How stealing works currently

[David]

All of this is likely to change once stealth mechanics are implemented, but I figured a detailed breakdown of how things seem to work currently, might be of use to some people.

Stealing is whenever you take something that is marked with red, or take something from a container marked red.
However, simply looking inside a container marked red does not incur a penalty currently.
Whether by mistake or not, currently you are allowed to CTRL+Click an item to drop it from the container onto the ground. If this is outside of people's vision the item will slowly get it's stolen tag removed. Alternatively if you are able to pick it up, you may move it to another zone (a different floor of the building or throw it on the ground outside the building) and it will start to get it's stolen tag removed. The time the tag takes to be removed, depends on the value of the item. Very valuable items may take a week to be clean.

Note, this does NOT apply to items that are marked red on display outside of containers. They will remain red regardless of time. It's only if you move these items that they will start the process of getting their stolen tag removed.

Picking up an item that is marked red in the vision range of someone else will prompt them to ask you for the item, after which the item disappears if you accept or you risk going to jail. However, if multiple red items are on the same tile, you can click to take all and they will only ask you back for ONE of the items, the rest enters your inventory. I don't know if it's random which item is taken and which isn't, so it's kinda risky, but you can get away with some stealing using this method. For example there's an empty cup and fish soup on the table, right next to each other. If I click to take both, they'll ask for only one of those back. You either keep a worthless cup or a tasty valuable fish soup. I've stolen many important items this way from places that are under watch 24/7, for example the guard room in Osbrook has a bunch of weapons in containers on the left.
I CTRL+Click all of them onto the floor then pick up stuff that's on the same tile as other stuff, and get to keep some of it.

Line of sight doesn't factor into this entirely. While there is a maximum range at which guards and other villagers will spot you, walls and doors do not appear to matter right now, they can see through them.


Update - Sleeping works weirdly now. If you enter the room and the person is already asleep, then they will wake up the moment you take an item and ask for it back.
If they go to sleep while you are in the room, then you can take anything and they don't wake up.
The strategy is to simply take a worthless piece of junk first to wake up the person, hand it back to them, then wait for them to go to sleep and you can rob them of everything else.

Walking around with items marked as stolen will prompt guards (nobody else, just guards) to ask about missing items and it's very frequent and immediate. There is no delay between you taking an item in a building, going out and them instantly asking you about it. So it's best not to carry any stolen items anywhere in range of a guard, it's extremely risky to do so.
What you can do is take items from the 2nd or 3rd floors of buildings, move them down to the first floor and drop them onto the ground. Or take everything in a home, exit the building but not move any squares and drop everything in front of the door.
This will mean they turn white eventually and you can sell them later. But high value items take a long time to turn white.

You can also take items to the outskirts of a town and simply drop them on the floor there. In a few days they will stop being marked as stolen, however this is currently extremely risky. Guards have a longer vision range than you'd expect, and they can randomly question you. There's also many buildings where there's guards right outside or patrolling in front of, so walking away can be dangerous.

PS - You are allowed to use any and all containers to store your own items in, even if it shows up red, as long as you only take your own stuff out of it, nobody cares.

[laveley]

You can sell items marked as stolen in the rotten willow inn iirc

[David]

Originally posted by laveley:

You can sell items marked as stolen in the rotten willow inn iirc

Yes, but it's very far and probably not worth travelling all the way there just to sell stuff that are still marked. Especially since getting out of cities while carrying marked items is risky. Easier to just dump them somewhere and wait a couple of days.

[Lujo]

At what moment does stealing stuff affect your reputation?

On my first playthrough I stole everything and just stashed it in my bedroom chest, but when I noticed that this gives you a rep penalty (unclear on how and when exactly) I stopped just in case.

[Drewsko]

getting caught costs 2x rep in penalty so uh don't do it unless your good at it lol..

[Lujo]

Originally posted by Drewsko:

getting caught costs 2x rep in penalty so uh don't do it unless your good at it lol.. :spycon:

But if you don't get caught, you don't lose rep?

[David]

Originally posted by Lujo:

At what moment does stealing stuff affect your reputation?

On my first playthrough I stole everything and just stashed it in my bedroom chest, but when I noticed that this gives you a rep penalty (unclear on how and when exactly) I stopped just in case.

You lose rep if you're caught by a guard and they find stolen stuff on you or if you steal something in sight of a villager and don't return it.

