" or at least "passable" in something, then pick a class that has the skill, but specializes in something else.

All classes come with "cooking" but only certain classes will ever be REALLY good at it. All classes either come with, or can branch riding, but only certain classes can actually master riding. Each class's description gives an indication of whether the skills they come with are specialties, or merely added perks to the class.

[Tmp]

The thing is, unlike real life where you can get a multitude of feedback from your five senses, in Arm you can only depend on the text that appears on the screen.

I guess it also boils down to what you believe to be true, that Joe Somebody can learn to draw at a professional standard with just a lot of hard work and practice, or if Joe Born-With-Some-Talent will always trump Joe Somebody with equal amount of effort put in. I tend to believe the latter.

That said, I've always liked drawing and stuff, but it's pretty clear to me that I've hit a plateau and I've been there for a long time. Is it because I've hit my cap for the skill? Is the next % increase just around the corner if I try hard enough? I'm not sure it is; I've never had a knack for drawing, remembering details, or even having particularly good hand-eye coordination. I've only got where I am through hard work and no talent.

All that said, I wonder if you do get a message when you hit the cap on your skill?

[SpyGuy]

Also I recommend looking to see what you are doing to test whether you've reached that next plateau of your skills.  Are you going from experience that you fail at getting items from someones inventory alot?  Or from experience that you still can't steal uberleet gear from their packs?  There might be an inbetween zone which would be best for you to steal from and that would display your improvement better than what you're trying now.

Its likely, unless your character is very old, that you still have room to grow and improve in any of your coded skills.

[Callisto]

No, a burglar will never be as good as a pick pocket when it comes to stealing from people, and a thief sub-guild will never be good at stealing at all. Ever.

All skills have a limit and that limit is based on what guild and sub-guild you have. Sub-guild skills are often capped much lower then a standard guild's skill, so if you're going to play a character with the goal of becoming a master pick pocket, pick the pick pocket guild, not warrior with the thief sub-guild.

You say you've trained your skill a lot, so my guess is you've focused on it, which might have resulted in the skill being frozen, since power gaming is against the rules and such. You could have a low wisdom score, which is what decides how often and how much you gain when you fail a skill check. With a low wisdom score, it can take an awful long time to become even mildly successful with a skill.

I know it's a tired line, but really, don't focus on your skills too much. It's the watched pot thing, the more you focus on seeing a skill rise, the longer it seems to take. Just play the character and don't get hung up on the skills, everything will work out just fine.

[Majikal]

Sorry to derail this a bit but I have a simple question, if your main guild is Pickpocket and your subclass is theif does the steal skill from each class only boost your starting skill at it, or does it boost your starting skill and raise your skill cap?

[Bestatte]

If I remember correctly from past IMM responses, your primary class will determine the max of the skill. Though, I'm not sure what would happen in the case of a primary class skill that doesn't show up, but branches instead, in comparison to a skill that shows up automatically in the secondary class.

So like - if you pick a "warrior" and it branched "nose sucking" off of "toe-licking" - but your secondary archer class comes with nose sucking, I don't know which would have the higher max.

[spawnloser]

If a guild and sub-guild gave the same skill, you will start with your skill at whatever level one of those would give, the highest.  You also start with the higher cap.  That is all.  That is as far as I know, of course.