Theft Punishment

[warped olive]

NPCs don't seem to really care if their prized diamond in their glass casing suddenly disappears. I'd like it if they started to care.

Here is what I think is the most simplest solution right now:
If, lets say, I steal 2 diamonds from some rich fellow's glass case. The fellow sees this, and thinks:
"Oh no, my two 2000c worth diamonds are missing!"
And proceeds to rush out and raise the alarm, which would trigger those large shutters, which should trap the player, and inform the enforcers.

This would make theft a more high-risk affair, and gives a reason to stop players from hogging everyone's' belongings whenever they can.

Maybe in the far future, there can be other investigators, either working for a division or private, who would investigate stolen cases that you may have caused. And how long a case is investigated for before it is closed is dictated by the social standing of who was robbed.

Maybe the punishment in this case would be a fine of what you had stolen, and a decrease of social credit.

[pseudo bramble]

If this is implimented, maybe have a second way (besides just side 'jobs') to gain money quick? something that when compounded with this above could make stealing 'unnecesary'

[austere oracle]

yeah ive constantly been thinking how weird it is that theres literally no reason not to steal everything not glued down as long as no ones looking

then you just walk out the door for a fraction of a second and everything automatically becomes yours

we are one of the primary reasons for poverty in the city

[ocean gale]

Yeah would generally be more in line with the lore as well. In a corporate ruled world, theft and property damage would be deemed the worst kind of offences.

[summer ridge]

“One of the primary reasons”? Try “the one and only reason”! 😅

[pseudo bramble]

I didn't expand on this here, but an idea I had was a more 'legal friendly' way of playing this out- by making it possible to have some sort of other job (perhaps with some sort of minigame, or just a simple waiting spot for working) a player could hold down for a while, collecting pay they need to follow leads, pay off crimes, or what have it. This would, while not as the straight direction of 'you're only an ex cop', still put you as able to legally acquire a decent amount of cash (potentially once a month, as a drawback?) thereby cutting out the necessity to steal. Perhaps something like this?

I even toyed with this playing into investigations: staking out a suspect? Get a job as a janitor or a clerk, boom no need to break in at night, you can just tail them from within the company, keep tabs on them, and 'volunteer to lock up', leaving the area in it's unlocked state (and an employee trusting you with the key because you're also an employee) where during your locking up time, you could grab evidence you need.

[austere oracle]

i suppose the health inspector thing sort of works that way, you earn your guest pass money back by taking pictures of dirty bathrooms or kitchens, but i agree we should be able to get regular jobs

maybe instead of minigames theyd just optionally make time skip over to the evening, and the time gap between murders could be extended a bit to make things like rent/utility bills come into play too

it feels a bit weird to just become this ultra rich detective with infinite social credit within 2 weeks of the game starting

maybe we could get illnesses from excessive sync disks and need to take meds daily as another money sink

[warped olive]

Taxes

[lone mural]

Crime is way easier and more rewarding than any of the cases or side jobs. Raising the difficulty through updating and adding depth to the law enforcement system would make every other accomplishment feel more rewarding and significantly help the longevity of this game

[pseudo bramble]

i do feel like this should only be a thing (rent, utilities, meds for potential sync sickness) if getting a proper job becomes a thing. That way it can balance out. You'd spend more, yes, but you could find a better way to bring in more. You could go the normal route, and risk the crime and run detective missions non-stop, as normal, or you could go this route- get a job, detective on the side if you want to at all. Maybe just have it as optional, so those who don't want this can still do it as they are now. Dunno, just my thoughts.

[summer ridge]

Just to add a quick note, NPCs do seem to remark on missing items. It’s just that most of the items that are popular targets for involuntary contributions tend to be behind closed containers, and unless you leave them open NPCs will never see it and realize the item is missing. If they notice the item is missing — one way to do this is to steal something from the safe and leave the safe open — they will remark in floating text that something is gone, but as far as I can tell that’s as far as it goes.

It shouldn’t be too long of a stretch technically speaking to go from there to actually doing something about it.

[south mortar]

A temporary fix could be nerfing the crap out of diamond spawns and other trinkets. Really neat idea btw