Looting Skill - Anyone know for a fact?

[iffy]

I found this thread that deals with what I'm after, but I don't feel confident. 

http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,122478.msg2956987.html#msg2956987

Does the looting skill affect what you get after a battle?  I never raid, so I don't want to waste points.  Thanks!

 

[BHunterSEAL]

It's been debated since the original, but I'd say the majority of players have come to the conclusion that it increases the number of (and thus the chance of high-quality) items obtained after a battle, in addition to providing a bonus to raid income and items. It's definitely worth it, in my opinion, but not at the expense of more useful skills (Training, Leadership, Path-Finding, etc). Since it's a party skill, you can use companions that have it; some start with it (see the wiki for details).

 

[Northern Mameluke Empire]

after 2 points in, I got Firentis who has 5 points in it to start. haven't noticed an increase, at least not in high quality items.

 

[Bobsama]

I've noted that, at higher Looting levels, you're more likely to loot undamaged armor Prior, I could only ever get Crude or Battered or Rusty armor, but with a few points, I started collecting normal and sometimes sturdy or thick armor. I've also been able to collect a larger number of Balanced, Tempered, Heavy, Strong, and even a few Masterwork weapons.

 

[Caba`drin]

I've noted that, at higher Looting levels, you're more likely to loot undamaged armor Prior, I could only ever get Crude or Battered or Rusty armor, but with a few points, I started collecting normal and sometimes sturdy or thick armor. I've also been able to collect a larger number of Balanced, Tempered, Heavy, Strong, and even a few Masterwork weapons.

This.

 

[Wheem]

To correct some misinformation here - none of the companions start with any points in looting skill (unless perhaps your game is modded). I also don't feel that it's a good idea to rely on companions for your looting skill, since they may very well be unconscious at the end of a battle, which will prevent the skill from taking effect.

As I said in the thread the OP linked, the only evidence I have in favor of the looting skill is anecdotal. If you test the skill on a per-fight basis, it will often seem kind of useless; after-battle loot in M&B/Warband is extremely random. You can easily see this yourself by saving before a battle, and then fighting it out several times (or cheat-killing purely for testing purposes); you might get great loot one time, and useless trash the next - even if your looting skill stays the same. I've gotten masterwork weapons from small bandit parties when my looting skill was 0 (in fact, that's how I got the first masterwork item I ever saw in the original M&B). I've also had an effective looting skill of 7, defeated multiple lord parties simultaneously (300+ men) - with no friendly lords helping - and had the best item be a Ragged Aketon (even though there were multiple high-tier troops facing me).

That said, over an extended period of playing both with and without the looting skill, I'm convinced that it's helpful. I now always raise the skill to 5 (with a +2 bonus) as fast as possible on my character, and seem to get better overall loot from battles. You'll still get junk sometimes (I was actually pretty annoyed at only getting a Ragged Aketon + cheap assorted trash after a grueling battle which I almost lost), but that's just the nature of the randomness. I suppose one could look at it as the looting skill giving you a better chance at not getting bitten by the randomness beast.

 

[I AM HOBO OF DOOM]

I found this thread that deals with what I'm after, but I don't feel confident. 

http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,122478.msg2956987.html#msg2956987

Does the looting skill affect what you get after a battle?  I never raid, so I don't want to waste points.  Thanks!

It gives you 10%more loot as stated However it does NOT increase the value of loot

 

[tyrannicide]

It gives you 10%more loot as stated However it does NOT increase the value of loot

But since the loot you get to pick from is a random subset of the overall loot, it does, effectively albeit indirectly, increase the value of your share.

It's definitely worth investing in. YMMV.

 

[Sarejo]

Loot after battle does not reflect what the enemy was using at that time; the loot is generated by randomly selecting items from the troops that composed the party(ies) that you fought against, and assigning a modifier to those items. IIRC, these modifiers have a probability distribution, i.e. there is a certain %, yet low % that a masterwork modifier will appear, another % for ragged, etc, depending on the items (that is, swords have different modifiers than bows). The items are affected by the amount of troops of a type that were present (That is, if you fight 200 Sarranid Mamlukes, and 10 looters, you'll get substantially more mamluke items than looter items)

You can check the items troops carry on the troops.txt file, and many times maybe you noticed you got items that were not present in game. For example, you fight a single Rhodok Trained Spearman, that has a low chance of getting a shield. Let's assume the Trained Spearman you fought had no shield. It's possible that you get the shield as loot, because it's an item the Trained Spearman may carry.

