SmartMonsters' Bulletin Boards

A guide by Lisa.

- Never do anything dangerous unless you're at full health and in perfect alignment. Reeeaaaallly. Just. Don't.
- Always have enough energy for flight or fight before doing anything dangerous. I won't Steal unless my energy is at 100 or above.
- Maximize Dex.
- Minimize hunger and thirst.
- Maximize skills: Hide, Peek, Steal - and Flee - and Parry.
- Hide first. If you fail at that, forget Peek or Steal.
- Peek second. If you fail at that, forget Steal. Most NPCs will frown at you if your Peek fails. A small number will attack, including the security goons in Virtual Vegas. We should compile a list of all of them.
- Then Steal.
- Take your ill-gotten coinage to an ATM ASAP. The more weight you carry, the lower your Dex, the more likely you are to be discovered and arrested or attacked if you attempt to Steal again.
- Know your CrimeNet. At lower levels, Steal where it isn't. At intermediate levels, Steal where it is only when you're confident your Steal will succeed. If your Steal fails where there's CrimeNet: boooop! Off to prison you go.
- The Ranger Role is super useful for Thieves. Before starting your Hide/Peek/Steal run on a chosen victim, you can 'track cop' to learn if there are any obvious law enforcement goons in the neighboring rooms. This makes it less likely that an officer of the law will wander in on you while you have your hand in someone's pocket.
- Lockpick is super handy. There are many kinds of locks, so, along with maxing the Lockpick Skill, you'll want to know where to acquire the appropriate lock picks. Certain NPCs will sell them; others can be acquired by exploration.
- Certain locks such as bioscanners, card-keys, or one-time key codes require specialized tools. They exist.
- Remarkably, the most difficult locks are the ones that open with Say or Tell codewords. There's only one lock I know of that opens to "open sesame". I know of no tools which can defeat password locks. (That doesn't mean there are none, just that I haven't found them.)
- There are a LOT of hidden places in TriadCity. Maybe 10% of the rooms are secrets you have to discover. Could be more, I don't know. Maximize all of your sense skills, and examine everything. Hidden entrances are everywhere.
- Backstab is awesome. Hide first. As with all violence, choose your targets and your location. Don't ever attack anything in a public place where NPCs travel who might intervene. Cops will attack you if you're fighting, but so will others. Remember, you're a cutthroat robber, not a Warrior. Attack things in dark alleys, not in public malls. And, know your CrimeNet. Don't do violence at all, ever, where it can detect you.
- The Stealth Box and CrimeNet Detectors are freakin' awesome. Worth the RPs.

A nuance to be aware of. It's easier to Steal from victims carrying fewer Dinars. A victim with 500 Dinars is an easier target than one with 5,000 and so on. You should be careful to take this into account when attempting to Steal in public areas (CrimeNet) or from powerful targets capable of killing you if you fail and are detected.

Note also: success with Steal depends in part on the weight of the item you're attempting to Steal - and Dinars are heavy. This means there's always some difference between ability to Peek a target and to Steal from that same target. Steal will fail some times even after Peek succeeds, especially if you're trying to Steal something heavy like Dinars.

You should keep this in mind when Stealing in public or guarded places.

And a suggestion for when Stealing fails. Get to Sanctuary Island immediately. You might even use an RP recall if you have RPs and can tolerate the stuttering which follows. Either way, get to SI and have a friend check the wanted list so find if you're on it. Much better safe than sorry.

Unless you *want* to be arrested, which is a different scenario altogether.