Reducing the grinding aspect of pickpocketing
issueid=4899 08-25-2017 04:38 PM
Ancient Member
Number of reported issues by Nezur: 13
Reducing the grinding aspect of pickpocketing
A suggestion to reduce the number of worthwhile pickpocketing targets
This suggestion is based on the ideas that I and ixi posted in the comments of another feature request. (A way to pickpocket automatically)
I think the quickslot approach suggested by auricbond could make accidental pickpocketing too easy when facing a dangerous monster.

  • hostile monsters can't be pickpocketed
  • monsters can't be pickpocketed for items they wouldn't drop on death anyway
  • sometimes there are neutral NPCs or monsters (nobles in cities or other adventurers elsewhere for example) that are lucrative to pickpocket
    • however, I think the monsters need to be powerful somehow (perhaps they come in groups) or otherwise important outside cities in order to make trying to kill them a poor choice
  • trying to pickpocket a shopkeeper or steal the wares in a shop and failing results in the victim preventing entry to the shop for a while instead of a battle to death
    • repeat offences, extreme racial hatred, a very low charisma or shopkeeper-specific qualities or a combination thereof may still result in a chase but not necessarily permanent hostility
    • victims who are not shopkeepers could act similarly depending on the creature (for example, a chaos being would just try to kill the perpetrator)
Issue Details
Issue Number 4899
Issue Type Feature
Project ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)
Category All
Status Suggested
Priority 6
Suggested Version ADOM 2.3.0 (r73)
Implemented Version (none)
Milestone (none)
Votes for this feature 2
Votes against this feature 0
Attachments 0
Assigned Users (none)
Tags (none)




08-25-2017 06:15 PM
ixi ixi is offline
Junior Member
Well, I like the idea but there is a reason why it could fail:
monsters can't be pickpocketed for items they wouldn't drop on death anyway
So basically if you have a habit of killing everything you would risk pickpocketing anyway there is no point of using the skill in most situations. Success of this RFE can be roughly measured this way: chance of getting a valueable item multiplied by percentage of monsters you would like to pickpocket. Monsters you wouldn't like to pickpocket are those who could spoil in-game progress (when a town or even a particular NPC turns hostile) and those who are not risky to kill.

In order to make these equations more successful I can propose:
- Monsters which are targets for pickpocketing but aren't target for killing should carry really valueable items.
- Some monsters must be guaranteed targets for pickpocketing: e.g. Terinyo folks are perfect candidates: they could turn hostile on kill but could forgive a pivkpocket eventually.
- Make chance for failure unlikely (gurantted for high-level thieves?). Make it increase with unsuccessful attempts over time (well, NPC would notice you hanging around for too much).
- Make it clear how well you're prepared for theft from this particular NPC in your current state in the given place. By either giving a word (impossible, unlikely, surely etc.) or a percentage.
- Add at least some situations outside of the town where pickpocketing is preffered over killing?
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08-25-2017 06:24 PM
Member
It seems that "grinding" could also be seen as skill practice and improvement. I don't think it's supposed to be easy.
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