Full Looting

[Felithvian]

Yes, ala Ultima Online. It's all about feeling good that not only did you take something away from someone else, but you took everything (and I mean EVERYTHING).

 

Armours, Pants, Shirts... You know, leaving the npc half naked.

[rjshae]

Inventory and looting has been discussed at great length already. There's a trade-off between realistic completeness and simpler game play, which needs to be taken into account.

[jivex5k]

This game is single player though, how many NPC shirts do you want?

It would get annoying IMHO to scroll through a list of crap I don't want each time.

 

And taking everything from someone in UO is a major **** move. Do you really need that dudes doublet?

[Archmage Silver]

I'm against this simply because it's unnecessary and creates problems. You can't give everything a decent value because you'd create a situation where the player has access to too much gold, or if valued differently, a situation where the player has to loot and sell everything just to make enough gold for upgrades. And since the latter scenario is pretty much a waste of time, the former scenario would be the one being considered - however, it's not worth going through with either, because why create all that unnecessary loot with little to no value? It doesn't any inherent value to the gameplay unless you're a miser. Partial looting is the best way to go, and the only one that actually makes any kind of sense IMO.

[jezz555]

I'm against this simply because it's unnecessary and creates problems. You can't give everything a decent value because you'd create a situation where the player has access to too much gold, or if valued differently, a situation where the player has to loot and sell everything just to make enough gold for upgrades. And since the latter scenario is pretty much a waste of time, the former scenario would be the one being considered - however, it's not worth going through with either, because why create all that unnecessary loot with little to no value? It doesn't any inherent value to the gameplay unless you're a miser. Partial looting is the best way to go, and the only one that actually makes any kind of sense IMO.

 

Seconded, it may not be realistic, but this is one of those area's where gameplay comes first.

[Frisk]

I don't know about you, but I don't want to kill a group of orcs, and end up with "12 sets of dirty, soiled orc underwear". No, please - I'm happy with looting just things that are of obvious value (like coins), or which serve the story purpose.

 

Excessive realism is not necessarily a good thing.

[rjshae]

I'm against this simply because it's unnecessary and creates problems. You can't give everything a decent value because you'd create a situation where the player has access to too much gold, or if valued differently, a situation where the player has to loot and sell everything just to make enough gold for upgrades. And since the latter scenario is pretty much a waste of time, the former scenario would be the one being considered - however, it's not worth going through with either, because why create all that unnecessary loot with little to no value? It doesn't any inherent value to the gameplay unless you're a miser. Partial looting is the best way to go, and the only one that actually makes any kind of sense IMO.

Yep. If you allow players to loot everything, then I think you need to counterbalance it by adding in the actual expenses: food, booze, lodging, equipment repair, transport costs, taxes, bribes, theft losses, and so forth. It's easier just to say the two balance each other out, and so don't need to be covered at that level of detail.

[Mandragore]

I would actually prefer a more complete looting system. Not down to looting soiled orcish loincloths mind you, but weapons and armor certainly. I'm always annoyed in crpgs with shallow loot systems when an enemy is very obviously wielding a superior weapon to mine, but my character can't loot it. If a humanoid npc is visibly wielding a weapon or wearing armor I should be able to loot it.

 

More in depth looting also adds some challenge and thought to the process since you have to decide what the choice loot is to carry back and sell, instead of just automatically looting some gold and 99 stackable whatevers off of that orc you just killed.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Mandragore

[Alexjh]

I'd perhaps suggest some form of "semi-full" looting. I'm not against full looting, but it's logistically problematic, and really there is only so many everyday objects that you can be bothered to pick up. I really strongly dislike "MMO" looting, where enemies only ever drop a preset batch of things, and never, for instance, the weapon, shield or armour they are using because because it feels really artificial.

 

What I would suggest would be something like:

 

(Non-magical) Weapons are always dropped.

Magical or unique items are always dropped.

Lingering ammo and potions always drop

(Non-magical) Shields may be damaged when you kill an enemy, so have a 50% (or whatever) chance of dropping

(Non-magical) Armour is almost always destroyed during the kill, so only drops 10% of the time.

Enemies may then drop various other things by random generation, ranging from generic (gems, gold) to specific to a certain enemy (holy symbols, spells, thief tools etc)

 

Unless it has some specific value or function, in regards to armour this only applies to specifically human scale humanoid characters - for instance, there's no point in centaurs dropping loads of centaur armour you can't actually wear, or when the armour isn't a specific thing, like a gnoll wearing a load of random hides and chunks of things. That isn't to say the centaurs might not have useful helms and bracers or a boss gnoll might have a suit of stuff that holds together enough for someone else to wear it etc.

