Steal notification in normal chat

[Little Sara]

Some servers have implemented a Steal-notification thing that appears in normal chat. It appears in green text, like an emote.

The formula for it is the following:

<character name> has stolen <item name>!

an example:

Little Sara has stolen Raydric Card!

So what it does now:

"You got 1 <item name>" as if it was a drop without specification.

With the modification:

"Little Sara has stolen <item name>" (everyone in talk area or party see)
"You got 1 <item name>" (only you see it)

The main perk of this is to be able to screenshot a card steal, or a rare drop steal, and prove that it really was a steal, not a drop and not a "I put it on the ground and pick it up after".

[Cheesecake]

Another things I agree with.. and ask why this was even changed in the first place. Stealing a card, or a high valued drop is very profitable for screenshots or trophy walls.

[azurerogue]

While it would be kind of nice, I guess.... I'm going to go out on a limb and say the GMs will tell you that (even if it might be implemented) it is not a priority.

[Little Sara]

The reason I'm saying that is that, if cards are stealable (apparently some servers disable it even for non-boss?), you can steal them eventually.

Yesterday I beat about 225 Sohees looking for Skirt of Virgin x2. Its a 1.5% drop item. I tried stealing them, though I didn't count on that to get it. Well, I got my two Skirts of Virgin by stealing them, both - none dropped.

I have Level 5 Steal and 2+8 DEX btw. Giving me a steal chance in the minus, according to RMS anyways:

DropRatio*(4 + 6*SkillLV + DEX - MonsterDEX)/100

4 + 30 + 10 - 58 = -14/100*drop
(minus 14% multiplied by drop rate, so...err a -0.20% chance)

I think the formula isn't right. The formula, I don't know how to actually write it, but it would be "skill level chance" added with "dex difference chance" with a limit to how low or how high it can go (it obviously can't go in the minus).

DropRatio * (4 + 6*SkillLV) +
If DEX - Monster DEX <= -20, then bonus = -20
Else If DEX - Monster DEX >= +20, then bonus = +20
Else If DEX - Monster DEX is >-20 and <20, then bonus = <amount>
End If
End If
End If
If steal chance <= than 1%, then steal chance = 1%
End if

And yes, I don't code, so this isn't C++ or anything, just an example of the logic used.

On a midrate (30x drop), I dropped 9 Raydric Cards, then stole 2. I also stole Martin cards while trying to steal a Jur[3]. I had Steal lv 10 and similarly low DEX.

I was able to screenshot those. Because it mentioned that "<character name> has stolen <item name>!", it was nothing special to drop a Raydric card, but to steal one was something else.

If this is implemented, it should also apply to Rogue/Stalker's auto-steal. This has the advantage, even outside of rare drops, of giving a notification to the stealing player, and partied players, of what item was stolen (when all your gained loot is displayed in the textbox, its hard to make up what dropped and what was stolen).

[Sharpay]

You can't steal cards on RO though. o_o Instead of a card you get an apple.

Also, it'd be annoying as hell if each time a thief on the same map as me was spamming my chat with X stole X!

[Little Sara]

It won't spam the whole map. If you're in town and someone talks from 15 cells away, you don't hear anything. Heck they could be spamming all existing sklls and you'd hear nothing.

There was a Plant Cultivation Alchemist or Creator in Morroc. Summoned a shroom, steal, cart revolution, repeat ad finitum. I moved 2 cells down so it didn,t show on my screen...and no sound. I also didn't hear the conversation that Filipino person was having (only his side, not the other person, who was out of sight).

And yes, cards can be stolen. They're just awfully hard to steal. If you have DEX on-par with your enemy, your chance of stealing is at best 0.027% (compared to drop rate of 0.03%). This is almost 1/4000 chance.

Like I said, some servers disable it and make you get an apple, but not all do.

Edit:
By the way, I don't understand why Gravity would prevent card stealing, given that it's lower than 1/10,000 chance, doesn't work on any non-OCA cards, and costs a lot of SP to maintain usage. Joker card was also nerfed when they changed the Steal formula (steal level 1 is 10% base chance, 54% less than lv 10 which is 64% base chance).

[Little Sara]

Would like to know what GMs think of this idea, and my other post's one about removing Hunter Fly and Rideword from certain maps. Didn't mean to double post, but no GM has replied to this or the other topic I made yet.

[azurerogue]

Well it already is included as an option in the eAthena Battle Config file - it's just turned off by default. I would personally find it quite annoying to see every time I steal an immortal heart from a verit while on my Rogue. I'd prefer it stay off. If you want to SS stealing a card from an enemy for personal pride, go ahead - it shouldn't matter if people believe you or not if it's for your own sake.

[Little Sara]

Maybe it could be turned on/off on an individual basis? If you have battle log off (not seeing looted items) then you wouldn't see those either. If you did see looted items, then I really don't see what you're complaining about, seeing as you'll have a wall of text everytime you kill a monster anyways.

As in, how is it different to see:

Gained exp: Base 2445 (0.10% exp), Job 1610 (0.08% exp)
Got 1 Zargon
Got 1 Slick Paper
Got 1 Oil Paper
Got 1 Trunk
Got 1 Piece of Bamboo

vs same with added line before the exp line:

Little Sara steals Trunk from Karakasa!

7 vs 6 lines?

And yeah, Karakasa might be exceptional in having 4 almost guaranteed drops (Trunk is 'only' 96%), but most enemies above lv 70 drop 2-3 items a kill often. You can only steal once per monster (even with Gank), so it wouldn't spam your screen.

Forgot that the stolen item already adds a line.

Say it's a Drainliar now:

You got 1 Wing of Red Bat
Gained Exp: Base 2000 (0.02%) Job 1000 (0.00%)
You got 1 Tooth of Bat
You got 1 Wing of Red Bat
You got 1 Wing of Red Bat

with the notification:

You got 1 Wing of Red Bat
Little Sara steals Wing of Red Bat from Drainliar!
Gained Exp: Base 2000 (0.02%) Job 1000 (0.00%)
You got 1 Tooth of Bat
You got 1 Wing of Red Bat
You got 1 Wing of Red Bat

Is it really that noticeable?

[GM-Ayu]

I don't think you can turn it on or off personally as I don't remember if there is a similar command to @showexp or something that works for steal notifications if that option is turned on.

It's just one of those things like nifty to have, but hardly with any effect. You'll need to ask pandora if she feels like flipping that on or not.