You know, JayZup, sometimes the tone of the original message will dictate the tone of the direct reply...
That said, here's my take - and you didn't hear that from me!
I opted out of pick pocketing as a skill altogether for two reasons - first of all, the mechanics of the game are so one-sided that there is little fear the rogue herself truly will have about engaging in such an activity. At most, when you are caught, you are killed - but you still keep the item, anyway. At high levels, trust me, I wouldn't mind dying several times just to get the Armor of Absolute Sweetness.
Yes, you can employ another rogue to retrieve the item, but I feel that is a bit of a handicaped resolution - there is no control over which item is being stolen, so the target will have to himself be a target of, if not balant grief-picking, then major annoyance. Things like that have a tendency to spiral out of control...
One could say, "serves them right", and I agree with that; however, what if the person you suspect, and sic the allied rogue at, is not in fact the actual offender?
Another issue is the realism of pickpocketing in general. If Joe the Stinky steals a greatsword off of a half-orc five levels higher, and the half-orc realizes that before Joe can run away, Joe would get pummeled into the ground, have the sword taken back, and most likely whatever else he had on him - which is absolutely not possible unless consentual given current system.
Basically, it boils down to the fact that pick-pocketing does not require consent from the target, whereas retrieval of the stolen pieces requires the willingness of the rogue to not only roleplay, but actually allow "defeat".
Unfortunately, in my experience, that happens less than frequently.
Yet another issue is the compatibility of pick pocketing with the game world. From what I read so far, Varana has a rather simple approach to lawbreakers, i.e. prison/slavery/execution. It is possible from a player's perspective to wait with using the skill until they are high enough level to virtually eliminate the chance of being detected, especially when they are careful with whom they steal from. My question is - how do they practice to reach such mastery without being caught?
No training can make one a master, no matter what the area. Yet, achieving high level of skill without a criminal record and/or associated penalties means that the thief either has a perfect score (:roll:), or simply received the gift from a magic fairy.
Furthermore, the ability to log off and be safe is also incredibly empowering for the thief. While she can approach any player when -she- chooses to, the victim must depend on the thief's schedule and whim when to carry out the resulting confrontation - something I found very difficult to do on any server with reasonable count of areas.
Unless there are ways of balancing out the act of stealing through in-game actions no matter what class the player chose, the skill will always be stacked against other players.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but it seems the only possible solution after being stolen from as it is right now is hiring another thief, and relying on the chance of them being able to find the first and actually get the item that was stolen.
From what I see, the guards cannot do anything to return the stolen item
even if they are present and catch the thief as it happens without the thief's out of character willingness to cooperate.
There is no way for anybody to search the rogue's belongings if they are suspected against the rogue player's will.
Basically, they are free to do as they please, while anybody attempting to react to their action is extremely restricted.
By the way... what is the official penalty for stealing? I just want to know whether to shout bloody murder when wrongly accused, or simply smirk...
It's not easy being a tiefling
