I like to play the stealthy character my first play through, which usually involves stealing. I think it would be awesome if burglary had real impact on the people you stole from. Anyone know if this is the case?

I hope that if you steal from someone they won't just go on with their everyday life. They should have guards on look-out for this item so that if it gets sold to a shopkeep the shopkeep can alert the guards.

Would kind of svck if it had a huge impact, given that the economy is variable. If theiving totally ruins the economy, I won't be able to steal anymore =(.

We don't know for sure, but there is a possibility that stealing from a shop could have some effect. There has been a lot of talk about the economies of the cities, and being able to effect them, but we don't know much of the details right now.

How about we stop taking the economy as the only factor here?

My suggestion is knocking over a house can leave evidence if you're not careful and that evidence can help the Guard pin you down if enough is compiled from your crime spree, knocking over shops results in the shop having a night guard posted there for the next week or so. And robbing a government building puts the town in martial law for a week or so. (Of course, that means that those places need to be valuable targets). Also, items left out could be replaced when you take them after a few days.

Aslong as it won't be: STOP RIGHT THERE YOU CRIMINAL SCUM, I don't care.

What I'd like to see is different reactions depending on what you stole. For example, in Oblivion I once took a sword from someone and got caught, and they attacked me. A reasonable response,as I'm stealing a means of defense from them. They should not, however, have the same reaction upon the taking of a small and worthless spoon.

Same thing in Morrowind, I took some gold in Vivec, and an ordinator said "now you die!" and proceeded to beat the crap out of me. accidentaly took an empty bottle, same reaction. If I caught someone stealing a spoon or an empty bottle I'd probably just look at them and go "A spoon? really? Put it back."

I once took like, a plant or something from a mission in ebonheart, and an argonian said "put it back" though I couldnt really and it made him mad at me and he wouldnt talk to me.... (at least he didnt sic the guards on me....)

Of course, only for valuable items. Perhaps the price limit changes with NPC's. A wealthy noble of high birth might not bother too much about his 500gp ring that was stolen, however, a mid class trader would.

It should also be done in tiers (I'll use Oblivion's Imperial City for example).

Stealing from Mega Rich Nobles (King/Counsilman/whatever): 5-10 Guards in each Imperial City district - 2000gp is the "I'm bothered" part
Stealing from Standard Nobles: 5-10 Guards in the district of the Crime - 1000gp is the "I'm bothered" part
Stealing from High end Merchants: 3-7 Guards in the district of the crime - 700gp is the "I'm bothered" part
Stealing from a middle class merchant: 1-3 Guards in the district of the crime - 500gp is the "I'm bothered" part
Stealing from a middle class civilian: 1 guard in the district of the crime - 250gp is the "I'm bothered" part
Stealing from a low class trader: 50% That a Hired Mercenary from the fighter's Guild will search the district of the crime - 100gp is the "I'm bothered" part
Stealing from a low class civilian: 5-10% chance that a member of the Thieves Guild will search around the district of the crime, and may take a less than lawful approach to your punishment - 50gp is the "I'm bothered" limit

Just suggestions - The actual numbers are subject to change. I would really like this. And it doesn't seem like something too much, other than the scripting. Once found, they could use a standard piece of dialogue. It would be nice for Guards to search me, and Fighter's guild members to threaten me to allow a search, and Thieves Guild to pick my pocket to find out that I have stolen. They would have the item, and I'd need to kill them to get it back. They would trigger a conversation, so I notice it.

It would also be nice to see Merchants hire guards when they've been stolen from various times. Don't hit the same place twice.

Just seems like a nice, more planned out method of stealing, that would require me to spread out, rather than steal from everyone in the Merchant District.

Its been confirmed that you have different bounty for each of the 9 holds in skyrim, For example your bounty in winterhold will be seperate from the others meaning you could really turn a town into hating you, but it wont effect the other towns.

that's my loaf of bread! guards seize him!

I was actually thinking more along the lines of ruining the financial well-being of whoever you stole from; then there would be a conscious decision making role in the act. Like if you stole everything from some poor peasants home, a few days later you would see the house boarded up and the family/people out on the street. Or maybe you put a store out of business because you went in there and repeatedly stole all of their stock.

I remember in Oblivion that Merchants would have Items for sale. But you couldn't actually STEAL them.

While in Morrowind everything they had was findable and stealable. I hope they implement that.

And I don't think stealing should have TOO big an impact....but it might make shopkeepers panic
and force them to hike up their prices and buy better locks to protect themselves.

With this sorta thing you gotta be careful. This is starting to sound like it would end with psychic merchants knowing exactly when and what you stole. If you steal from a rich dude, he ain't gonna notice for some time, possibly ever. Merchants can't just automatically "know" you stole from them, but they have to eventually. At the same time, if you steal everything they have, they're bound to notice. That sounds like a lot of scripting, and it's something that I definitely wouldn't want to be responsible for.

i think this will kinda go along with sabotaging an economy

I would like to steal from EVERYONE and then plant it in some guys house. Then call the guards.

Also, in relation to the psychic guards, I truly do hope that there is a small village where they are all drooling husks that surround you after a theft and demand in synchronised monotone that 'TRIBUTE MUST BE PAID TO THE HIVE MIND! BOW DOWN CRIMINAL SCUM!'