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

Adding but a few more seconds to the timer would seem like a feasible solution to an unnecessary problem.

RenoR, thanks for your support and appreciation.

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RenoR wrote:

The ONLY SINGLE pro Argument of FFA loot is:
- you can pick up loot from other players which they might not need

Well, lets think for a while what is going on here.

It just takes very little gameplay to easily see and recognize the good items from the bad, unusable ones. This includes all types of items, uniques (brown), rares (yellow), magic (blue) and regular white items. I'm not talking about the orbs (currency) because i assume everybody picks them up and not leaving them behind.

It's a combination of rarity/mods/sockets/links/ilvl that makes or breakes an item.
Now, no matter what the loot system is used, every player will pick-up all the valueable items from the ground. Either those items are good for his imediatelly use (current character or a future character build that he is planning or for some friends etc) or either those items, being valueable, enter the trade market for cash (i mean orbs) liquidity.

So if a good item is not fit for your build, then in worst case scenario it will be traded, meaning is not lost as the pro-ffa camp imply.
Ofcourse, after id-ing a item and seeing that is a bad one (the combinations of attributes that i talked about earlier), it is sold at the vendor for alterations/auguments/alc_shards orbs, used in the chaos/alc recipe, or left on the ground, but being a bad item nobody will want it anyway.

We can talk here also about the particular chromatic situation, that some guys aren't paying close attention to the 3-linked-3-color-sockets and thus in a pure instanced loot one individual may skip them and another individual can't pick'em up because he can't see them, being instanced.
But this is really very small as an argument because chroms are usually very cheap and quite in large numbers. Also they are mostly used in large quantities only late-game because only then you want to pimp your 5-6L-chest/2hander for maximum power. And of course, being late game you have the resources (other very expensive orbs) that you can use to easily buy those large quantities of chromatics.
So, to conclude, this is really negligible, very very low argument, easily de-constructed to what it is: nothing.

But we can go further with a pure-instance-loot hypothesis:
In a pary of 6, instance loot, if you really want some items or class of items you communicate with your party guys: dude, keep on guard regarding those items and in return i'll do the same for you. Everybody wants good items, besides exp.
So we have a social boost aspect here.
Its true that it might slightly increase the instance-clear-speed but i really think is good compromise: i mean how hard would it be and how time-comnsuming would it be to link that item in the party-chat window and someone saying that he wants it?

And let's not forget that we have all the middle ground loot options that we already talked about in this topic and in those scenarios its even easier. I was simply analyzing the worst case scenario that is instance loot and it turned out to not be that bad after all.

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Twiiik wrote:

It totally destroys the feeling of playing with other people.
I don't need any other argument.

You may read my above arguments, if you really take some time and think about it it's not that bad as you imply it to be (social wise).
I mean, we're talking about co-op play. I can cooperate with the party memebers in doing all the killing (tactical aspect), I can cooperate with the same party members on loot (telling them what i want/need + viceversa = social aspect) and all this in the worst case scenario of instanced loot.
So what do you mean by "feeeling" then? For not seeing that gigantic pile of loot-crap?

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Deruvin wrote:

I love current system. I would be very opposed to a D3esque system or any WoW NBG style setup; it's just not how I want my ARPGs to play.

But how can a simple option ruin your current gameplay experience?
You'll still be able to play ffa so you'll have the same gameplay feeling, what does it matter to you if others play instanced/longer-time/whatever system?
Or you really cannot understand this simple concept?

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mobutu wrote:

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Deruvin wrote:

I love current system. I would be very opposed to a D3esque system or any WoW NBG style setup; it's just not how I want my ARPGs to play.

But how can a simple option ruin your current gameplay experience?
You'll still be able to play ffa so you'll have the same gameplay feeling, what does it matter to you if others play instanced/longer-time/whatever system?
Or you really cannot understand this simple concept?

90% or more pugs will be non FFA depriving him of easy pickings. His only choice will be groups of hardened ninja looters and that's gonna be harder to end up with delicious stolen valuables.

well, that's his problem, and being a game-unrelated one i dont give a rats ass about it.

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mobutu wrote:

well, that's his problem, and being a game-unrelated one i dont give a rats ass about it.

The game developers are empowering him by supporting this kind of environment.

For now, it's your problem.

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Vooodu wrote:

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lmschless wrote:

Can't stand this looting system. I did a pick up group with 5 other people to kill Vaal. ONE person ended up getting ALL the rare items even though they were not assigned to him. A combination of bad loot list mechanics(the list being more spread out than the screen space) and CONNECTION SPEED.

This loot system rewards greedy players who have the best ping.

Oooh Please....Spare everyone the drama.

I walked in on a boss kill, seconds after i joined the party and walked through a TP.

He had barely any life left. He litterally died a few seconds latter and i had 1 yellow and one unqiue with my name on it. Click CLick.

Mine.

How fair is that to everyone esle who actually fought the monster, killed it and got nothing. When alls i did was walk in and get the best drop, just because my name was on it.

If anything, that was not fair for me at all.. Loot timers should be removed. Everyone should have had a chance at that drop not just me.

No to mention that loot timers make people think that the items with their name on it are theirs before they have picked them up. drops are randomly distributed not fairly distributed with the loot timer system.

Heres a really good argument against FFA looting: Ice Wall. Yeah that blocks teammates. You put yourself across from the other player, place a good ice wall and thats the two seconds you need to grab that delicious rare. Thats cut-throat.


What I dont like about the FFA loot is the lag and the griefing. Its the FPS lag when the screen is full of spell effects and monsters, and the occasional latency lag, and the moving item icons in huge piles... These things just make the mechanic frustrating, and unrewarding.

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BitmapFrogs wrote:

For now, it's your problem.

The devs said they want "loot-tension".
His problem is, deducted, that nobody will play ffa anymore if there were to be loot-options.
Different things.
His problem is not game-related at all and that is why is of no concern.