Hello, I have found that 'stealing' furniture and decorative items from NPC villages is way too easy. This also includes looking into and taking items from a chest/storage unit. My proposal is that the NPCs react to your actions if seen as follows; (each line of '-NPCS will...' is a different suggestion to their reactions, they do not all happen at once) First time breaking a decorative item/looting a chest -NPCs will warn you not to do it again -NPCs will ask you to put the looted item back -NPCs will fine you a small fee of pixels Second time breaking a decorative item/looting a chest -NPCs will fine you a medium fee of pixels. If you disagree they will call the guards and start attacking you. -NPCs will ask you to leave. If you don't leave they will call the guards and start attacking you. Third and onwards '' -NPCs will immediately attack you -NPCs will lock chests and doors -NPCs will jail you, offering a deal of a large fee of pixels as means of bailing yourself out. A friend could do it too. A neat little thing that would also add to the circumstances of looting items is if they have merchants in the village and you are caught stealing then they will reject you when trying to buy off them. I hope you find my idea interesting, even though it's still a wishy washy idea. Thank you for reading, space pilgrim. Here is the reddit post: http://www.reddit.com/r/starbound/comments/1spurq/suggestion_npc_ai_reaction_towards_looting/
I like this idea. So if you want to loot a place you first gotta kill the npcs. It would be great to have a Elder Scrolls-like system, but I think it's difficult to implement in this type of game.
Very true, but maybe a simple variable could do the trick like; (NPC) vision of PLAYER > if PLAYER > breaks ITEM / loots CHEST > [action]
Perfect that's what I'm talking about if your in Direct view of an NPC and try to loot, steal, or otherwise take their stuff you should be penalized, but you should also have means to allow for Pulling off a Theft if you have the skill and proper planning, so something like a Sneak button that shows NPCs Current line of sight whether they are cautious or not, and possibly an Audio bubble to show what they could hear and how loud actions are, for instance Breaking a Chest shouldn't be silent and it shouldn't be easy to steal a Whole chest, couch, bed, etc. without making some noise like say Slapping away at it with a pick axe should make alot of noise but detach it faster, while using the matter manipulator would make less noise but take alot longer, and using the Matter manipulator from another room to detach items would be silent but take a Really long time and would make anyone suspicious if they saw said item Vibrating from the Matter manipulator or saw you using the matter manipulator. Thus the Vision and Sound system would make it a bit harder and require more skill to steal items Also the Vision and Audio bubble ideas would work great for sneaking up on enemies too it could make Sneak attacks do Critical hits or near Fatal if not already a 1-shot type dmg
I think it would just make people destroy entire towns when they are trying to get some furniture, and even when not looking for furniture they are probably still looting it. Basicly turning all cities into dungeons. Though I agree some steps should be taken to make looting villages more emersive and realistic.
It's not going to be easy destroying whole towns when most of the inhabitants are equipped. There are multiple choices for safely looting, much more fun and strategic than simple genocide.
actually I find it's even easier to destroy a town if everyone is armed no need to look out for the un-armed and you can just fire upon all living creatures in the vicinity with no discrimination as they have become an immediate danger
they could make a Sound bubble like a water ripple looking wave that expands from the player or object being manipulated which has Varying sizes and Ranges based on the the means of which it is Manipulated and any Villager that comes into said Sound bubble would notice and become suspicious not immediately aggro-ed but they would head towards the sound if they didn't Immediately see the player and if the player is out of that area before the NPC reached the source the sound came from the player will have escaped unseen
