Loot Etiquette - when does loot stop belonging to your group?

An item drops from a named mob. The corpse is no longer locked because someone outside the group was coming to loot. Another person loots the item before the person it was for, can loot it. Does loot ownership stop once the corpse is unlocked? Is this because the mechanics of the game allow it or because the community thinks this is right? Would be interested in others thoughts.

If the item rots out of advanced loot, then it is fair game.
If a person hits the "leave on corpse" button, it is fair game.
If that person wants someone from out of group to loot the namer's item, they invite that person into group (drop a merc, drop a player for a second, you can always reinvite them) and hand it to them via advanced loot. If they want to leave the item on the corpse, as stated above, it is fair game. To avoid people "stealing" that loot then they should use the advanced loot feature.

Largely agree with this
Except, if there is a group surrounded by a heap of corpses, it would be poor etiquette to start rummaging around in them without asking
If you come across a corpse with no-one around, it's fair to assume it's been abandoned

All of this assumes that they are using advanced loot, not everyone likes it and uses it. Loot rights do not change based on which loot system you are using.

I think the whole point of SOE implementing the adv loot system was to avoid Loot stealing AKA (Ninja Looting) so if you choose not to use the adv loot system that is your choice but dont get upset if someone comes around and loots a mass pile of corpses lying on the ground and you've left stuff on it ..

However yes they should ask , I agree with loot Etiquette and being kind in general .. but there are people out there that if they see a pile of corpses it doesnt even register to them to ask /ooc or send a courtesy tell ..

but it all falls on the responsibility of the person killing and leaving the corpses to rot .. adv loot system is there for a reason use it or risk Ninja looters . they've been around sense the dawn of EQ and they are not going anywhere..

thats just my 2cp of my opinion ..

And I would disagree that it was about loot stealing. Advance loot was designed to make the entire loot system better so you don't have to manually check each corpse to see if it has anything you want and loot it. In general it makes managing loot a lot easier as the entire group can see what is on a corpse and roll on it without having to manually check it first.

Sure it can help prevent things getting ninja looted but that is mainly a side effect of making the loot process more efficient. If anything it is a method to stop people in the group from ninja looting as only the group leader can do it with the system enabled.

the whole point in the loot system was to stop ninja looting .. sure it had the benefit of what you said above making it more convenient and easier for people to see what dropped .. but the fact remains if it wasnt to stop people from Ninja looting then I ask you why oh why would the Devs put a LOCK on the corpse for 15min out of the 28 to 30min the corpse is locked .. corpses were never ever locked before they put the adv loot system in ..

Got any evidence of that? At best it was to stop ninja looting from people who are in the group and have loot access to the corpse. In reality it was a quality of life improvement to help manage loot by removing the need to manually loot every corpse in a camp.

And corpses have always been locked to the group that gets the kill for 15 minutes long before the addition of advanced loot and are in fact still locked if you don't use advance loot. One of the problems with raiding before the raid tool was introduced was waiting for the corpse to unlock so the raid could loot.

ok you are correct when i actually thought about it corpses have always been locked , im old and my memory is not what it once was .. in which case makes my whole argument mute .. i will be quiet now ...

Corpses have always been locked for 15 minutes, even before the adv loot system.

yes after careful and trying really hard to remember back that far I realized with Waring's help that the corpses have in fact been locked the whole time

all i can say in my defense is never get old

As per the mechanics of the game: no longer yours when everyone in the group passes on it and it’s left to rot on the corpse.

Now that is not me condoning corpse hunters. It drives me nuts watching people run from camp to camp and hit every corpse they see lying around. Or people that are nice enough to call out rots and claim it’s…well claimed, and others rush the spot and ninja loot it.

Granted there are other ways around this. You don’t have to hit “leave on corpse” allowing it to go to rot and be open to be taken. You can close the loot window leaving the items “locked” on the corpse for the lock timer (15? minutes), can invite people to group and manually give it to them, etc etc.

But as far as “etiquette”, once you agree that everyone passes, it no longer belongs to your group. Even if you have someone specific in mind to pass it too, at that point you’re collectively agreeing that you’re giving it away and it’s no longer yours. Just my thoughts

To me, its all about respect. Camps aren't in the rules or have a mechanic in game, but yet a good many players respect camps. Same goes with the loot.

Imagine real items that you have in your house. You can take them to the curb for pickup, which is like announcing you are rotting the item. If you rot it in /ooc and someone wants it, its like them showing up at your house to pick it up. So, if I leave the door to my house unlocked, its my fault when someone comes in and takes anything. When did the victims become worse than the thieves?

A mob drops Something. The group decides who gets that Something. Even if they are reserving it for someone else who then has to run to the mob to get it, it still belongs to the group that killed the mob. They are the ones who decides who gets to loot that Something.

Only when no one cares, when everyone agrees that it can rot away, or that anyone can go get it, does it become Free-For-All.

The corpse unlocking does not make the loot Free-For-All. This has been EQ Etiquette for the past 22 years.

My process when I'm dumpster diving someone elses corpses:
1. Send whispers to the people who look in charge.
2. After getting no response, use ooc / say and jump up and down in front of the person
3. After getting no response, start the rummaging.
4. Often get nastygrams about how that loot is theirs, the spawn is theirs and ive ruined their entire weekend by invading their camp.
5. Shrug off the toxicity, apologize and leave them alone

If you kill a mob, you own the loot. End of story. Someone else coming along 16 minutes after you kill it and takes it without asking is stealing.

Follow up question, if someone loots the item you left on a corpse, is it appropriate to send them hate tells, calling them names?

You can always lock the corpse if someone is coming and the timer is near to expiring.
You could also look around to spot any non-rogues nearby who seem to be hovering and send a polite tell 'No this isn't rotting, we have someone coming for it'

That would be against the rules, unlike looting an item that was left on a corpse.

If you haven't managed to figure out where the loot is going for 15mins you didn't want it that much anyway. If you left it on the corpse well, you left it on the corpse...