Sleight of Hand - Pickpocketing

Sleight of Hand

A full-featured, skill-based pickpocketing overhaul for RimWorld.

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Overview

Sleight of Hand adds a deep pickpocketing system that blends real-time reflexes with colony strategy. Right-click any pawn — traders, faction visitors, prisoners, even pack animals — and relieve them of their valuables through an interactive timing minigame. Every attempt is shaped by over a dozen dynamic modifiers: your thief's Social skill, the target's awareness, nearby witnesses, weather conditions, what you're wearing, and more. The result is a rich risk/reward loop where preparation, timing, and knowing when to walk away all matter.

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How It Works

• Pick a Target — Right-click any non-colony pawn. You'll see a quick success estimate and your current win streak right in the float menu.
• Choose Your Haul — A selection dialog shows the target's full inventory with quality tags, per-item odds tooltips, and market values. Build a cart, or use quick-select presets like "All Silver" or "Best Item."
• Play the Minigame — A reflex bar appears with green success zones. Memorize their positions during a brief preview, then stop the moving needle inside them when the countdown hits GO. High-value carts require 2–3 consecutive successful presses.
• Live With the Consequences — Success earns items, Social XP, and a mood boost. Failure costs faction goodwill, alerts nearby bystanders, builds Heat on that faction, and the target remembers your face permanently.

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Formula — What Affects Your Odds

Every attempt calculates a unique success probability from these real-time factors:

• Social Skill & Manipulation — Your thief's core stats. Higher Social slows the minigame needle for easier timing.
• Target Awareness — Calculated from the victim's Consciousness, Sight, and Hearing. Sleeping, downed, or incapacitated targets are far easier.
• Item Value — Cheap items have wide, forgiving zones. Expensive gear compresses your odds hard, down to a 1% floor.
• Witnesses — Each nearby pawn with line of sight applies a stacking penalty. Clear the area first.
• Darkness — Operating at night grants up to +15% bonus.
• Weather — Rain and snowstorms provide noise cover, up to +8%.
• Backstab Angle — Approaching from behind the target grants +10%.
• Dark Clothing — Each piece of dark apparel worn adds a small stealth bonus, up to +6%.
• Traits — Nimble, Greedy, and Psychopath pawns get bonuses. Kind and Nervous pawns take penalties.
• Faction Heat — Repeated theft against the same faction raises a 5-level suspicion meter. Heat decays naturally over in-game days.
• Victim Memory — A target you've been caught stealing from before becomes permanently harder to rob again (−12%).
• Win Streak — Consecutive successes grant +2% per streak, up to +10%. One failure resets it.
• Encumbrance — A heavily loaded thief is clumsier.
• Moving Target — Walking pawns are harder to pickpocket.
• Archotech Security — Archotech items apply a flat 1.5× value penalty multiplier.
• Relationship — Targets who like your thief are slightly easier marks.
• Implant Extraction — Surgically extract bionics and implants from targets, with Medical skill factored in.

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Minigame Detail

• Zone Preview — Zones are shown for a brief moment before the needle starts. Memorize their positions.
• 3-2-1 Countdown — Large animated numbers count down before the needle launches with a "GO!" flash.
• Drifting Zones — Success zones gently drift during the attempt, keeping you on your toes.
• Multi-Press — Items worth over 600 silver require 2 presses; over 2,000 requires 3. Each press reshuffles the zones.
• PERFECT Detection — Landing the needle in the exact center of a zone triggers a special "★ PERFECT" result with a bonus sound.
• Needle Trail — A fading afterimage follows the needle for better visual tracking.
• Edge Flash — The bar edges flash white when the needle bounces off them.
• Auto-Roll — Don't like minigames? Hit "Auto-roll (−10%)" to skip timing and roll dice at a small penalty.
• Zone Labels — Each green zone displays its exact coverage percentage.
• XP Preview — See how much Social XP you'll earn before committing.

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Progression

• Thief Ranks — Each colonist earns a rank displayed in the dialog: Untested → Clumsy → Apprentice → Skilled → Expert → ★ Master Pickpocket. Ranks are based on lifetime success rate and attempt count.
• Per-Pawn Statistics — Track every colonist's success rate, total value stolen, current streak, and best streak. All data persists across saves.
• Colony Records — Lifetime totals for your entire colony: total successes, total value, and biggest single heist.
• Recent Theft Log — Hover over the stats line to see your last 8 theft attempts with outcomes, values, and timestamps.
• Major Heist Letters — Stealing 500+ silver in one operation triggers a special notification letter.
• New Record Letters — Beat your personal best heist and get notified.

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The Dialog

• Pawn Portraits — Thief and target shown face-to-face with names, ranks, and faction info.
• Faction Goodwill Bar — A colored bar shows the current relationship. Hostile faction warning when goodwill drops below −80.
• Context Warnings — Every active modifier displayed as a colored tag: darkness, witnesses, backstab, weather, encumbrance, streak, heat, victim memory, clothing, movement, traits.
• Search & Sort — Filter items by name, sort by value or alphabetically.
• Quality Tags — Items display color-coded quality labels (Poor, Good, Excellent, Masterwork, Legendary).
• Lay Low — Spend colony silver to instantly clear faction Heat. Cost scales with suspicion level.
• Toss Coin — Spend silver from the colony stockpile to create a distraction for +15% bonus.
• Risk Confirmation — Attempting a theft below 10% with high-value items triggers a "That's Risky!" confirmation popup.
• Dynamic Initiate Button — The button label changes based on odds: Initiate ▲ / Initiate / Initiate ▼ / Initiate ☠.

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Mod Settings

Everything is configurable from the in-game settings menu:

• Base success rate, Social skill influence, value penalty curve, global difficulty multiplier
• Cooldown duration
• Toggle every system individually: minigame, multi-press, traits, heat, heat decay, witnesses, weather, encumbrance, victim memory, implant theft
• Witness detection range, distraction cost
• Quick difficulty presets: Easy / Normal / Hard / ☠ Brutal
• Full colony thief records table with per-pawn stats, streaks, and success rates

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Compatibility

• RimWorld 1.6
• Safe to add to ongoing saves

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(Just kidding — it's compatible with all major mods.)