Shattered Kingdoms

Since your last adventure, thieves set upon you and stole some of your items!
I dont know what is this, but it is quite annoying. No! It is not annoying, it is completly [REDACTED]! How the hell to steal my chestplate from my chest? Or my leggings, pants? And why do this happen when i am offline? Shouldn't things happen when i PLAY the game?

The short answer to your question is that your things were taken by level thieves. The items that you lost, on other MUDs, would be too high of a level for you to wear. On this one, however, you can wear them, but you take a chance of losing them when you log out. If you need any more explanation, this is what I told the last person:

Ok. I'd like to take the time to reassure you that everyone goes through this at some point or another. No one likes to lose their equipment to the level thieves, but you should also realize that it is a necessary, if frustrating, part of the game.

What the game is actually doing is checking you on logout. The game measures your level as opposed to the level of the item and runs an equation to see if you keep said item. The closer the difference, until you are equal to or greater in level, the less chance the item will disappear.

Obviously, if you have a grand master item at level one, you will almost certainly lose it on your first log out, but nothing is ever 100% certain until you attain the items level.

Durlik wants to make a game that doesn't defy logic. Yes, this is a fantasy MUD, and some will debate whether or not certain rules and aspects are logical, but what he doesn't like seeing is "you can't do that."

In SK, you can wear anything you like. A level one character can be decked out in the best equipment in the game. This is a good and beautiful thing. Casters can also wear heavy armor, for a price.

The problem with the system is that it is abusable, and, so I believe, was abused quite a bit before this level thief system was implemented. People would use low level characters to hoard all of the good items in the game. This type of action is against the rules in many ways, but this hoarding kept items safe either for personal use or against the item being used by an enemy.

It's all fun for the person hoarding everything, but it severely limits the play of others. Thus, we have the level thieves. Just imagine if all of the stuff you had was never seen in the game again because some jerk decided that no one but him was going to touch it. They don't completely stop hoarding, by any means, but they do limit it to some degree, where as it would be limitless without the level thieves.

I hope this makes you feel somewhat better and that you continue to play the game. No one is trying to lord over you with some elite skill to steal from you while you're offline, and, despite how the hard core nature of the player base may make you feel at times, we generally like having new players around.

So, take it easy, look around for some new stuffs, and stick around to see some of the less frustrating parts of the game.

Welcome to SK,

-Randy

That's ok, but I was not stacked with elite, high level stuff. I just spent all my hard earned money in shop, and bought the basic trash shop equipment, (and resized to giant size, so they were twice as expensive). Now i am naked and dont have money. I am a bum, i should start begging on the streets for avoid starving...
By the way, how do i know what i can buy safely from shop?

It's pretty much based on how expensive everything is and their material. I am a terrible person to ask exact figures, especially after the new economy system, but you should figure that anything that's a few gold and made of a cheaper material (eg. iron) should be able to be kept from at about initiate.

If it is of a higher grade material (eg. Tanso steel) and sells for a few platinum, then don't expect to keep it until after journeyman or so. For me, it's more or less a touch and go process. I'm sure there are some better suited to tell you exactly what you can and cannot keep. The identify spell helps immensely, but you'll have to find someone with access to that.

If you ask around in game, and do so nicely, then I'm sure you'll have no trouble getting some decent stuff to roll around in. You just have to be careful not to get too excited about anything higher level characters give you, as they have a possibility of being too high to keep.

I'm glad you're not too upset over all this. I threw a huge fit when I had store bought items taken from me. It really didn't seem to make sense at the time. However, some store bought items are limited, and we always need to keep that ph4t l3w7 rolling around.

Anyway, welcome again.

This gets complained about often enough, I'm wondering if we should do something about the shops. Having the shopkeeper warn you before purchase would be ideal, but it would be a pain to code. Maybe they should just not list items for sale that could be stolen? That is kind of heavy handed, but at least newbies wouldn't face this situation...

If you're still an Amateur, killing things in the training zone is the best way to get that money back. Just don't train level until you've a decent stash again.

Past that but still lower-level, it's usually best to collect items and sell them back to shopkeepers. Talk to other players in-game for suggestions where to scavenge.

As for judging item level, price is a fairly reliable guide. The stuff you bought was obviously too good, if you lost nearly half of it on the first re-login. Try something around half the price. Gremlin24's advice about talking to other players is also good. They can probably steer you to an appropriate shop or dungeon.

Simply code into the buy command that does a check if level is less than then the shopkeep warns, if not, it's as usual.

Shouldn't be more than a single if-then check, so then newbies know when the item is purchased they may lose it.

It still won't stop them from buying it, but it will let them know of what may happen now that they have purchased it, instead of just nothing.

Seawatch has just that sort of script, Dulrik. The sword shop merchant will tell you something like "I won't stop you from buying it, but it'll probably be stolen" when you walk through the door at too low of a level. Once you are the proper level, he says something like "Now you look like a customer who could hold onto a fine blade."

Taking away the option of buying such items would, indeed, be too heavy handed. If you could mimic that script on others, it'd be fine. As well, I think it would be nice if there was a help file with the key words from the stolen item message, or perhaps some other method of getting the information into our new players' hands. We could maybe have one more person/sign in the newbie halls talking about thieves and item quality?

In any case, I think there are a myriad of options to run with that should ease new players into the system while not cuffing their hands, or cuffing the hands of experienced players who know what they're getting into.

I can live with stuff being stolen, I just wish I knew what was taken. As I always carry way too much crap around with me, it's sometimes hard to track.

I do like this idea, if it's possible. I hate having to use the process of elimination to figure out if I need a new weapon, or head gear or both. It's easy to miss all of what exactly was taken and then get a terrible surprise when you need it.