Detective subguild (Idea for armageddon reborn)

[NOFUN]

Just an idea which I thought might make the crime system more intresting for arm 2

>investigate corpse (Might get false messages based on skill)
The wounds are deeper at the bottom. (This tells the player that the attacker was shorter than the corpse)
The wounds suggest that he was killed by a slashing weapon.
The corpses condition suggests that it has been dead for roughly five hours.
Judging from the corpse and the enviroment, you deduct that the fight lasted for thirty seconds.

>test weapon corpse
This weapon is too big to match the wounds on the corpse. (Tells the player that this wasn't the same weapon used to kill, may get the wrong information based on skill)

>witnesses (Lists the people that have come through in the last couple of days, unless they are in a room where people wouldn't be)
A witness tells you that a red-haired woman was here five hours ago.
A witness tells you that a tall figure in rat-draped cloak was here two hours ago.

Though as a counter balance. (May fail to produce the witness based on skill)
>fabricate witness my frame target was here five hour ago.

>silence witness red-haired (May fail to silence the witness)

Assuming both were successful, the detective would get this message:
>witnesses
A witness tells you my frame target was here five hours ago.
A witness tells you a tall figure in a rat-draped cloak was here two hours ago.

A tiny passive chance of getting a witness statement when walking through a place where a witness.
A witness tells you that a tall figure in a rat-hooded drape stole 54 coins from the wind-ravaged soilder.

All these commands would be exclusive to the detective subguild, I think it'd make crime much more intresting for both the criminal and the guard, and would make a good assassin plan ahead so not to get caught.

Thoughts?

[Nyr]

We already have templar guilds and soldier jobs.  I don't know that a guild specifically for finding the truth is necessary when:

the truth is fluid, not absolute
the truth is subjective, not objective
murder, corruption, betrayal--this gives little room for "detectives" who are looking for what really happened, and would hardly be something you'd learn as a background.

Besides the subguild being "anti-Armageddon," this can all be done with RP and communication with staff.  Yes, I think that the effort from staff in communication/animation even over the entirety of the game's existence would be less work than the code involved to make this subguild a reality.

[Taven]

I see Nyr beat me to the post, but I'll post most of what I had typed up anyway:


I don't believe that a subguild like what you're talking about has ever been discussed, but certainly some elements of it have been, over the years. Generally, everyone would absolutely love to be able to tell what killed a person, and if you search the GDB, there's a number of different ideas and suggestions about this. I don't believe that a witness system like what you're talking about has ever been suggested. Why? Because it already tends to instantly occur. If a vNPC is in an area that cares about crime and they notice what you're doing, you're instantly crimeflagged and the whole city instantly knows about you. That's been complained a bit about in the past, which you can also check into, if you find it relevant. At any rate, whether you consider the present system too harsh or not, I'm of the opinion that a witness system like that just makes it impossible. A single crime shouldn't have to continue to haunt you for so long without PC or staff involvement.

I also dislike that the witnesses are essentially no role-play. You're asking for a log of events from someone watching. You can't possibly have the complexity that should be there based on code. There would be numerous factors and motivations for any potential witness. Would they speak up on who passed? Would they have any reason to? Who is your character that they'd care? What would they want for the information? Was it someone that they'd never talk about anyway? All of those questions should be unique to an individual NPC and circumstances, and are best represented by staff.

The one thing I do wish is that there was more staff ability to keep track of happenings. As it is, if something happened awhile ago (or even an IC week ago) you can't really use "witnesses" because it's all in the runlogs, and staff has no easy way to look it up. In Armageddon Reborn, staff will have the ability to make notes on NPCs to track things that have happened to them, PC interaction wise (if I recall), but I don't know how much more ability there will be to keep track of happenings around them. That's something I'd like to see, for one.

[Ampere]

em crouching before ~corpse, @ turns to address the gathered crowd, his eye grotesquely distorted by ~fine.convex.lens.

say (pedantically gesticulating with ~bone.caliper) It's quite elementary really: from the size, shape, and state of the incision one can easily deduce that this poor soul was cut down with a clever wielded by someone of great strength. Upon further inspection it also becomes apparent that the fiend was likely right handed, and that the foul deed was committed not but four hours ago.

[maxid]

This subguild sounds like it would make the game...

No Fun.



  Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaah

[valeria]

I like the corpse investigation.

I do not like the witness investigation.

[SMuz]

I thought a witness system might be cool in the pickpocket system, like when you get that "several people look at you, then look away" echo. Of course, they would just say something along the lines of "I saw a figure in a dark, hooded cloak steal from the tall, muscular man", which is completely worthless information. Subjective truth could be factored in easily, with false witnesses.

Not really worth coding, though, just interesting. And there's a small possibility of abuse and all.

Also, if this were put in, I'd like another option to be able to butcher the body to destroy all evidence.

[Jozhole]

I would like to see a murderer subguild with backstab hide and poison. Warrior murderer would be fun.

[Ocotillo]

Wasn't it said at some point, roughly, "we have years of your ideas for reborn, we're not looking for more?"

[Nyr]

Oh wait, for arm reborn.

Yes, we don't really need new ideas for that.