Thievery Overhaul [Suggestion]

[christian2142]

This is a simple suggestion for the developers of the game, which is directed at the modification of the thievery system not possible with the limitations of the FCS:

Make the thievery skill require a "lockpick kit" item!

It would follow the same functionality that the first aid skill follows: consuming a first aid kit in order to actually perform the skill. Instead, you'd require lockpick kits to perform the thievery skill.

They, like the first aid kits, could come in three varieties, with higher value kits required at higher levels of skill. Unlike the first aid kits, however, they should deplete rather quickly and be rather expensive to buy or (If made an option) produce.

The reason I propose this is for the sheer brokenness of thievery. It's far too inexpensive and easy to steal weapons and armor in the early game, and loot ruins of endgame gear. It makes establishing a settlement or building in some town for crafting unnecessary until you need what you can't buy or steal. The value of the cat is greatly diminished by this as well, since money is therefore very easy to obtain if you have some meta knowledge from previous experiences.

[Hatsune_Neko]

some good points, like in picking locks.
there should definitely be a lockpick kit needed. since i used to be a safe smith and locksmith i can truly understand the need for it.
but as for grades. lock picking doesn't matter about grades, it's skill with the tools so that part i disagree with.

the only time the grade of your tools matter is when trying to open or drill a safe. then and only then does quality matter.

[Zeal]

I could agree with this, were it not for the other areas of gameplay it would be detrimental to. As things stand, basically everything in Kenshi that would end your savegame is avoidable, or atleast escapable if you get caught into it, but there are two major scenarios that requireing lockpicking kits would force a severe weight on the player. The first being captured for crimes, which wouldn't end you, but you'd be forced to sit there for however long it takes until you were released with no means of escaping. The second being shackled for slavery. These are a bit easier to overcome if you have a second member skilled in thievery/stealth, or an army to break your characters out of, but what about solo play? It wouldn't at all make sense for captors to take your weapons and other items but conveniently leave your lockpicking kit with you to escape with.

I agree that thievery is a bit broken, but i'm not sure requiring lockpick kits is a way of fixing this - atleast not without breaking something else. I'd prefer to see lockpicking and thievery divided into two skills, as thievery is very easy to raise very quickly without any danger (just sitting around picking locks). Thievery would be a bit more tricky to raise on it's own as you'd have to actually put you at risk, and 100% chance should not raise your thievery skill. Suddenly stealing is a bit more complicated.

[dreatern]

+1 for lockpick kits the thievery makes no sense without it (the same with mining without tools).

I agree that thievery is a bit broken, but i'm not sure requiring lockpick kits is a way of fixing this - atleast not without breaking something else. I'd prefer to see lockpicking and thievery divided into two skills, as thievery is very easy to raise very quickly without any danger (just sitting around picking locks). Thievery would be a bit more tricky to raise on it's own as you'd have to actually put you at risk, and 100% chance should not raise your thievery skill. Suddenly stealing is a bit more complicated.

In that case we can just pretend the person inside the cage can remove some piece of metal from the cage or have found something there and with that they have a small chance to escape.
The skill for open a cage you are imprisoned already gives a penalty and the use of a rudimentary tool to escape could be an excellent justification for this penalty.
So, in case of escape you can do it without a proper kit with hude penalty but for the general thievery/lockpick you need to use a kit.

The thievery system is overpower and easy without consume an item, just try forever.

Yes, thievery kits could have grades they are tools, there are people that can open a lock with a paper clip, small piece of metal, etc with some time+skill. But lets say the lock level is way high and you need a "pro kit" to have better chances.

At least have an option to create these things with mods would be great

[Tolwrath]

I agree that thievery is OP as is. But restricting all lockpicking clearly puts the player in some game ending positions. Cages and doors definitely shouldnt need any items to lockpick.

Perhaps it would be better to need a safecracking kit, specifically for opening containers. Lack of one shouldn't block container lockpicking, but rather, presence of one should reduce lockpicking time, increase lockpicking chance, and/or help avoid traps. This means containers would need to have their lockpick time increased, so the kits would have something to improve.

More importantly, containers should have a potential to be trapped, so thievery has a bit more risk to it. I'm thinking noise traps, poison needle, electric lights (which in theory would expose the player and make the container look awesome as it opens), or even some sort of birdlime to prevent a thief from escaping.

[swillo]

I agree with Tolwrath. Having a kit would make things easier and increase odds. Make theft more dangerous with traps and alarms is what would make it tougher. Also doing away with group picking would make it tougher.

The flip side of that would be:
If you make it so that you HAVE to have a lockpick set to open locks, then you should HAVE to have a pickaxe for mining, and tools for building, medical supplies to make med kits. The list could go on. Might be nice change to the feel of the game. More like Wasteland where you have to have the right tool or you can't do the job. Give alot of those random items out there more meaning. But I'm not sure if that would be better or not.

[Roccandil]

One thing I really like about Kenshi is that you can try to do anything in the game, it may just take a long time to get good at it.

I especially like that about thievery. It annoys me in other games where you find a chest that's locked more than your skill, there's nothing you can do about it, and you've got to remember that you haven't fully cleared that cave and go back later to unlock the chest when you've leveled.

I like that Kenshi is different in that regard, and lockpicks would mess that up.