Anyway, something I've been really fixated on for some reason, is the idea of someone - or perhaps a subsection of the villagers - who are total peasants. These are like the underlings, the newcomers, the newbies, the slave/labor alts, maybe even actual labor farmers, who we can consider the lower class people of the village. You can call them whatever you like; slaves, peasants, sprucecaps, newbies, rookies, alts, pledges, the list goes on...
I dunno why I fixate on this idea so much, maybe it's because I'm new to the game and I consider myself to be as such, and can emphasize the potential harsh life that we low-lifers might go through on a daily basis. Doing the most rudimentary things to get better, collecting bugs and flowers, catching fishes and small games, sometimes even pick up a nice rare curio or two, or maybe even something sweet from a rare natural resource node!
Anywho, when you go through people's belongings enough, left behind in a weathered ruin of time, you begin to pick up on this pattern that perhaps whoever house you are in is that of a sprucecap's. They have really crappy gears, they don't even sleep on a bed (just some shoddy mat on the ground), there are incomplete low lvl fishing poles, buckets, wicker picker baskets, assortment of junks and low q forageables, ... if you're lower level and/or new like me you can maybe even use some of these things!
Example of a cute peasant shack that I found <3
Being that I empathized with these kinda players, feeling of remorse and guilt sometimes set in when I go through their stuff and take things. "Maybe they will log back in at some point and can use these things", "maybe these guys were raided and now I'm just adding more to the injury...", "maybe this is kinda petty and these things I can easily find better elsewhere and not worth my time". All these thoughts go through my head whenever I raid a peasant shack, ESPECIALLY when you can clearly see that there is some poor soul still sleeping on the ground in that decomposing wreckage of a shack... it's like taking candies from a baby.
As you progress into the game a bit more, you still hold onto some of these feelings. You are now a bit more experienced now; you're no longer naked, you have some plants grown, some primitive processes developed, you're starting to do some bloody stupid credo quests... but you're still a bit inept, you're no longer a seedling, but you're still a sapling with an unwieldy frame that can collapse at the mercy of any force stronger than a badger. During this time, you might still feel bad looting a fellow noobie stranger. After all, your reminiscence of your fledgling past is still very fresh in your mind...
If I can interject with my own opinion that once you no longer constantly feel bad about these things, that you can consider yourself more of an experienced player. Well, today, it happened to me.
Being experienced isn't just about having the best stuff, but also having an understanding that life in the cruel harsh wilderness isn't fair. You need to be safe within your own claim, with walls up to protect you, and territory to mark the scents of those who wronged you. You need to have food and water to operate, housing to store your stuff, and the tools that are the means to make your stuff better so that you can defend yourself and be more efficient with being a stronger, more capable player. Failing to simply fill your presence or authority and you will sooner or later be left with a dead settlement, and an open door which opportunists will take their chance with the odds at their side. You need participate in politics; form relationships and alliances, have neighbors and friends you can rally at your side when you need them.
Alas, I have deviated a bit from my gloat on my newfound view toward the more experienced path. Just today I was looting from a mega stronghold north of my humble stead, one so massive (several map tiles squared) and abundant in spoils that I have been looting from it for well over a week. Just when I was about to pull another load of goodies out of the main area, I decided to take a peak at some of the broken shacks on the perimeter of this deserted empire. Here you can see the patterns of peasantry emerged. Small lots of land, with enough room for a hut and a small yard for few crops, racks/tubs, 3-4 chicken huts. These guys living here must have been either forager or labor alts/newbies. In spite of that, I rummaged through the modest parcels, finding many foraged junks and low level equipment. The pity sets in. I swallowed my pride; the sacking continues. Going through each lot I get a little bit less hopeful and depressed. And then just when I almost closed a cupboard to go to the next, I froze. I had to do a double take at first because I couldn't believe it...
This part of a credo quest has been with me for almost two weeks. I have been neglecting to scour the beach for it because my home is in a landlocked zone, it would take me well over an hour or three to get to the coast and find a Bladderwrack based on other people's experiences. Some have proclaimed that they immediately restart the quest whenever they have to find one of those... and here it is, in some poor peasant's shack. HUZZAH, the nooby empathy has been all but washed away, just like this Bladderwrack that made it into shore only to be swiped away by some fledgling who decided to stash it in their cupboard for whatever season... maybe they couldn't even study it cuz they have an underdeveloped sprucecap skull and not enough INT. Whatever the case, looting a peasant shack has not been a waste of my time after all, 10/10, would do it again.
When you are experienced past the level of basic gameplay and to the level where you can be critical of game mechanics and the woes of game design (especially that of this game that is limited by just two developers), you will have more things to worry about, more so than the poor sod that you're looting from. Things like damning quests, rare items to discover and secure, traveling vast distance and to foreign places, running into strangers who may or may not bad manner you at least, and those who will murder you and take all your stuff at worst, some of the worst being that they take your keys and find out where you live... or leave you at the starting zone should you unfortunately reconcile the deposition of the path of rage, and be confronted with a life anew once more. These are the challenges that will eventually mask the empathy of every fledgling sprucecaps who wishes to advance further and mark their place in the world of Haven and Hearth.
What I have just posed in my philosophical case is just a fraction of the experiences one may find themselves musing about in the deep, vast, and rich land of this game. But just as anything that is as complex as human emotions and psychosociological nature of MMORPGs like that of H&H, I must now lay my case to rest before the superfluity of it all spoils the essence of my own musing.
TLDR: Looting from noob shacks is ok cuz there is always a chance that something you find in there to be of good use to you!
TLDRITLDR: Open de cupboards