Okay, I know that this has been spoken about before (in IRC like 5 minutes ago)

but thought I would put it out there in a formal suggestion.

Plain and simple, I think that Pickpocketing should be a more stealthy action. I mean after all, picking a pocket isn't beating someone up, its slipping a few bucks out of someones coat pocket without them knowing it...you know getting 'bumped' on the street.

Lets take it one step higher and say that All Successful Pick Pockets should be stealth, I mean after all you did get away with it right...If you get picked and you see them doing it...um...are you gonna let them walk away? no...you are gonna try and stop them, right?

Pissed that you have a stealthy character and you should have some benefits? Well you got it! The benefit is...no one else sees it either! High stealth, less likely for a witness statement to go out.

I think this is necessary for the simple fact that people view it as an attack...and its not. Period. I'm not sure how much coding would be involved with bringing the MUG back...I suppose you would have to ADD mug back in, since I think that the Current Pick Pocket is the old Mug code, just modified. Could be wrong.

Conclusion is, a successful pick pocket is not getting caught...so ALL (that's 100%) of Successful Pick Pockets should be stealth. Also, a high percentage of failed Pick pockets should be stealthed, I mean its just that you didn't get in the pocket, right? Your victim may not even know you tried...and likely wouldn't.

Personal could read: You search your pockets after getting bumped into on the street to find $4732 missing. Successful.

You search your pockets after getting bumped into on the street to find nothing missing. Failed Stealth attempt.

You reach into your pocket to find ThomasRourkes Hand in there trying to pick your pocket. Failed non-Stealth attempt.

Or something like that...thoughts? Ideas?

I love it. It would also help cut down on the bitching by people about to an almost entirely harmless action that could be avoided.

Kate...is that you? Where is Jack and Sawyer!?!?

I disagree. It should be related to your skill. A very good pickpocketer will be stealthy quite often. One that is just learning, will not. Even if they get the money they will be identified. Are you telling me that all thieves get away with shit every single time? No, they do not.

You want them to be stealthy because the victim may want to retaliate? Poor argument to have the gods meddle in the ways things occur in our world.

You say it's not an attack, and I again disagree. It *is* an attack. I agree that it's one not worth getting upset over since you only lose a max of 5 k. But since you are being robbed, it is an attack, by definition. I don't think this point can be debatable.

No theives do get caught every so often but when they do they don't keep hold of earnings from their crime.

So i think a nice compromise would be failure of stealth maybe leads to a decision on to how the victim wants to play the situation out (similar to accept/decline personals) maybe they want to start a cuffuffle (ie then defense is lost by the loser of the ensuing violence). Or maybe they would like to take a shot - risky in terms of family rules etc but a fair cop in the given situation... Or maybe they would like to accept the loss and resolve the issue with other ways (ie accept it, talk to the person who did the deed, or resolve it through their family).

My point is to sum up that if you know who stole your money from your own pocket and you realise it is happening at the time, you just simply would not let it happen without a decision being made... Flight or fight?

very sage idea _Michael_M_ i lke it...

I like Michael's idea however I think taking a shot is a little too much. I think a possibility would be to install some sort of hospital system similar to the jail system and let people who catch pick pockets in action, such as Hurley's Failed Non-Stealth Attempt, attack them in a sense. Not where they can be killed but enough to throw them into a hospital for 5-10 mins with no way of escaping so that they have to handle the punishment. This would make those who consider a PP to be an attack happy and it would also allow for PPing to be more stealthy and it adds a little more of a spin to the game. And after all don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

I think, in my absolutely awesome opinion, that all successful pickpocket attempts should be unnoticed by the victim. So much so, in fact, that they don't even get a personal. Why? Because at the top of the screen you can see how much money you have. If it's gone down then someone has taken some from you.

"But, what if I can't remember how much I had a minute ago?"

If you can't remember how much you had, then you won't know you've had money taken. God doesn't come down from the sky to tell you when someone has secretly stolen something. You either notice it for yourself or you don't. Plain and simple.

However, on these successful attempts someone else gets a witness statement. And this is where a user's stealth answers come in. If they're stealthy, nobody saw it. If they're not, a passer-by watched it all happen. And if they choose to let the victim know, then they can send a very nice letter to him or her.

And the stealth answers can also work for failed attempts. You might fail to get your hand in, because somebody bumped into you, but your attempt wasn't noticed by the would-be victim. But, perhaps, might be witnessed by a spectator. Although this should be quite rare (you won't get people low ranked stealthing a failed pickpocket attempt, and especially not so from those bystanders).

See? Aren't I awesome.

Yes I definitely think that is an idea. If you fail to notice your $s go down then why get a personal?

Maybe instead of taking a shot you could report the action to the cops who would then issue an appropriate jail sentence? That would then put the responsibilty on the PPer to pay the money back. As far as the justice system is concerned a custodial sentence & an order to pay the money back would suffice. This then leaves the decision upto the pickpocketer to pay the money back or not...

Did this make sense? I hope so.

I agree with awesome. Mainly because, he's awesome.

Myself, Jailer, and FrankieFigs discussed this in great lengths on Ventrilo one night, and for the most part we came to the same conclusion that Awesome did. Of course it took three of us, where it only took one of him...

Grumbles