Quest - robbery guide From: epat19@festival.ed.ac.uk (A Brown) Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 23:33:02 +0000 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. 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 tru if a Luck of Novala (702) is cast at the start of the turn (only one as they are not cumulative): 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 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 lest 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. . _______ /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.L, 72 Broughton St, Edinburgh. / / |/ Up