Further thoughts on loot locks

[Arindor]

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?

[Crissa]

I dunno, I accidentally stole loot from newbies by smashing a mob that was under my level but over their heads for some reason. 'Most damage' isn't always what you want, either. 'Most hits', maybe?

Still, there's alot of ways for this to work, and hopefully the bugs will be worked out.

[Niph]

Maybe use "most damage", and the first to aggro gets a x2 multiplier, to avoid kill steal (if not the first to aggro, you would have to do 2/3 of the damage to get the loot.)

[cratoh]

I'd prefer full combat lock.

It needs to be that once the mob is tagged, it is locked to the individual that tagged it till either they, or the mob is dead. No outside people can damage it, no one ca 'help' the person by taunting it off them, or healing them etc.

I recently ran alts through crypt prior to changes and some other areas and was amazed that now it is a bit busier how many people would just come and start wailing on the mob I was killing. Rude! Locked loot goes some way towards this but without full combat log it won't work.

I know it is cookie cutter of what EQ2 implemented but it worked.

If it is combat locked and liek that till either person dies that removes a load of the problems.

EQ2 also featured 'call for help' for if you were fihting and got in trouble with the mob, you could break combat lock by calling for help which also made the mob no-loot. Perhaps developing something similar here but maybe if you called for help then whoever did the most damage got the loot.

Finbarr

[Crissa]

Ugh, combat lock is ... Ugh.

I want an open world to be an open world, where I can interact with others.

[lilibat]

Well in EQ the loot tag would time out. Kind of like the bit where if someone opens the loot window and leaves stuff it becomes fair game but if someone killed something and just let the corpse rot after so many seconds (20? 30? I forget) the MOB would then be untagged and fair game for all. If this new system does not do that, it would help with some of OPs concerns for that change to be made.

[cratoh]

I want an open world to be an open world, where I can interact with others.

That's all well and good but when you are fighting away and someone comes running past at 90 on speed buffs and in passing nukes your mob it's really annoying ;p

[Crissa]

That's all well and good but when you are fighting away and someone comes running past at 90 on speed buffs and in passing nukes your mob it's really annoying ;p

"Take the win."

[BuddyLove]

Ugh, combat lock is ... Ugh.

I want an open world to be an open world, where I can interact with others.

I agree !!! was a lot more sociable and friendly as it was before the changes

[lilibat]

My problem was when I was trying to get mats and I'd have a MOB almost down, a higher level would float in, kill it, and take the stuff. I could not care less about the xp but I need the mats because I am very crafting focused. I would say something to them, and they were like , 'you got xp, stfu". NOT THE POINT A'HOLE. So higher levels could just steamroll lowbies trying to get mats.