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Shoplifting
Stealthy thrill and moneymaker

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Why isn't shoplifting a thing in Sindome? People on the OOC chat said it used to be, but was exploited, when I brought it up.

Shoplifting is supposed to be a bit exploitable, at a risk. Obviously some people are going to be better at it than others, so maybe the chances of being noticed and caught could be tied to one's Stealth stat, and the risk of being identified and banned from a store permanently tied to one's Disguise stat? The deterrents to stop people from abusing the mechanic too much would already be in place (it's a crime, obviously).

I can imagine Mixers taking the mag-lev up to malls on Gold or Green, trying to make it away from stores with luxury goods that they could then fence (re-sell) through a Fixer. Wanted posters (complete with grainy/blurry photos) hung up at stores for repeat offenders. Security guards chasing Mixers with stolen goods through crowded malls. Wearing poor disguises that make you less likely to be recognized in the event that you're caught and forced to run... but more noticable when you're actually in the act. Merchants down in Red hawking makeshift security tag removal guns. Et-cetera.

By vantablack at Jun 30, 2017 9:20 PM
With planning and GM interaction, you can shoplift, and I know of at least one example in the past year, if not more. It is just not coded anymore because it was exploited by people just farming various stores. Treat it like any other goal. If you plan to rob X store, find people for it, involve the GMs etc. You will get appropriate RP and consequences if caught etc.
By Dawnshot at Jun 30, 2017 9:24 PM
History here is pretty simple:

Shoplifting allowed.

Autoturrets in shops enabled.

Too many dead people trying to swipe some soyanuts.

On the flipside, you have people who are nearly -guaranteed- to succeed, which eliminates any sort of balancing whatsoever.

The problem with your suggestion is an very extensive and expected response when you could just go rob some players and create RP.

By Heliodor at Jun 30, 2017 9:24 PM
We'd have to go through the stores and put high value items deeper in or more secure areas, etc.

Turrets work, they hit hard. People will die if they're new, they won't if they're not. We'd need new short description alerting, and we'd need some kind of meta timer to prevent you from doing it too much to represent "heat" like in GTA.

Either way it's a lot of code and building work to balance out and it's just not needed.

By Cerberus at Jun 30, 2017 9:28 PM
Well, the obvious thing to do here would be to not enable autoturrets that kill on-sight for shoplifting. Instead, make it a hefty fine from the Judges or something. Have people permanently barred from entering stores. There are other ways to enforce consequences beyond straight-up killing people.

Thanks for letting me know that it's possible with planning and GM interaction. However, to counter your point, shoplifting isn't always a well thought-out endeavor. A lot of shoplifters do it on impulse, for the "thrill," or just to see if they can get away with it.

As for farming stores, maybe have a cooldown timer for when a store can be sucessfully stolen from again? Like if someone tries again too soon it'll be suspicious and they'll be noticed and caught. Maybe the more expensive the item or high-class the store, the less chance one will get away unscathed.

Some modicum of organized "farming" is to be expected, though, as per real-life "boosters" (professional shoplifters) who make a career out of it.

By vantablack at Jun 30, 2017 9:34 PM
Oops, sorry, didn't see your reply before I posted mine Cerberus.
By vantablack at Jun 30, 2017 9:35 PM
I don't think you understand just how unbalancing to the economy shoplifting would be if people didn't outright die. An automated fine doesn't make sense. Hitting people in the pocket is worse than hitting most people with a death.

There's a lot of things to consider and we won't be enabling shoplifting any time soon.

By Cerberus at Jun 30, 2017 9:37 PM
Shoplifting via a command in a store has a ton of problems related to game economy, as extremely specialized thieves would just generate high-value items basically out of thin air. These would cost no money, dramatically reduce the rarity of certain items, and tank the value of items people focus on. A really cool gun can say it's worth 50k, but that means nothing when you've generated a pile of them larger than the entire playerbase and continue to do so as possible.

Plus, unless the GMs are constantly spending time chasing after these shoplifters to create threats and interactions, shoplifting is just a boring solo activity that generates extremely disproportionate value compared to the action it brings to the game. You're just mashing commands and maybe having to hide from an automated aggressive entity and at the end you sell an item to a fixer. Except you don't, because it's being done so much now that the fixer doesn't want to buy the sixteenth TV from you this month.

There's a ton you can do with thievery, but it's up to the players to create interesting interactions with them amongst each other instead of just committing one-sided petty theft. Shoplifting would just create more one-sided petty theft (and more dead immies).

By urgentsurgeon at Jun 30, 2017 9:49 PM
Oops, sorry everyone! You're right, on second thought this would actually be a broken mechanic and bad for the in-game economy. Hope my next "idea" post can be more helpful!
By vantablack at Jun 30, 2017 9:52 PM
Ideas are always welcomed.
By Kuzco at Jul 11, 2017 11:23 PM
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