Crime and Punishment Overhaul Mod

[drewsbrew]

Thanks, I'm glad you like my ideas, it's always encouraging to hear people are looking forward to your mod! I did make a VERY simple mod that allows you to create skooma in game, the link is here. Although there isn't much to the mod itself yet (and work on that specific aspect has stopped to work on the core features of the mod instead) there is some more info there, plus some videos I posted. Tose videos are on my YouTube channel and I'll be posting updates to progress on all my mods there if you're interested. By the way, if you watch the development videos... don't worry about the 'invisible bottle problem', it's been resolved :)

[michael199310]

After reading the mod description, there's one thing that caught my attention: Life in Prison. That seems great but the problem lies within dull and terrible vanilla prisons.
Perhaps your mod should expand and add more prisons and solitary cells around the world of Skyrim for the most notorious criminals. Secret escape routes, bribing guards, maybe even adding some support for followers, so they can rescue you or use your resources to get you out of prison. Special features, like reputation affecting the type of cell...

Hah, I got carried away. Anyway, keep on working :smile:

Edited June 6, 2016 by michael199310

[drewsbrew]

Just to clarify, the 'life in prison' feature means 'things to do', not necessarily 'you go there forever'. It was a poo choice of words I know. Anyway, every dungeon will have inmates there, and there who you will be able to interact with, and there will be some quest like elements-- think about going to jail in Markarth, and having to trade Skooma to get a shiv for the Orc, and you'll have some idea of what to expect in jails in the rest of the holds. Ideally, I'd like to have new quests when/if you go back to jail after completing the initial quests. You'll meet the same characters again, but this time they'll have different things for you to do.

Having a literal 'life in jail' feature would be awesome and immersive in a way, but it would also be game breaking. I suppose I'll work something in where (if you would normally be in jail for life, the Jarls will let you off the hook because you have important things to do... you know, saving the world and all.

 

Solitary cells are already in the works, but I was planning on adding them to existing dungeons (and maybe adding more cell blocks to existing dungeons too). Towns like Falkreath, Dawnstar, Morthal, etc. are getting whole new dungeons while towns like Whiterun and Solitude re jut going to have changes made to existing dungeons.

 

I love the idea of having your companions bust you out of prison! I'll definitely try to work that in! Although, I think it would have to be to only certain companions who would be willing to do that though, and I don't know how feasible it would be to have support for followers added by mods.

[michael199310]

Ah, yes, I didn't mean playing the rest of Skyrim in prison :D Just spending there some time, like you had to do in Cidhna Mine in Markarth. Something immersive but not game breaking. That could tie in to the idea of followers rescue - depending on the sentence, there would be higher chance they would help you.

Following that way, your relationship with followers could degrade, based on the crimes. So, let's say, Lydia would not follow you anymore if you kill someone innocent.

Well, if you could do that with some vanilla followers, compatibility patches with most popular followers mods would be relatively easy.

But I think you should focus on the basics - implementing the whole crime system and then tweaking it.

[drewsbrew]

Yeah, that's the Idea... to focus on the basics, especially since I'm still learning. In all honestly the quests in prison probably won't be included in the initial release because I won't do them without having voice actors for all the characters and I feel like I'll probably have to have something more than just ideas to recruit the help. Little by little the mod is getting there though!

[Shinkoku]

This looks really awesome!

 

Would there be a racism element? Could just be 'you start with a reputation' - e.g. Khajiit start with a reputation as a thief, even if you've never done anything. Or affects what you're most likely to be framed for and how believed you are. E.g. Khajiit being framed for theft, elves being framed for treason against Stormcloaks.

 

Also will speech checks have a role? Like, if I have a reputation as a criminal and shopkeepers are suspicious of me, can I persuade them into believing that I was falsely accused? Or conversely can I use my reputation as a vicious murderer to help intimidation checks? Will I be able to talk to the jarl and persuade him/her into dropping all charges because I'm clearly innocent? Could this be affected by my relationship with someone? E.g. if I've done a quest for a shopkeeper they'll be much more likely to believe that I'm innocent

 

Will selling debuffs vary based on shopkeeper? Like, is it limited to the hold I committed the crimes in, do the Thieves' Guild fences care at all, is the Dark Brotherhood exempt, etc.

