Kill Stealing

[Hangover]

New people to online gaming and a few that have been around...joining in killing a mob when you have not been asked, or are not on a party with the person killing a set of mobs is called Kill Stealing and is GREATLY frowned upon by most players. I realize you might think you are helping but please do not do so. You may "Need that mob to complete your mission, go find another set as it is rude and disrespectful to the player already engaged with the set of mobs. Thank You

[Misguidance]

Did CoH not implement some system where credit was given to the person who tagged the mob, rather than the person who killed it?

 

I could have sworn I remember that happening, but admittedly it was a long time ago.

[_NOPE_]

I thought XP and rewards were based on the percentage of damage that you did to an enemy vs. their total hit points, but I have no idea how it relates to getting "credit" for kills on a mission counter.

[Hangover]

I really do not remember but I usually level my chars every three or four levels... I do not do as much damage as those that go back and level as soon as they are able to but it is still rude for those that do so...I do not know if they are thinking they are just helping or actually trying to grief the player already engaged...but this is just a friendly reminder to those few that have done so already in the few short days I have played here that it is not acceptable online behavior.

[Lamb Chop]

I thought XP and rewards were based on the percentage of damage that you did to an enemy vs. their total hit points, but I have no idea how it relates to getting "credit" for kills on a mission counter.

 

This.

 

And with all the bonus XP we've been getting and all it's not something worth getting mad about. It's not like whoever gets the most kills gets the biggest number next to their name on the scoreboard at the end of the game. It's not that kind of game.

[khy]

XP and infamy rewards from killing a mob are based on the percent of the enemy's life you damage.

 

If an enemy is standing in a fire patch and goes down to 25% health, and you kill it - you only get 25% of the XP and Inf, even if no other player attacked it. If you and another player (Not on your team) each do 50% damage to a mob, each of you get 50% XP and Inf.

 

That said, 'kill stealing' is a super minor thing to be upset about in this game because you'll both get mission credit for defeated enemies and even if someone does tag a mob you almost have killed, you'll still get the bulk of the credit and be able to move on to other enemies that much faster. Even then, it's rarely ever worth grinding outdoor mobs for XP/Inf versus just doing newspaper/scanner missions. The only real reason I could see that you'd want to farm specific enemies in an outdoor area is to farm salvage drops, and those are so random it seems like it's better to just do missions and buy what you need from the AH.

 

If you are on a team, the XP and Inf is shared no matter what - otherwise defenders and healers would get shafted.

 

Sometimes, in some areas, there are missions for outdoor stuff that are simply limited. A few that I can think of off the top of my head are many of the 'Kill X enemies of Y type' missions, such as Agent Carter's missions in Mercy (Kill 15 longbow, destroy 5 legacy chain runes, etc) or the anti-Vahzilok missions in Atlas Park where you have to find and kill several of them outside a charity event. Sometimes those specific enemies are easy to find in groups, other times they're semi-rare or not spawning for whatever reason. In those instances, getting mad that someone else hit an enemy you're fighting seems a bit petty. Yes, they took a tiny fraction of the reward from you - but they're just trying to get past that mission same as you. Sooner or later your contact will be giving you an indoor mission that nobody else can access unless they're on your team, so you can move at your own pace and not worry about it.

[Hangover]

XP and infamy rewards from killing a mob are based on the percent of the enemy's life you damage.

 

If an enemy is standing in a fire patch and goes down to 25% health, and you kill it - you only get 25% of the XP and Inf, even if no other player attacked it. If you and another player (Not on your team) each do 50% damage to a mob, each of you get 50% XP and Inf.

 

That said, 'kill stealing' is a super minor thing to be upset about in this game because you'll both get mission credit for defeated enemies and even if someone does tag a mob you almost have killed, you'll still get the bulk of the credit and be able to move on to other enemies that much faster. Even then, it's rarely ever worth grinding outdoor mobs for XP/Inf versus just doing newspaper/scanner missions. The only real reason I could see that you'd want to farm specific enemies in an outdoor area is to farm salvage drops, and those are so random it seems like it's better to just do missions and buy what you need from the AH.

 

If you are on a team, the XP and Inf is shared no matter what - otherwise defenders and healers would get shafted.

