Yes, not looting reduces the crashes substantially. Basically, if I find a fleet of four ships and manage to board each of them, it’s pretty much a given that by the time I get to the last one then I will probably already have seen the desktop. By not looting, we’re probably talking about 5-times less chance of it crashing, or say 5% rather than a quarter. That’s an arbitrary calculation, but it’s a good way to look at it.
What bothers me about not looting is that, say over the course of four ships, I would hope to find a weapon, armour or trinket which would replace either my own stuff or at least my officers, but this is a very slow process now. Yeah, my three main officers have muskets at the moment but if they die then I have to replace their kit as well.
I think I’ve sorted the saving, or if not then I’ll look for that variable.
I also found some sounds already but it didn’t seem to be the right ones. I’ve listened to a few of the raw wave files but I’m not finding the relevant one. To be honest though, I have never had a problem looking in a chest while boarding, such as in the cargo hold or cabin, so I doubt the sound effect is relevant after all.