 

Also since some of the guards will whisper 'Hail Sithis' after you become Listener, will there be corrupt guards who'll let you go if you're far enough along the Dark Brotherhood or Thieves' Guild quest-lines?

[drewsbrew]

This looks really awesome!

 

Would there be a racism element? Could just be 'you start with a reputation' - e.g. Khajiit start with a reputation as a thief, even if you've never done anything. Or affects what you're most likely to be framed for and how believed you are. E.g. Khajiit being framed for theft, elves being framed for treason against Stormcloaks.

 

Also will speech checks have a role? Like, if I have a reputation as a criminal and shopkeepers are suspicious of me, can I persuade them into believing that I was falsely accused? Or conversely can I use my reputation as a vicious murderer to help intimidation checks? Will I be able to talk to the jarl and persuade him/her into dropping all charges because I'm clearly innocent? Could this be affected by my relationship with someone? E.g. if I've done a quest for a shopkeeper they'll be much more likely to believe that I'm innocent

 

Will selling debuffs vary based on shopkeeper? Like, is it limited to the hold I committed the crimes in, do the Thieves' Guild fences care at all, is the Dark Brotherhood exempt, etc.

 

Also since some of the guards will whisper 'Hail Sithis' after you become Listener, will there be corrupt guards who'll let you go if you're far enough along the Dark Brotherhood or Thieves' Guild quest-lines?

 

Glad you like the idea for the mod!

 

Will there be be a racism element/will your race have an impact on your reputation?;

 

Well, ideally yes, but the main priority in terms of design is to prevent script bloat. I don't want people to have to choose between this mod and their other favorite realism mods, so basically I want to make this as in depth, feature rich, and immersive as possible without overladening the papyrus script engine. Also keep in mind that the first version of the mod will almost certainly not have all of the planned features... it will be a basic version of the main concepts, and I'll refine it more and more in later releases.

 

Will speech checks have a role?;

 

Short answer: 'Yes' although I don't have the specifics worked out just yet. The vanilla game does not have nearly enough speech checks for them to have a meaningful impact on the reputation system so I want to add more-- without them feeling like they were added just for the sake of being added. One idea I had was to add a speech check dialogue option to all NPCs to insult/intimidate them (unlocked as you begin to develop a reputation as a violent thug) and the NPC will respond by going into a brawl (throwing you in jail if it is a guard/Thane/Jarl/etc.) or becoming afraid and running away. The more you build that reputation the more likely NPCs will respond with the latter. I would also like to add an intimidate option to a lot of the quests too. With the race thing, I think races like Orcs for example should have an easier time intimidating someone than say a High Elf for instance... maybe even body weight can play a role... but I digress.

 

I don't know what you mean by selling debuffs...

 

Will some corrupt guards let you off the hook if you're in the Thieves Guild/Dark Brotherhood?;

 

Yes, and there will be a chance that they might even let you out of jail if you're arrested by another guard.

[Slade37]

Matter of curiosity. Have you considered making the actual arrest when you commit a crime more realistic than the original system?

[drewsbrew]

I've got some ideas I'm toying with... There will be stockades added to the game where the criminals there will be pelted with produce, I've thought about also having citizens pelt you with produce (using the same animations and whatnot) as you are dragged through town in chains (if you have a reputation as a notorious bandit/murderer/slaver something along those lines). But what do you mean by more realistic?

[Madrias]

This sounds actually rather interesting. Honestly, I've tried several different 'crime and punishment overhaul' type mods in the past, but... Well, none of them ever really seem to fit my style.

 

First, I've dealt with too many that try to do away with the whole "each hold is its own" thing. I agree that some should be linked (an example would be that if I massacred the town guard in an Imperially-Controlled Solitude, I'd expect other Imperial controlled areas to hate my guts, but I'd expect the Stormcloak controlled areas to be indifferent or possibly more polite.), but for the most part, I like the idea that if I've racked up a bounty in a hold, like in the Reach, I can go run off to the Rift and be just fine.

