So currently as far as I can tell, any and all items not currently worn or for sale in adventure mode are fair game for looting, which inevitably means most characters of suitable size, peasant or hearthperson, immediately head to the nearest mead hall/fortress armoury and kit themselves out in the best gear they can get their hands on. Now, I get that some people just want to get their equipment and for that to be that, which is why I'm suggesting that at the very least, sites should reserve stockpiled weapons and armour for their hearthpeople, so if you start as a hearthperson you can just equip yourself with the best of what is available and off you go, while people who would rather gradually improve their equipment (or would rather threaten/assault/steal/murder/trade than be temporarily associated with an entity) would opt to play as peasants, having to earn equipment either by taking it from others (either through demands, wrestling, murder, or, if you're really desperate, trade), through earning sufficient status to use the site's equipment (earn hearthpersonship, lead a revolution, murder the lord/lady and simply claim the site as your own, whatever), try to sneak in and steal the stuff (or just waltz in and try to sprint faster than the guards on the way out), or risk heading out to a ruined site and scavenging any remaining spoils while hoping whatever ruined the site doesn't jump out and ruin you. Things reserved for hearthpeople could be shown to be unavailable to the player through the {forbidden} markers from fortress mode, sites may reserve things specifically for hearthpeople of that site or for hearthpeople from all sites of that civ, either would do, maybe even both if you slap a fame requirement on the latter, and finally, the penalty for stealing from the military (defined simply by the act of picking up the item as opposed to the leaving the building mechanic for shops, to avoid someone completely covering themselves in the best armour and weapons before any fighting of guards) could vary based on civ ethics, from immediate lethal/no quarter hostility, to imprisonment (forced wait & appropriate skill rust, confiscation of {stolen goods}, basically TES imprisonment except you age), to simply reusing highwayman behaviour on guards except they demand you specifically drop what you took before the brawl rather than whatever decides what highwaymen demand you drop, for me it's always been my weapon, which soon finds its way into their throat.
Optional bonus that could probably otherwise be achieved through modding: seeing as trade would actually become more necessary for peasants who don't want to become thieves/thugs/murderers (beyond satisfying a need or to get ammo for ranged weapons when the stockpiles run dry), how about some whittling of wooden crafts from branches pulled from trees?
I have tried playing a few games where I intentionally don't raid mead halls or armouries, and gifted my starting spear to the local militia captain for maximum peasantry. Anyway, I did also find that other hearthpeople/militiamen would gladly trade away their steel armour and weapons if you showered them in enough junk, so maybe their uniforms could also be {claimed} by sites, and so would have increased price based on that particular person's views on loyalty or law, encouraging peasants to buy from armourers, weaponsmiths, and maybe one or two tavern-goers, unless that particular peasant is particularly persuasive, the site's military has commitment issues, or a random roaming night troll happens to roll up and cave some poor guy's head in and you can loot their corpse for free (until people actually start caring about that). I only tried trading with military personnel on the second game, I can confirm the first game was quite fun until I forgot which piece of clothing held my waterskin and apparently traded it away for something, and then discovered that waterskins are an endangered species restricted to player-controlled adventurers and meadhalls/armouries (please add waterskins/flasks to general stores).
I appear to have asked for three things, but the other two are just optional extras that would just make AM a little more convenient, the main point is that there are only repercussions when stealing from the (often lower quality) shop items and none when looting military grade equipment from right in front of the local lord/lady.
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Topic: Adventure Mode Mead Hall/Armoury Item Ownership (Read 947 times)