robbing Robbing player owned houses

[Ubbe 59]

So after reading the FAQ a bit more in dept I saw this sentence in one of the questions:

"Players cannot access another players home without an invitation."

This makes me a bit concerned since that means no robbing of players houses will be possible. Robbing houses is one of the most fun and thrilling things to do in Gmod DarkRP, and if the developers think that robbing peoples houses will have a negative impact on the housing aspect, here are my suggestions:

* Give players the ability to buy alarms for their houses (Locks come with the house).

* Nerby cops and the player owning the house gets alerted immediately when a house alarm has gone off.

* Robbers have to buy a crowbar/lockpick to be able to get inside of the house if the door is locked.

* Crowbars/lockpicks will be very limited in stores.

* Robbers are only able to slowly carry one object/furniture at a time making the robbing process take loads of time.

* Players can buy cameras which can be accessed via your phone (this will probably take loads of time to implement and I don't think it's really that necessary).

* To keep certain things safe in the house, players can buy safes.

* Robbers are only able to rob a house if it's empty of players (Just to keep the houses safe places to chill and hang out with firends)
 

With only a few of these suggestions implemented, robbing houses would become very hard, which is a good thing since you wouldn't want players houses to constantly get robbed. Also one thing to keep in mind is that the houses in DarkRP are often empty which means that you can easily find the valuable stuff fast, while in Identity, the houses will be filled with loads of furniture making the search harder for robbers. I really hope that the developers will consider these suggestions since I think it would add to the immersion of a game like Identity.

EDIT:

After some discussion I feel like I need to clearify a few things. Since the developers have said that the only way to enter a house is through an invitation, because the performance will be an issue, I will try to explain my ideas how this could be fixed. So since houses will feature an instanced loadingscreen, the robber could be transfered into the house with a loadingscreen, exactly the same as when a player gets invited. The only difference is that the robber didn't get an invitation. And for example if a player could only invite 10 people to a house, then only 5 robbers and 5 cops should be able to enter the house and there wouldn't be any noticeable differences in the performance.

The only problem with this is that if the loading times are long, there could be situations where the cops and robbers could be in a loadingscreen at the same time, which would result in them passing by eachother without the cops or the robbers noticing eachother. The solution to this problem could be to have a display on the door indicating if a player is about the get in/out of the house, or have a blurred verson of the avatar remain standing outside the door while loading.

Another thing with the houses is that they are places where you are able to just chill out with friends and such, without any action or robbers. How to fix this problem is to only make robbers able to rob the house if there are no players inside (which includes the owner and the players invited).

 

Edited November 9, 2017 by Ubbe
Formatting

[Vyndictus 30]

The reason they have houses instanced with invite only is for performance reasons. They want to keep the game performing well, especially with the anticipated max slot of 300 players on a server.

[Arky 333]

9 hours ago, Ubbe said:

So after reading the FAQ a bit more in dept I saw this sentence in one of the questions:

"Players cannot access another players home without an invitation."

This makes me a bit concerned since that means no robbing of players houses will be possible. Robbing houses is one of the most fun and thrilling things to do in Gmod DarkRP, and if the developers think that robbing peoples houses will have a negative impact on the housing aspect, here are my suggestions:

* Give players the ability to buy alarms for their houses (Locks come with the house).

* Nerby cops and the player owning the house gets alerted immediately when a house alarm has gone off.

* Robbers have to buy a crowbar/lockpick to be able to get inside of the house if the door is locked.

* Crowbars/lockpicks will be very limited in stores.

* Robbers are only able to slowly carry one object/furniture at a time making the robbing process take loads of time.

* Players can buy cameras which can be accessed via your phone (this will probably take loads of time to implement and I don't think it's really that necessary).

* To keep certain things safe in the house, players can buy safes.

 

With only a few of these suggestions implemented, robbing houses would become very hard, which is a good thing since you wouldn't want players houses to constantly get robbed. Also one thing to keep in mind is that the houses in DarkRP are often empty which means that you can easily find the valuable stuff fast, while in Identity, the houses will be filled with loads of furniture making the search harder for robbers. I really hope that the developers will consider these suggestions since I think it would add to the immersion of a game like Identity.

It's a wonderful idea. But like Vyn said. Performance issues are bad. I agree it would add a whole new depth of realism to do this but it's just not possible. Maybe you can RP it out with somebody.

