It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

Vegeta9001 · 2014-03-10 04:38:30

I go sleep, wake up do some stuff and log on the game and I was waiting to see like 50 tries with like 10-20 people dead in my house with over 11k in my vault or see my house completely destroy, but nope...

Only 3 people died in my house and none of them had any tools and if I count the people who only enter and go out there was around 7 tries during the night while I left my house with 1,200$.

I don't understand is this normal? Is my house this scary?

RevealingGekco · 2014-03-10 05:23:51

Just one night is a pretty short time frame, I dunno that there's any pattern to be seen there yet. The amount of robberies I see in a night stayed about the same.

Sometimes there's a bit of a lull in the 10-20k range... maybe that amount just deters most 2k robbers since it's less likely to be an easy score.

LiteS · 2014-03-10 05:29:46

11k isn't enough to make me want to destroy a house, especially if your entrance is scary. Last night I busted into a 30k house and barely turned a profit after scouting 3-4 times. If you look at the top list right now, there's one guy with +200k, and the next is at 46k, meaning there aren't many people with the resources to brute force, and the 200k guy should really only be interested in the first page anyway.

There isn't enough money floating around right now to make brute-forcing a 10k house worth it, especially since the rise of the middle class, people investing in their own homes instead of going out robbing themselves. It's very risky and expensive for someone with about 10k to go out and rob, and it's pretty safe to just spend another 5k on your house. There are also plenty of paintings still in the auction house, so people might rather spend their money there than on breaking your house.

What's happening is the same thing at the starter house level, not enough money in the vault to make it worth stealing. I expect any house with more than 10k in the vault to be "complete", which means I'll have to brute force a very long way to get to the vault.

Last edited by LiteS (2014-03-10 08:13:13)

Shinnbob · 2014-03-10 05:51:34

Agree with LiteS. Over the past week the average house worth has gone up drastically which can be seen in the move from the average house being value 1k-5k to now 5k-10k. Peoples houses are getting finished, and they won't go out gambling for a small profit at the risk of losing their precious house. Unless your house looks like a 2k starter house I doubt you will get much traffic coming in.

I will say though I built up my house this weekend, kept around 4k in the house at all times and turned a very tidy profit. Just make the entrance without a commitment trap & I actually found I got more success.

eppfel · 2014-03-10 07:55:12

Yeah, I recognize this as well. I was Chris Gary Peterson,the 200k guy.
I had built a house, which should hold off brute force attacks. But because no one ever came I decided to try to reach the top, which was fairly easy. Then I was at the top since Saturday, had fun crushing 6 houses and was sitting on a huge pile of tools and.... nothing happened. Not one single scout. Just some suicide robbers. I think people enjoy having a safe home, because they don't have time to play to much. Because I saw multiple houses dropping out of the top 8 and I think they didn't want to become targeted.

42dustman · 2014-03-10 15:36:00

I went from 3k to 11k on saturday, remained on 11k on sunday and went to 13k this monday.

MazeHunter · 2014-03-10 15:54:07

I feel that there are less people trying to rob in general now that the player base is much more experienced.

Leveller · 2014-03-10 16:16:48

Im just a guy who adores this game. BUT mediocre builder and Awful robber. So i tend to stick back home trying to improve and learn from tapes.

MazeHunter · 2014-03-11 19:14:47

I only had 1 person try to rob my house last night. I use to have 1-3 pages full. This makes it harder to start new when you die to your own traps. So it becomes and downward spiral. People will not restart if it takes longer to build now that the initial boost of players have dropped.

42dustman · 2014-03-11 20:07:41

Spent some of my money on improvements and put my vault value back at 2k and then burglars sent it back to 13k in one day.

LiteS · 2014-03-11 20:15:59

I'd say this is good for the game. More players are completing their houses, and those with complete houses actually have limited resources and must use a significant portion of them robbing to get a big boost to their funds.

TheSquashedOrange · 2014-03-11 20:50:05

It seems that a lot of people are beginning to realise that you stand a pretty lousy chance of robbing a 14k+ house with 2k of tools. That, combined with the fact that you now start out at your own value on the house list instead of the top, means that you get far more suicide robbers when you're only a few thousand dollars above 2k. I think this is actually a really good thing, as it allows people to get moving, but once they start hitting around 20k or so, they're going to have to start robbing other people around their price range if they want to make more than a couple thousand dollars a day from suicide robbers.

I still run into a lot of people who never rob anyone else though (I find only cash in their vault even though their wife is dead, they live for ages, etc), which I don't really understand. Building your house and watching people die in it is fun, but the really enjoyable part of the game for me is blowing apart 30k+ houses with my fortune and stealing my favorite paintings once I get to the front page. I would wonder if these people even play the game anymore, but its obvious that they do because they sell the tools they get and occasionally buy paintings.