 

Sometimes, in some areas, there are missions for outdoor stuff that are simply limited. A few that I can think of off the top of my head are many of the 'Kill X enemies of Y type' missions, such as Agent Carter's missions in Mercy (Kill 15 longbow, destroy 5 legacy chain runes, etc) or the anti-Vahzilok missions in Atlas Park where you have to find and kill several of them outside a charity event. Sometimes those specific enemies are easy to find in groups, other times they're semi-rare or not spawning for whatever reason. In those instances, getting mad that someone else hit an enemy you're fighting seems a bit petty. Yes, they took a tiny fraction of the reward from you - but they're just trying to get past that mission same as you. Sooner or later your contact will be giving you an indoor mission that nobody else can access unless they're on your team, so you can move at your own pace and not worry about it.

 

It does not matter why it is done...it does not even matter who gets the kill...it is RUDE and DISRESPECTFUL and there is NO excuse for it...you can attempt to justify the behavior if you want to, but it is still not acceptable behavior online. If you are in that big of a hurry, maybe online gaming is not the place for you!

[_NOPE_]

It does not matter why it is done...it does not even matter who gets the kill...it is RUDE and DISRESPECTFUL and there is NO excuse for it...you can attempt to justify the behavior if you want to, but it is still not acceptable behavior online. If you are in that big of a hurry, maybe online gaming is not the place for you!

I can think of an excuse for it... the poor citizens want to be saved from evil criminals ASAP, they don't care WHO does it, they just want to be saved!

[Coyotedancer]

Pretty sure you'll get credit for the mobs in things like hunt missions if you do *any* amount of damage to them. It doesn't matter if you did the majority of the damage yourself, or if you got "the kill". Damage it at all and it'll count towards your "Kill X number of Y in Z" total when it falls over.

[Generator]

OP, take a deep breath.  In COH this is really small potatoes.

[Tankshock]

Yeah, might want to remember this game has a much higher than normal percentage of "fluff" players.  I introduced my son last week to the game, and the first thing he said was "Daddy, shouldn't we go help those other heroes fighting over there."

 

It's not kill stealing, and I don't think the OP's aggressive stance represents the majority of the players.

[khy]

If you're that upset about it, OP, just avoid outdoor missions and focus on doing indoor ones.

[Misguidance]

 

It does not matter why it is done...it does not even matter who gets the kill...it is RUDE and DISRESPECTFUL and there is NO excuse for it...you can attempt to justify the behavior if you want to, but it is still not acceptable behavior online. If you are in that big of a hurry, maybe online gaming is not the place for you!

 

I kind of get where you're coming from with this.  In early issues it WAS a huge problem, and yeah, it was rude af because we all knew that it deprived the first person of a kill.

 

Most MMOs now (and CoH included) took steps to make sure it was no longer an issue, so that everybody could play in greater harmony.  It's no longer a big deal.  :)

 

I feel like you're angry for the wrong reasons here.

[Tankshock]

Funny story from the early days:  I was playing an energy tanker, and would run around helping other heroes then hit a bind that said "No charge for my power".  I'm all about the bad puns.  Finally someone said "Is there a charge to make you go away?".  Which was an objectively funny response.  That's when I learned about "kill stealing".

 

It's good to get outside our own bubbles.

[Zolgar]

If you're that upset about it, OP, just avoid outdoor missions and focus on doing indoor ones.

 

THIS, a million times.

 

There are comparatively few outdoor missions in the game, and they made it so that those there are most of them have really good spawn rates AND you get credit no matter how much damage you dealt.

 

If someone swooping in and helping you deal with a hoard of baddies bothers you that much, stay inside where they can't do it.

[Mjolnerd]

This seems to me like a carryover from other, older RPGs where kill-stealing really was a major issue. Thus it became taboo, and now it's really an etiquette thing. Technically burping loudly doesn't hurt anyone, but it's still considered inappropriate in many situations.

 

That said, this is yet another example of a "CoH isn't most MMOs" situation. Explaining that kill-stealing isn't a big deal (and really, it's not) is like explaining that we don't have "healers" or that a team is perfectly capable of doing an entire task force without a tank.

 

OP: There are things that irritate me, too. People who call their characters "toons" should be kicked off chat as far as I'm concerned. You know what I do when someone does that? Nothing. Because it's ultimately totally inconsequential. This is a game. It's supposed to be fun.

 

Unclench, dude.

[Nuc]

It does not matter why it is done...it does not even matter who gets the kill...it is RUDE and DISRESPECTFUL and there is NO excuse for it...you can attempt to justify the behavior if you want to, but it is still not acceptable behavior online. If you are in that big of a hurry, maybe online gaming is not the place for you!