[ThatGuyJoe 16]

I know this is unrelated, but from my experience on dark RP, nobody really has a house as such, more of a base, and even if it is a house it normally has boarded up windows etc, with stuff like printers or drugs. I'm guessing, since It's unclear in identity if you can have drugs and such in your house, that criminals will probably be able to buy small warehouses or something along those lines, so you could maybe get the same kind of thrill from that? Especially since a criminal isn't likely to have a burglar alarm, at least one that informs the police. To get more on topic though, I think it is a pretty good idea, so long as like you said, it's easy to get caught, and that you are quite unlikely to get away with it, just to make sure everybody doesn't do it, and if in the beta it's found out that it is abused, they could easily fix it or remove it. It's better to cut content out the beta that doesn't work than not try it.

33 minutes ago, Vyndictus said:

The reason they have houses instanced with invite only is for performance reasons.

 

Also, I'm just wondering how it wold affect performance in any way at all. As far as I can see, If your friends can get in with an invite, why not criminals without an invite? 

[Vyndictus 30]

Quoted from the official Identity Twitter;

Identity ‏@Identityrpg  Aug 9

@chico_lorota The only way anyone can enter your house is if you invite them. It's a necessary evil to maintain good performance.

Maybe in the future when they are able to upgrade hardware and equipment but for now, this is the plan for housing.
 

[Arky 333]

14 minutes ago, ThatGuyJoe said:

I know this is unrelated, but from my experience on dark RP, nobody really has a house as such, more of a base, and even if it is a house it normally has boarded up windows etc, with stuff like printers or drugs. I'm guessing, since It's unclear in identity if you can have drugs and such in your house, that criminals will probably be able to buy small warehouses or something along those lines, so you could maybe get the same kind of thrill from that? Especially since a criminal isn't likely to have a burglar alarm, at least one that informs the police. To get more on topic though, I think it is a pretty good idea, so long as like you said, it's easy to get caught, and that you are quite unlikely to get away with it, just to make sure everybody doesn't do it, and if in the beta it's found out that it is abused, they could easily fix it or remove it. It's better to cut content out the beta that doesn't work than not try it.

Also, I'm just wondering how it wold affect performance in any way at all. As far as I can see, If your friends can get in with an invite, why not criminals without an invite? 

The same reason Grand Theft Auto doesn't have a lot of walk in interiors. It would cause the game to run extremely slow and almost unplayable. That's why open world games usually have you go through loading screens before entering into a building. Take Fallout for example or even Elder Scrolls. It's just something to make a game run smoother. I would assume that if 300 people all walked in the same place burning stuff up and blowing up houses it would crash the servers. Just an assumption though. Also, whenever I get my PC fixed is anybody down to be druglords in Gmod?

[ThatGuyJoe 16]

30 minutes ago, Cornholio said:

The same reason Grand Theft Auto doesn't have a lot of walk in interiors. It would cause the game to run extremely slow and almost unplayable. That's why open world games usually have you go through loading screens before entering into a building. Take Fallout for example or even Elder Scrolls. It's just something to make a game run smoother. I would assume that if 300 people all walked in the same place burning stuff up and blowing up houses it would crash the servers. Just an assumption though. Also, whenever I get my PC fixed is anybody down to be druglords in Gmod?

 

Yeah, the idea  ,though, is that  couldn't criminals just hit the door with a crowbar or whatever or picklock the door and then be let inside without an invite. This wouldn't have an effect on the fps or anything. I'm pretty sure the devs have talked about why this won't happen anyway, and I doubt they will change their mind, they have good reasoning behind it.

[Arky 333]

Because that would be ridiculous. I walk up to your house and just hit the door.. Boom I'm in. Now nobody else can walk through that door

[Vyndictus 30]

28 minutes ago, ThatGuyJoe said:

Yeah, the idea  ,though, is that  couldn't criminals just hit the door with a crowbar or whatever or picklock the door and then be let inside without an invite. This wouldn't have an effect on the fps or anything. I'm pretty sure the devs have talked about why this won't happen anyway, and I doubt they will change their mind, they have good reasoning behind it.

Houses and property is also instanced basically in another dimension from the rest of the game world. I believe that's another reason it wouldn't work. I really do like the suggestions for increased immersion and roleplay, but as far as beta and release is concerned, it's not likely unfortunately.

[Ubbe 59]

I do understand why it would be a bad idea to have every house to be always loaded into the world without any kind of loading-screens, it would make the performance in urban areas extreamly slow. But even if there is a loading screen, players with crowbars/lockpicks could just get loaded into the house, if the breaching would be successful. 

Also, to answer your concerns @Cornholio, @Vyndictus, one solution could be to let any player enter the house as long as the door stay breached/broken. The other solution could be to only let cops and the player owning the house load into it (like in Skyrim where enemies can walk into the building even tho there are loading screens in between).