 

Second, my main problem is the lack of things to do once arrested in some of these mods. I've tried some from here and some from, well, that other site that has more... adult oriented content, and the problem is, sure, you're arrested and in jail, and in some, you're even punished, but apart from that, there's absolutely nothing to do. It just becomes a boring time-sink without an interactive questline going on, something logical. However, the time spent in prison also can't take too long, or the player will lose interest and start looking for ways out of it.

 

Thirdly, I seriously dislike the fact that all of the crimes in Skyrim have such piddly little fines behind them, and that's even comparing them to things in the same game world. Oh, you've butchered one of the City Guard and managed to survive. That'll be 1000 gold. Oh, you want to buy Breezehome? That's 5000 gold. On the flipside, some things make sense not to punish as expensively, but for the most part, the penalties aren't anywhere near enough, especially when you're in the late-game.

 

Finally, I love the idea of Trials and all that it means behind it. I'll get more into detail down below.

 

So, if you'll forgive (or possibly take inspiration from) my idea-dump, which is mostly in response to your original post, with ideas of my own added in. I also apologize for how long this is. I really shouldn't respond to posts with ideas when I'm tired, they tend to run on a bit, but if I tried this when I'm fully awake, I wouldn't have half of these ideas.

 

Reputation: I agree that the people of Skyrim should take notice of your actions. Biggest pet peeve of mine is that I can be the Holy Crusader of the Eight Divines or the darkest scum of Nirn this side of Sithis, and I'm treated exactly the same by everyone. Let's break it down a bit.

 

- Notoriety: If you commit crimes, people know about it. Specifically, the guards. Becoming notorious means that you're given less warning (in the case of trespassing) and the guards don't like you. In fact, they all want to see you in prison for a good long time. Become notorious enough, and you might end up framed and facing a Trial you won't win.

 

- Trials: As much as I love the idea of your Trial by Combat, I don't see it having the desired effect. Unless you hooked in through Death Alternative to prevent dying, or you write your own scripts to stop at a certain point of the player's health, this either leads to "I win the fight, so I'm free, and because of this, I'm gonna butcher everyone in this room" or being stuck in an infinite death loop. My thought would be to have a properly dishonest trial.

 

What do I mean by that?

 

Remember the Notoriety above, and what I said about guards, how the more notorious you are, the more they hate your guts? This works two ways. If this is your first crime, and it's not all that serious, the guards won't go out of their way to see you in jail, and you'll deal with more or less a random jury of your peers. If you're well liked by the Jarl because you hunt bandits and dragons as a hobby, and you're their Thane, your jury might have many of your friends and acquaintances in it - after all, if you're not sitting in jail, you might go out and hunt down that pesky dragon as a favor for getting off the hook. However, if you're a notorious criminal, your jury might be full of people you've wronged in some way or another, sealing your fate.

 

The end results of your Trial can end a variety of different ways:

• Free and Clear. No bounty, no notoriety gain, no fines. Pretty much guaranteed with friends, a possible outcome of a random jury, and never given out by those you've hurt.
• Pay a Price. Basically equivalent to Skyrim's current bounty amounts. A light smack on the wrist, equivalent to paying for your stolen goods. Obviously, some notoriety will be gained from this.
• Public Punishment - Mild. Basically, being stuck in the stockade and pelted with produce. Used for things like being busted for your first time thieving. Only available with low notoriety. Ends with a very small rise in notoriety - People find it amusing that even the Mighty Dragonborn can be humbled by a cabbage to the face.
• Public Punishment - Severe. Equivalent to being whipped in town square. Used if your notoriety is too high for the mild version, but the same things apply, except that your notoriety rises more significantly - Obviously, everyone knows you're a criminal now, and you've got the marks to prove it.
• Jailed. Fairly severe, more so than the public punishments. Preferably, I'd like to see it used alongside public punishment (the equivalent of a week in jail, then taken into town square and whipped publicly before being let go.) but for lighter crimes, it could be used alone. Notoriety will rise significantly for this. Also used whenever you can't afford to pay your fines.
• Banishment. A severe penalty for severe crimes. Reserved for crimes like murder, massive thefts, etc. Doesn't last too long (I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of 10-30 in game days, preferably adjustable) but even entering the hold gets you a trespass warning. Notoriety, even at the minimum it could have been, should be nearly maxed out - If you've been Banished, you are undoubtedly a serious criminal.

