The Castle Doctrine Forums

I don't have a record of George John Lopez. 1st visit was well tooled.

It looked promising (not really, but he looked like he had robbed before since he was using tools and knows how to work his way through stacked dogs). Then after going back and forth checking out the place, he walks into a pit bull. Me = ?

I'm wondering if this is the return of the chain robbers. Or maybe the last hurrah of a player going into retirement. Or maybe a well funded alt scout? Either way, it was entertaining and confusing, thanks.

Was this you? Let me know.

Edit: And the tools totaled $8500 retail ($4250 resale).

Summary

These are just my thoughts on my experience of learning to successfully rob houses.
This mainly focuses on your first big score when you have nothing to lose and much to gain. Burglary after you have a house is only lightly covered.

Note: Chills will prevent you from re-entering houses within 24 hours ONLY if you have died or attempted a tooled robbery of the house in a previous life.

This post goes hand in hand with House Design 101.
The better burglar you are, the better houses you will design.
The better houses you design, the better burglar you become.

I'll make updates if I feel any are necessary.
created 2014.04.09

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Skills

Patience and Observation
Real heists require meticulous research and planning. Thieves will study and case a place. Coming prepared is mandatory. It's no different in TCD. If you can't put in the time to map a person's place, write notes, record steps, states, and reflect upon them, then you won't be successful. Understand that you're not gonna crack a place in one trip. The more observant you are, the less trips will be needed. Use safe confirmation movement and don't be too hasty.

Speed
Cops will kill you if you spend too much time in a house (20 mins). This means when you're in the house, you've gotta work fast. Map it out, make smart, quick decisions, and map some more. Houses fall frequently and also change. A good map is only one edit away from dropping in value.

Knowledge
The more you know about what is possible, the more cost efficient you will be. The tool less path will open itself to you. Learn everything you can about different types of traps, their strengths and weaknesses. Know exactly how to control pets. Understand the camera shifts and robber vision.

Experience
This comes with time. Every house is a reflection of its owner. You will learn what type of builder they are as you case the place. This will allow you to know what tools will be useful. Eventually, what was luck in choosing the right multiple choice path, will become a calculated psychological decision based on what you have seen and determined.

   
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Recording

Castle Draft
Your blank slate template http://castledraft.com/editor/boDKEP. If you start from a set of empty floors, you'll come to a point were you'll wonder if you mapped a path to walk or just didn't record anything. Turn grid ON for faster visual counting. Zoom your browser out (Ctrl - on most browsers) so that you can see the whole map and reach each tile without scrolling. It may be smaller, but it'll save you time compared to scrolling.

Timer
I use my phone and set it to a countdown from 18 mins so I always know how long before the cops show up. The 2 min buffer allows me to not have to rush to an exit (if not a suicide run).
   
House Log
Record as much as you can in an organized format.
The format I use is:

Recorded Game Folder
Always attempt each robbery after a fresh login. This will create short, manageable recorded games to playback. You can review the theft to see if there's anything you missed.
This thread for more info on use of the folders (or you can search)

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Progression

Note: You should have home design finalized in case you come into a big score. You'll need to put up a house as soon as you get back from the robbery. Refer to my house thread House Design 101 for more details

Part 1 - Naked Runs
You only receive chills in houses you've died in or brought tools into. Naked (or Tool less) runs will not cause chills. You need to be able to get as much information as you can, in order to maximize the potential of your tooled runs.

1. Design a quick, threatening home with 1 shotgun for your family and pit bulls dogs. Make sure it's something quick to build, because you'll be doing it every time after you die. You need to deter people from making you reset your vault all the time. Don't worry about saving money for tools, since this part is all about learning how to scout without them.
   
2. Starting at the lowest house of at least $4k value, work your way up and visit EVERY house you can. Remember that your goal is to map as much as you can with no tools. Revisit houses even if dogs chase you out. It also means that in some houses, the most you can do is take one step in and back to the mat. You should still map the entrance and take notes though. Do not be tempted to find the vault. Also, don't be too afraid to die, or else you won't improve.
   