[Lujo]

Originally posted by David:

You lose rep if you're caught by a guard and they find stolen stuff on you or if you steal something in sight of a villager and don't return it.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. The merchant quests in Brynn require a Ruby, Elven Ice Wine, a golden candlestick and golden inkpot (I'f I'm not much mistaken), and I'd swear I've seen them all planted around the town.

Anyone stole them succesfully? Sounds like a handy way to do those quests quickly.

[Rhapsody]

Originally posted by Lujo:

The merchant quests in Brynn require a Ruby, Elven Ice Wine, a golden candlestick and golden inkpot (I'f I'm not much mistaken)

2k crowns, three elven ice wine, and one ruby nowadays.

[David]

Originally posted by Lujo:

Originally posted by David:

You lose rep if you're caught by a guard and they find stolen stuff on you or if you steal something in sight of a villager and don't return it.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. The merchant quests in Brynn require a Ruby, Elven Ice Wine, a golden candlestick and golden inkpot (I'f I'm not much mistaken), and I'd swear I've seen them all planted around the town.

Anyone stole them succesfully? Sounds like a handy way to do those quests quickly.

I tried to do it just now. There's elven ice wine in the Elven Shop, but it's not in a container so you can't just take it. Similarly the moneylender has a golden candelabra (as does the lord in the keep in Mannshire).
What you can try to do is enter and wait in the shop until it's nightfall and they go to sleep on the 2nd floor then take it and exit and quickly drop it before guards catch you with it. Wait until the marked status on them passes then take them to the quest givers.

Ruby I think is similar situation in the jewelry shop but I haven't checked.
Also the Lord sleeps in the same room of the keep as the candelabra is so that cannot be taken currently as sleep doesn't affect their perception.

[Lujo]

I guess we wait for the stealth update then.

[laveley]

Originally posted by David:

Originally posted by Lujo:

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. The merchant quests in Brynn require a Ruby, Elven Ice Wine, a golden candlestick and golden inkpot (I'f I'm not much mistaken), and I'd swear I've seen them all planted around the town.

Anyone stole them succesfully? Sounds like a handy way to do those quests quickly.

I tried to do it just now. There's elven ice wine in the Elven Shop, but it's not in a container so you can't just take it. Similarly the moneylender has a golden candelabra (as does the lord in the keep in Mannshire).
What you can try to do is enter and wait in the shop until it's nightfall and they go to sleep on the 2nd floor then take it and exit and quickly drop it before guards catch you with it. Wait until the marked status on them passes then take them to the quest givers.

Ruby I think is similar situation in the jewelry shop but I haven't checked.
Also the Lord sleeps in the same room of the keep as the candelabra is so that cannot be taken currently as sleep doesn't affect their perception.

You can take elven ice and the kandelabra in the second floor of the leather works where the bailiff sleeps, place is empty in daylight.

[brown29knight]

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

Originally posted by Lujo:

The merchant quests in Brynn require a Ruby, Elven Ice Wine, a golden candlestick and golden inkpot (I'f I'm not much mistaken)

2k crowns, three elven ice wine, and one ruby nowadays.

depends, if you flatter the one balliff, he wants a candlestick , ice wine, and an inkpot. Show him the letter instead, and he wants 3 icewine. The 2k crowns will only ask for 1k if you show him the letter first. The ruby is always a ruby.

[brown29knight]

As to sleeping, they do not ALWAYS wake up. There is some kind of check. I have stolen things where people are sleeping without issue sometimes, and othertimes they wake up. May have to do with the value of the item, taking more expensive stuff seems to wake them up more often.

[Lujo]

Originally posted by brown29knight:

As to sleeping, they do not ALWAYS wake up. There is some kind of check. I have stolen things where people are sleeping without issue sometimes, and othertimes they wake up. May have to do with the value of the item, taking more expensive stuff seems to wake them up more often.

Does the move silently equipment (cape, boots, dunno if anything else) do anything?

[Berserkr]

Incase anyone new playing wasn't aware in Osbrook you can use 2 other storage boxes besides the one at the INN. The armory basement and the building just behind the Inn and the drunk, just empty the contents out and go toss it in the corner of the jail or toss the stuff from the other room up in the fields, then you can freely store and take stuff out of both boxes. The guards don't come near to either one at all.