Now, why do I mention all of those? Because variety makes crime and punishment less boring. If you know you're just going to jail if you can't pay your fine, you aren't going to try stealing from the strongboxes in the market stalls. However, if you feel bold and you think you've done enough good to offset the bad you're about to do, and you think you could beat the system in the trial, then you might go for it.

 

- Shopkeepers: If you steal from the shops and you're caught doing it, you should be punished for it, and that comes in the form of increased vigilance as well as throwing you out of more civilized shops after enough thieving. Barring you from shops should technically be easy, at least in theory, by forcing a trespass when you try to go into their shops. Between the extreme vigilance at that point and the trespass, and some notoriety, you should be arrested fairly quick after trying.

 

- The Prison System: Vanilla Skyrim's jails suck. Whatever cell you're put into always has an escape route. You're never celled up with another inmate. Sleeping passes the time instantly. There's nothing to do in Jail. And as such, there's never a reason to use it, unless you really can't pay your fine.

 

I'd love to see things turned up at least to 7 or 9. I don't need 11, but it'd be cool. Notoriety could come in handy here, and I'll detail it a bit:

• Notorious prisoners get more cell checks.
• Guards hate prisoners who think their above the law. Expect to get bloodied up a few times.
• Fellow Inmates will treat you differently based on your Notoriety with the Guards, and a separate Notoriety with the Inmates (more on this later!)
• Notorious prisoners get a more thorough search. Don't plan on having that lockpick you've clearly hidden up your nose. (there should, at least in most cells, be at least one article of furniture you can pull a bit of metal out of. Allow only one per item for each time you're in prison, and allow you to make one of two contraband items with it, and they're exclusive: the Shiv, or the Lockpick.)
• The more you're in prison, the crappier your cell will be. (Less furniture, more lights to prevent sneaking, more frequent cell checks, more frequent beatings, less escape routes. This ends with you being in a cell in the Torture Chamber (I swear, I'll get to it soon enough), under constant watch unless you're being punished.)

Okay, so we get it, Guard Notoriety means things suck for you. But, there's a way to make the guards hate you less: Rat out your fellow Inmates. Yep, you heard that right. Your best buddy in the prison just pulled a nail out of your bed, so you can't sleep at night because your bed just fell apart, and he made contraband with it? Inform a guard at meal time (I'll get to that in a bit with Prison Schedules, I promise) and they'll check the cell and your cellmate. Find some contraband, and your Guard Notoriety drops. Find nothing, and your Guard Notoriety rises. (You're a troublemaker and a time waster, and the higher your notoriety, the less likely they'll listen, and the more likely that they'll punch you in the mouth.)

 

However, doing that won't make you any friends with the Inmates, and your Prison Notoriety goes up. And we all know the old prison saying, "Snitches get stitches." Well, that's true in Skyrim, too. Rat out an inmate, and you might just find yourself in some serious hurt. On the flipside, take the fall for something you didn't do, and your Prison Notoriety goes the other way, making you some friends among the inmates. Injure or kill a guard, and the Inmates like you more. If you're put in for something serious (like going Werewolf and butchering the entire town of Riverwood), then you're more likely to be left alone.