Anyway yes, the drop off of new players is probably playing a part in all this as well, and the middle class is becoming more and more prominent with each passing day, but I'm looking forward to seeing how this changes the game. I've only been playing for a few weeks, but the dynamic of Castle Doctrine has already changed considerably during that time, awesome stuff

TheSquashedOrange · 2014-03-12 00:04:39

Hell, just for a lark, here's an example of what I'm talking about:

http://castledraft.com/editor/gUcXGm

This is an incomplete map of a house (the owner has died since I robbed him, probably suicide ) that somehow, I have no idea how, made it up to 27k value. I ended up beating it with 30 bottles of water and 5 drugged dog meats. There aren't even any commitment gates at the beginning of the house to stop you from scouting, I don't know why no one grabbed what was effectively a free 10k (half his money was with his wife).

Last edited by TheSquashedOrange (2014-03-12 02:30:39)

TheNinja · 2014-03-12 01:20:31

TheSquashedOrange wrote:

Hell, just for a lark, here's an example of what I'm talking about:
http://castledraft.com/editor/gUcXGm

Lol, i've seen this house many times. Escaped successfully without equipment

Got my house to about 16k for a night....1 Night/~6k

LiteS · 2014-03-12 01:33:57

TheSquashedOrange wrote:

Hell, just for a lark, here's an example of what I'm talking about:
http://castledraft.com/editor/gUcXGm
This is an incomplete map of a house (the owner has died since I robbed him, probably suicide ) that somehow, I have no idea how, made it up to 27k value. I ended up beating it with 30 bottles of water and 5 drugged dog meats. There aren't even any commitment gates at the beginning of house to stop you from scouting, I don't know why no one grabbed what was effectively a free 10k (half his money was with his wife).

As they say, finders keepers. Getting to around 30k is much easier than building a house that can reasonably defend a vault with 30k in it. I'd say the middle class is very familiar with defending from 2k attacks, and tend to throw up their hands in surrender when someone shows up at their welcome mat with 5-10k of tools after advance scouting.

From what I can tell, not many people are out robbing with more than 2k of tools, which means they aren't experienced with what it takes to stop a middle to upper class robber. This lack of experience leads to their eventual downfall.

ursaphobe · 2014-03-12 14:02:20

TLDR: Middle class is expanding and as they do their value stagnates. Playing base defense is no longer a reliable strategy to reach the top; brush off your tools and get to thievin.

Storm · 2014-03-13 19:43:00

ursaphobe wrote:

TLDR: Middle class is expanding and as they do their value stagnates. Playing base defense is no longer a reliable strategy to reach the top; brush off your tools and get to thievin.

aye

Amatiel · 2014-03-14 00:36:19

Overall im afraid 95% of robbers are stupid so its no wonder people complain that high end houses are hard to rob and refuse to rob anything but 2k/1k houses that have timed out at default starting setup

How to tell if you are a stupid robber

- You open doors left to right/nearest to farthest
- You don't explore or experiment with buttons much
- You bring 5 saws and saw into the nearest wooden wall you can find, often after a single step into the house.
- You don't pre scout houses
- You don't reattempt houses after chills is removed and come better prepared next time
- You rush through robberies and die from sheer stupidity like falling into a pit etc
- You don't think through what kind of trap you are looking at
- You bring an unbalanced mix of tools
- You don't learn from your mistakes
- If you have died in Gary Jeremy Coney's house, your chance of being stupid just rose to 99.5% as i have seen MAYBE 2 reasonably clued up robbers.
- You waste tools
- You don't check for clock systems
- You don't bring any bricks or fail to use them appropriately

Seriously, you guys are eroding my faith in humanity. Start actually thinking about what you are doing and you might actually rob someone.

MazeHunter · 2014-03-14 08:42:52

I had ZERO robbery attempts overnight.... the game IS slowing down. We need to bring more players back into the game and attract new players again. Maybe another contest Jason? What do you guys think?

RevealingGekco · 2014-03-14 09:30:19

MazeHunter wrote:

I had ZERO robbery attempts overnight.... the game IS slowing down. We need to bring more players back into the game and attract new players again. Maybe another contest Jason? What do you guys think?

#RiseOfTheMiddleClass

Many peeps have pointed out, there's a lot of players entrenched completed/near completed houses right now keeping their value down, and they can basically stay there as long as they want (no 2k robber has a chance and wealthier robbers would be robbing that house at a loss). Some are probably biding their time for a front page run, but others may just be content to camp out this range... none of them will re-enter the natural cycle of death/rebuilding until they choose to.

Another contest might shake some people loose, but others might choose not to participate (if it's another get-as-much-money-as-you-can contest) and ultimately you'll see things return to this state afterwards.

FreeLove · 2014-03-14 10:15:58

If you successfully rob/wife kill more houses, you successfully create more 2K robbers, genius. If this game had 100,000 new players, eventually we'd arrive at the same economic stagnation until people realize they can't grow by sitting on a concrete deathtrap house and the dam breaks.

