Thieves suck and are annoying

[krieglich]

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

[mala]

the risk of loosing an important exhibit is the only things that makes robbers so dangerous. If they just came in and steal some bucks from the donation bin, would you really care? what if they just ruin something that can be repaired in 1 minute? same, it would be a useless mechanic. With a good mix of cameras and skilled guards, you can stop almost everyone on the spot, and when the moles arrive, just slow down a bit the game, and micromanage the problem.

[Jay Ren]

I would very much like to see the number of notifications about theives reduced. That they have been caught or left does not need to be something I see more then once an hour.

That would highly reduce the frustrating feeling.

After that... a button on the stolen exhibits to pay off a ransom immediately, so you don't have to wait on a slow random prompt, which you have no way as a new play of knowing can even exist.

[Jehsee Da Bunn]

Originally posted by Jay Ren:

After that... a button on the stolen exhibits to pay off a ransom immediately, so you don't have to wait on a slow random prompt, which you have no way as a new play of knowing can even exist.

Or if you will get it at all. Of the two stolen pieces I've had, I never got one of them back and eventually sold the base for five bucks or something after waiting 18 months or so of game time.

[DeathofDisco]

My biggest gripe is that my security guards ID a thief, grab him, and then walk to the furthest spawn point on the map to throw him out meaning that they have to leave their areas letting other thieves steal things. Guards should just throw the criminal out of the building, not have to waste a dogs age walking them to a distant spawn point.

[{SLURP}Legion]

my issue is the time walking the thieves out as well, a guard is basically out of commission for the rest of a thieves guild if they catch one person because of how long it takes to talk them out. it would be nice if the thieves walked themselves out like the attackers from TPC.

may also be nice if museum pieces were always ransomed back instead of only sometimes.

[KritzelPixel]

Yes, they are so anoying. I have such a big staff with security and cameras, and they steal in front of my guards without any problem... robbing an expensive item with upgrades, even with the anti thieve sticker... In a big museum, when a guard walks a thief out it could take MONTH! It is not difficult, it is boring. I love a challenge, like... I play project zomboid without perks. But this has nothing to do with a challenge.

The thieve pop-ups make me angry at this point XD

[dankybongbluntry]

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!

Absolutely love the game, been playing a ton, but I think that an additional thing to make thieves less anti-fun would be the suggestion another user made suggesting all stolen exhibits become immediately repurchasable through ransom, the random chance of it stinks, and I think that being charged a lot for ransom every time would be more balanced. Still incentivized to still built security without the sting of permanently losing a nice exhibit.

Would love for this to be an idea floated to the team.

Thanks for the amazing game though!

[Lisa Mockingbird]

I find the thieves disruptive to my game - when I have 4 mole holes and 3 guards and it takes forever for them to escort them off grounds and get back -
to stop losing an exhibit
I hand to hit pause then hire a new guard and drop him on the 4th thief - I fire them later if they aren't helpful.

[Kat-A-Saurus Hex]

My tips for Guards, and Camera Rooms.

Hint: If you ever see someone stealing, pause your game, pick up a guard and drop them next to the thief, they will get caught immediately.

1. Be stingy with your guards. look at their inherent traits. You want guards with references, such as:
- Peripheral vision (I think is what it's called): for a wider view of their surroundings
- Nimble: for faster movement

These two traits really help either keep your place safer, and help keep cost down. If you pair them with the patrol skill it can really help cover the area that guards can catch

2. Make sure you have maybe 1 or 2 guards with mission traits like:
- Globetrotter: Adds happiness when sent on expeditions
- Photographic Memory: adds +5% survey level to expeditions

These are great traits for anybody you send out on expeditions. I have 1-2 sometimes 3 guards/assistants/janitors. I try to not give them the typical patrol or camera rooms skills unless expeditions ask for them specifically.

3. There are some traits you might consider if you have the first trait you desire.
- Loyal: The person requires less pay than most
- Bean Brain: Coffee increases happiness (Would suggest waiting until you have coffee kiosk or coffee table in break room)

4. SET UP ASSIGNMENTS! (Don't rely on workzones)
On each person you can click what area's to cover, patrols, catching criminals, collecting money, camera room, etc.

for each area I have unlocked:
- I have 1-2 collectors guards.
- I have about 4 patrol guards
- 1-2 guard seats
- finally 1 guard on camera room.

Now I make due with 1 camera man when the camera room guard goes on break. you can set a guard to do both patrols and camera room so when one guard goes on break the other will take over the camera room but that will be based on your preference.

I say don't rely on work zones because for some reason none of my workers follow them, and has cause me more issues than anything else.

[Luminaro]

I've had a few exhibits stolen, so now when thieves pop up, I literally stop all the fun I'm having, pause the game, grab a security guard by the collar, put him down next to a thief, and unpause so they are caught. I've had security guards unable to catch them if I don't take the time to do this.

And even with tons of security I still get exhibits stolen, and now I'm at the point of save scumming it. it is BEYOND FRUSTRATING. Let thieves steal money or decorations or something but NOT THE EXHIBITS. This is easily the worst aspect of the game.

[Lytaren]

I opened the sandbox to check the settings as thieves were annoying me so much in the campaign and you can set no thieves at all in the settings. But it would be nice to have a toggle for less/no thieves in the campaign as well. Even just no golden molers.
I also don't need a pop up to say a criminal has been spotted if there is a guard there peppering them already. Having the criminal be escorted to the main door would be enough, the time it takes to escort them all the way off the map is ridiculous.

[Unoriginal]

The system needs an overhaul in general. The manual reveal button feels like it's meant for a system where the thieves have tells, but as most of them don't it's largely useless.

Also, when a thief is revealed, it'd be nice if the nearest guard (with criminal pursuit enabled) dropped what they were doing to nab them, rather than ignoring them to keep collecting donations while a guard halfway across the museum gets assigned the task.

As for having to walk them off the map, maybe set up a containment area to stick the thieves in until real cops come to haul them off? Maybe a constructable cage kids could throw popcorn at?

[BiLL ƬӇЄ ƘƖƊ]

Related with --> https://steamcommunity.com/app/2185060/discussions/3/603024535590038597/

[Wenchbane]

I think one of the issues is the interplay with your layout or lack thereof, take the mole guild as an example, they bypass your entire layout, and ignore that aspect entirely to nab exhibits. It's not bad when you have one hole that pops up, but three or more holes and it's more of a chore to micromanage.

Zoning helps, as do security cameras to manage this, however it's not a fun element of gameplay.

If there was another type of guild that replaced the mole guild, maybe an imposter guild that took your staff uniforms as a disguise and nabbed stuff without setting off cameras but can be sniffed out by security staff if close enough. It still requires them to navigate the layout and avoid detection by staff members.

The normal thieves/vandals are fine, same as the boggymen as they are tied to your layout in a way.

[Typha]

Devs - are you listening to this?

I feel like the move to add free-standing cameras misses the point and kinda feels like you're not really understanding what your community is telling you.