Re: Ganging
I'm not against the things you suggest to try to hard code less ganging. Personally, I'd like to see some roleplay changes with regards to ganging: Ragers and Goodies. I think Ragers should drop the policy of allowing ganging of the Hunted/Mages, and encourage one-on-one fighting during raids. For goodies, I'd love to see some sort of chivilary make its way into the roleplay of good aligned characters outside the paladins. It would be nice if that cut down on the goodie trash-talking, anything-to-win mentality and encourage them to examine the means as well as the ends.

I loved it back when someone confronted a Knight thief about the "honor" of his skills, i.e. kicking dirt, stabbing in the back. I realize that isn't what the honor of the Knights was about, but it is cool when good characters actually think certain methods of fighting are more respectable than others.

Re: Pre-Hate cabals
Like the others said, always been that way and aside from a few classes (conjurer, air shifter, healer (and certain cabal powers)) it is much easier to survive today than before.

I totally agree with the full looting sentiment. I've been a long time fan of that idea. Like you say, you're still going to lose your best eq, it just makes it easier for people with asshole roles to leave some things there. A long time ago I posted some of these ideas somewhere:

- Give thieves a swipe command, which allows them to take all coins, rings, and bracelets from the corpse with one command.
- Force orcs and rangers to remove the leggings and belt from corpses before they can butcher it (legs are a big source of muscle on humans). Leave the rest of the eq on the butchered corpse.
- Don't let "all" or "1." work on corpses
- Don't let charmies loot
- Force all the equipment to be removed before a corpse can be embalmed
- Leave a husk with the equipment on it after a demon eats it, or mob devours it

Then again, I think it would be cool if zombies of PCs still wore the equipment and wielded the weapons, possibly dropping the inventory on the ground. Not sure the best way to handle failed animates, or the ritual. Something to work with, at least.