Looting Changes?

Availability of Rares -

This is a simple fact of life - if you are not in a cabal you NEVER EVER have to fight someone EVER. You can just avoid PK 100% of the time. By saying that you never get an opportunity to equip because the cabal'd members of the pbase have all the rares is seriously, a slight on all our intelligence.

A character that has 0 responsibility can get equipment 100% easier then a cabal'd victim. THINGS ARE RARE. They are AS RARE for the cabal'd member of the pbase as they are for the non-cabal'd. Cabal'd members dont get some special log on period where they can snap up all the rares before the non-cabaled members. Give me a break.

This is a simple case (for most cases) of I want this and this and I want it NOW. Like that irritating five year old child nobody likes to have around. I have a supreme rare set atm. Know how long it took me to put it together? A MONTH. I play every day. That is a long time. Its not even all the things I want. I can think of 5 things I still need. However I know that these things are rare/unique so they are HARD TO COME BY.

A good example of how easy non-caballed characters have it is Evashen or Damia (no slight on the character). These two often had awesome sets of rares. Very very GOOD sets of rares and they kept them 100% of their play time. Why? Simply because they didnt have to fight anyone they didnt want to. They could flee when they wanted to. They could hide and never face a certain so and so again. Ever.

Keeping of rares -

Interesting idea. However I still dont see how it stops the problem on the upper scale end. Most people who dominate will not loot mithril unless the person is a complete pain in the ***.

I can see it being a bonus though to people who keep getting attacked whilst trying to re-equip. That is a pain in the ***.

Life insurance:

In a cabal you have no option. You fight. You cannot run, you cannot quit (while saving face) without putting in some sort of effort. Those who choose a cabal know very well that they are on demand 100% of the time. In the middle of desolation and get your standard attacked/taken? Better recall and get taht thing back. Its your DUTY.

This is where non cabal'd people have the advantage. They are not puppets to SOMEONE ELSES schedule. They can come and go as they please and invest as much time as they like to rare hunting.

Whilst others in a cabal only get small amounts of time to go out for rares. More often then not you can play 10 hours and have half an hour without an enemy on.

Life insurance is there to protect the cabal players, the ones who have to fight, who have to stand there against any odds, against loosing their equipment because in reality they only have 10% of the time NON-CABALED players do for eq hunting.

Last point -

Whilst what you are able to grab straight away might not give you the 50 50 hit dam you want straight away, there is actually a HUGE amount of equipment available in this game. I guarentee you wearing a centurians haubrak and a tit fullplate leaves a TINY difference between the two. Or a set of mithril boots and a set if light steel spiked boots. But there is enough equipment out there to get your purpose done and see your enemy dead.

If they are better at PK then you - it doenst matter what you are wearing, you will die at a point. Probably a lot more then once. If they are evenly matched you can put together a combatable suit in under half an hour. If you are better at PK then them? Grab mithril and kill the one time lucky SOB.

Double post.

sorry stupid internet at uni.

I wouldn't say you never have to fight if you're not caballed. Cariousus could always track you down, for instance. And there's always bounty hunters. These days the Nexus triumvirate seems to do a pretty good job of engaging you whether or not you want to fight.

I have a supreme rare set atm. Know how long it took me to put it together? A MONTH. I play every day. That is a long time. Its not even all the things I want. I can think of 5 things I still need. However I know that these things are rare/unique so they are HARD TO COME BY.

I think this is the point. It shouldn't take a month of playing an hour a day to be ready to fight. Most people don't have that kind of time, and we're never going to expand the p-base if that's what it takes. This is exactly the frustration that prompted the other thread. It also shouldn't just be a matter of parking your arse in FL every day to dominate the p-base. I understand what you are saying about killing someone decked using basic eq, but we all know that eq all else equal makes a big difference. Despiser put this issue to rest in his PK essay.

I can see it being a bonus though to people who keep getting attacked whilst trying to re-equip. That is a pain in the ***.

This is, imo, the biggest part of the whole thing. I am not trying to cut down on rares at all - in fact, this idea doesn't really change rares at all.

I think that a suit of rare equipment can make one - especially a melee - VERY viable in PK. However, I think that you can also get a decent set of non-rare equipment that makes you competitive.

The goal is to minimize the re-equipping time, maximize the interaction time (because lets be honest - re-equipping takes away from RP time just as much as PK), and still maintain a risk of loss to those dying, and propensity for gain for the victor.

