If I could have a like/dislike button.... I'd dislike this 10 million times.

I'm not saying it takes work and it isn't a matter of being lazy. At some point though, it helps to have little things like this to the users advantage only because we're able to locate IA targets, war targets, etc. Without having to say "Hey! I'm looking for Squishy and I want to kill him!" I can find them on my own or know if they're in a city.

Maybe for IAs allow us to BG wack to confirm if they're in the city or not it says.

Although it was more realistic the previous way (you won't know if someone has bodyguards or not until you find them in the city), this way does make certain parts of the game a little more difficult. Which I like. :)

yeah i agree with awesome..just like i said in noah's thread in suggestion

the more realistic = the better.

So you agree with my claim that the previous way was more realistic, not with my opinion that the new way is better?

Anything to make it more hard to find people makes it more fun for me.

Well if we're going for realistic then it's time to bring back the hitlist.

While I agree with the theory that info shouldn't be given away too easily (bg wacking to check locations being the main reason behind this change), the current 'rankings' of the error messages will potentially lead to more problems than it solves.

It's now possible to 'remotly check pro's' (you can check if a target is still pro'd without being in the same city as the target and without requiring a 'genuine shot' to be made), something which gives away more valuable information and is even less rp'able than the old system in my own opinion.

Hmmm. So now the "shot too recently" message takes precedence over the "wrong city" message when you go to WACK! someone. So now in a tense situation/war we can check if someone is under protection while safely (even intentionally) outside of their city. Which means we can arrange our targets with 100% certainty we're not going to waste a flight on a target that can't be shot, as long as we first find them through the locals. In a situation where another city took precautionary protection shots (such as the NY vs. Odd war a while back) if you were planning a war you could delay the onset of your first wave until the other side thinks it's in the clear, knowing full well exactly when that is.

I agree with the goal of making info a more valuable skill, and have absolutely no problem with the change regarding bodyguard-wacks displaying "no bodyguards" before "wrong city." But in my humble opinion, with regards to "shot too recently" messages the cure is much, much worse than the disease. Whether or not someone is under protection should be a more highly-guarded secret than whether or not someone's in your city. I find this especially true when reverting the message priority for these specific messages to how it was before would only affect the roughly one out of twenty IAs that gets missed in the first place.

And after refreshing the thread, I see Deimne has made a much less longwinded post to the same effect, which makes me want to summarize my position: if the choice is being able to find the city of protected IAs slightly easier vs being able to remotely check protection, I think the "least bad" outcome is finding the city of protected IAs easier.

I think this is a great way to get people to boost Info and to make the game a little more challenging when it comes to wacking and wars.  I'm all for boosting info to be honest, it's been a sorely neglected skill in some ways. (not by the game, by the players.)

boosting info is great but no matter who i speak to no one can give me a real answer on how to do it..... they try this or try that and unfortunately i ask ten different people and i get ten different theories. If someone would kindly send me a message and explain it to me i would appreciate it. i have tried several methods from street posting - to bar posting - to sheer rank - to mobmails - to drug runs - to tips over several accounts and the only effective way i can find to have a high info skill is pick good starting answers.

Shouldn't this just priority based depending on what you are trying to wack?

Depending on whether you are shooting BGs or players:

1) They have no BGs (if BG Wack), or, they're aleady dead (if player wack)
2) They're not in your city
3) They're in your city, but are proed
4) They're in your city, and aren't proed, boom

By what I can make out, you've fixed it so 1 is first (ie, no BGs rather than city), but now 3/4 are hapenning before 2? (If you can check pros from another city). Obviously that is basic, I might've missed something. As others have said, the original way was the lesser evil of the two if there's no getting around it.

I agree with Animal about boosting info.

To Squishy: perhaps a "wrong city"-type message should have priority over protection, for both the reason Lucretia_Borgia gave and for it being more realistic, but that this "wrong city"-type message sould also apply to people who you cannot see in your locals (even if they are indeed in your city).

So, instead of "You must be in the same city", the message is "You cannot find X anywhere".

Should solve both problems.

God, I'm awesome.

Awesome....so are you saying we shouldn't be able to shoot people we're in the same city as if they're not in our locals? Something not right about that.

cant shoot what you cant see.

Maybe you shouldn't be able to BG wack a user who has no BGs. So maybe BG wacking a civvy could give the message "User has no BGs or they are under pro" no matter the city. If all this is just to get people to be able to "see" better rather than shooting in the dark, that small change should do the trick, shouldn't it?

Awesome....so are you saying we shouldn't be able to shoot people we're in the same city as if they're not in our locals? Something not right about that.

Actually, I wasn't. I don't know what I was saying. But now that you mention, it sounds like an awesome idea.

Or if that's not acceptable, how about a blanket message of "You cannot wack X" which covers X being protected, X not being in the city, X being either too high or too low a rank, you having shot/pickpocketed recently, etc.