 

Now, I mentioned a Torture Chamber above, didn't I? This terrifying little room contains everything needed to make your life horrible. This room should be reserved for only a few occasions, but should never be entirely unoccupied:

• First use of the Torture Chamber, when the Player isn't notorious enough for it, or their crimes weren't bad enough for it, and they weren't captured by an Enemy Soldier, should be for the purposes of immersion. The player should hear screams from that general direction at (pseudo)random times of day/night. If the player visits the prisons when they're not arrested, they should be able to walk into the torture chamber and actually see a prisoner either in the cell, or being tortured.
• Second use of the torture chamber should be when the player's crimes or notoriety force the situation. It should be used as a method of punishment, and as a result, should apply some hefty debuffs after experiencing the horrors within (damaged health/stamina/magicka, regenerations either slowed or stopped, depending on the tortures used. I think there should be variety, if it's not too hard to do). Depending on the notoriety, the player will either be returned to their cell (big crimes, but not being a problem to the Guards), or locked in the cell in the torture chamber (A problem to the Guards).
• Third use of the Torture Chamber is when the player has been captured by an enemy soldier (Legion soldier captured by a Stormcloak, or Stormcloak captured by the Legion, or Talos Worshipper captured by Thalmor) and they're being tortured for information. There should always be options in between each session of torture: Give up the Information, Stay Silent, Act Defiant, and Pray to the Divines. Giving Up stops the torture immediately, but has a chance of applying a debuff - Weak Willed - making it harder to resist in the future. This should be able to be cured, but should require something difficult to do in order to clear it. Staying Silent gets you a basic bit of torture, applying standard torture debuffs. Acting Defiant enrages the torturer, getting the usual torture debuffs with much stronger values (example, if your health is normally reduced by 50% and regeneration slowed by 75%, you may find acting defiant ends up reducing your total health by 75% and stopping your regeneration entirely). Praying to the Divines should be the same as staying silent, except with a very small chance (like 1%) of the Divines listening and granting you their Blessing, removing all debuffs and shielding you from damage for that round.
• So, what happens if you give up in torture for information? Well, while your torture stops immediately, and you're just thrown in a cell (after all, you are a very treacherous traitor) to serve the rest of your sentence (probably somewhere around that 10-30 day adjustable mark mentioned above somewhere)... Well, it's very likely that a severe upset will happen based on your information. If you're a Legion soldier who gave up, expect a minor Stormcloak victory (not visible, but heard about), a letter from your superior officer (General Tullius) admonishing you for giving up vital information about the war effort, and that it's your fault that the Stormcloaks massacred this small outpost in whateversville.
• And what about if you're devout to the Divines? Well, if you pray at enough shrines, or at one or another in particular enough, you might be able to raise your chance at Divine Salvation by a little bit. And if you're really devout? You might find yourself teleported to the nearest temple of that Divine, fully healed. You'll be without your gear, but you're not being set on fire anymore, either.

Okay, now seriously, let's talk Prison Schedules. I mentioned it above, but the Torture Chamber got away from me.

 

I think the idea of a rigid schedule makes sense. This is just a rough idea, but it could be worked into something, I think.

 

• 6 AM: Wake Up Call. All inmates are required to be up at this time. Setting your sleep beyond 6 will lead to punishment for defiance. You'll be expected to change out of your sleep outfit and into something suitable for the day's tasks. (You know the drill by now, I'll get to that later.)
• 7 AM: Breakfast. This should be set up such that those of us with needs mods can survive. I don't know all of the mods that do things for eating and drinking to survive, so my best guess would be to have a vendor and give every prisoner a limited amount of gold to spend on food and drink. Confiscate the gold before we leave so we're not using it to do nefarious things behind the guards' backs.
• 8 - 11 AM: Work. Remember the outfits I'd mentioned? I'll request they stay vanilla, but giving us Ragged Robes, Ragged Trousers, Roughspun Tunic, and Blacksmith's Apron would give 4 basic outfits. Setting your mod to tell what one we're wearing and assigning them to a job would be a rather powerful system to control the player character's ability to act freely. I'll mention the clothing under the schedule later.
• 12 PM: Lunch. Basically Breakfast all over again. Mentioning it here because I didn't want to bloat up breakfast, but the meal times should be all the inmates (Except quest-related vanilla NPC's) in the rooms at once. Lots of guards should be around in case any crap starts.
• 1 - 4 PM: Work / Punishments. Basically, this should be either a repeat of the first work (if you've not riled up the guards yet) or a punishment for defiance. This could be anything from a beating/whipping (health damage, no regen slowing), a stay in the Torture Chamber (apply Torture Debuffs), or going to See the Warden (More severe punishments can be applied by them).
• 5 PM: Dinner. Same as the usual chaos at meal times.
• 6 - 8 PM: Social Time. This'll allow for all the illicit trades and such to happen in the prison. This also allows your fellow Inmates to interact with you.
• 9 PM: Bed. It is expected that you'll sleep at this time, although some may choose to do other activities at their own risk.

