Kill Stealing

I have decided to quit EQ. Day Break has made such a toxic environment when they changed the rules of Kill Stealing. Use to be if you hit a mob first it was yours. Now there is no fair-play gaming experience left. According to Day Break its who ever does the most DPS. Well thats all fine and good, but some explain to me how a level 45 can even compete with a 65. The server Aradune is awful for KSing, and when I reported it, this is the response I got from Day Break. I sent them screen shots of the player that was KSing me , telling me go for the mob , but dont expect me not to KS you. If this isn't harassment , and toxic behavior than what is? The player also informed me that Cobalt Scar was being camped by them.If camp is not recognized by Daybreak games as it upholds an unrealistic standard on the definition of fair-play gaming experience, is telling a level 51 that they have to compete with a level 65s DPS a realistic standard on the definition of fair-play gaming experience fair when it come to killing and looting mobs ? Thats not realistic to fair- play to me at all. I paid like everyone else , and should be able to go into zones with the expectation that I won't be harassed by toxic players. Several zones have became very toxic with Day Breaks new policy of kill stealing being OK.
Game Master (Daybreak Games)
May 16, 2021, 6:22 AM PDT
Greetings Adventurer

I wanted to get back to you involving your incident related to a "kill-steal" today. Unfortunately, this is not a violation of the Rules of Conduct. Please feel free to contest any NPC in any zone of EverQuest as we already have a built-in system for determining loot rights. The player who does the most DPS to the enemy during the course of its engagement will receive the loot rights to the corpse. The community-term, 'Camps', is not recognized by Daybreak games as it upholds an unrealistic standard on the definition of fair-play gaming experience.

Please feel free to intervene all NPC's you desire to kill and loot, even if other players waiting for an enemy to spawn. The loot rights to the corpse will be awarded to the player who delivered the most damage per second to the enemy.

"There will be no first in force or engage rules arbitrated or enforced by a Game Master or Guide on any server. We believe players can resolve disputes about camps and raid bosses between each other. Game Masters and Guides will not help negotiate these disputes between players and guilds."

[EQ] Rules of Conduct
What are the EverQuest Rules of Conduct?

Can I have your stuff?

This changed a while back. DBG decided it was better to change the policy than to deal with all the drama from a CS perspective. Sorry you don't like it. Most of us were able to adapt.

Yeah that sucks. One thing I don't get why does he keep saying "DPS" and "damage per second", and not just "Damage"? The player who did the most TOTAL damage will get the loot, right? Not the player with the highest damage per second. Its not like you can start attacking at the last 25% of health, and because you did more DPS for that 25% you get the loot. Or am I wrong?
Wouldn't it be more accurate to just say damage?

We tolerate lazy design fway too much though. I get they didn't want to have to deal with the drama, but they could have accompanied the change in policy with a smarter way to handle loot rights. Other games do give it to whoever tagged first for this reason. If you are then worried about someone ninja looting by pretagging then there could be an exception that if you attacked first and did at least X% damage (say 10%, but could be tuned), you get the kill, otherwise whoever did the highest amount of damage gets the kill. There are better ways to handle it than aggravating your players.

Good lord. I cannot imagine what kind of person would spend time taking screenshots and filing a worthless petition instead of just moving and killing something else

It sounds like he is moving on now, and now daybreak lost a sub because another player found their game rules aggravating. Creating a system where someone with a more powerful character than you can totally wreak your plans, with no recourse is bad game design. It's not just him, people aren't going to like that. I get that you would just roll over and take it, but to some people it ruins the game.

In his defense, he was playing by outdated rules.

Perhaps. It's difficult to know whether it was a design decision or a policy decision. I tend to think it was policy. "Yeah, we could implement first aggro rules or we can just change the policy."

So it was a lazy policy decision then?

If you think harassment is defined as someone telling you that they plan on contesting a mob, I feel bad for you. The fact that you made it to 51 is a miracle.

Given the track record for rules enforcement, what are the odds they would do anything even if it wasn't biggest jerkwad wins?

You're right, that isn't harassment. The why he described it though it is in gross violation of Wheaton's Law.

I don't know why DBG just hasn't figured out a way to allow only the person/group/raid that tag the mob first are the only ones who get xp/loot. Like turn the mobs nameplate black or something to show people they wont get the loot/xp if they try and Kill steal

First agro rule is also dumb, i'm camping something killing ph's and actively watching those 3 spawns but you hit it first for what ever reason say i'm fighting a respawn or you have an instant cast ability and you tag it really fast I have to let you kill it?

SCREW THAT, imma try to get my mob. I don't "steal" mobs from other players generally but you're not getting something that I feel is mine just cause you sat there invis not interacting with the other mobs while I am killing. There are players who would just find a way to grief others with systems that lock loot to the person who did the first agro / damage. In the way that everquest is built most damage is the most fair way.

Yeah, you definitely don't want a system where the mob locks to the first person to hit it. Other games have that and it gives a massive advantage to players/bots using 3rd party programs to instantly claim the target the moment the thing appears in client memory which is often even earlier than it visually appears in the client for legitimate players to target and attack.

Karendune never ceases to amaze me.

Its a mystery to me why there are so many sks in the game. I just can't quite put my finger on why that may be.

So they can use their big brains to think of something better. Copied this from my post above:
If you are then worried about someone ninja looting by pretagging then there could be an exception that if you attacked first AND did at least X% damage (say 10%, but could be tuned), you get the kill, otherwise whoever did the highest amount of damage gets the kill. There are better ways to handle it than aggravating your players.

And sadly, with the new servers opening and them finally able to get what they want on Karendune, they will instead move to the new servers. They've ruined their own lands... and now they are going to ruin ours.