Re: Quest - What thief skill is required?

From: epat19@festival.ed.ac.uk (A Brown)

Date: Tue, 02 Aug 1994 19:19:01 +0000

>In article 775320854snz@nexus6.demon.co.uk, david@nexus6.demon.co.uk ("David A. Cragg") writes:

>>I am currently playing a game of Quest run by KJC Games in the UK (Game 16).
>>What I am looking for is a list detailing the approximate skill of
>>thief to make sucessful robberies on the different shops ie. food, weapon,
>>jewellers etc.
>>
>>Thanks in advance,
>>David

IS THIS ANY HELP?

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE GRAND ILLUMINATED THUNDERBOLT SYNDICATE, *
                             * QUEST GAME 10 *

Okay, here's a copy of the rough guide to robbing shops that I have
written. Sorry for the delay but I have been quite busy lately. The
guide was put together using details from a number of robberies and
attempted robberies, however I could do with more information in order
to tidy it up a bit....

When you INVESTIGATE a shop or building usimg the 'I' order, you are
given the defence level in the form of a phrase. These phrases are 'Not
too well defended' (Level N), 'Quite well protected' (Level Q), ' a
Tough place' (Level T), and 'Very well defended indeed' (level V). At
present, it's unknown whether these levels are precise defence values
(e.g 1,2 3 and 4) or encompass a wide range of values.
Basically the types of shop can be split into defence levels like this:

Level N.
Food shops, Pubs, Temples, Journeys, Empty buildings, some powder shops.

Level Q.
Armour shops, Weapons shops, some powder shops, map shops.

Level T.
Newspaper sellers (?)

Level V.
Jewellers

These defence categories are not fixed however, and shops will increase
their defence level to level V following a successful robbery. I don't
know if this increase is only effective for YOUR group, or affects
attempts to rob the shop by other groups as well. After a couple of
turns the defence level returns to its original value.
(Some reports have indicated that this increase in defence level is
infact effective for ALL groups.)
 It seems that the awareness of the lookout has little to do with the
robbery, however you _must_ have a thief in your group for successful
robberies, attempting a robbery without a thief will lead to the
character with the highest awareness attempting the robbery, in my
experience, always with disastrous results.
 The following guidelines hold true if a Luck of Novala (702) is cast at
the start of the turn (only one as they are not cumulative):

N.B. Since this was written, some people have claimed thatseveral 702
spells are cumulative, however this has never been proven to me
conclusively.

A thief of skill 40 or over will have little trouble with defence level
N shops, and will manage level Q shops most of the time. He will almost
always fail on level T places, and always fail on level V. As the
thief's skill increases over 50, level T robberies may start to work,
however in order to rob the level V shops successfully, a skill of 80+
is required (or a lot of luck!). Apparently a thief with maximum skill
(99) will still sometimes fail on level V robberies.
 So now you know the expected defence levels of the main shop types,
which ones give the most cash?
 Obviously, if you can do it, the jewellers give the best results, but
for trainee thiefs, here's a guide of what to expect from each shop
type:

Food Shops: about 25 gold                * THESE FIGURES MAY VARY
Pubs: about 40 gold                        RATHER A LOT, BUT GIVE
Temples: about 300 gold                    A ROUGH  IDEA  OF WHAT
Journeys: about 300 gold                   TO EXPECT *
Empty Buildings (e.g Orphans Home): 1 gold (This was Steve the Quest
                                            programmers idea of a joke)
Powder Shops: 100 - 400 gold
Armour Shops: about 200 gold and sometimes items
Weapons Shops: about 300 gold and sometimes items
Map Shops: about 350 gold
Jewellers: Several thousand gold

It is also worth noting that the miracle 'Insanity', as well as
preventing the town guard from throwing you out of town after 3
unsuccessful robberies, will also reset all shops to their original
basic defence level. It is also said to get more difficult to rob as
your group gets older, but as your thief should be getting more skilled,
this shouldn't be a problem. From the information we've got so far, it
seems that until you have a highly skilled thief, the best shops to rob
are temples (but not your Gods !) and Journeys, giving the most gold,
with the least chance of failure.

-----------------------------

N.B the above was put together from a number of reported robberies sent
in to me by my alliance members, and some of the information is only
heresay, and quite possibly heresy as well, use this guide with caution!

If you have anything to add, please send it to me, robbery reports (shop
name, defence level, thief skill, and amount stolen) are also very
welcome.

Since writing this first draft, I have received an absolutely HUGE
amount of robbery information, mostly in the form of photocopies of
turnsheets, this has guaranteed that I will provide a second version of
this guide, but has also guaranteed that it will be a long time before
its ready, as I have rather a lot of number crunching to do!
Further information on your robbery techniques, successes/failures are
always welcome, as is any Quest related material, either by email, or
via snailmail.

.    _______
          /O\  /      /  The Grand Illuminated Thunderbolt Syndicate
         /_|_\/   __/                      (G.I.T.S)
        /_/|\_\   \                                      +---------------+
       /_/_|_\_\  /  Email: epat19@uk.ac.ed.festival     | Quest Game 10 |
      /_/__|__\_\/                                       +---------------+
     /G/_I_|_T_\S\
     """""""""""""   Smail: Alan Brown, 1.F.2, 251 Dalkeith Road,
       / /                              Edinburgh,     SCOTLAND .
      |/

P.S KJC Games have just introduced a new font for Quest, which looks
really smart - kind of gothic. If updated programs are still sent out,
other versions of Quest should have this to look forward to soon!

References

Quest - What thief skill is required?
david@nexus6.demon.co.uk ("David A. Cragg")
Wed, 27 Jul 1994 14:54:14 +0000
Re: Quest - What thief skill is required?
hannes@parma.uwa.oz.au (J HERRMANN,891595/0)
Thu, 28 Jul 1994 04:10:41 +0000

Referenced By

Quest - What thief skill is required?
david@nexus6.demon.co.uk ("David A. Cragg")
Wed, 27 Jul 1994 14:54:14 +0000
Re: Quest - What thief skill is required?
hannes@parma.uwa.oz.au (J HERRMANN,891595/0)
Thu, 28 Jul 1994 04:10:41 +0000