[Balance] Pick Pockets
issueid=1204 08-24-2012 01:28 PM
Ancient Member
Number of reported issues by Silfir: 6
[Balance] Pick Pockets
Too good and too mindless

Currently, applying the Pick Pockets talent on a creature with pockets gives you a random chance to receive gold or a small item, in addition to the items the creature will drop after its death. The vast majority of these creatures are completely harmless, and the pool from which the loot is chosen includes even the most powerful items at 10 stones or less, such as Preserver or the bracers of war.

This means that many players have made a habit of pickpocketing every creature at every opportunity, obtaining a vastly greater amount of loot at no risk to themselves - through pure grind - compared to players who don't pickpocket in order to preserve their sanity or to add a challenge.

If it were up to me, the "has been pickpocketed" flag would affect drops to subtract the first item generated at 10 stones of weight, so that Pick Pockets will only be of value when used on creatures you don't want to kill, rather than exchange button presses for loot. This behavior would change for thieves, to make their pickpocketing class power more distinctive. (Right now everyone with a wish to play the game optimally and a stomach for mindless button-pressing is a pickpocket.) Excluding some of the more valuable items from the pickpocket pool (for non-thieves) would be a step in the right direction.
Issue Details
Issue Number 1204
Issue Type Feature
Project ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)
Category Other (please specify)
Status Implemented
Priority 6
Suggested Version ADOM 1.2.0 pre 2
Implemented Version ADOM 1.2.0 pre 7
Milestone (none)
Votes for this feature 8
Votes against this feature 9
Assigned Users (none)
Tags (none)




09-23-2012 02:35 PM
Ancient Member
Wizards are mindless and a chore?

I guess the difference is in how long it takes to become boring. Playing a wizard doesn't get old quite as fast as pickpocketing, I'd say.

09-23-2012 05:12 PM
Senior Member
Yeah, wizards are too boring. Farm books then go kill everyone.
I think they should be removed and replaced with equal abilities to learn books for barbarians.

11-01-2012 08:31 AM
Junior Member
Quote Originally Posted by CheatMan
Pickpocketing thousands of monsters is boring to you, Silfir and i assume others as well, but is fun to just as many others as well. Removing viable playstyle options from a game make it harder.
Pickpocketing is not even playing a game. It's grinding, it's work. I believe ADOM should strive to be a game of adventure, exploration, fantasy and courage. It should reward the bold and the cunning, not extreme patience. It should try to offer interesting, varied decisions and events. 'Farming' is called farming for a reason - because many people consider it monotonous, tedious, and extremely time-consuming. The skill encourages players to bore themselves and this is enough to change Pick Pockets skill. I had more fun popping pimples.

I think Pick Pockets should be removed from the game. It's a huge can of worms, it's present in a game that doesn't support it, and very hard to balance. It magically creates loot monsters don't drop on death, it's basically Treasure Hunter that is more tedious and yields better rewards because it gives you an item from most monsters. It's been implemented this way, because otherwise it would only work on non-hostile monsters and guess what ? Nobody wants to risk that. Give people one of few skills that work on non-hostiles and they will avoid using it on peaceful creatures.

After removing Pick Pockets from the game, modify Haggling to take its place. Make Haggling work on every single civilized NPC that is not hostile. The idea came up in this thread:
http://www.adom.de/forums/project.ph...=1216#note6837
Gold-related skills don't matter as long as gold is issentially infinite.

11-01-2012 04:52 PM
Ancient Member
Maybe don't remove it completely, but make it harder work.

Only non-hostile targets. Reasoning is that I believe stealth(maybe appearance and charisma too) plays a role in determining whether a npc is hostile and a stealthy character will be better at pickpocketing anyway.
Makes the Stealthy talent useful. Makes the Calm monster spell useful.

A hostile npc is going to have all it's senses aimed at you, it just makes no sense to be able to pickpocket them.

Hostiles can still be picked by invisible unnoticed pc.

P.S. Where is a gremlin's pocket?

11-01-2012 06:45 PM
Ancient Member
Quote Originally Posted by Stingray1
P.S. Where is a gremlin's pocket?
They might have some. I'm more interested on where skeletons and shadows keep those items.

11-02-2012 01:58 AM
Pim Pim is offline
Member
I'm voting "yes" on this feature request, as I believe Pick Pockets needs rebalancing: it is "too good and too mindless"; but I don't necessarily agree with Silfir's proposed solution.

12-08-2012 05:54 PM
The Creator
I have applied a few adjustments hopefully finding a decent middle ground between "too scummable" and "useless". Time will tell :-)

12-09-2012 10:26 AM
Member
Quote Originally Posted by anon123
They might have some. I'm more interested on where skeletons and shadows keep those items.
Not sure about shadows, but I believe skeletons have "treasure chests" (OK, bad pun).

12-09-2012 02:00 PM
Ancient Member
Quote Originally Posted by Marek14
Not sure about shadows, but I believe skeletons have "treasure chests" (OK, bad pun).
Nooo, it's brilliant :-D

01-09-2014 08:21 AM
Member
Skeletons are probably wearing the ragged remains of the clothes they wore in life. Presumably, the clothes have pockets.

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