The way things are now, pickpocketing and mugging are pretty pointless features, as they are used for achievements and XP and only used between users of the same family or city. The majority of the game's players are PP unfriendly, and those who are friendly but demand their money back. My opinion is that pickpocketing should be for the money as it usually is in real life. In real life, someone skilled in pickpocketing (and we should be that, since we're playing criminals) is not likely to get caught by his victim. It's also very unlikely that he'd return any money.

So my suggestion is to make pickpocketing always secret, meaning if you get pickpocketed you never know who it was. This way pickpocketing will be done for money as well as XP, but it will also remove the annoying "PP Friendly/unfriendly" messages from profiles. Let's face it, it's stupid if you can actually choose if you want to be pp'ed or not.

indeed but i doubt the players will agree, well, i agree but the old dogs will never accept...

pick pocketing serves for many purposes, as does mugging. they are not useless features. also, many people stealth people when they PP them, so people never know who has stole from them.

Stealthing is common... And it serves some other purposes. I do think players might consider changing their ways, and be a bit more open to mugging etc. 

I think the problem is in the messaging mechanics, far as what I have experienced.

Even when I have a great success message on my pickpocket, I have been mugged. Now that does not make much sense. A message should have some indicator if I successfully stealthed a pick or not on the victim. This way I can make a proper decision on my next action, such as pay it back, or just fly out of town and start a chase game.

Pickpocket mechanic messaging needs changing.

1. Success and stealthed success should be noticeable in messaging.

2. If you outright fail, then mugging or even a hitlist style mugging option should be warranted. This makes it more fun of a mouse and cat game at this point all around the country.

I hate having a good pick pocket get a great message only to find out that the victim new my name and I didn't have any clue my hand got caught, that to me is very unlikely.

Honestly I stealth like 98% of the people I PP. So when randomly I get mugged out of no where its entertaining. 

And if you dont bank your money before hand, its a risk you take. Even when I know the chances are slim that people will see me, I get my cash away. 

I dont see the point. TAKES AWAY SOME OF THE FUN SURPRISE.