Is this normal? (stealing)

[Thief]

I'm starting a Ultima 7 Black Gate game. I'm in Trinsic and at Markus home. I've stolen right in front of him his armors and weapons. Abd nothing. One of the times he said to not touch anything, but didn't fught and neither called the guards.

Is this normal? Is it a bug? And if it's a bug, it's an exult's bug? I remember years ago that NPC would fight and call the guards if I stole something at their sight.

[drcode]

Is he looking towards the item you stole?

[Thief]

Yes. He even asks "What's that noise?", "don' touch that" (or something).

[terok00001]

ive noticed this too, usually you can move an object to another spot and theyll call the guards, but since playing exult, i havent seen any guards!

[SB-X]

This is a recurring observation, and numerous changes have been made to improve NPCs' responses to stealing.

[Bomb Bloke]

The more items you take, the more likely the guards will come - but you must be caught in action. I flog every item of value (I have no pity for NPCs), and the Trinsic store is a classic example.

There are a lot of items there, tons in fact, so the store keeper will often call the guards UNLESS I shut him out of the shop first.

[Thief]

I loaded the game and tried stealing again.

Markus says "What's that noise?" and then frozes. He doesn't move at all. Unless I attack him.

I started a fresh new game. I can still steal without him (or any others, this doesn't happen only with Markus) calling the guards or fighting me.

Started yet another game. Steal once, nothing. Steal twice... guard appeared!

Startedanother game. I steal, no guards.

When stealing, I'm careful enough to let him see me doing it. He always says something when I still. He just doesn't take any action!

This spoils the game a little bit, because... Why buy something? You can just grab everything...

[Dominus]

This spoils the game a little bit, because... Why buy something? You can just grab everything...

I did that anyway in the original...
After all we do say in the FAQ that stealing still is not working 100 % and IMO it doesn't matter in the least. Either you are following the virtues and you don't steal or you are a thief and you steal in ways people don't notice.

[terok00001]

in the old U7, you could steal whatever you want, if it goes into your pack, you wont be caught... but if your pack is full and it puts it back where it was, or at your feet, the guards will be called... basically if you MOVE an item that doesnt belong to you, its considered stealing... they obviously dont see it if you put it directly into your backpack

[drcode]

I think there was randomness in the original, just as there is in Exult. You could get away with stealing most of the time, but eventually you would get caught.

I found it best not to steal, as it made the game more of a challenge when you're starting out.

[terok00001]

i cant seriously play this game anymore... i know too many cheap little secrets that just spoil the game, like the rooms full of armor and gold, weapons in serpents hold, flying carpet, all that just makes the game easy. even if i promise myself not to get these little goodies... it happens eventually

[drcode]

Last time I played BG, I used the ship for most of the game. It gives you more of a feel for the vastness of the world. And I avoid all the cheat rooms, which I think were created mostly for testing.

[terok00001]

i have a question regarding pirated ultima stuff... is the game still being sold anywhere? because alot of games, once the sales go down far enough, just become free... like a vast number of games available at sites like *beep*, all completely legal even though theyre just downloaded from a website. and i think at some point i found ultima6 or something on one of those sites, so does anyone know for sure that ultima7 is still on the shelves? but then again i guess even if it were off the shelves, they still wouldnt want someone re-writing their program and re-distributing it

just wondering

[terok00001]

i just looked into it more and i infact found a FREEWARE version of U7, meaning its not pirated, but its hosted for free on an official website. unless this is what you meant by pirated, but then how is someone suppose to avoid pirated games if thats all they can find

[Dominus]

GRandma please show me the law where it says that

once the sales go down far enough, just become free

This is not true. Even when it is no longer sold the copyright remains valid. If someone puts Doom3 on his website for download, that doesn't make the game freeware.
And no discussion of this anymore. We told our view often enough. NO MORE LINKS TO ONLINE VERSIONS OF U7 (or any other game).