3. After each house that you've explored the maximum amount of space allowed (even after multiple visits), review your notes and plan out where you should go, and what tools you'll need to scout further. Don't forget to log out and log back in so you can keep your recorded games short for playback.
   
Result:
You've gained information and experience. You now have maps of different types of entrance traps. You can incorporate them into your own house design. Maybe you couldn't figure out how they work. Build them out yourself using a fresh 2k and play with them in a self test and try to solve them. Go over all your notes and see if your perspective on your future plans have changed.

Once you feel like you can enter any house and KNOW you can map out what's allowed and get out alive, it's time to move to part 2.
   
   
Part 2 - Suicide Scouting
This part should be easy if you did your homework in Part 1. Everything should already be planned out for you. The mentality that you don't have to get out alive will allow you to get further in and reveal more of their map.

1. I usually leave my home unprotected and spend all my money on tools, but that also means you risk having no family after a successful heist. Decide whether or not you want to shave off $320 for a shotgun. Validate your house and then double check to see if the house you recorded is still available and if it has changed or not. If it has, do another naked run to see what's different. If it hasn't, return home and buy your tools.
   
2. Your main goal is to penetrate as far as you can and to record as much as you can. If you get trapped, and walking into a pit bull will shift the camera and let you see more, you might as well get some more info upon death. I usually try to waste my tools before death to not to give too much to the owner.
   
3. Buy Tools, enter, map out, record notes, die, review notes, plan next visit, log out, log back in, next house. Rinse and repeat until all the houses are chilled.
   
Result:
You now have more information that you can use to get even further. It's only a matter of time before you break one of these houses. Just like in naked runs, review your notes again. Play with any new trap designs you've seen. You might be able to even solve them in your self tests. Also, double check your future plans. While waiting for the chills to wear off, you can adjust your house design to use any new tricks you've found.
   
Once you feel like you've learned the strengths and weaknesses of common trap designs you should move to part 3.

Part 3 - Selective Targeting
Time is a limited resource. Early on, visiting as many houses as you could was an investment in learning. Now that you have more experience, it's time to focus and be selective of which houses to target. You should focus on traps and owners you understand well and have a knack for. These will be easier for you to break. You can also take into account the payoff in paintings and cash. Remember that if the wife is still alive, you may not get the full value. You could also target ones you don't understand to expand your knowledge. It's really up to you.

Part 4 - Your First Score
If you are persistent, this is inevitable. I hope you have your house design finalized and ready, because you are gonna need to build it out right after you return from your heist.

Part 5 - No More Suicide Runs.
Now that you've got something to lose, you'll naturally be more cautious. However, all that time spent on naked runs and suicide scouting should give you the confidence to continue your thieving lifestyle. The only difference is that in order for you to survive you have to bring tools to allow safe passage back to the welcome mat which will be more expensive. Luckily you'll have a house that provides some income to fund your thefts. Honestly, if you've gotten to this point, you'll have learned enough to be able to scout houses safely.

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The Backpack

You've got 8 slots, and 12 possible tools types to bring. Your scouting trips should tell you what you need, but here are my general tips on the tools

Bricks - the most versatile tool and easy to burn off by just toggling buttons. You'll want to buy these in pairs since the cost is $150. Killing cats, smashing doors, fixing buttons, breaking windows. I usually have at least 2 on my trips.
Drugged Meat - don't drug every dog you see. Understand its location before putting it to sleep. You may need it for a leap of faith or need to walk past it. If it's one of those dogs behind a door that leads to no where and isn't properly spaced for a leap, they I'd say drug it easily. Also, note choke points where you can hold off multiple dogs with well placed meat. Also, a lot of people take way too much drugged meat. Unless the house is scouted to be dog behind doors galore, 2-3 should be enough.
Water - pretty obvious whether stacks of water will be useful or not from scouting. 1 or two may be handy for dousing power sources.
Wire Cutters - With the prevalence of cheap electric floors, this will usually be pretty useful. Make sure you know where to cut and are aware of any possible paradox circuits. This can also be used to open powered doors. These are on the more expensive end. I usually only get 1 or 2.
Saws - I try not to take these unless the scout revealed lots of wood. Then I take at least 3.
Doorstop - As a suicide scout, I hardly buy these unless it allows me to check out two sections reactions to power. Even as a high budget thief, a water, wire cutter, or saw will serve the same purpose.
The rest is pretty obvious.

