Hail! I am an old player of Carrion Fields (2-3 years or so give or take). It was the only MUD I ever truely enjoyed and got immersed in. I had a character in the Tribunal for a while, and later one that was in Servants of the Dawn. Lately I have been kind of missing Mudding and was thinking of coming back and playing again. I have a question regarding my one and only major gripe with the game (which was the biggest contributer to my leaving in the first place due to the frustration it caused.

I know this game has a heavy emphasis on PK, which I enjoyed. Do players still have the ability to loot the ENTIRE corpse of another player they just killed? I can't count how many times that I was jumped by a group of other players, then losing every single piece of gear I spent much time in obtaining. I would reappear naked, then probably get killed again once or twice running to round up some minor items just to arm myself. Assuming I made it to killing a couple mobs to get a weapon and a piece of armor, I'd get killed again and lose those 2 pieces as well. It drove me insane! I found it highly unappealing that a weeks worth of effort could be gone in 2 seconds. There was FAR too much work involved in re-equipping yourself, and it made the game VERY unbalanced. Fully equipped people running around slaughtering naked people left and right with nothing to gain just wasn't fair. I was never into that myself, and I had a warrior in tribunal that was very powerful (he lived off the spoils that we horded from criminals in town hehe). Some players would leave gear alone and only take 1 or 2 pieces that appealed to them, but for the most part most every player would loot the whole thing just for giggles. Has this rule been altered at all?

That one little area of this game made no sense to me, simply because I can't picture someone undressing a corpse and taking every single thing on a victims person if it happened in a RL battle. Every other aspect of the game was fantastic to me. I'd love to come back and contribute to the world, but before doing so I had to express my views on the PK loot issue. :)

>>There was FAR too much work involved in re-equipping yourself, and it made the game VERY unbalanced.<<

Unbalanced? This does not make a game unbalanced, but if anything might make things frustrating to a newbie. Yes, it is a learning curve people have to cross, but it happens. Things that a game unbalanced would be an Invoker who got dual wield, four attacks, weapon specs, could hide and sneak, and could gate. That would be unbalanced.

>>That one little area of this game made no sense to me, simply because I can't picture someone undressing a corpse and taking every single thing on a victims person if it happened in a RL battle.<<

You know, real life history, if peopled died they were stripped, especially in battles. Armies often took weapons, armor, provisions, whatever was valuable from the defeated. The fact is, Full Looting is very realistic! The fact that I couldn't take something is beyond reason.

I hope that helps enlighten you as to why it is allowed.

Karithia

Ive browsed other muds, mabye for a few minutes just to compare. Ive never strayed from cf other then in my drunken nights when i just decide to vent in the wrong way on the wrong person and get zapped for a few days. anyhow, heh. CF is brutal, brutal as it comes. At the same time its got the delicate flower chiled love everything pansy side too. Depends who/how you play. But,.. it is brutal. Its real life, except you get a lot of chances. Trust me though, once you learn a few tricks, its not so bad. For example, Key, Know where to gather clothes, and where to gather in a bind. Learn at least one item for each att, so whatever your playing, you can max yourself out, or get enough con up to stay alive and heal reasonably. Know where to grab coins in a pinch, food, water container.. Work on being able to run the basics, fast. Then, learn hiding places, where to run to when your getting your ass kicked. Memorize it so you know it blinded. Helps, trust me. Dont want to lose those nice things, then dont where them till you can defend them. Most pk's just to pk, that arent race/role based.. are because someone has nice ####, and the other someone wants it. Lot of this is in the tips file too, but ive been playing for a few years now, occaisionally you get the bastard that sacs it all.. sucks, life sucks.. big deal. You will learn over time, as have I, even kept the majority of my things the last 15 levels on my current char now, even though ive died a few times, most often then not your things are left, or you get there and they are carrying too much to get it all.. blah blah. If your not a good pk'r.. then dont do it. If you get attacked.. RUN. Ive died in past chars more times cause ive rushed in to grab what looked like a good pk, and got creamed. Looked like quite the idiot. Get the basics first man, crawl before you walk. Another thing, you want to be killed less, play neutral characters, less likely to be hunted just because your you. Another way.. join a cabal that most everyone likes, if your joining battle, scions, warlocks... chances are your going to get killed a lot. Heralds... dawnies. erhmm, fortress, you generally will build more allies. Friends are everything. Just start slow man, it comes with time, god damn it comes.


thedrunkard.... Luvin it!

Thanks for everyone's responses! Although I didn't have a chance to play again yet I'll check it out soon and see how much I remember. Looking around at info I see some changes that look fun :)

To respond to Karithia: Judging by your post it seems you didn't truely understand what I was saying. I will try to clarify what I meant by "Unbalanced". I meant nothing referring to classes being stronger than others etc.. I was simply referring to groups of well equipped players killing naked people all over the place. Perhaps I shouldn't have used that word. I also understand that in RL history people took weapons and such in battle, but I'm sure they didn't take the time to strip every corpse they killed naked as a jaybird. They took things of "value" like you stated. What I'm sure they didn't do was take a pair of boots that were far insuperior to what their soldiers wore, and an extra helmet to carry around on their person in the battlefield, etc.. That is is what I meant by what didn't make sense to me. The other posters made good points about how it's all in the player and their personality. They were more accurate in answering my question. I hope I have clarified myself to you.

