Questions about the Crime system

[Zephyr40k]

Hello,

I’m investigating the mechanics of the Crime and tracking system. I recently had an alt get popped and stuff stolen and I’m working on figuring out who did it. There are hints and tips all over the forums and wiki but no comprehensive guide that I’ve found. So here’s what I have so far, I’d like to see if it’s accurate and what else I need to know.

1) Turn on Tracking, run around until the little bouncing exclamation marks appear.
2) Right-click on an exclamation mark, and click the button that pops up. (“Investigate,” I think?)
3) You will get a new menu popping up with two or three choices and a number of “charges.” Click on a choice and an arrow will appear over your head and the number of charges will count down. You can get more charges by right-clicking on other exclamation marks.
4) You follow the arrow until you find what you’re looking for or the charges run out, whatever happens first.

So, my questions:

First, the options you are chosen include “stolen item” and “homestead,” I believe? So one gives you an arrow to where the stolen item is currently, and the other points you to the perpetrator’s homestead? I used “stolen item” and it pointed me back at my own homestead. Could the perp have picked up an item and then dropped it back on my homestead, causing that result? How does the arrow know which stolen item to track, when more than one was stolen? Is there one arrow per item stolen?

Second, is there any indicator of how far the item / perp / homestead is? I racked up 30 charges and then followed the arrow for over two hours without finding anything. The trail finally ended on the shores of a very large lake. Is there a chance the arrow is not pointing in the right direction? Or did the guy just run very far? I’m aware of the “crime debuff” that suppresses teleports.

Third, I hear I can track the perp back to his homestead and then summon him if he is offline and then attack him. I’m presuming I’ll need “Rights of Englishmen” to do this, right? Also, what are the mechanics of summoning an offline perp? How do I do it, and when the toon appears, does the toon act like an npc and defend itself, or does it just stand there while I wail on it? Does it require a certain number of charges to summon a perp?

Fourth, how many charges can you get out of each scent / exclamation mark? Does getting more charges out of it mean the scent goes away sooner or otherwise get drained?

Fifth, what is the ‘evidence’ for? Sometimes when I check out a scent I get an “evidence of X” item in my inventory. I can’t figure out what to do with this. I hear of people bringing them to Boston to share. What benefit is there to this?

Thanks for your help.

[staxjax]

Could the perp have picked up an item and then dropped it back on my homestead, causing that result?

Yes.

How does the arrow know which stolen item to track, when more than one was stolen? Is there one arrow per item stolen?

There will be a different clue for each item stolen, but you can accumulate charges from the different clues if they were left by the same criminal.

Is there a chance the arrow is not pointing in the right direction? Or did the guy just run very far?

The arrow never fails, you should have accumulated a lot more charges before you tried tracking. With the new crime mechanics, it forces a criminal to walk for awhile after accumulating crime charges anyways, but he could have just teleported home when the crime debuff was gone.

summoning

You need rights of the englishman to summon a perp. It doesnt take any charges, but you would have to break into his most likely defended base to get to his leanto. If you do not have murder there is one other way to kill him: If you have the waste skill you could just break his leanto and summon him at your own homestead and he will be instakilled on summon. Otherwise, if you summon him at his leanto you need to be able to murder him...if he is offline he will appear where you summoned him and you just have to whack him until he KO's, then use the murder skill to kill his ass.

Fourth, how many charges can you get out of each scent / exclamation mark?

10 for each clue that lets you accumulate when you right click it.

Does getting more charges out of it mean the scent goes away sooner or otherwise get drained?

No, even if you cant see it, the clues will still be there until the timer is up and then they will disappear. Different crime have different timers, I don't know exactly how long a clue lasts but I think waste or murder crimes last over a week.

what is the ‘evidence’ for?

Evidence is what you need to use to summon the criminal (click the evidence, and right click ground around homestead to summon). You can also compare evidence to see if they are from the same criminal, or right click them on the ground to see if a criminal is dead or not. Evidence last for a very very long time, so if you find out where the criminal's homestead is you can take your time in getting revenge on him if you need to, or you can give the evidence to somebody that is willing to get your revenge for you.

Thanks for your help.

You are welcome.