The Castle Doctrine Forums

Have you thought about tools having an intrinsic "Noise Level" . This noise level would affect how long before the cops came. Also actions like, say, shooting the wife, could significantly decrease your time limit.

Or similarly, the tools could have a cumulative "evidence" or "heat" level that sticks with the robber after the robbery. Certain tools you use could count as evidence against you, and your future robberies would have shorter and shorter time limits, because the cops or neighborhood watch have been keeping a closer eye on you. "That looks like Bob's ladder." or "Didn't Jim buy 20 crowbars the other day," or "I think I saw Bill buying a metric ton of C4 the other day"

Possibly the "Noise" and "Heat" levels could both be used, so the loud robbers that go through a house like a tank are "punished" and the stealthy cat-burglars who TACTICALLY use their tools are rewarded. The heat level would decrease over real time(minutes, hours, idk), or perhaps by performing certain tasks, like robbing a house with no tools. Heat would be erased completely on death.

Also, for houses that still have a wife, if you shoot the wife, or rob the vault, maybe give that house chills so that the person can't immediately come back to finish the job? That way the robber has to think about whether he will use his tools (and time!) looking for the safe or the wife. If he's quick and skillful, he'll be able to accomplish both.

My idea of "heat" would be more like a wanted level in something like assassin's creed or GTA. It sticks to the player, not the house. This would NOT be carried through death, like chills is.

I had an idea, what if every time you used a tool, it affected how long before sirens? They could have a loudness rating or something. Some tools might not have a loudness rating, whereas others would. Meat < brick < club < gun. I think someone firing 10+ gunshots would alert the neighbors irl. You kill the wife with a handgun, you get your timer shortened significantly. (gunshots, screams) This system would reward the quick robbers, deft robbers, and punish the people that just try to plow through everything like a tank.

This could also prevent people from just trashing the rest of your house once they find your safe.

Or what if an owner got to KEEP any ladders used to successful rob him. Something to stop people from just laddering all your pits for the heck of it.

Your version looks too scary imo. It's the harmless looking things that rack up tons of kills.

I sank a lot of money into my house. After I got robbed, I went and found some easy targets and got a grand or 2 in a matter of minutes. I died during a self-test because I didn't take into account that one of my powered doors had been crow-barred.

All you have to know is that Tywin Lannister is a cold calculated man who will destroy you, your house, and your extended family if you cross him.

This is a Roguelike. Death/ being robbed is an inevitability. You will learn from your mistakes and develop more cunning traps as time goes on. When you do eventually get robbed , I'd study the tape carefully so that you're next house doesn't have said weaknesses. You may also learn some burglary techniques from the fella.

I've found that (seemingly) elaborate chihuahua/cat traps involving magic dances can be thwarted with enough bricks, however most people just use tons of pitbulls.

Generally it's something like this:

1 saw
5 meat
4 water
3 bricks
1 club - Always good to have one for an unguarded wife.

On the Defense side of things, my current house is (essentially) 2k-proof. It makes use of a couple trapdoors and tons of concrete walls, because no one buys ladders and C4 when they only have $2k. People using saws just end up trapping themselves.

Did you cross Tywin Lannister or something, Jere?

*Rains of Castamere*

Thanks for the tips guys. I only started a few days ago, but today I went from nothing to 50k and tons of tools. I'm trying to spend my money so I'm lower on the list, But I'm not advanced enough to know how to pull off a more complicated trap.