Some thoughts on theft and things.

[Milaha]

so right now it appears what we are seeing is a crime wave of alts and newbs who do not care about the offending characters. I believe the intention based on the system is to have a much smaller amount of thieves, who are relatively skilled, and have a serious investment in not failing. So, here are my thoughts on how to move from A to B, discard and use as you like, I am also going to mention some things that are already planed, and my thoughts on them.


1. Fences, locked gates, locked chests.
Thoughts on this are at the end, since it is something you have already stated you are doing, and I have a lot of thoughts, which may be completely wasted if you already know how you plan to implement


2. One character per account. Enforced 1 account per person (at least so long as the game remains free)
I am honestly not sure why this is not already the case, the game design seems to be centered around the character and his interactions with others, allowing multiple characters shoots holes in that by allowing a quick and easy way to avoid repercussions.

2b: Alternatively, a sufficient tracking skill may allow you to track a person's other characters (directly, or by clues), and maybe even their Kin at very high skill compared to the thief. (one account per person would still be important)
I think that I may like this option even better, it allows people to play different persona's, but there is always that risk all of your characters could be compromised.


3: LP gain for theft. If being a thief is to become a pursuit onto itself (which I think it should be able to be) proving an LP gain from the activity is fairly essential.


4. High perception increases night vision.
This one is only somewhat related, as it does not associate directly with stealing itself, but rather with sneaking and not being caught. For this to work within this context you would also need to change the current night system from a darkening of the whole screen to blacking out a certain amount of screen, and making a circle around light sources and yourself relatively visible. Right now night can be completely overcome by altering of video settings, which is fine so long as there is not a game mechanic tied to it, but imho would need to be changed if you do.


On Gates, Fences, And Locks
- Numerical skills ala exploration and sneaking for lock crafting and picking.
- Minimum 1 tile space between any object /obstacle and a fence
- Fencing can only be built on your own claim
- If fencing makes a completely enclosed area only your own hearthfire can be enclosed
- Locked chests are tethered to the ground, and can only be picked up if the locks are picked.
- Locks have keys (thoughts on keys)
-Keys can be duplicated by locksmiths
-Keys can be stolen, but if on the keyring (see below) it takes time to do so. (this prevents someone from a knockout, swipe all keys, and run)
-Keys can go to multiple locks (locks must be crafted to use the same key, not tied to a key later)
-Keyring which holds ~3 keys and takes up no inventory space, further keys take up inventory space normally

-Alternative but time consuming and obvious methods could be available to bypass fencing (tunnels under is the first thing that comes to mind)
My thoughts on this is that it would be a way for a relatively unskilled thief to attempt a major heist, while carrying significant risks in doing so.

- Along those same lines, various forms of fencing, that are more difficult/time get to break through. Cost and possibly even upkeep should scale exponentially to fence quality. With something like a moat that needs to be dredged regularly being the top tier.


Well, that is my thoughts. Hopefully this post is interesting to some. (ideally, to the devs, though I am sure they have thought this to death already)

[loftar]

Enforced 1 account per person

That may or may not be desirable, but however would one go about enforcing that? I don't see how it would be possible to prevent a single person from registering multiple accounts.

[Vattic]

I agree with most of your ideas, nice post .

On the topic of multiple accounts, I see the same problem as Loftar in that if you could only have one character per account and someone really wanted to alt spam us like many currently are then registering new accounts would simply bypass this, sure it would be against the rules but it wouldn't help. All banning multiple characters really does is limit those who are playing by the rules.

[Denvon]

1 character per account. I like this idea wayyy too much.

[theTrav]

however would one go about enforcing that? I don't see how it would be possible to prevent a single person from registering multiple accounts.

Clearly the solution is to use public private key cryptography, run the whole thing over an encrypted socket, and insist on in-person collection of private certificates (and DNA tests to ensure people aren't lining up twice)

There should also be some sort of screening done to ensure that the applicant isn't just getting a copy for a friend of his... maybe put some physical device around the private certificate with a GPS tracking system so you could tell if many certs were accumulating in the one house...

Of course then if someone were to hire an army of alt-player-runners and distribute them around his local neighborhood, and control them all remotely... hmmm maybe something more invasive?


...

I think Loftar may have a good point

[Krantarin]

Is there a way to limit accounts per IP address? Something tells me there is, although I'm not sure how complicated implementing such a plan would be. If you were to limit per computer like this, I still think that you should be able to have more than one. Perhaps three accounts per computer, two characters per account?

[Milaha]

it does not need to be complicated enforcement, simply tracking IP addresses would be sufficient for the purpose. Yes, there are relatively easy ways to change IPs, but each of those options should show up pretty blatantly, especially with the current population so small. If one account is changing IPs often in one region, and those changes happen to line up with another account that happens to change IPs in the same region, you have someone unpluging their modem to get new IPs. Today most IPs are relatively static by default, and only change when you make them. Once there is a much larger population it would become more difficult, and someone would likely need to dedicate a few hours a week to checking logs of system flagged "suspicious" activity.

Simply having a policy and a enforcement effort is going to deter most players from my experience, most are not willing to risk their main account on the chance they get caught.

[theTrav]

Is there a way to limit accounts per IP address?

1 - I have three people sharing 1 IP address at my house
2 - I do not have a static IP address, it changes every time I re-start my router
3 - IP addresses can also be masked via proxies

[theTrav]

4 - I am about to change ISP's... Is my previous account locked to my old IP address?
5 - I use internet on my laptop from multiple houses, mine, my friends, my work, in the future probably my mobile phone on the train.

I understand how you could think it's easy, but please also understand that people have put LOTS of effort into trying to combat this sort of thing and ended up determining that it's not.

[Milaha]

Is there a way to limit accounts per IP address?

1 - I have three people sharing 1 IP address at my house
2 - I do not have a static IP address, it changes every time I re-start my router
3 - IP addresses can also be masked via proxies

1. allowing players to register for multiple accounts and have them lightly monitored to prevent abuse solves this problem.
2. how often do you really restart your router? almost never I bet, which means it might as well be static unless you change it, see post above.
3. Masked to specific IPs which there are multiple lists of the free ones, ban them.

The paid proxies are another issue, if someone really wants to cheat at something there is always a way, the point is to make it hard to do, you don't need to make it impossible, just unappealing.

EDIT:

4 - No, you simply monitor and flag, ban upon abuse
5 - great, not a problem, that is why we are not locking it to an IP, but rather watching for multiple accounts within a region with patterns that show possible violation.

Again, the idea is not to make it impossible, just difficult enough to be unattractive for 99% of people.