[Bartimaeus]

One thing that always bothered me about NWN(2) was the lack of enemy equipment dropping after killing them. Even if the equipment is utterly worth less to me, it's still neat to actually see what they were wearing. Balance-wise, it sort of does make sense to not have them drop everything, especially at higher levels when +2 or higher items become the norm, because they can just pick everything up and sell all of it for boatloads of cash...but still.

 

(edit) Also, a neat idea above - I don't agree with it exactly, but having normal items break/shatter upon death would be okay too, as long as it's not every time and it's not breaking anything important/particularly useful, and as long as there's some sort of unusable item to replace the old one, (i.e. broken sword).

Edited December 3, 2012 by Bartimaeus

[Hertzila]

I'd prefer full looting in the sense that any equipable/valuable item is lootable when I kill someone. An enemy arbitarily dropping only a part of its loot, if any at all, based on a dice roll is one of the most annoying things I know in RPGs.

Of course, things like basic pants and orcish undergarments would not be equipable nor valuable to begin with, so I think we can overlook them.

[Pshaw]

I really don't want my inventory clogged with stray junk just for the sake of 'realism.' Besides I personally wouldn't be looting somebody's pants and shirt after I just blew holes in them with magic and cut them up with swords. I say keep the loot to a reasonable amount and if they don't have clothing, armor, or weapons on the corpse assume you broke it beyond use in the fight.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Pshaw

[Umberlin]

While I'm not fond of bringing up what is essentially a Dungeon Crawler, when talking about an RPG's looting system, I do think Titan Quest actually found a compromise between the 'random drop factor' and, 'if you see it on them, they drop it.' It was still random, all in all, but somewhat appropriate for what was doing the dropping, and, obviously, the random things actually showed up on the enemy. If they were going to drop a really nice spear, the game spawned them using that spear, for example. The downside of that being they'd be using that really nice spear on you, or, the upside, depending on how you look at it.

 

So, yeah, they might not drop everything that's on their base model in TQ, but if you saw something out of the ordinary, be it armor or weaponry, equipped on an enemy, they typically dropped it. Just not that 'base' stuff they'd always wear/use by default.

 

That said, I'm hoping most items are fairly mundane, instead of magical items everywhere all the time.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Umberlin

[Dream]

I'm against this simply because it's unnecessary and creates problems. You can't give everything a decent value because you'd create a situation where the player has access to too much gold, or if valued differently, a situation where the player has to loot and sell everything just to make enough gold for upgrades. And since the latter scenario is pretty much a waste of time, the former scenario would be the one being considered - however, it's not worth going through with either, because why create all that unnecessary loot with little to no value? It doesn't any inherent value to the gameplay unless you're a miser. Partial looting is the best way to go, and the only one that actually makes any kind of sense IMO.

 

Seconded, it may not be realistic, but this is one of those area's where gameplay comes first.

 

Gameplay should come before realism in all areas.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Dream

[AGX-17]

Yes, ala Ultima Online. It's all about feeling good that not only did you take something away from someone else, but you took everything (and I mean EVERYTHING).

 

Armours, Pants, Shirts... You know, leaving the npc half naked.

 

Why stop there? Why not take his loincloth? His man-panties? His fundoshi? Leave a naked corpse and pay someone to take his soiled undergarments.

 

Better yet, harvest his (or her,) corpse or organs and sell them to schools of anatomy!

 

Inventory:

Fresh Human Cadaver (12)

Health Potion (6)

Iron Short Sword (3)

Rotting Human Cadaver (34)

Rotten Human Cadaver (47)

Wooden Buckler (2)

Edited December 4, 2012 by AGX-17

[obsidiansquid]

I really think looting should be as quick and convenient as possible. Not really into absolutely everything being lootable - maybe some kind of quick key that lets you loot valuables (potions, gems, and coins) and another key for everything else if you so desire. I hate having to click through a mountain of garbage on a defeated foe to get the 3 measly gold coins.

[Mandragore]

While I'm not fond of bringing up what is essentially a Dungeon Crawler, when talking about an RPG's looting system, I do think Titan Quest actually found a compromise between the 'random drop factor' and, 'if you see it on them, they drop it.' It was still random, all in all, but somewhat appropriate for what was doing the dropping, and, obviously, the random things actually showed up on the enemy. If they were going to drop a really nice spear, the game spawned them using that spear, for example. The downside of that being they'd be using that really nice spear on you, or, the upside, depending on how you look at it.

