I said this is not the whole code, and just a schema of the code, and there can be a lot of optimization code thrown in to reduce the bulk of the load.

When you are selling items or when you are being inspected by a guard, then you are dealing with just one person, so there is no problem here, and the only problem is when you are being watched by passers by, and that can be optimized for a maximum radius, for the check, anf when someone is actually wearing a stolen item, or whether if the owner of an item is in sight and so on...

If it is actually implemented, then optimization is no problem after that, even if they are forced to reduce the item recognition to the owners only, it would be a great feature.

I agree somewhat. The rules presented by Sphagne present too many rules for non-unique items to be recognizable and continues the poorly throughout mechanic of psychic guards and owners.

The way I see it the HARDEST part for a petty thief should be getting away with the theft in the first place. Getting in, taking the items, and they leaving the immediate scene of the theft without being noticed is the hard part. Selling that item should be the easy part and for non-unique items, it should be extremely easy to sell them. For unique items, there should be some specialized rules, but again the hard part should be getting away with the crime not selling of stolen loot.

I think that is the weirdest part of TES...if you grab something in a shop it is THEFT! But you can stroll into any cave grab anything even from other people and just walk out...? What people who live in caves or underground crypts have no rights? LOL

If they re-vamp the criminal justice system in the game, they should make looting a crypt, dungeon, cave, or ruin a crime too. Some law against desecrating national treasures, historical sites, and hallowed ground in the public trust.

Best look at fallout for how theft mechanics likely will work. Generaly you just need to find someone not in the same group as the person you stole from. Thus if you steal in riften you can sell to some other town or to a traveling merchant even if that merchant is in riften.

Likely there will be both town and holding based faction groups.

Option three combined with option four. Some time after you steal something the person should report the item missing, thus, you cannot sell to anyone in the city, but before that time, you can sell to anyone who doesn't have ties to Bob.

well ultimately I would like a little of every option. If an item is stolen and its identifiably unique, then it should be red-flagged for sure. Something like an apple, should never be flagged. A vendor won't be able to recognize that an item is flagged and will purchase it from you. However, depending on the value of the item, selling the item should raise a 'suspicion' rating with the local guards. We can assume that any valuable stolen object will be reported to the local city guards. Those guards will then question local merchants about such an item and if the item is sufficiently unique, then the merchant will have given the guards a description of the seller(as in you). All of this can be done "behind the scenese" and just be represented by a "suspect rating". If your rating gets to a certain level, perhaps the guards will have notified merchants in general not to deal with someone of your likeness or to inform them when they purchase something from you. Merchants that paid you money for an item that the city guard takes back to its owner CERTAINLY isn't going to be pleased with you and may stop dealing with you ever again. Maybe the city guards would stop you and question you, or start following you around when you are in their town.

If you sell something stolen far out of the area it was taken it is MUCH less likely to be discovered to have been a stolen object and would not likely cause suspicion.

That is how I would love to see it handled.

Here's how I want it:

* Non-unique and non-unusual items can be sold to anyone.
* Low value unique/unusual items can be sold to anyone but the owner.
* Medium value unique/unusual items can can be sold to people with no connection to the owner.
* High value unique/unusual items can can be sold to people in other towns with no connection to the owner.
* Extreme high value unique/unusual items will be wanted through out the land and can only be sold to fences and special collectors.