I did play this mud for a good amount of time and saw pretty much everything there was to see. I was half decent at PK and knew the map etc.. I wasn't so much a newbie although I wasn't a full time super star player either. My most fun times were in the Tribunal being hated by pretty much everyone and getting jumped every time I took 3 steps out of Galadon's gate haha. I did quite fine defending myself too! I do miss it. Seeing the tips on getting past the frustrating times was inspiring and makes me want to come have fun again. Thanks!

1) The word you'ra getting stuck on is "Value".
Whats one mans trash is another's treasure, so to speak. RL
Battle everything was recovered from a corpse, and I mean
everything, because you just dont know. In Nam the VC would
take Marine's empty tuna cans because they found they were
able to be made into shells for small explosives. Lootingan
entire corpse is a double whammy, because thinking of all
equip as valueable this way means the player will take equip
for himself, as well as perhaps for his allies, AND anything
which is tradeable.

2) Maybe the person was a more cowardly character. Rather than
the Fire giant beating his chest over your corpse, slinging
your girdle of endless space above his head and munching on
the brains that splashed from your head, the player could have
just dirted you from the shadows and finished you off, before
taking your gear and slipping back into the anonymity of the
shadows making sure she got out of there (as fast as possible)
before you could tell who it was. This leads on to...

3) Finally (and I admit this is a limp reason) the player
might not have the time to search through your corpse and
would rather grab the whole lot, search through at leasure and
give the rest to someone he/she favours, thus increasing the
chance of creating a future ally.

4)While not being very *nice*, entire looting is extremely
strategically sound. The more time a person spends searching
for replaceable equip the more time the person that killed him
has to go about his business unbothered (e.g. leveling to get
out of a retribution pk).

Yes the full-loot thing still happens, but not all the time. And it depends a lot on your character I think and the player/character that kills you.

I've only played for 4 months. With my first character I learned a lot from constantly being killed. I found out that if you play a goody or even a fairly nice neutral character..there are other goodies/nice guys who will help you out when you need to get gear. Then too I learned where to find one or two things for myself. One thing I try to do now when I die..is immediately go purchase a potion of return while I'm still a ghost. That way if I get jumped while regearing I can at least escape.

I think all of us hate being full-looted and the more considerate players (yep even many of the evil ones) won't do this. They usually take what they are interested in if anything at all. If everyone full-looted all the time then I think we would all have a serious problem with it and wouldn't stick around long. So even though there is no real rule against it most players are considerate enough to know that it isn't a cool thing to do. Those who DO full loot others will find that they get the same treatment right back at them.

So come back to the fields. I'm hooked on it now. :)

>I know this game has a heavy emphasis on PK, which I enjoyed.
>Do players still have the ability to loot the ENTIRE corpse of
>another player they just killed?


Without including the rest of your thought, I am sure i can unbiasedly answer this for everyone. RL is not fair, when its goin good, it rocks, but it sucks just as bad as it can be good.
Thats where there suspense, the thrill, the fun, to succeed, is so powerful. Because when your doing good, geared well, got a few pk's under your belt, some quests, lil immteraction, cabal, etc..Its all that much more enjoyable. But in order for it to be so great, you also have to be on the downplay quite a bit to truly appreciate the good side. To retort to the 'its not fair'

Second. In RL, you get killed, your #### is going to be gone, your going to be gone, count your blessings this isnt a one life to live mud and at least you have a character. RL there is no ghost coming to haunt his corpse just to pick up that shiny sword and nice lich set gear. Doesnt work that way. Dont want to lose your things, then learn to fight better, run faster.. hide.. etc. There is a reason 51 chars are called heroes, they have triumphed to make it that far, and have earned that rank staying alive, fighting off opponents.. etc.
Yeah, getting looted sucks, when I play evil characters, i sac it all, good ones, i just take whats better then what i have. At the same route, this is a forced learning to re-equip yourself, why, shouldnt take more then 5 minutes tops to get five or six pieces of damage gear, few hp gear, and some random stat gear, constitution gear is easiest of all, and a well enough weapon in itself isnt that hard either. You learn your way around far better that way too. If you couldnt be looted, and your char doesnt perm die until 3xcon#,
then what would make you scared to die?

I personally, have been playing for about 5 years now, off an on. Theres been times when i take even 9 months off from playing, then get a hero or two, couple hi levs, then take another break. CF is a great rp/pk environment, and we couldnt have a better version, let alone the constant work being done. Ive noticed lately Imms have made an attempt to be more abstract encouraging instead of just being ...Figure it out, or telling you dictionary.com

I hope you decide to get back in the fields, at least from what I get out of it, if you got that before, you will never stop..

TheDrunkard