 

 

Oh calm down, it's CoH, not Everquest in 1999. Things have changed and the reason that it was not considered acceptable (namely kill credit, loot drops etc.) have been addressed by most modern online games at this stage. And if you stop to think about it for just a second, in the setting that this game takes place in, it makes absolute sense for a character (well hero character anyway) to jump in and help dispatch the bad guys. Hell, even Positron gets in on the action these days and that stuff is all grey to him!

 

 

[_NOPE_]

this what happened in the last game i played KSers ruined it for everyone stealing kills and expeez and just anything to cheat there no extened maintenance there trying to catch the KSer and we pay for it so unless people don't let GM'S know of wrong doing's in the game it we ruin it and there we not be a COH IT WELL BE GONE TO THE PERUVIANS!!!!!!!

[Dr. Gemini]

It does not matter why it is done...it does not even matter who gets the kill...it is RUDE and DISRESPECTFUL and there is NO excuse for it...you can attempt to justify the behavior if you want to, but it is still not acceptable behavior online. If you are in that big of a hurry, maybe online gaming is not the place for you!

 

We're all here to have fun, but that does not mean that everyone else will simply go along with what you think is fun and how you think everyone should behave. Further, many people here role play (in my opinion to a far greater extent than most games). They're not being rude or disrespectful when they're lending a hand, they are playing the game.

 

So, you don't like it, we get it, but you might actually get some sympathy if you simply put it out there as your personal opinion (which it is) and not try to strengthen your argument by invoking some universal online code of conduct (which it isn't).

[Sirus]

You know, I sometimes see other players getting mobbed by enemies in the outdoor areas. I often check their levels, their health status, see how many criminals are attacking them and how well they're managing. Most times, I leave them be. Other times the player appears to be in trouble and I jump in to assist. Especially when playing as my Tanker, who can draw aggro off the other player and ease the pressure on them.

 

This, in my mind, isn't kill-stealing. It's doing what heroes do: namely, helping others in need!

 

I find myself in the reverse situation sometimes, again particularly with my Tanker. I don't really "grind" as such on outdoor foes, but if I see civilians in dire straits I'll help them out because, again, it's what heroes do. And sometimes, thanks to a Tanker's abilities, I find myself getting mobbed by rapidly respawning foes.

 

When that happens, and I begin to be overwhelmed through sheer numbers, and another hero leaps in to help out? I'm always grateful. We heroes are outnumbered  a hundred to one! We need to watch each others' backs!

 

Given the emphasis on cooperation in CoX and the various measures the game has in place to prevent players from getting shafted too horribly when someone, er, assists in dispatching a foe, getting angry about kill-stealing seems a bit contrary. The only real scenario I could envision being cause for frustration would be a high-level character nuking low-level spawns in order to deny them to other players, but quest areas are generally large enough that a single player couldn't hope to cover everything.

[Prototelis]

I spent a good amount of time yesterday using my lvl 40 brute to taunt enemies so lower level players could pound on them with impunity.

 

Drive by buffs in lowbie areas is one of my favorite things to do.

[srmalloy]

I thought XP and rewards were based on the percentage of damage that you did to an enemy vs. their total hit points, but I have no idea how it relates to getting "credit" for kills on a mission counter.

 

I don't recall what the number was, but there's a cutoff -- you or your team have to do at least X% of the mob's HP in damage to get credit for defeating it. This is why, if you see a group of people going after, say, Jurassik, you want to get added to their team rather than just jumping in and attacking, because you probably won't do enough damage to get the badge for defeating him.

[Zolgar]

I spent a good amount of time yesterday using my lvl 40 brute to taunt enemies so lower level players could pound on them with impunity.

 

Drive by buffs in lowbie areas is one of my favorite things to do.

 

I miss ninja buffing... I should start doing that again. :)

[khy]

I joined a frostfire team over the weekend on my thermal mastermind, we had some fun and killed us an elite boss. Afterwards, I was flying back to Paragon City and noticed a level 11 tanker (I was 18 at the time) getting into a fight with way too many trolls. So being the meddling do-gooder I am, I started chain-healing him. He didn't seem to understand that for all intents and purposes I was making him invulnerable to the trolls, since I could outheal their damage easily, so he ended up running back to get them zapped by police drones.

 

But hey, I tried!

[Chance Jackson]

KSing always seemed a strange thing to be mad about, early on I was in over my head against some higher level mob and I got bailed out by another player who started attacking that mob, but as I continued attacking said mob this player sends me a tell complaining about kill stealing, in my mind this was a inpromptu team up against a badie.