Thieves suck and are annoying

[krieglich]

Thieves rob the game of all its fun. There, I said it.

[hashimoto4life]

I hate it when I lose a Pristine 5 piece Prehistoric exhibit to a thief.

[jwwo0o0]

Hey! I just wanted to mention there is a build which is currently on beta which has some tweaks to security: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2185060/discussions/1/595143265765844213/

Security: Increase how long it takes thieves to steal exhibits (this should help give security enough time to reach to camera's spotting thieves)
Security: Increase the cooldown of thief guild raids in lower crime levels

I'm not sure if this will fully ease your frustrations but it may help... and we're also tracking all the player feedback and will make more changes/tweaks/updates in future patches :) We started work on an indoor freestanding security camera today as well!

[cmmerwin2]

There needs to be a way to reduce how often the thieves show. The constant popups for them is getting frustrating. I spend my time focusing on how to deter the thieves than enjoying the game.

[Luminaro]

I was just gonna post about this as I too lost a pristine 5 piece to the stupid guild who digs the holes.. And the problem is security SUCKS. I had a ton of guards / cameras at the time, and it doesn't even matter.

This is currently the only problem i have with the game.

[Typha]

Originally posted by jwwo0o0:

Hey! I just wanted to mention there is a build which is currently on beta which has some tweaks to security: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2185060/discussions/1/595143265765844213/

Security: Increase how long it takes thieves to steal exhibits (this should help give security enough time to reach to camera's spotting thieves)
Security: Increase the cooldown of thief guild raids in lower crime levels

I'm not sure if this will fully ease your frustrations but it may help... and we're also tracking all the player feedback and will make more changes/tweaks/updates in future patches :) We started work on an indoor freestanding security camera today as well!

I say this as someone that really likes your game a lot.

I'm going to be kind of bold and suggest considering a major overhaul to the crime system, because it's SUCH a fun-dampener for so many people. It misses the mark by such a large margin.

For me, it just seems to off-theme and ridiculous to have to turn my museums into basically maximum security facilities. It's not fun and it heavily contrasts with the rest of the game.

Sooo much real time is wasted when a thief steals something, it's just plain frustrating. I would save scum if I could. Honestly it makes me want to turn the game off and play something else. It feels like an aspect of some third-rate game that doesn't respect the players' time.... which totally doesn't fit the rest of the TPM experience at all.

I think you put it right with the word "frustrations". I don't play TPM for stress and frustration, nobody does. This is people's after-work chill experience.

Decreasing how often this happens isn't going to feel much better, because the problem is that it happens at all.

For what it's worth, my feedback is:

1) to remove thieves from the game completely
2) or let us turn them off (I suspect the vast majority of players will)
3) or have thieves... do something else other than steal exhibits

Think big on a solution because this isn't a small problem.

Anyway thanks for listening and being such cool active developers. I'm glad you're taking action on this to help this cool fun game out!

[Jehsee Da Bunn]

While I don't have a major problem with thieves (not sure how I got my museums tweaked so I don't lose stuff, but I've only had two items stolen in 90 hours of gameplay, not counting the minigame map where I really didn't care) I agree this needs a massive, massive overhaul and not just tweaking. The idea of lowering the occurrence of thieves at low levels sounds great, but if it picks back up again as the gamee progresses, people will complain just as loudly or even louder when the thief spam kicks off at high levels AND all their exhibits that they lose are maxxed out.

My personal suggestion that would not take out security and cameras - because I do see the definite need for them from a money sink standpoint as well as diversifying expedition teams, not to mention nixing security would lead to massive expedition rewrites - is to change the system so that if you don't have enough security coverage, then thieves are activated, but if you have sufficient coverage, they don't appear in your museum period. That way you still have the money sink and don't have to rewrite expeditions, and people still see the value of investing in them, but far less monitors will be punched.

[Venatacia]

I'm still trying to figure out how one thief lifts a heavy object that would require a crane or at least a team of people to move it. Not alone; can fit the item in his pocket and run out the door with it, or fit down a small mole hole or toilet.

So far my thieves seem to be caught running out the main entrance and my security guys never ran fast enough. Got security gates and cameras. The map I'm on now, the entrance/doorway from my museum is right next to the exit on the map. So by the time I have got the message and clicked on it, the thief is out the door and gone.

[Violent Rainbow]

I don't mind them that much at first, but once I realised they literally stole my exhibits I absolutely started minding. I built my museum with the security doors on every entrance, and I have security cameras bloody everywhere. Having to build try and fit dozens of cameras into every museum is quite annoying, especially since the cameras block other items and decorations in an already cramped building.