For high budget heists, you should be well informed so you know what to take to limit the cost. However, I almost always bring at least 1 gun in case a dog somehow gets in between me and the exit.

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Trap and General Tips

You'll learn more as you run through, but here's some of what I've learned.

Combo Locks - As a suicide scout, unless you can find a way to test multiple different combinations, I'd avoid them, although most of the time they are a big sign letting you know what area the vault is in. As a high budget thief, just bring enough saws to figure out the combination, or force your way through whatever it's locking.

Clocks - You should always, Always, ALWAYS be checking for the existence of these. If there's no dog chasing you or any wandering pets tied to your movement, you should dance back and forth whenever you see a new set of traps that you couldn't isolate the power source. Once you do know the timing, however, you should be able to use it. When figuring out clocks at entrances, it's always better to know when they trigger, than to randomly try to cross the first time. Don't forget that using items will cause a clock to cycle.

Magic Dances - These vary wildly in size and difficulty. Some are easy to break, and others, once broken allow you access to a lot of the house. Sometimes triggering them is not bad if you can just water your way through electric floors. You'll have to decide which ones are worth breaking.

Multiple Choice - Try to bring tools to see as many of the choices as possible. I usually like aiming to check out the ones in between other options just in case the walls will give me a hint of the correct path. Understand the psychology of what would be the most common path if you were to watch the tapes of that house. The owner will have seen this and not places the correct path there.

Paradox Circuits - Just look for electric floors that possibly form a loop and wire cut to break the loop before you stand in it.

Search for ways to get rid of pit bulls using the traps provided (pits, electric floors, a wall corner that will trap it)

Tracking dogs is easier than tracking cats. Be sure to note where you are and when electronics trigger from a wandering cat.

Don't forget to map out those broken houses.

You can usually see through 1 set of walls. However, if there's a door with nothing behind it, all that it means is there's no wall back there. It could be anything. Note how wall lines continue or stop.

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Dealing with Mistakes

Luckily, suicide scouting involves little risk and all reward.
However, if you care to venture out while you've got a big house made, you will eventually slip up, be it a mistake, finger twitch, misread, cops, or disconnect. At least your bounty will add to the economy. At the moment you want to rage, just remember you took your nest egg from someone else, and you can do it again .

Summary

Jason, please confirm whether any of the proposed actions/activities are grounds for the banning of an account or accounts.
I'm hoping this can inform players of what is allowed and what they should report.
This should be updated as needed and have items which have an official ruling, as well as things that need one.
Maybe each listing could link out to a page with common ways to recognize them. For example, I'm not sure how to know if someone edited a move list besides seeing them walk through walls in a replay.

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Bannable Offenses

Actions and activities that are grounds for banning.
- using a modded client on the main server (editing movelists, map viewing, etc).
- discovering a potential exploit and continuing to use it before receiving an official ruling from Jason (must be reported).

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Allowed

Actions and activities which were questionable, but ruled to NOT be grounds for banning.

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Questionable

Actions and activities which NEED official ruling.
- colluding with people (or multiple accounts) to generate income (through bounties)
- colluding with people (or multiple accounts) by sharing maps or making them public (through friends, forums, or streaming)
- house sitting for grief, robbing a house with the main intention of locking someone out of editing.
- house sitting for insurance, robbing a house with the main intention of getting their stuff in the event of their death while robbing.
- vault setting, robbing a house with the intention of setting a house to be "broken" and thus more safe than an unbroken "house." (money transfer avoided by throwing everything in a backpack)

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Thread Maintenance

I'd like to keep this thread up to date, however I'm not the best user suited to the task. If there's a Mod out there who has the ability to monitor incoming questionable offenses (and the ability to determine if its a duplicate), please take over this thread.

Edited for spelling.
Edit 2 for wording on exploits.