The only problem with this is that if the loading times are long, there could be situations where the robber ran out of the building waiting in the loading screen while cops comes from the outside, also waiting in the loading screen. So when the loading screens are gone, the cops wont be able to find the robber and the robber wont even see the cops pass by since everyone was in a loadingscreen at the same time.

A solution to this problem could be to display on the door if a player is about to come out/get into the house. Another solution could be to have the player avatar remain outside the door so that when the cops arrive inside of the house, they will see that the robber is loading at the door and they can then turn around.

The implementation of a system like this wouldn't actually make a performance difference because, if say a player can invite 10 people into the house, then only 5 robbers/5 cops should be able to enter the house and there wouldn't be any performance differences to what they currently have.

Edited September 4, 2016 by Ubbe

[Vyndictus 30]

At this point, I'd wait and let @Motown or @Paratus shine in on this. It's really a matter of how much Asylum's hardware can handle.

[ThatGuyJoe 16]

9 hours ago, Cornholio said:

Because that would be ridiculous. I walk up to your house and just hit the door.. Boom I'm in. Now nobody else can walk through that door

 

I'm not too sure what you mean, to be honest. In real life, you could go up to someone's house and just hit the door... Boom and they are in. What do you mean nobody else can walk through the door, isn't it the exact opposite, if the door was broken, wouldn't that mean anyone could get in. Anyway, I don't think it is a good idea  like I said, I'm just giving a solution.

Just to clear things up I know why having people basically teleport to houses would improve performance, My point was that having people be able to break into your house without an invite doesn't affect this, although like @Ubbe mentioned, there would be certain issues with a system like that.

It's a lot easier if the devs just stick with their decision, which I'm 90% sure they will.

[JamesLuck01 1,531]

8 hours ago, Ubbe said:

I do understand why it would be a bad idea to have every house to be always loaded into the world without any kind of loading-screens, it would make the performance in urban areas extreamly slow. But even if there is a loading screen, players with crowbars/lockpicks could just get loaded into the house, if the breaching would be successful. 

Also, to answer your concerns @Cornholio, @Vyndictus, one solution could be to let any player enter the house as long as the door stay breached/broken. The other solution could be to only let cops and the player owning the house load into it (like in Skyrim where enemies can walk into the building even tho there are loading screens in between).

The only problem with this is that if the loading times are long, there could be situations where the robber ran out of the building waiting in the loading screen while cops comes from the outside, also waiting in the loading screen. So when the loading screens are gone, the cops wont be able to find the robber and the robber wont even see the cops pass by since everyone was in a loadingscreen at the same time.

A solution to this problem could be to display on the door if a player is about to come out/get into the house. Another solution could be to have the player avatar remain outside the door so that when the cops arrive inside of the house, they will see that the robber is loading at the door and they can then turn around.

The implementation of a system like this wouldn't actually make a performance difference because, if say a player can invite 10 people into the house, then only 5 robbers/5 cops should be able to enter the house and there wouldn't be any performance differences to what they currently have.

Just so you know, its not only for performance reasons they are instancing the homes. They want the apartments and houses to be a area where the players can chill out and be with friends chatting or decorating, showing off there apartment (if they customised it). 

Also I loved the idea you have given and I would love it to be done but Motown said they will maybe think about changing the houses in the future. (can't remember if he said this exactly but sure its something along the lines).  (Do not quote me on this because I am unsure of what was exactly said, I may have remembered wrong.)

Also they should only allow people to break in / raid if the houses are not instanced. (My opinion)

 

[DJ-Bobby-Vee 40]

Wonderful Idea bro. I really like it but like everyone said it will create problems. Its hard to understand and explain. 

[Ubbe 59]

@JamesLuck01 What they could do to still make people able to chill in their apartments is to make it so that robbers can only rob the house if it's empty of players (The owner including players invited). And personally, instanced or not, I'd still love if robbing was possible since the issues with instanced houses are not very big and could easily be fixed with various solutions (such as having a display on the door indicating if a player is about the get in/out of the house, or having a blurred verson of the avatar remain standing outside the door while loading).

[Arky 333]

9 minutes ago, Ubbe said:

@JamesLuck01 What they could do to still make people able to chill in their apartments is to make it so that robbers can only rob the house if it's empty of players (The owner including players invited). And personally, instanced or not, I'd still love if robbing was possible since the issues with instanced houses are not very big and could easily be fixed with various solutions (such as having a display on the door indicating if a player is about the get in/out of the house, or having a blurred verson of the avatar remain standing outside the door while loading).

