[BUG] Robbing Houses

Awong124

Current behavior: When you go and rob certain containers while there are NPCs around, they call the guards on you. If you wait until they leave, then loot the container then you're seemingly fine. But if the NPC happens to walk back into the line of sight of the container, they still call the guards even though you looted while they were absent.

Expected behavior: They shouldn't call the guards in that circumstance.

Grieg

Why not? They are victims of the crime, so they should summon guards, looks perfectly fine to me. You need to run BEFORE they come back, seems like it works better now than before:]

Awong124

Why would they summon guards if they haven't actually witnessed you doing anything. They call the guards when they are within SIGHT of the container, not that they actually went over to the container to check its contents and found stuff missing.

Riolathel

well you are in their house and it's pretty obvious you're there to steal their belongings..

Why wouldn't someone call the guards.. Im surprised they don't do it when you break in their house

Awong124

Well, as of now, they don't call the guards if you are in their house without stealing anything. The two things aren't related to each other in the game. They probably should, but they don't. You're looking at this in terms of a common sense perspective, not a programming perspective.

Jalily

This bug is in the tracker. And it definitely is a bug because they call the guards even if nothing's missing.

For a particularly ludicrous example, go to the second floor of Oberan's estate (in the middle of Baldur's Gate) and open the bookshelves to the south, then the one next to Oberan. As soon as he calls the guards, run back to the southern room. The arriving Flaming Fists will see the "opened" (what?) bookshelves and summon more guards, cramming the stairs and hallway. Talk about an overreaction...

Woo

Jalily said:

This bug is in the tracker. And it definitely is a bug because they call the guards even if nothing's missing.

For a particularly ludicrous example, go to the second floor of Oberan's estate (in the middle of Baldur's Gate) and open the bookshelves to the south, then the one next to Oberan. As soon as he calls the guards, run back to the southern room. The arriving Flaming Fists will see the "opened" (what?) bookshelves and summon more guards, cramming the stairs and hallway. Talk about an overreaction...

One house in Beregost I had the Flaming Fist called on me for doing nothing but unlocking the chest, which never even presented as an issue before. Didn't even open the chest, paranoid owner.

Awong124

Riolathel said:

well you are in their house and it's pretty obvious you're there to steal their belongings..

Why wouldn't someone call the guards.. Im surprised they don't do it when you break in their house

Now that I think more about this, your explanation doesn't hold any water.

When you return to Candlekeep in Chapter Five, in the keep on the level of the monks' rooms there is a common area in the middle. You can go loot the monks' rooms without people seeing you, then return to the common area, and if somebody goes into the room afterwards they will call the guards. You are in the common area, you are perfectly ok being there (not as if you're trespassing in somebody's house). Even if somebody calls the guards, how would they know it was you who stole something? Yet, the guards immediately accosts you. So logically your explanation doesn't make sense.

And Jalily mentioned it's a confirmed bug.

Avenger_teambg

I've fixed all container alarms. The problem was when a container was opened, it kept sending the signal that it was opened.

Balquo

Putting something like this in the trap scripts will solve that I assume?

IF
	Opened([ANYONE])
	Delay(3)
THEN
	RESPONSE #100
		CloseDoor(Myself)
END

Sese79

I thought it1s a new feature, and I was OK with that (the owner can see if you broke a chest), but if it's a bug then no problem for me too if that's fixed later.

Tanthalas

Isn't this the same behaviour as in BG1 (or BG2)? I thought I saw @Cuv try to fix this but the engine didn't have a good way to implement this?

Cuv

@Tanthalas This has not been forgotten. I did do some work on it but @Avenger_teambg reports a fix. See his post above:)

Awong124

Sese79 said:

I thought it1s a new feature, and I was OK with that (the owner can see if you broke a chest), but if it's a bug then no problem for me too if that's fixed later.

But it also happens if you pick the lock and not bash it.

Sese79

I couldn't bash a lock in the game at all, even Dorn with STR 19 was not able to do it.

Awong124

But you said the owner can see if you broke a chest. Picking a lock will not damage the lock or the chest in any way.

Sese79

You have right. (The owner just sees the scars on surface )
Were you able to bash any chest in the game?

Awong124

I was able to bash some of the chests in Winthrop's inn at the beginning of the game with 18/95 STR. But that was only because I didn't have any thieving abilities. I've never tried it since I got a thief.

Sese79

I try if the thief doesn't succeed. But perhaps the chests are hard to bash if they were hard to lock pick. It's just strange that Dorn can't bash them.

Gallowglass

No-one is strong enough to bash all locks, not even Dorn. (In BG2, you can be even stronger and there are still some locks you can't bash.) However, Dorn can bash plenty of the weaker locks. Generally a thief with even moderate lock-picking ability (around 50%) can open locks which Dorn is too weak to bash.

Leronis

Trespass and lockpicking aren't crimes, but opening the chest might be a crime even if you don't take anything. Go figure.

Two thieves is better than one at low levels. One brazenly picks all locks, the other has good stealth to loot. Everyone else leaves the level before the stealth guy starts opening. He just needs to find dark before the law approaches to conversation range. With the stealth boots, he should be a reliable snatch by level 4. Kind of funny to have 18 cops in the house and not much care. All the cops leave for doughnuts within a few hours, as per union rules.

Cuv

Under certain circumstances, Trespassing IS a crime. Some home owners warn you to leave or they will call the guards... thus setting a timer. It really depends on the home and homeowner.

Awong124

Cuv said:

Under certain circumstances, Trespassing IS a crime. Some home owners warn you to leave or they will call the guards... thus setting a timer. It really depends on the home and homeowner.

I always thought they were just empty threats.

Kirkor

Stealing for dummies:
- Use stealth
- If someone calls the guards use stealth.
- STEAL ALL THE THINGS
- use stealth
- leave the house while using stealth
- ???
- profit



Oh, and by the way. You are in their house. They have probably noticed, that someone recently was searching through their belongings. Maybe their little precious arrow is missing...

Aedan

Fixed with patch 2012.