Okay, so let's talk about the outfits and what they'd do.

• Ragged Trousers should be your sleeping attire. It should be considered as an act of defiance to be wearing this out of your cell at any time, except maybe during Social Time.
• Roughspun Tunic is required if you've been assigned cleaning duty. Cleaning should be some interactive piles of dirt, where you activate it, you go into the sweeping idle, and time passes for an hour. Provide plenty of dirt piles such that it'd be impossible to clean all of them in one day. Make them respawn often, such that getting cleaning duty is never a simple "I have nothing to clean" shift.
• Blacksmith's Apron is required if you've been assigned to a shift at the smelter. As with the cleaning duty, it should just be an interactive "activate the smelter to work" type setup, where time passes until the end of your shift.
• Ragged Robes is for a shift at the cooking pot. Similarly to the Smelter, it should be an interactive "activate Cooking Pot" to pass the time.

But, this wouldn't be prison if the inmates couldn't ask for favors.

• Your fellow inmates read the same schedule you have. Thereby, you'll always have the option to complete the favor you've been asked, because you'll be doing the job you'll need to be at in order to get the supplies you'll need.
• If you've been assigned Cleaning Duty, activating the spare broom will allow you to break the broom handle. Best not to get caught doing this. Doing so will gain you a weapon: a Broken Handle. Some inmates will ask for a weapon, and this will comfortably fit the bill.
• If you've been assigned a shift in the Smeltery, you have a couple options. You can pocket some Bits of Scrap Metal, useful for making lockpicks and shivs, or, you can break the shovel to gain a broken handle. Some inmates will ask for a weapon, but others would rather have a lockpick, or they'd prefer to have just the bits of scrap metal.
• If you've been assigned a shift at the cooking pot, you can steal valuable cooking ingredients (garlic and wine come to mind), brew a bottle of Foul Brew alcohol, or poison someone's food. Some inmates want you to get them some alcohol, and they're not too picky. Some inmates want to get revenge, but need a little help. Getting them the ingredient they need for their poison is the first step. Some inmates want to see someone dealt with permanently, and will give you a poison to put in someone's food.

Oh, but there's a flipside to this. If you sufficiently raise your Prison Notoriety to get on the Guards' good side, you can wear a guard uniform as your assigned job (the only one you can accept at that point) and be assigned randomly to patrolling a hallway or assisting the torturer.

 

But, there's a downside to being on the Guards' good side: you aren't the only one in this prison, and your actions against the other Inmates has consequences. Expect to be attacked at meal times with shivs and broken handles. Don't be surprised if a guard finds a dozen lockpicks in your cell. Prepare to be poisoned at meal times.

 

Okay, so time to move on from the Prison System and to Crime in general.

 

- Crimes: Skyrim's default crimes are kinda crappy. The values are way out of balance and there's not enough variety. Let's fix that.

 

My values are going to be very high, but I'd rather see people in jail because they couldn't pay their fines than to watch every big-shot level 81 Dovahkiin wander around butchering entire cities and paying it off.