Most players don't loot non-rares for use - they just take or sac them so the losing character doesn't have anything. What players want to loot is still there - the good rares. But the losing player doesn;t have to take forever just to get their feet back under them (unless they are already fully decked. Now they have MORE risk to battle, instead of less, as it is now).

I was referring to the non-looting of non-rares worn on the body moreso than life insurance. In all honesty, life insurance has never been a real problem for me, but the concept is disturbing that I may be battling someone who is fully decked, has cabal powers to mitigate my non-caballed abilities, and can essentially walk over me. In the off chance that I DO get the kill on them, they can just take time to rest up and come back at me in full power. Meanwhile, if I die to a character that is typically stronger, I have to take a day or so dodging everyone while I gather mithril and build up from there until I get a suit that makes me decently competitive.

There is a wide disparity there, and imho, something should be done to even the gap.

You are right, there is a HUGE disparity there, no sarcasm intended. But guess what. If you are not caballed fighting a caballed char then that's how it's going to be every time. That char most likely worked hard for that cabal. Why shouldn't he/she be rewarded? If you don't like the gap, then don't fight caballed chars.

Again - I don't think thke problem si looting - its the disparity between the rares and the non-rares. It has not always been like this.

I was able to get myself to arond 40 40 hit dam if I wanted in non-rares (even as an evil with no access to mithril). However, I had zero saves - so it was bye bye time when I fought so much as a cleric (and there are aq lot of clerics :-( )

So I go back to my eq lists, find the smaller rares (since the bigger ones aren't in or I can't find a group as my cabal is being attacked) and get those. Hit dam drops and now I can't deal enough damage although I am taking a small amount less.

After a week of this nonsense, I finally string together three 'bigger' type rares (note none of this stuff came out of Winter or anywhere like that) - great - but i have to face someone with a 'super' suit. Usually not a problem - except the power of eq these days is far too great and despite all my skills I (barely) get taken by what I consider to be a player of lessor skill but more time. Bye, bye to my best rares.

Getting looted doesn't bother me - the eq disparity does. Hell, I was able to fight and survive in almost full non-rare suits several times against multiple opponents lately.. However, 'back in the day' ie 2.0 I would have fought and prevailed in such circumstances. Now I find there is no chance unless I can clear the factions 2 - 6 times (HA HA, I can't find a good ranking group let alone a winter group) as well as picking up probabaly 3 pieces elsewhere (outside Winter or PKs).

I don't think looting needs to be changed - I think the relative power lvl of non-rare equipment needs to be looked at. Either I can get hit/dam OR saves/hp. However, I need both on melee and hybrid classes. Currently I'm on a mage so we'll so how that goes with regard to fighting without a 'super' suit ie non-rare and moderate rare hp/saves. I have used such suits before on spell casters with sucess so I might just be lucky.

If I am right it will mean that spell casters again have it a bit easier as they have a way to make do without hte super suits provided you have some skill where as melee and hybrids do not.

L-A

See my update: http://www.forsakenlands.org/forum/showpost.php?p=106067&postcount=23

Its a good point. BUT... I still think there must be a comparitive advantage to being uber decked and being this new gear. Otherwise.. Whats the point in having the ultimate gear areas? 0. I'll take my 5 minutes to get this other set and be just as effective as bothering to spend a bajillion hours gathering this ****.

There should always be a difference, but I think we should be looking at a system of diminishing returns, rather than the massive leap with have now from "decent" equipment to "uber" equipment.

Right--not no difference. The argument is that the difference is too large.

And I'm not looking to get rid of the 'uber' gear, I just want to lessen the time in gear that makes you unable to compete.

And, I think it would be neat if that super suit, while giving you a distinct advantage in combat, comes with a greater risk of loss. That is, you can lose your ENTIRE 'uber' outfit, if it is all rare. Whereas the non-rare equipment, while giving you a distinct DISadvantage in combat, has less risk of loss.

In this case, the large difference actually becomes sort of a neat component, forcing you to choose - safe, but not as dangerous; or dangerous, but not as safe?

EDIT: The main change here is to try to lessen the time it takes ot get into nominally competitive gear. I HATE spending a ton of time on my character re-equipping, just about get to where I am competitive, and then get jumped by a decked char who full loots me and I have to start all over. If I get attacked and killed when in sub-standard gear, let me at least KEEP the poor gear I had, so I don't have to start all over.

I've got it--make life insurance available from the pit healers, but it only works for non-rares.

that's what a locker is for, except with life insurance don't your items stay on your body or w/e?

why not make the lockers we have now free?

Lockers don't work. They randomly disappear for no reason and ALWAYS disappear if you are executed. Along with everything in it.