The Thieves' Guide to Protecting Your ****

[pistolshrimp]

I am sure you know you can steal all there is to steal in a pclaim with black tea. It takes a longer time and sometimes it's not worth the effort but it can be done.

Yeah, not much can be done to prevent a thief from drinking tea as far as I know, so I offer a variety of suggestions focusing on the "not worth the effort" part, did you have a specific suggestion on the tea part? So far I haven't done a lot of tea + plus raiding an entire claim, I kind of like to leave stuff so if the person comes back they don't up and quit, but I know not every thief will do the same. I'll play around with tea more and see if I can come up with anything.

Secondly, the spring helps close your door but not a few minutes after you open it, just a mere 10-15 seconds.

Thanks, I don't own springs so I'll change that.

Then it's "hoarding" not "hording" unless you meant a horde of alt but I doubt it ;p.

I'll fix that too, Meow sent me a message saying, "That's a helpful post, but you're awful about typos," except a whole lot nicer!

Is there any way to build hard to destroy buildings (like chicken coops) in order to wall in a brazier, even when it's been placed within your claim's walls, for extra security?

Yes and no. Certian objects have bounding boxes that don't let them be built next to other objects for the reason devs simply don't want you to make a wall with them. It's also not so great because you can't get at it to refuel or raise its purity. A wall around it with a gate is your best bet, a dedicated raider can get at it, but it will deter a lot of amateurs, which unless you are calling people out on the forums, are going to be the majority of people that will bother you.

Also,what is the best way to deter access to your mine (which is now free for all) and force the thief to remain where the braziers nd torches can get to them?

This is more of a mid level question, this guide is aimed at noobs, but I'd suggest a wall with a locking gate too. You can alway build more than one gate as well. When a player is this deep into your base, your only hope is to delay them long enough that your braziers and torches can get enough critical hits to drop them or make them turn back. If I was to make a suggestion I'd say build another wall or two, and build a bunch more braziers and get their purity way up

[TotalyMeow]

I'll fix that too, Meow sent me a message saying, "That's a helpful post, but you're awful about typos," except a whole lot nicer!

It's okay. Half my job retyping patch notes is fixing John's typos.

So, I fixed your typos... and stickied the thread.

[Kandarim]

Tiny comment from me: if I stumble over a leanto in the wilds, and I don't feel like leaving scents, i'll check whether the stuff in there is worth more than the pclaim it would cost me to smush the leanto scent free. An leanto off-claim can be claimed by you, then smushed to get everything in the person's invent for free.

[Argentis]

I am sure you know you can steal all there is to steal in a pclaim with black tea. It takes a longer time and sometimes it's not worth the effort but it can be done.

Yeah, not much can be done to prevent a thief from drinking tea as far as I know, so I offer a variety of suggestions focusing on the "not worth the effort" part, did you have a specific suggestion on the tea part? So far I haven't done a lot of tea + plus raiding an entire claim, I kind of like to leave stuff so if the person comes back they don't up and quit, but I know not every thief will do the same. I'll play around with tea more and see if I can come up with anything.

There isn't a lot you can do against tea drinking criminals. They are too British to handle. It just takes a long time to steal everything as your black bile doesn't regen in the blink of an eye. What could be a protection is surrounding your claim with boxes that need to be carried out as black tea doesn't regen yellow bile (obviously) and I do not think most of the criminals carry yellow tea around).

[Mr_Bellflower]

~Peanut gallery from another thread~

I've gone back and forth on adding this idea to the guide, the problem with the mine is that it can't be claimed, so if someone does check mines, I know I do, they can take as much as they want without losing BB or leaving scents. All they leave is trespassing which can't be summoned/stocked. I don't know. What do you think?