[Pierric Bross]

Originally posted by cmmerwin2:

There needs to be a way to reduce how often the thieves show. The constant popups for them is getting frustrating. I spend my time focusing on how to deter the thieves than enjoying the game.

The worst pop up is when a guard is actively peppering the MF'r. He is already gooned why am I getting a pop up for that?

[*****GameFolder]

60+ hours in, and the entire security aspect of the game annoys me so much that I have stopped playing. I would have played this for much, much longer - but it literally killed all my calm game-zen and turned it into a game of frustration. Great game, but this ruins it for me, and I don't think the changes announced will change that.
Still had a blast playing it until security was unlocked.

[huntingdon1701]

I quite like it as an aspect, but I would agree that if a moler popups right next to an exhibit, it is impossible to counter. So I welcome the news that there is a fix to make it take them longer to steal things.

[kampfturke]

Had 0 issues.

Hire more guards. Make sure you have cameras. Use security doors as much as possible, especially on your entrance.

If you have money issues. Have 5 different interactive things. If a kid uses 5 they will donate 10k.

[Mac]

The fact a dev already replied with "We started work on an indoor freestanding security camera today as well" means they aren't actually listening to the crucial feedback players are giving, no one is actively defending this game mechanic, some people say they don't mind it, it adds challenge, but honestly, why are people loading two point museum for its criminality? i bet you the vast majority of players just want to progress and build up a museum as they play, you know, like rollercoaster tycoon, or something similar.

The thieves are clearly giving countless people a huge headache, turning away players and the devs solution is 'But, come ooooon we are building standing cameras!' *Facepalm - missing the point entirely.

The easiest solution WITHOUT changing the game is literally 1 additional setting in the options menu:

Thieves: [ On ] <> [ Off ]

TAH DAH

Players can now play the game without getting annoyed, and all the players who WANT there to be thieves, can leave the option turned on for an extra layer of difficulty - Well looky at that!

And here's the kicker, players can still build a security room, man it and build cameras! you know, to add a little extra to their museums without it being an actual headache.

The stupid thing is: This setting .... already exists in sandbox mode lol

Solution two:

Exhibits that are pristine can have a anti-theft perk installed for free, you don't need to fine these perks all exhibits have them, but can only be installed in pristine exhibits, it takes up a perk slot, sure, and the devs can even make it so these perks reduce the buzz by a little as a balancing thing, the exhibit is now protected, but it offers a reduced buzz experience.

People aren't complaining about the security as a whole, they are complaining because they lose exhibits << this is the ONLY core factor why its frustrating to so many players, having to deal with it constantly, dumping standing cameras all over the place is not a good alternative.

.... adding a standing camera *exasperated sigh

[Jehsee Da Bunn]

My biggest short term concern with them trying to implement a "turn thieves off" option in story mode is there's progression points in which thieves are necessary as it is currently written. Don't get me wrong, I will ALWAYS be in support of more options that let people customize their gameplay as they see fit and I think requesting this toggle is more than fair. Where my concern lies is as a player who has already had to restart the storymode from scratch due to a progression bug (in my case, it was not being able to get Spirit Keys at Wailon), the absolute last thing I want to see happen is see a toggle rushed out because people want it so badly without addressing the points of the game that are already written in to need it. While I see no reason it couldn't be a thing down the line - granted, I'm not a coder so I could be blind to something patently obvious to others - I do hope that players will give the devs time to do the change right and change the storyline and progression goals so that the toggle can be put in without people losing dozens of hours of work on their museums completely in an effort to rush it out.

But also a word to the devs . . . please, please don't make the mistake of ignoring the players when they request a time-consuming, buggy, and constantly occurring mechanic be overhauled, toggleable, or scrapped. I've seen far too many devs die on a hill of something the playerbase wants to change or be able to turn off being "way too important to the feel of the game" or whatever, and lose player goodwill over it. You folks obviously have put a ton of time and work into it, I get that, but with a few exceptions (myself being one), it's not working for the players and i really don't think a few little tweaks is going to fix something that after it is tweaked, is still going to see players lose played time and game income because of where a thief spawned, a camera being one square off of optimal, or a guard getting stuck in a crowd.

[Ryuukaze]

A lot of players are disappointed with the difficulty of TPM, so they probably see a reduction in one of the few difficult things as a negative.

Personally, I'm not here for the difficulty. I was here for the adventure, and I *LOVED* it.

If security worked like real life, with proper shift changes and guards who didn't stop every 10 ft (rather than continue running, so they could actually catch the thieves), I would be fine with it as-is. I welcome improvements anyhow, though.