 

So, yeah, they might not drop everything that's on their base model in TQ, but if you saw something out of the ordinary, be it armor or weaponry, equipped on an enemy, they typically dropped it. Just not that 'base' stuff they'd always wear/use by default.

 

That said, I'm hoping most items are fairly mundane, instead of magical items everywhere all the time.

 

This sums up my position pretty well. If I can actually see something on an NPC, particularly a special item of some kind, why wouldn't I be able to loot it?

Edited December 4, 2012 by Mandragore

[Agelastos]

Yes, ala Ultima Online. It's all about feeling good that not only did you take something away from someone else, but you took everything (and I mean EVERYTHING).

 

Armours, Pants, Shirts... You know, leaving the npc half naked.

 

Why stop there? Why not take his loincloth? His man-panties? His fundoshi? Leave a naked corpse and pay someone to take his soiled undergarments.

 

Better yet, harvest his (or her,) corpse or organs and sell them to schools of anatomy!

 

Inventory:

Fresh Human Cadaver (12)

Health Potion (6)

Iron Short Sword (3)

Rotting Human Cadaver (34)

Rotten Human Cadaver (47)

Wooden Buckler (2)

 

Well, UO did originally allow you to dismember a corpse and take the body parts. They removed that function in... what was it? '98? because they wanted to make it a T-rated game.

Everything went downhill from there...

Still the best MMORPG ever made (IMO), however.

Edited December 4, 2012 by Agelastos

[Felithvian]

Yes, ala Ultima Online. It's all about feeling good that not only did you take something away from someone else, but you took everything (and I mean EVERYTHING).

 

Armours, Pants, Shirts... You know, leaving the npc half naked.

 

Why stop there? Why not take his loincloth? His man-panties? His fundoshi? Leave a naked corpse and pay someone to take his soiled undergarments.

 

Better yet, harvest his (or her,) corpse or organs and sell them to schools of anatomy!

 

Inventory:

Fresh Human Cadaver (12)

Health Potion (6)

Iron Short Sword (3)

Rotting Human Cadaver (34)

Rotten Human Cadaver (47)

Wooden Buckler (2)

 

Carveable/Scissorable Body Parts were added in Ultima Online.

 

Ahem, Derrick's body parts

 

"a heart of Derrick"

"a rib cage of Derrick"

"2 leg bone of Derrick"

"2 jerky of Derrick"

"a entrails of Derrick"

 

Body parts from chopping corpses would decay at a certain time. Body parts, including heads, arms, legs and torsos could be recovered from corpses. Bone parts, including skulls (3 types), pelvis, jaw bones, and piles of bones could also be recovered.

 

 

 

[Felithvian]

Well, UO did originally allow you to dismember a corpse and take the body parts. They removed that function in... what was it? '98?

 

It was an early pre t2a osi feature that was later taken out. Some private serves such as UO Second Age have it implemented.

[HansKrSG]

Yes, ala Ultima Online. It's all about feeling good that not only did you take something away from someone else, but you took everything (and I mean EVERYTHING).

 

Armours, Pants, Shirts... You know, leaving the npc half naked.

 

Why stop there? Why not take his loincloth? His man-panties? His fundoshi? Leave a naked corpse and pay someone to take his soiled undergarments.

 

Better yet, harvest his (or her,) corpse or organs and sell them to schools of anatomy!

 

Inventory:

Fresh Human Cadaver (12)

Health Potion (6)

Iron Short Sword (3)

Rotting Human Cadaver (34)

Rotten Human Cadaver (47)

Wooden Buckler (2)

 

I know you are being sarcastic, but I would definitely play a game with that feature

[Felithvian]

I know you are being sarcastic, but I would definitely play a game with that feature

 

What are you waiting for? http://www.uosecondage.com/

[teknoman2]

BG style is fine... you can get his armor, his weapons, his gold and/or jewels, his potions and maybe other items that have a meaning to take (the scales of a dragon, crafting materials, quest items and so on)

[Agelastos]

Well, UO did originally allow you to dismember a corpse and take the body parts. They removed that function in... what was it? '98?

 

It was an early pre t2a osi feature that was later taken out. Some private serves such as UO Second Age have it implemented.

 

Which was released in '98, so...

Yes, I know there's plenty of Greyworld (are they still called that?) servers out there with their own set of rules.

LLTS!

[JFSOCC]

Harvest anything and everything you want, but with limited inventory space you'll have to make choices as to what you think is worth looting.