As is, they don't seem to prevent car theft at all and are probably doing little more than giving people information to meta with.
On the other hand, if the purpose is to allow players to react to the theft of a vehicle, including potentially catching the thief in the act, then they are doing a good job. I would like to give examples but can't because it's IC info.
I'm going to once again bring up my suggestion about enabling faction NPCs to protect assets like vehicles. I think that will do a good job of allowing characters who want extra protection for a vehicle to have it. It will also generate roleplay and revenue opportunities for faction members.
A blaring alarm in Red with the crowds very deliberately paying no mind is pretty themely.
If a car alarm legitimately went off 4 rooms away and you went right there but the thief was gone, they were extremely good and passed some skill checks that allowed them to do it that quickly.
If you are finding that you have a alarm and your vehicle is getting stolen, my suggestion is to find someone in game who steals vehicles and ask them for information. Just like you would if you wanted to get better at combat or anything else in the game. Or start experimenting with other ways to reduce risk.
I'm not sure if you meant to do it, but your post came off is extremely dismissive. I realize that we are supposed to assume that each other or have a positive intention here. I'm not understanding what the positive intention in your last reply was.
My intention was to offer a perspective from someone who deals with this newly changed system on a regular basis.
On to the topic at hand.
First: It -is- a very quick process, one that by it's very nature should be fast with respects to stealing a car. Crime happens fast. And career criminals especially ones in the field of larceny evolve a skillset based around that speed. This is realistic. And it can lead to fun gameplay if you let it. You don't need to gungho towards every crime you see happening on SIC. You can instead wait, or send people to likely places for said thing being stolen to go. Or note down the item being stolen, and start canvasing to look for it afterwards, seeing who possesses it and shaking them down for info on who did the stealing... And so on. And so forth. And it's a lot more interesting, than Running towards the fire and mashing a character sheet at it.
Second: I would state that there are some things that need tweaking with car theft specifically, but that's not something I'd get into on an OOC channel that is not XHELP or notes.
Finally: I'd state personally, the speed at which a theft can be accomplished is in a very good range for cars right now. Not so much for other things. But I also like the trade off for those other things. Where its easier to steal them, but not easy to protect them.
And as a digression I personally feel that this is the speed that should be aimed for, for any of the what I'd call Grand or planned theft actions at present. With the extension of time for something like robbing an apartment(Assuming lockpicks and/or door forcing does get added in.) being in the gathering of loot and then skedaddling. And not a say, timer for picking the lock while the alert goes off
I also think that an amplifier lock for a house should cost in a similar range to the upper level car alarms. If not moreso.
There's also some issues with how the locks progress with Cars that irritate me.
But digression's over.
Ultimately, I know the event you are likely referring too or about, and likely if it had gone off perfectly it would have taken twice as long, and you likely would never have known about it to complain.
Theft is meant to be quick, and thus should be quick. The opportunity for response to a well done theft should mostly come post-facto, not during, and should rely on using info from the scene and events that happened and tracking from there using forensics, contacts about who is selling what, and the like. And if it had not been done well, or with the measures I'm fairly certain they used, you would have had an extra 15-30 seconds to respond. Maybe more.
Alarms exactly as fast as they need to be.
Alarms allow you to respond. Just not how you seem to want to respond.
You're not privvy to all of the things happening during an alarm being activated. And had they been bad at this you would have likely gotten there just as they left, or even as they were still breaking in.
The alarms are providing exactly what they should provide. Namely the ability for stolen vehicles to be known and thus potentially tracked. Provided they go off, which they don't always do, due to coded things that exist in the game that intentionally affect the alarms going off.
A car alarm should not be a scream of free candy, loot, and fights to someone more than 4+ blocks away to come running towards... That's a superbly unrealistic take on the mix... And one I have been brought up for meta about doing myself.
That should be short enough.
Because that seems more like you're searching for a problem here? I'm honestly trying to understand how you'd even know if it was too quick? Did you watch the events happen on a camera, with a stopwatch? Cause I can tell you, having participated in similar crimes, the planning phase is normally about an hour, and the doing the crime itself, is about a minute and a half not including travel too or away, during which it's fairly fucking obvious that a crime is being committed.
Besides that here I'll quote a portion from my first post.
You don't need to gungho towards every crime you see happening on SIC. You can instead wait, or send people to likely places for said thing being stolen to go. Or note down the item being stolen, and start canvasing to look for it afterwards, seeing who possesses it and shaking them down for info on who did the stealing... And so on. And so forth. And it's a lot more interesting, than Running towards the fire and mashing a character sheet at it.
Find out about them... ICly...
You seem to have a problem, with an intended mechanic, and are attempting to troll over it at this point.
You've been textwalling me and coming at me with all kinds of assumptions about my motivations and IC activities. Not super cool of you.
I've stated nothing about your IC activities that you haven't stated in this thread.
Anyway, I'm just going to have to go with this good one here.
My experience and knowledge of this type of crime says you are wrong. And that should be enough for you to not get frustrated and attempt tired trolls.
I was just saying if a car alarm goes off right next to you there isn't time to walk over and check it out so I sort of wonder what the point is.
And 4 rooms away is not right next to you. It's 4 blocks+.
So I'm saying from a IC perspective.
You sprinted 4+ blocks(Assumption here), maybe less if you left like a bar or something nearby, and that was room 4. Anyway... You sprinted 4+ blocks because the rooms in this game aren't uniform it could be more than 4+ blocks, towards a car alarm, that was 4 blocks away. To do what? Watch it take place? What's your end game? Logically I'm going to assume it was to intervene, because that's the logical assumption. That you'd want to intervene. It sort of follows the logic of, "Well why'd you sprint 4 blocks towards a car alarm then?"
I've said nothing about this being a habitual thing for your character. That's projecting on your part.
That's again, probably a bit of self consciousness on your part. <3
And I've explained that there's factors, like gear, equipment, money, allies, connections, in this game.
You're complaint is that they don't allow much response time...
It's an invalid one.
They allow plenty of response time.
Just not the response you seem to have wanted.
As I've said before.
Which is a very hostile and trollish tactic.
If you do not want a discussion in public, talk to staff about the problem. They'll likely be able to give you a more definitive response.
Also, it's entirely possible that I noticed your bit and didn't care more.
But sure, walk it back.
You've basically just stated the equivalent of "Just trolling."
1. Good enough to break in without setting off the alarm
2. Good enough to break in while also setting off an alarm.
3. Good enough to attempt and fail, causing alarm to go off while not breaking in.
On Red, car alarms probably do go off a lot.
Topside this would be a bigger deal and allows for PC or npc judges to get involved.
Either way, the system is working as intended in that way. Not saying there are not tweaks to be worked on for how long the rest of stealing a car takes, just clearing up some misconceptions.
