Boss Loot Hoarders

This past week I have been playing my little engineer and fixer alts. I stumbled upon a few Boss camps, which I didn’t know had Bosses in them. These were the Bronto Oasis, the Rhinoman camp and the Mechdog outside East Athens.

A few days ago my little alt was killing the Brontos in the Oasis. Then a higher level came on to the seen and just started killing all the Brontos. He was killing them so fast I couldn’t even get a shot in edge wise. I didn’t mind that because he has the right to hunt them and sell what ever he finds. Then he starts to kill the Boss and basically sits there until the next spawn.

So I decided to log in my little Engineer and go to the Rhinoman Camp and try to kill that Boss. Well! The same thing happened to me while trying to kill that Boss. I was first on the scene only to have someone swoop down from above, just to take the Boss from me. I would have died anyway I guess. However, it’s the principal of giving the other player a fighting chance. Killing the Boss for the Boss drop items just to give to their alts is really unfair. What is really stressing is that we can be in the middle of killing the boss or waiting for the Boss to spawn, only to have a higher level 104 to 200 player come and take the kill from us.

Then I took another alt to kill the Mechdog. Here I thought I was the only one out there and I saw this little (tiny) purple buff. I tried to target it but the player was so small I couldn’t get the name. My Tab didn’t work and usually it’s the number 4 or 8 that doesn’t work. So I typed LIST and behold there were four high level players in sneak mode ready to pounce on the Mechdog. Which they did and the better player I guess got the loot. It was kind of funny in a way; she wasted no time on getting the hell out of there. Talk about trying to be anonymous.

At all those areas I asked politely why they were hunting here? Some would not acknowledge my presence. Then some would respond that they are looking for something or needs parts for their alts.

This gives an unfair advantage over a lot of other players. This practice creates an imbalance in the game. I end up having to set my alarm clock for 0100 hours in the hopes that no high levels are playing in these areas. I have learned one thing from this today. I need to find a PPPE, there sure are a lot of level 200s looking for this item for their alts. Lol!

Funcom remember when you are creating something; keep the beginners and the middle range players in mind. The lower levels and middle range players are the ones that you should be catering to, a little harder then what you have been doing so far. They will be staying longer then most of the higher levels. This is because we want to get to that higher level also. The higher-level players will get bored or disenchanted and will eventually migrate to another MMORPG. Then who is left? The lower level players that got screwed out of their hunting grounds by the higher level players. Also remember that the lower levels will become the higher-level players camping for their alts. Sounds like a viscous circle doesn’t it?

Well! Here is your chance to stop this practice of camping and farming for alts. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t say that all farming is bad. I just think that some items should be left to the lower levels to acquire on their own. Remember fighting my way to the foreman as a level 50ish or 60ish, just to arrive and see 5 level 150 to 200 there for the Crat suit? Then log in the alt to loot the body. I asked them if they could help me get one and they said they didn’t have time. They still needed to get one more. I just terminated myself (Crat alt) right there because there was no hope in hell of me ever getting that suit. I probably would have died anyway. Lol! I haven’t played my Crat since that encounter with the higher levels camping the Foreman.

Every time a patch comes out whether it is for game improvement or for server maintenance. A lot of us serf the Net looking for or getting the latest information on the next MMORPG we are planning on playing. I take a lot of things into consideration when deciding to stay with a particular MMORPG.

I played Diablo for two years because it was a very nice game and granted it’s not on the scale of AO. However, it was entertaining and gave me many fun hours. Close to the end, one of the determining factors that caused me to look for another game was: 1. The game started producing many high level players who would over power the lower levels on various low level bosses. Just to obtain loot for their other characters. I was guilty of acquiring loot for my alts also. However, I never muscled my way in on a fight. 2. The game became routine and predictable. I played many high level characters and one day, in the middle of a fight I logged and quit the game. Never to return to Diablo to play again, so all my characters were deleted.

What Funcom should have done when they created these camps was to put a level restriction on looting and killing these Bosses. This can be easily done; it should be the same as not getting experience with a high level player in the team. If the Boss is a level 50 for example and a level 150 player is killing the Boss then the (rare item) loot will not drop. This would give the players that meet these level requirements a fighting chance. If this is not possible because of programming hang-ups which I don’t thing would be the case. Then remove the pecking order “not a member of the looting team” from the Boss in this circumstance. Sure a lot of players will complain about Ninja looters. However, this would let all the other ducklings have a fighting chance at the same bug.

I do not think this is an unreasonable request. Nor! Do I think that implementing this would cause great distress among the players? They will just find another way of working around the obstacle probably.

Oh! And another thing I would like to point out. Since the patch has come out with the hopes that people would venture out into the wilderness to hunt once more for experience. I have seen no such thing other then the higher-level players trying their best to kill the General in PW lands.

Funcom has dropped the PVP restrictions on Mort and no one has returned to that area to hunt Borgs. I guess team mission still give better experience and safety. Did this patch satisfy everyone’s complaints about not being able to hunt? If that is the case then why don’t I see teams hunting in Mort, Rhinoman Cockpit, and Bully Bridge? Maybe Funcom should make the experience from team missions less and leave the team missions for loot.

Hugs Her favorite GM Ashed