• Let's start big by fixing murder. 1000 gold? Ha. You wish. Let's see what people think of 30,000 gold. Dark Brotherhood, prepare to be afraid. You don't want to get caught assassinating random people anymore. And the fact that poisoning the Emperor was only 1500 gold... Let's try 45,000 on for a change, and max out your notoriety the instant he croaks it.
• Lycanthropy, Vampirism, or Crimes against Nature (cannibalism)... Honestly, I think 10,000 gold sounds good here. Not quite as bold as Murder itself, but... You are a creature that could technically do it, and getting found out should max out your notoriety.
• Talos Worship. Stormcloaks might let you off easy if you're wearing your amulet openly. The Legion will not, and the Thalmor will haul you off for 'questioning'. Not sure what the bounty should be, though...
• Treason. Jail time for questioning.
• Slavery. I'm thinking 25,000 gold. Obviously, not a big deal on Solstheim. Possibly not a big deal if you pull a Stormcloak Victory, but only if committed against Elven races.
• Banditry. 30x the worth of your stolen goods, plus 10,000 gold, plus any bounties occurring from the murdering of bounty hunters sent to kill or capture you. On the plus side... You do get to have a cool bounty letter with your name on it.
• Possessing or Using Skooma should be about 5,000 gold. Something easily swept under the rug for most mid-to-late-game players. However, it should hinge around there being fewer than 6 bottles of Skooma in your inventory (or whatever the cutoff point is by default for making a droppable stack).
• Making or Selling Skooma should be 20,000 gold, plus, for every skooma bottle you're carrying, an additional 1000 gold.
• Assault with your fists: 1000 gold.
• Assault with a weapon: 25,000 gold.
• Gambling - Fights: I don't really think that should be a crime. Brawls are part of Skyrim.
• Gambling - Drinking Contests: I'm thinking 500 gold. It's, for the most part, something petty.
• Gambling - Horse Races: I think this should also be pretty low. Gambling would be something new in Skyrim, though, hence trying to encourage doing so.
• Framed for a Crime - Should be based on your Notoriety. Always results in a trial.
• Bribery - 8,000 gold, unless you bribe your way out of it again.
• Theft. Pretty much as you said, just up the penalty because at this point, I could go steal everything in Skyrim openly, go fence about an eighth of it to cover basic costs, and pay off my bounty.
• Killing domesticated animals: Let's wind this up to 3000 gold. Yep, shooting that chicken in Riverwood just got even more serious.
• Destruction of Property (That stupid Dwemer Urn comes to mind, as well as Fus Ro Dah anywhere civilized that sends stuff flying) 1000 gold. Probably needs to be more, but I think it'd be hilarious the first time someone sees fit to prove they're Dragonborn to Avenicci by sending the contents of the nearby table flying.
• Malicious Wounding: Basically, you know how assaults on animals that don't end in death caused a bounty? This is what I'm terming it as, because while the domesticated animals are property, it needs to be more severe. 1500 gold. And it should count if you shoot the cow being given to the Giants.
• Pickpocketing - Getting caught should be as much as if you'd actually stolen that item.
• Lockpicking - 7500 gold sounds about right for that.
• Trespassing - 1000 gold. They really don't want people doing this anymore.
• Public Drunkenness - No gold penalty, but you get to spend the next two days in prison sobering up.
• Disturbing the Jarl's Peace. Let's make this a nice catch-all for everything we can think of that doesn't fit the above, including shouting after the guards have told you to knock it off. 1000 gold and a day in a cell.
• Failing to show up for Jury Duty. Three days in a cell. Let's give people who own every property in Skyrim something to worry about.

Oh, and because I introduced that last concept, I should flesh it out.

 

- Jury Duty. As a property-owning citizen in a hold, it is expected that once in a while (some four or five in game months) you may be required to show up and participate in a trial. Failure to show up will earn you some time in jail. Showing up will get you a tiny amount of pay barely sufficient to cover travel expenses from any of the major carriage-to-carriage holds. Enjoy getting this letter when you're wandering around Solstheim.

 

And one last idea before I call this post way-too-long-and-only-getting-longer:

Please, whatever you do, make sure we get to see the whole crime->trial->prison->punishment system working, even when we're not the center of attention. I'd love to be able to deal with wandering into the prison and paying the guards my 100 gold to legally beat up a prisoner with my bare hands. Watching a trial unfold between two randomly generated NPC's and a jury of several NPC's deciding someone's fate could be a good break between dragon fights, bandit busting, and unloading my trash onto every NPC I can who has gold. Hurling rotten produce at the latest prisoner stuck in the stocks while I'm in the market anyway would be a pleasant break from fighting vampires. And, occasionally seeing a bandit up for public execution would make going to Solitude worth it.