Incidentally, if you have a super impenetrable entrance with trapdoors, wiring, concrete, and intricate dance systems, what the hell do you expect? The people that ARE going to go out and rob with tools are going to go after the ones that look possible. People with boring traps and low value are surprised that idiots aren't rushing to suicide down the first few steps? I mean come on, really.

There's some pretty interesting economics going on with this game, btw.

LiteS · 2014-03-14 10:33:37

FreeLove wrote:

If you successfully rob/wife kill more houses, you successfully create more 2K robbers, genius.
[...]
There's some pretty interesting economics going on with this game, btw.

Your first point isn't entirely true. A few players have been robbed down to 0 multiple times and somehow return. I am guessing they use an alt or friend to suicide in their house to get 1100 for patch repairs, or just sit at the 2k line and hit refresh all day.

Even still, the best defense from sudden crushing brute force seems to be nothing more than a low value vault, as demonstrated by Dean "ton o' paintings" Jones' month long run.

RevealingGekco · 2014-03-14 10:37:21

FreeLove wrote:

If you successfully rob/wife kill more houses, you successfully create more 2K robbers, genius. If this game had 100,000 new players, eventually we'd arrive at the same economic stagnation until people realize they can't grow by sitting on a concrete deathtrap house and the dam breaks.
Incidentally, if you have a super impenetrable entrance with trapdoors, wiring, concrete, and intricate dance systems, what the hell do you expect? The people that ARE going to go out and rob with tools are going to go after the ones that look possible. People with boring traps and low value are surprised that idiots aren't rushing to suicide down the first few steps? I mean come on, really.

There's some pretty interesting economics going on with this game, btw.

Directed at me? If so not sure I catch your point, it almost sounds like you're arguing with me... but saying the same thing (people are sticking around the middle class)?

Also, robbing a player doesn't mean he'll go back and 2k suicide, he might just turtle up again.

Last edited by RevealingGekco (2014-03-14 10:50:05)

TheRealCheese · 2014-03-14 11:24:51

I think we're crying wolf a little early as well, I've noticed that robber interest is very dependent on time of day and day of week. One day I'll have 5 very careful visitors and the next a slew of people throw themselves at my traps with no thought or reason.

FreeLove · 2014-03-14 11:28:55

LiteS wrote:

Your first point isn't entirely true. A few players have been robbed down to 0 multiple times and somehow return. I am guessing they use an alt or friend to suicide in their house to get 1100 for patch repairs, or just sit at the 2k line and hit refresh all day.

Can you explain the 'sit at the 2k line'? Robbing the vault + killing the wife takes your value down to zero, no?

And while I have no doubt what you say is true, the risk in rebooting a robbed house is that someone will inevitably track the layout and have an easier time of breezing or brute-forcing their way back.

Gecko: we're on the same page, and I agree that another contest will ultimately lead to the same state. my post was generally directed at people who complain of not enough robbers suiciding into their traps.

Building on your points, I'm speculating that as the flow of 2K suiciders slows to a trickle, there will be a point when more of the middle class will realize they're not going anywhere, and then more will decide to go out and rob, which will lead to deaths + robbed-to-0 houses, which in turn leads to more suicide runs.

I would bet that there are more actively logging-on players than players with stable houses, and that the ratio of the first to the second fluctuates, which determines whether or not it's better to rob, or better to fortify. No?

edit: and Cheese is right that it's possible this isn't really happening at all. My house was about 8 deaths for 10 entries for 3 days in the past week. Possibly more if I had let it stand.

Last edited by FreeLove (2014-03-14 11:30:38)

The Castle Doctrine Forums

#1 2014-03-10 04:38:30

It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#2 2014-03-10 05:23:51

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#3 2014-03-10 05:29:46

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#4 2014-03-10 05:51:34

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#5 2014-03-10 07:55:12

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#6 2014-03-10 15:36:00

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#7 2014-03-10 15:54:07

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#8 2014-03-10 16:16:48

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#9 2014-03-11 19:14:47

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#10 2014-03-11 20:07:41

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#11 2014-03-11 20:15:59

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#12 2014-03-11 20:50:05

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#13 2014-03-12 00:04:39

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#14 2014-03-12 01:20:31

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#15 2014-03-12 01:33:57

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#16 2014-03-12 14:02:20

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#17 2014-03-13 19:43:00

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#18 2014-03-14 00:36:19

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#19 2014-03-14 08:42:52

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#20 2014-03-14 09:30:19

Re: It's just me or these is less people trying to rob houses?

#21 2014-03-14 10:15:58

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#22 2014-03-14 10:33:37

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#23 2014-03-14 10:37:21

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#24 2014-03-14 11:24:51

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#25 2014-03-14 11:28:55

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