Thieves and stealing

from Elemental Forums

I hate to say this, because I planned to make my Sovereign a thief, but I hope the "fix" to it will be better...  How does the leader of a faction being a thief give you extra gold from EVERY battle and not just the battles the Sov is in?  In a fantasy world I guess anything is possible, but it just doesn't make sense.  Maybe this should be a faction skill instead?  if they're all trained in thievery as a society then it might make more sense.

So then, what if your Sovereign (and other champions) had the thief skill and could steal as a tactical battle skill, allowing them to take weapons/armor/trinkets from opponents?  Using a certain number of action points and having to be in a certain range (possibly modify with a learned "Teleport Steal/Telekinesis Steal" spell for extra range) - with a chance of success based on level difference/reputation (or some combination of both).  I've heard in other threads of frustration that killing enemies doesn't always (if ever) yield loot beyond gold.  Stealing gold is an idea too, but limiting how much gold could be taken from each unit (if at all) would be tedious...

elemental
7,439 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

It doesn't make any sense no matter how you slice it.  Thieves are somehow better at looting corpses than warriors?  Huh?

 

Just another element that isn't polished for the 'to do' pile.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

I might agree with this.   Rather than being a 'thief' perhaps it would be better to be a 'salvager'.   (I would be perfectly happy to suggest that a salvager sovereign would train troops to search the battlefield more effectively. for dropped loot)

 

At this point straight-up stealing would be unbalancing.  I think its a great idea, but other alternative 'power shifting' abilities should exist.  (because if you take money, they lose money, causing the shift in money to be effectively 2x what you're grabbing.)  I do like the spell idea... I'd want a low level of the spell that just took away money from others, but didn't give it to you specifically.  (it would be annoying to other players, but that's how you know its good)

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Salvager Idea is good and its easy as changing text... Good idea!  Because I kind of agree with the OP the thief trait is a bit weird as mentioned...

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

It's like most RPG games.

Why does a spider or a wolf carry gold on him?

The gameplay reason is that it simulates looting the corpses of things you can sell (weapons, armor, fur, spider venom, feathers etc.), and simplifies the mechanism so you won't really have tons of unique items that you will need to sell, but you get gold instead.

 

The "thief" trait can be explained as "you have connections in the black market, allowing you to sell loot for more profit".

Maybe there can be a better name for it, but as a concept, it's not that weird that your kingdom will get more gold for battles because of the leader's special skills and connections.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

While I agree with the simplicity statement, I feel that should be explained/expressed somewhere so we aren't left to wonder if that's trully the intention of it was just a "low priority" issue.

As to the Leader having skills and connections, it's absurd to think that the leader of a society would want to drop what s/he was doing every time a battle was fought to pinch a few extra gildar out of the deal, and even more absurd to think that the leader would have connections that would want to be bothered after every battle too.  Like I said in the OP, it would make much more sense if it were a faction trait, since the entire faction would have those "connections".  While a leader might be interested in obtaining as much gildar as possible, they wouldn't have the time among all their other duties (and battle fighting) to sit down with merchants/black marketeers to haggle over prices - and that would fall much more under diplomacy or heck even a trait called "Black Marketeer" then a trait called "Thief".

If you combine your simplified mechanics (as I did on my OP) to say that a thief would be better skilled at "looting the corpses of things you can sell" that again goes back to only the battles involving the Sov directly would be affected...