Since you make sense when your explaining and you persuade them start asking to add masks! But honestly that would add realism. Just have masks be specific to robbers and killers or people who do heists. That way the cops have to work hard to be able to find the perps.

[Ubbe 59]

@Cornholio What would be even more realistic is to make robbers able to rob houses even without masks, but still I like the idea of having masks, and robbing a house with a mask would make your identity stay hidden, if you manage to succeed with the robbing. And if you rob a house without a mask you would risk your identity to be exposed making cops search easier.

[Arky 333]

22 minutes ago, Ubbe said:

@Cornholio What would be even more realistic is to make robbers able to rob houses even without masks, but still I like the idea of having masks, and robbing a house with a mask would make your identity stay hidden, if you manage to succeed with the robbing. And if you rob a house without a mask you would risk your identity to be exposed making cops search easier.

And when APB's are active you only have to description of the body and clothes and possibly the hair. But the face would be completely hidden from sight.

[Jinx 166]

In theory, it's an idea to add another criminal activity & a certain degree of realism. In reality it's a griefers wet dream.

[Shimozukachi 481]

On 3.9.2016 at 4:37 PM, Ubbe said:

most fun and thrilling things to do in Gmod DarkRP

fuck off my lawn! just kidding. if they add it identity will end just like gmod darkrp. no "but what if there's a cooldown?" or anything like that! i won't just buy the items again i've grinded months to get just because someone who played the game since 2 seconds got into my ingame house and stole everything while i was busy playing identity. if you want that just get back to darkrp.

[dogman_35 0]

I play DarkRP pretty often, and I completely agree with this. The raiding and robbing is the biggest thing criminals can do besides petty mugging and on SOME servers ransoming hostages. You can draw the clear similarities between this game and DarkRP. Except with more possibilities for NON-crime things.

 

[dogman_35 0]

21 hours ago, Jinx said:

In theory, it's an idea to add another criminal activity & a certain degree of realism. In reality it's a griefers wet dream.

You say that, but you've never played DarkRP. Raiding is about the only GOOD thing in that gamemode right now, and they still find ways to fuck it up with rules that make it unrealistic and boring. It's not the gamemode's fault raiding is bad. It's mainly the owner's faults because they write rules the        majority of people just use to get people who did nothing wrong in trouble.

[Ubbe 59]

On 2016-09-06 at 0:52 AM, Shimozukachi said:

if you want that just get back to darkrp.

This is a crappy thing to say since I think we all want Identity to be the best present-day MMORPG, and leaving such a great feature out would be disappointing.

 

On 2016-09-06 at 0:52 AM, Shimozukachi said:

no "but what if there's a cooldown?" or anything like that! i won't just buy the items again i've grinded months to get just because someone who played the game since 2 seconds got into my ingame house and stole everything while i was busy playing identity.

If you read my post I didn't say "but what if there's a cooldown?". My suggestions was:

 

On 2016-09-03 at 4:37 PM, Ubbe said:

* Give players the ability to buy alarms for their houses (Locks come with the house).

* Nerby cops and the player owning the house gets alerted immediately when a house alarm has gone off.

* Robbers have to buy a crowbar/lockpick to be able to get inside of the house if the door is locked.

* Crowbars/lockpicks will be very limited in stores.

* Robbers are only able to slowly carry one object/furniture at a time making the robbing process take loads of time.

* Players can buy cameras which can be accessed via your phone (this will probably take loads of time to implement and I don't think it's really that necessary).

* To keep certain things safe in the house, players can buy safes.

With only some of these suggestions added, it would still be very hard to rob people. And if you had an alarm, both you and the police would get notified instantly.

And I'm sure certain servers would be able to disable robbing all together if some people wouldn't want it.

[Shimozukachi 481]

11 hours ago, Ubbe said:

This is a crappy thing to say since I think we all want Identity to be the best present-day MMORPG, and leaving such a great feature out would be disappointing.

 

If you read my post I didn't say "but what if there's a cooldown?". My suggestions was:

 

With only some of these suggestions added, it would still be very hard to rob people. And if you had an alarm, both you and the police would get notified instantly.

And I'm sure certain servers would be able to disable robbing all together if some people wouldn't want it.

still the same. i don't want my 2 ingame million dollar car to be stolen. but thanks for telling me. i'll always kill you ingame on sight

[Ubbe 59]

7 hours ago, Shimozukachi said:

still the same. i don't want my 2 ingame million dollar car to be stolen. but thanks for telling me. i'll always kill you ingame on sight

I didn't say anything about cars, but that would be cool aswell  (Also killing on sight will most likely result in a ban).

Edited September 11, 2016 by Ubbe