 

[Khalim]

Take into account, that your party size reduces your loot. This means that you get much loot in the beginning(for instance by killing searider) and though you increase your looting skill AND your party size you might get a wrong impression of the skills usefullness.

I have heard that the player gets a share of 10, whereas a companion gets 3 and a regular soldier 1 part.

This means, that you will have your loot reduces by 50% if you take 10 soldiers with you...

 

[Turumbar]

Looting skill is garbage and needs to be reworked. If you want to always have a surplus of money, go trade skill.

 

[BHunterSEAL]

Also it's important to note that it looks like loot is distributed pro rata between the parties involved. So if you're in a large faction-faction slugfest and come out on top, your party of 30 will get substantially if there are allied parties of 70, 80, and 90. It is not uncommon to come away with zero loot (or a couple random pieces) when a group of allied lords defeats one enemy one. This seems to be independent of which lord initiates the battle and whose soldiers do the majority of the killing.

It also bears mentioning that loot is divided based on the soldiers that survive the battle. So if you had 40 and took 20 casualties, it often looks like you got a huge amount of loot, when in fact the number of people it is divided among has just gotten smaller.

I agree that the loot skill should have a more pronounced (or at least well-defined) effect. However, it's a nice place to stick extra points that can't be spend on primary skills due to attribute points.

 

[Hughes]

Let's not forget the most important part, that looting also increases your chance of stealing cows.

after 2 points in, I got Firentis who has 5 points in it to start. haven't noticed an increase, at least not in high quality items.

Firentis starts with 5 points in looting??? Honorable Firentis who killed his brother and is always talking about honor? 5 points in looting, really? I don't remember that, I'll check next time I play. I was pretty sure no one starts with any points in looting, not even Klethi, it's the only skill none of your companions have.

 

[Karmine]

I am currently reading through game scripts and so on..

No companion starts with Looting skill.
Looting Skills contributes in number of items you gain when looting defeated parties/towns/well any loot.
Looting Skill increase mount of cattle that can be stolen.
Looting Skill decreases raiding time.

 

[Falcon Critical]

I was looking for a masterwork siege crossbow, I invested in my looting skill wished really hard. The very next day, I bought a masterwork siege crossbow.  Explain that!

 

[Archonsod]

Yup, Tyrannicide had it about right. It increases the number of items you receive. Each item has a random chance of having a modifier, and there's a higher chance of negative than positive values. It only indirectly affects quality since you've got a better chance of getting a positive modifier if you loot 20 items than you do if you loot 10.

 

[Bobsama]

Yup, Tyrannicide had it about right. It increases the number of items you receive. Each item has a random chance of having a modifier, and there's a higher chance of negative than positive values. It only indirectly affects quality since you've got a better chance of getting a positive modifier if you loot 20 items than you do if you loot 10.

To add to this, looting from sea raiders gets a nice boost. I usually get anywhere from 0-5 good pieces of armor (that were typically crude or battered, with the occasional regular piece) and, after training a companion with looting, I was picking up 1-8 pieces and tended to get more normal pieces than before. Any help is good; 10% more loot may be the big difference.

That said, since Warband, I've never looted anything with surcoats or talbards. I've gotten damaged plateboots and the likes a few times. Perhaps I'm not fighting enough heavily armored opponents--I usually play with Nords and so I miss out on quite a bit of the typical armor.

 

[Fattyfat]

I find the looting skill indispensable - not sure where the hesitation people are having in training this comes from (on a companion even, if not the primary character).  You will get more loot.  Nuff said.

 

[Karmine]

Yup, Tyrannicide had it about right. It increases the number of items you receive. Each item has a random chance of having a modifier, and there's a higher chance of negative than positive values. It only indirectly affects quality since you've got a better chance of getting a positive modifier if you loot 20 items than you do if you loot 10.

First thingy... I didn't know you posted in this section too :O

And second so my search and study through the whole scripts.py for every Loot thingy was useless for me to do..... 

 

[Turumbar]

I still think it pays off in the long to run buy gear from towns. I forget who it is, but one of my companions has a trade skill of 7, I have 5, so that means it's a party skill of 9. With high trade it pays off in the long run to just buy your stuff instead of waiting around forever to get lucky on drops. In about 90 days all of my companions and myself had lordly or reinforced armor and the best weapons in the game with over 100,000 still in reserve.