Looting Bandits a crime?

[Professor Von-Wulfen ]

Hi all.
When you are attacked by bandits etc, why is it a crime to loot them?
This seems to be the only way to get equipment early game?

[RammingSpeed]

Originally posted by Sasau Cat:

It's established in the game that it's wrong to touch dead bodies and their possessions from local medieval-Christian point of view.
It was done historically all the time, and in the game they won't put you in jail for that, but looting and graverobbing always was considered wrong and often forbidden. There's no such thing as natural inherent right to loot, even though it's usually assumed in D&D-inspired RPGs and other 'lowlife adventurer' fantasy
How it works in KCD makes sense more or less, and adds some additional depth to the game. Since it is possible to complete the game without looting

I wasn't able to find anything easily on the legality(christian or otherwise) on the practice of war trophies/spoils of war or dueling trophies in medieval times. I would love to see some real documentation if anyone has it.

My concern in regards to the game mechanic of looting a vanquished foe in self defense being logged as a crime, is just how gimmicky or roundabout will I need to play to avoid ever getting points in the "corpses looted" criminal statistic. Did the developers see this play style as a possibility and plan for it within the game to completion? I've read that There’s a quest where you are forced to loot a bandit and it counts as a crime. There is another quest where you have to loot hares to prove you killed them, but looting HARES counts as a crime.

Just how much of the game am I going to miss because of this statistic and how weirdly am I going to have to play to keep that statistic at 0?

[theo]

Originally posted by RammingSpeed:

Did the developers see this play style as a possibility and plan for it within the game to completion? I've read that There’s a quest where you are forced to loot a bandit and it counts as a crime. There is another quest where you have to loot hares to prove you killed them, but looting HARES counts as a crime.

Probably they did, you don't have to do anything too weird. With the bandit there is a relatively simple alternative way - sneak and overhear bandits conversation and you won't need to take clues from the dead body. In case with hares you don't have to loot them - you can just lose the wager with Hans and don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about it, or buy hare meat in the nearest town. But it might be an oversight. Generally hunting animals is poaching but there are exceptions that the game doesn't fully consider it seems

Originally posted by RammingSpeed:

Just how much of the game am I going to miss because of this statistic and how weirdly am I going to have to play to keep that statistic at 0?

I wouldn't recommend trying weird playstyles on 1st playthrough. But I'd say you miss more when playing the game in a normal way. Because then you're ignoring most of its non-linearity and roleplaying freedom and depth. You find more interesting ♥♥♥♥ when trying unusual approach

In the game Peshek's graverobbing quest right away shows Henry's concerns about robbing the dead. Even earlier in Skalitz in reference to local marauders. And there's a lot of talk throughout the game about 'knacker's job' and all that. Later Ulrich is outraged about Henry wanting to check out the dead merchant. And it goes on.
It is not completely clear and consistent, but implied enough to make me not surprised about that thing with statistics. If that's historically accurate or not - not sure, to some extent, I suppose. Ofc it's probably not the same thing to check dead person's pockets, or strip them naked. But gameplay wise it is

[RammingSpeed]

Originally posted by Sasau Cat:

It is not completely clear and consistent, but implied enough to make me not surprised about that thing with statistics. If that's historically accurate or not - not sure, to some extent, I suppose. Ofc it's probably not the same thing to check dead person's pockets, or strip them naked. But gameplay wise it is

Right, well until someone has any proof besides thinking that they suppose it was true, i'm gonna just assume KCD is doing some exaggerated extrapolation historically.

In terms of game mechanics, if you walk up to the butchers body that's guarded by the dog and loot it, it's not considered a crime and is not logged under the criminal statistic...THIS IS AFTER you accuse Zbyshek of being a corpse looter yourself...not to mention all the other villagers corpses during that quest are free to loot without going under the criminal statistic. It doesn't engender confidence in the games ability to properly distinguish what is and isn't corpse looting, which in turn erodes ones confidence and faith that the developers made the game with this statistic in mind all the way through.

Originally posted by Sasau Cat:

I wouldn't recommend trying weird play styles on 1st play through. But I'd say you miss more when playing the game in a normal way. Because then you're ignoring most of its non-linearity and role playing freedom and depth. You find more interesting ♥♥♥♥ when trying unusual approach

Right, that's initially why I decided to go with the no crime role play. I'm going to give it a shot but if it becomes something obviously terrible like some liege lord commands me to go grab some documents from a knave i'm supposed to dispatch and i'm forced to corpse loot i'm gonna be pissed.

[RammingSpeed]

I do want to note that upon replaying the home coming quest that after accusing Zbyshek of corpse looting, Zbyshek accuses Henry of being a hypocritical corpse looter in return even if you've only looted villagers and haven't received any points in the "corpses looted" statistic. Replaying it without touching anything near a corpse except for Shard(the burghers short sword) changed the dialogue to Zbyshek accepting the accusation without the retort, so there may be some kind of hidden recording of actions going on.

I'm gonna go ahead and guess you can take items people don't actively have on their corpses without incurring story or criminal statistical changes as long as it's not all ready flagged as stealing.