Further thoughts on loot locks
I am a bit concerned that the new loot mechanics might not be beneficial to gameplay. Perhaps the problem is that I'm not understanding the mechanics correctly, and if so I apologize in advance, and please feel free to correct me. I do like the *intent* of the new "close corpse" loot mechanic, and think that is all fine as long as it gets implemented as described. My concern is what seems to be the new "tag it" and it's your loot mechanic. I've already run afoul of that with a few trains in Kur Tower - where I get trained, have to kill the mobs, only to find that I get no reward despite getting trained. This new mechanic seems to be a vector for abuse, (in addition to encouraging folk to train mobs onto others).
With this new mechanic, I can easily see some malicious players "tagging" a target, and then letting another player or group kill it for them. If it really works this way, a player with a ranged ability could follow another player (or group) around "tagging" any target the player moved toward. I remain convinced that the most fair mechanic was the "most damaged" mechanic that existed previously. Sure, abuse of the new mechanic can be handled by reporting the abusive player. But why add a mechanic that creates a slew of abuse tickets?
Another concern I have is players that run through an area and cast area-effects on every mob around, and then just move on without looting. I'm sure this is great for levelling up an ability, but for folk grinding for materials and/or gear, not so helpful. Not burying the corpses (as we all know) slows down the respawn rate. So folk have to wait for the corpses to disappear, and then the respawns, before they can resume grinding. Why not put a timer on each corpse that after a certain amount of time, anybody can loot/skin/butcher the corpse and/or bury it, before it disappears on its own? At least that way, having somebody come through and nuke everything around and not loot would not be such an incredible downer.
As far as the druid event issues, it seems certain mobs need to be exempt from the new loot-locks. That would seem to be relatively easy to implement, but perhaps I'm oversimplifying...
In summary, I feel:
- Fix the "close corpse" mechanic.
- Leave the basis for the loot locking mechanic as it was (e.g. "most damaged" vs "first tagged").
- Consider a loot expiration timer.
- Exempt certain mobs from loot locking.
Thoughts?