I gotta say i disagree with adding more dumbass criminal penalties, specially with the killing of horses or pets.
I see a lot of complainers about horses getting killed in "5" secconds by a naked with bound weapon, which is somewhat true. I wouldn't say 5 sec but more like 10-30 sec depending on where who, how and how many.
People is abusing the crim mechanic to kill mounts? Well yeah, people will tend to abuse any possible mechanic but people complain more about the criminal actions.
I believe one of the reasons why so many people complain about pets getting killed its only because they neglect them, by being unaware they might get killed by some archer or a mage, by letting a pet sit right next to guards blindspots or by just being AFK. As we all know self awareness is a key part of understanding the game and understanding the game is key to have fun.
And what people needs to understand is that towns are not supposed to be safe and players should not AFK when having gear, mats or pets.
Mortal allways had this risk component everywhere you go, Haven gives noobs the wrong idea of how the world works. And thats one of the main issues in the learning curve.
For example, the other day i pushed a dude off the banker towards the meduli docks while he was sorting hes bags on hes inventory!!!! First lesson learned, don't ever sort your goodies in your inventory. I killed him and looted hes shit.
Or the other day i pushed an AFK dude into the water and he had 32g and a bunch of books which i looted aswell. Lesson learned?
Same with mounts, people AFK in bank, or they leave their pets blocking doors and they get upset when killed? Then how about you learn the mechanics and make sure you understand you don't have to neglect your pets, if you are not going to use a horse then stable it and don't stay AFK in the middle of town with it.
Now, if you are mounted on the pet and not AFK you have time to run away and save your pet even if theres several people hitting it. But you have to be alert, which its understandable since cities are risky.
The real questions about these kind of issues is how to enhance the noob's learning curve to understand mechanics, how to make haven to be an actual tutorial of the game and not a grind simulator.
To be honest i don't believe on time sink mechanics that prevent you from playing because you murdered someone's horse, or even a character. I think murdercounts should only be given if the murder has been seen by guards or live whitnesses and killing in the wild should be fair game. I think in this case the less is the better, a more straightforward simple and non punishing system could be gucci for people to fight for shit and not be forced to farm standing just to enter a town, the only bank ingame. Then again, its my perspective.
And i definitely don't believe on safe towns, conflict fuels player and world interaction.
