A possible UI for instanced loot

NOTE: This thread is solely for the purpose of presenting a possible UI design for instanced loot. It is specifically NOT yet another thread for debating the loot system.
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Rather than treat all types of loot the same, separate it into two categories based on the generally perceived value, call them high value (HV) and low value (LV).

HV loot would include uniques, rares, currency, maps, and possibly 5 and 6 socket items. LV loot is, of course, everything else.

Assign HV loot to players using random distribution. All LV loot is unassigned. For each player, HV loot assigned to them is visually flagged on their client. A suitable visual flag might be a colored border. HV loot that is not assigned to them is visually flagged in a different way, with colored borders the two colors might be green and red for example.

In addition to the show all loot on/off ('Z'), add a show only my loot ('L'?) toggle to the client. Otherwise show all loot as now, just with each person seeing their assigned HV loot highlighted by the visual flag.

This way players still have the option to see the pleasing visual effect of tons of loot. They can also see if something HV drops that is of interest to them but assigned to someone else. They can then negotiate in party chat for the item.

To speed things up, a player should be able to release an assigned item belonging to him or her back to the unassigned pool of items by, say, alt-click'ing on the item. This speeds up the process of sharing build specific HV items with others. No need to loot and then trade.

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NOTE: This thread is solely for the purpose of presenting a possible UI design for instanced loot. It is specifically NOT yet another thread for debating the loot system.

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EDIT: removed an unnecessary implementation detail.

A pig with lipstick is still a pig. This is still a thread talking about changing the loot system.

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dashgalaxy86 wrote:

A pig with lipstick is still a pig. This is still a thread talking about changing the loot system.

1) That is for the moderators to decide.

2) The OP is merely presenting a possible user interface design for possible future use. It specifically is not debating the merits of the larger system.

If nothing else, I would hope at a minimum this kind of thing gets expressed in custom league settings.

It will still cause the same issue that players would otherwise have experienced when not seeing enough loot spawn because you will always have that niggling feeling that even though there is a ton of loot spawning, you can only pick up 2 or 3 items from that huge massive pile no matter how hard you try or want the other gear.

If anything, this suggestion makes the problem worse/frustrates/antagonizes players more then straight up instanced loot and doesn't benefit FFA looters in any way shape or form.

NOTE: This thread is solely for the purpose of presenting a possible UI design for instanced loot. It is specifically NOT yet another thread for debating the loot system.
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From a pure user interface design viewpoint, I don't think you can easily do much better than what I've presented.

There are two features of the presented UI that should mitigate somewhat some specific complaints some FFA proponents have made about a theoretical instanced loot interface. Namely:

1) All the loot can be seen, the same as in FFA.

2) No need to pick up and then trade items that two party members agree upon trading. Simply an alt-click by the owner of the loot rights and the other party member can pick up the item.

This means it wouldn't be much slower in practice than friendly FFA even in the worst case.

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Omnivore61 wrote:

There are two features of the presented UI that should mitigate somewhat some specific complaints some FFA proponents have made about a theoretical instanced loot interface. Namely:

1) All the loot can be seen, the same as in FFA.

2) No need to pick up and then trade items that two party members agree upon trading. Simply an alt-click by the owner of the loot rights and the other party member can pick up the item.

This means it wouldn't be much slower in practice than friendly FFA even in the worst case.

Now those 2 ideas combined is starting to look pretty good but I'm still not entirely convinced. If instanced loot is how the game goes then I believe your current ideas are the best way to implement it.

Well I took a break for awhile, was taking this game way too seriously. Reviewing posts, I still see people arguing about the same old things. I believe an option to choose an fair instance loot option is rather overdue and, to me at least, the interface I proposed in the OP at least would have a PoE feel to it.

Read it carefully and you will see it is actually a mix of FFA and instance loot. Just that instance loot is still optionally visible and filtered to only affect valuable/rare items. Drops rates would be the same, quality the same, etc, just less opportunity for griefing.

Meh probably a waste of time.