For whatever reason, looting seems to be a big issue among today's playerbase. Since this is running through my mind and I'm trying to put most of my inane ramblings down to paper, I'm going to outline some proper looting steps in my mind. I believe most players should try to stick to this outline, but you know what, I can't tell people how to play. So fucking humor me.


Rule #1:
Listen to Graatch.

No, seriously. Graatch has always said, looting is good for the game.

And it is.

Myth #1:
Thou shalt not full loot or loot at all because the playerbase is small.

WHAT? This never made sense. I get so pissed off when I read some random post about how someone's looting made someone flip out and claim that the looter had driven off another player. Honestly, this MUD is the type where if getting looted makes you flip out like that, don't bother playing.

But Sam, you say, didn't you flip out at Yhorian and do exactly what you complain about 2.5 years ago? Well, I'll get to that in a bit.

Rule #2:
Don't go OOC after getting looted.

Oops. But seriously folks, if you eat a rough loot, log out, break shit, smoke a cigarette or joint, turn on the TV/Xbox and relax, log back on in a day or so and regear. Don't compound your problems by flipping out OOC. It's just poor form and shows a remarkable lack of immaturity. Even if you get hit with one of the three "cringeworthy" loots I'll diagram later.

Myth #2:
Getting full-looted sucks.

Well, this myth is somewhat true, actually. But hey, now you can try and build a better set! You actually have a concrete, emminently achievable goal.

Now, here are some simple guildlines I usually follow for looting.

Guideline #1:
Take what you need and nothing more.

I generally take whatever might be an upgrade to what I currently have. Now, sometimes the person I killed has a whole set that is better than mine, but honestly, that happens maybe 1/1000 of the times. IF that does happen, I usually only take 4-6 choice pieces.

Addendum: This could be things you plan on giving to allies to strengthen your bond with them, certain items (re: Defiance) that make said character much tougher to beat, preps, etc. Just try not to go overboard.

Guideline #2:
If I ever kill someone 3 on 1 or worse, I try to limit the amount of things taken by the group to 3-5 things TOTAL. Why? Because it's never fun to get molly-whomped 3v1 and then come back to an empty corpse. It basically tells that person, if you see me with 2 other people online, quit out or hide your entire login. And then noone has fun.

Addendum: Special crazy powerhouse characters. If I take Cabdru down 4 v 1, you can be sure I'm looting the piss out of him because without him getting looted strongly, he'll just kill me 15-25 more times.

Guideline #3:
Never make blanket looting policies. IE Never say 'I'm full-looting all Nexuns because I got full-looted once by a bonded group of Nexuns'. I fucking hate this attitude. Not only are you basically doing EXACTLY what happened to you (trying to full someone) as revenge, but half the time you end up fulling people who NEVER looted you at all in the first place. This always killed me.

Guildline #4:
Never full-sac unless you want/are prepared for the dead character to delete. This is pretty cut and dry. A full-sac should only be known, in relative terms, that 'You should delete your char, because I plan on making his/her life a living hell'. There are valid roles in which you might make these decisions, but remember, all actions have consequences. If you full-sac, expect not only to reap what you sow IC, but know a substansial amount of the playerbase with then try and make your life hell OOC.


Situations in which it's okay to get pissed off because of a loot:

1) Getting ganked down 3 or more to 1. Because it's like adding insult to injury. You just got totally wrecked and probably had no chance to escape, and now, as if you weren't already reminded of your character's weakness, he's become even weaker. Basically, this is the lowest level of looting anger I tend to have. Anytime I get ganged/looted, I'm like 'Great, remind myself to logout next time I see these guys' or 'Great, remind me to not ever give them a chance to fight me'. Those situations, we all end up losing.

2) When someone takes 95% of your things, but not all. This is usually one that drives me crazy (actually, it just happened to me last time I logged in). It's like being a waiter. You wait on a table, give them your service, and the bill comes to 65 bucks. They tip you 1.50. It's more of an insult then if they just didn't tip you in the first place. So if you're going to have the stones as a looter to take 15-20 things, just take them all. Seriously. Leaving me with a ring, shield and two bracelets really isn't any different than just taking it all.

Addendum: And the thing that annoys me the most about #2 is that then the looter/looters then claim they didn't full-loot you. Like taking 95% of your things was somehow infinitely more fair than taking 100%. Wha?

3) When someone strongely loots/sac's your things when you had no chance to win. IE (purely hypothetical, to my knowledge Ahtieli has never done this) Ahtieli kills a level 44 fire giant rager without the head in two rounds when he is trying to retrieve and full-sacs/full-loots. What is the player of Ahtieli saying in this hypothetical situation? That being logged on when she is is a mistake and you will get punished. This is the thing Yhorian did to me that made me so upset. I couldn't wrap my brain around why someone would DISCOURAGE fun play (fighting bad odds, not logging off during bad ranges, etc). Now, I'm not so mad about it (though I still have my ire raised because he said he didn't mean to do it ;), you know you did Yhorian haha), but this is an event that usually causes the most anger/resentment, IMHO.

Addendum: In fact, with certain chars, I'd go out of my way NOT to loot at all in these situations, because I want to fight/kill them again. APs and most ragers fit this bill (like, whenever I play a villager and get a one on one fight that isn't highly squeued(sp?) in the other person's favor, I make sure not to loot because villagers literally beg for 1 v 1's).

4) Having an extreme lowbie full-loot you (IE any lowbie before level 20). This is infuriating. But Sam, you ask, you told us looting was good. Yes, collected playerbase, looting is good. But, we all know when a level 12 full-loots you, the thing that makes you mad isn't that you got looted. It's that in all likelihood, the level 12 won't ever see level 30 and/or a level in which you can get revenge. And isn't revenge what we all want on some level?

Addendum: The worst is pit loot by a level 1 :( And yes, this has happened to me. Plus, I got the obligatory shit talk. Worst part? He logged off before he hit level 10. Woe is Sam or anyone else this happens to. I tend to throw up an OOC pray along the lines of 'Did you just see that shit, or am I imagining things' to keep from losing my shit.

Finally, as a last thought, regardless of how you want to loot/not loot, etc, try to limit the shit-talk and quasi OOC/game mechanic speak? I'd much rather get full-looted and get a tell 'Yuh not have things, is make weak now.' than get semi-looted and get a tell of 'If you attack us while we are ranking again, we're full-looting you'.

Sorry.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2009 03:12AM by TMNSoldlogin.