Looting -- The official thread for discussing the loot system. Updated 18th March, 2013.

It was kinda odd, and it changed the tone of the debate. Maybe SMRD was secretly a mole for increased timer/instanced, or maybe he just rage quit...

I hope he still plays the game.

I would find it really odd if he really quit the game just because of the slightly heated debate. He obviously really liked the game I don't see why he would want to leave over this discussion.

Planet I hope that didn't happen. That would be awful.

I'm not sure if this has been brought up as I am joing this discussion just now, but what do you all think of this idea?

• If your name is allocated to an item, you may reserve that item to add additional time to the allocation timer.
• To reserve an item, there could be a button on its tooltip or a mouse/keybind you can use on hover.
• You may reserve only one item at a time.
• If you leave the area, your reservation/allocation would be removed.

Edited to add more information.

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Iao wrote:

I'm not sure if this has been brought up as I am joing this discussion just now, but what do you all think of this idea?

• If your name is allocated to an item, you may reserve that item to add additional time to the allocation timer.
• To reserve an item, there could be a button on its tooltip or a mouse/keybind you can use on hover.
• You may reserve only one item at a time.
• If you leave the area, your reservation/allocation would be removed.

I'd vote no to those suggestions. It's bad enough people are focusing on loot while monsters rage now, having to push more buttons during combat would only make that worse.

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Warchant wrote:

Inevitably, the guy that puts the least effort into cooperating on content will be the guy that spends the most time hawking the gear drops and essentially stealing the efforts of the group.

This sums up the major problem with the current loot system. And Pro-FFAer's suggestion to this? Kick them out, form private parties, team only with friends, etc. Essentially, do everything you can to get around the devs' idea of loot tension. Avoid it any way you can.

Swamp. That has nothing to do with loot tension, and everything to do with an efficient party member.

The best suggestion I've heard is this. It remains on a timer. But, no one can see the item sans the person its allocated to, until the timer runs out. This removes "hawking". Fixes, the loot covering the floor, temporarily. Ans means you have better odds grabbing what you want since theres a smaller chance of mis click

Edit. If this were on by default, I would highly suggest a FFA option.

The suggestion to make the loot invisible until the timer runs out is great but the timer ALSO needs to be extended. At present its so short, all it does is distract the players from the actual fighting and it rewards the party members that watch the loot and don't contribute.


Extend the timers by 5 - so closest party members have 5 seconds to pick up, distant party members that had 3 seconds now have 15. And invisible loot until time has elapsed. I think this is the best balance.

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SL4Y3R wrote:

Swamp. That has nothing to do with loot tension, and everything to do with an efficient party member.

The best suggestion I've heard is this. It remains on a timer. But, no one can see the item sans the person its allocated to, until the timer runs out. This removes "hawking". Fixes, the loot covering the floor, temporarily. Ans means you have better odds grabbing what you want since theres a smaller chance of mis click

Edit. If this were on by default, I would highly suggest a FFA option.

The only downside to this is that there would be a large "explosion" of garbage loot every so often.

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VSwift wrote:

The suggestion to make the loot invisible until the timer runs out is great but the timer ALSO needs to be extended. At present its so short, all it does is distract the players from the actual fighting and it rewards the party members that watch the loot and don't contribute.


Extend the timers by 5 - so closest party members have 5 seconds to pick up, distant party members that had 3 seconds now have 15. And invisible loot until time has elapsed. I think this is the best balance.

+1
This is the best suggestion presented so far. It will get rid of loot camping while still providing a bit of a rush when an item drops for you.

Um. the current time is 2-8. I don't know what you mean when you say distant members who had 3 seconds. Considering the timer is distant based, they obviously weren't far away.

If timer is 2-8. Push it to 4-10. Add in the previous idea.

As long as there was an FFA option. Looks good to me.

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SL4Y3R wrote:

Swamp. That has nothing to do with loot tension, and everything to do with an efficient party member.

I've read a couple of dev quotes stating that they like the current system because it creates "loot tension". Their words, not mine. I've never read a quote from the devs suggesting that the current loot system is to make someone efficient.

Additionally, to my mind, an efficient party member is one who focuses on ONLY killing monsters until there are none left. Party members should be efficient to the party first, and themselves second. No consideration whatsoever should be given to picking up loot until the monsters are all dead.

A person would have be truly naive to think that most players in most public games are going to place the welfare of the party above themselves. Equitability is what I expect from my team members. My strong preference would be for the loot system to enforce this.

For me to buy into the current loot system, they would have to change it so that no loot drops at all, no timers start, until every monster in the immediate area is dead. Only then does the loot show up.