This problem is also the reason why loot drops on kills is stupid.
Especially since this game is having us fighting waves of mobs and a gigantic boss beasties to defend equipment.
and since this game is also supposed to be smaller in scope, wouldn't loot drops on kills bog down a server pointlessly?
It'll be better to leave it all for a reward screen at the end of a battle event for non-team individuals and the crafting/management screen for teams.
I'm like the idea of something like a point system. Where we get points not only based on what we kill, but how we kill it, and if we assisted in a kill or not. Given how this is a sci-fi game where was have mechas, command or whoever we turn our points into can just check our battle data to see what we did.
But some people do like the idea of loot. So if we have to have loot drops in the game I would hope it is more realistic like survival and/or hunting games where the "loot" is whatever parts of the body you can use and whatever the enemy was carrying. For example, let's say there is monster with really strong and sharp claws that is as strong, if not stronger, than metal we use for our melee weapons. After I kill it, I go up to the body and remove the claws so the R&D people can learn more about them. In the meantime, I'll use some of the claws to make my own makeshift melee weapon until the R&D NPCs can upgrade my weapons and armor based on what they learned.
This way the loot itself it not so much important as is what can you learn from the enemy. So how you kill an enemy matter as the researchers and tactical may need more information about this type of enemy or they gear they have. So you have to kill them without also damaging the things they want to badly. Or before they can use self destruct on them to stop you from getting it. After all there is a reason why in real life one of the lest things soldiers do before abandoning gear, like a vehicle, is to destroy any parts of it that the enemy might be to use themselves or to be able to use in research and reverse engineering.