Indeed. It is not an effective means of storage but if you only shove utilities into it then I see no problem. Most people are not going to cart around two chest worth of arson materials to ***** up people, well I might but even then it is boring and odd, and loot their storage. If anything I've always, even in H&H, stuck to keeping thing I know I can obtain easily within a week such as food items, boards, bricks, clay, etc. etc.; random thing anyone can AFK grind for quite quickly. Storing your heart's keys down in a mine has always been outright idiotic as the general idea of "Make a safe place overly defended in your base." has been a concept in both of these games. May it be a hearth vault or quite simply a house with a brick wall around it. Even a split rail fence around a house with torches is better than nothing to store high class items in.

Though to really sum it up I'd have to say explaining how people should tier items valuable to them should come first. Tier 0 being things you can obtain damn well near picking branches from trees; such as bones, meats, fertilizers, and grown products. So on and so forth. Tier 1 being thing that might take some time to get such as metal bars (Not pig iron as it is tier 0; but wrought and steel.). With tier 3 being things that would be a pain in the ass to replace: Such as that cupboard filled with 75,000 silver in a series of purses. Though all of this is biased as that single tier 3 item can be classed as a tier 0 to some folk, and vice versa. The main idea being what they, as an individual, can replace and what they would rather not replace at any given time.

Honestly your guide is fine as it is. I see no problem in it unless you are a sucker for adding constructs and massive amounts of tool tips that help out the new players beyond what we think they would. You already have context down to where you should not even have a lento; I'd say you have all the basics bud.

[pistolshrimp]

Well I hate guides that never update themselves, there are a couple of things I need to add, how to avoid pclaiming homestead wreckers, etc, I'll consider adding this bit about the mines, I think it's interesting.

[gagarin]

nice guide but it doesn't answer 2 questions:
1) how to avoid townbelling thieves?
2) as i hermit should i buy and setup my own townbell or brickwall+plank fence+braziers every 3 tile would be enough?

[pistolshrimp]

nice guide but it doesn't answer 2 questions:
1) how to avoid townbelling thieves?
2) as i hermit should i buy and setup my own townbell or brickwall+plank fence+braziers every 3 tile would be enough?

I think this townbell thing is a little over emphasised. The probability that you will get Eminent Domained is pretty low as the cost is very high and you have a week to get help in destroying it. I've had this happen to me and some very nice folks wrecked the bell for me. The reality is you would either have to have a lot of nice stuff or piss someone off to get your stuff stolen in this way.

However with that said, I am of the opinion Hermits should ultimately save up and setup a townbell later in the game, the cost is high but not too much to afford. In reality a brick wall + proper defences are going to be a better first investment. If anyone believes otherwise please correct me here.

[Dangron]

As a thief, is there anything in particular that basically screams 'NOTHING WORTH TAKING HERE' to you?

[Leō]

As a thief is there anything in particular that basically screams 'NOTHING WORTH TAKING HERE' to you?

Good evening.

This varies person to person. Some people see fit to steal all of your grass while others will not bother unloading a backpack that is filled with hides. To put it into perspective ask yourself if your claim, and area of activity, look as if you are hiding anything or are quite simply a slow, lazy, worker who has little in the form of any wealth. In the end everyone and their grandmother and grand-pappy will take a look into your home if you do not even have the basic defenses up. If you've a split rail fence, or stone-hedge, with no form of torches I'm going to see if their door even has a lock to begin with.

A good way to follow through with the first part of what I said is to store most of your belongings within a mine-shaft. Utilities and a little storage mostly while keeping the more valuable items within a home. Though do keep in mind you should only advance to a farmer's home or stay with a pilgrim's hovel; as everything else warrants further investigation in my book. Another good way to look at it is "If I can produce X then I may have already produced Y." and if this turns out to be true can lead to a person taking a closer look into your belongings. Thus is why sticking with a pilgrim's hovel and having a stone-hedge with torches can go a long way for these cases as it can make people think you have not invested much into metal-workings besides stall-bought nails.

In the end your best deterrent is basic and advanced defenses. If you can not afford blazing-braziers but can afford to mass produce torches then mass produce torches. Make me work for what you have inside otherwise it is free-game on your claim and I'm inviting granny and grand-pappy to join in the spoils.

Sincerely,
-Leō