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

I haven't been this positive about a game developer in years, and haven't ever sunk as much money into a game as I have this one (going Diamond next month).

That said, I am totally opposed to the current loot system. I understand the intent behind it, and I know my opinion is that of just one player, but individual loot is I believe the only fair system, and the only system I'd ever support.

Just my 2 orbs worth.

Edit: At a minimum, make it a party option. As it stands, I will not ever be playing in a public game.

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OzHawkeye wrote:

(going Diamond next month)

No longer possible.... is it?

Actually you can, well you could.

Up until 2 hours prior to OB, you could email support and signal your intention to upgrade via a payment plan (maximum 6 month term).

Thus, I agreed to pay $150 for 6 months, to make the $900 difference between Silver and Diamond (though I like the game so much I'll probably just drop the $900 on it in the next few weeks).

The thing about games is that they only have momentum at a certain point in time to gain massive fame and to become big, and its all about chain reactions from players, one disgruntled guy will tell his friends how he hates it etc. So when these specific moments open up and many new players are let into the game simultaneously you have to work quick to fix whatever problems the game is having or the games population will wane very quickly, because people have so many options when it comes to games nowadays and they do not have the patience to wait for a very long time.

Maybe at the end of the day it isn't about success, or gaining mass amounts of players, maybe it's just a vision based on Diablo 2 for GGG. The thing about that is that Diablo 2 owes its fame somewhat to the gaming era in which it was released. At that time there was no free to play games and rpg'ish titles always had a monthly pay plan. So Diablo 2 being an rpg and not requiring a creditcard or monthly payments became quite the success with a big market. Not everything about Diablo 2 was great though, and the free for all looting sure wasn't (as already stated they made attempts to fix it in D2). At the time when D2 was new there was not even an idea of instanced looting, but since then (12 years ago) there has been an evolution in gaming where developers have understood what the players want, including Blizzard themselves, which is to give options for loot or to give instanced loot.

And look at what the people here are asking for, an option, just a measly option to turn this into a friendlier environment. It won't affect the "old school" players since they can still have ffa loot enabled (this could also be the default if you want). The only reason I can see why anyone would be afraid of this option is because they suspect that too many players would take to the friendlier system and then you would have no one to play with in your ffa parties, am I right? Well, guess what, if that were to become the case then maybe that is because your ffa looting is shit?

I am also tired of people talking about how its such skilled hardcore gaming to have ffa loot. I have played games online since 17 years and I have had good ratings, ladder rankings etc. I practiced 10 hours a day in a game called return to castle wolfenstein, being in a world top team, I had 2000 elo in LoL, I had 1900 psr in HoN, I levelled a rogue to 60 amongst the 10 first on a server in WoW 7 years ago. This ffa looting is too simplistic to be worthy of being called competitive or skilled (it is awarded the stamp of annoyance though). Competitive gaming should be about utilizing your strategic cunning and game knowledge with good reflexes and quick thinking. This ffa looting is just "see brown or yellow color, click the fastest" which is probably more in line with what scientists look to teach monkeys. Guess what, when gaming is reduced to such simple tasks a program can easily do it for you *hint* *hint*.

Oh also, don't get me wrong - I can do it, just like sure a lot of other people can fight over loot and concentrate fully on looting. We just don't want to, it's not what we want our major concern to be during the game, it is a worthless endeavour.

The only way I could see this working is by removing the party loot bonus. If your loot is instanced or separated it would be ridiculous to get more loot without incurring the risk of FFA.

The reason I say this is for people playing solo, if there was a loot bonus for a single character in party play the solo player would feel "forced" to play in a party to get a fair share of loot. Right now FFA is a deterrence for some players, and for good reason. Even though there is a bonus you aren't guaranteed anything extra as it can be taken by someone else, after you give up your "right" to solo loot the item after the timer expires. Which is debatable if it is the right way to do things, I like it, some don't.

People will argue this point as well, but it is a fact that solo players would then be at a disadvantage.

EDIT: Also you guys know you don't have to spam click the items to pick them up, right?

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- All white text items are free-for-all.

Don't agree that white items should be handled other way for two reasons:

1. They can be valuable also (6L f.e.)
2. Screen is just spammed with too many items in full parties

And I find 2nd one most annoying actually. Sometimes you don't even see any graphics below 20+ items dropped.

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- All magic/rare/unique/currency/gem items are allocated to a nearby player for a very small amount of time.
- All players can see the item, and a countdown of how much time remains until it's available to anyone is shown.
- The allocation time is intended to be very small (enough time to compensate for a little latency, reaction time and travel distance). We're thinking a base time of something in the order of 1 second when standing next to the item.
- The time would be increased by the time it takes for the character to run to the item. An item allocated to a ranged player might unallocate after two seconds, for example.

Allocation timer is fundamentally wrong no matter what you do with it. Ranged have serious disadvantage on this, sometimes you even off screen and don't see items dropped and their timers at all. And even if you managed to get here after timer expired there is no way to know is that item was allocated to you or someone else so you can be blamed for "ninjaing". I was in many parties so far who tried to do "no ninja" policy by kicking people who take others allocated items so free-for-all obviously very annoying mechanics.

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- It's important that the time is low enough that the player can only get the item if they are paying attention and make an effort to immediately grab it.

Items often drop mid-fight and I find it very stupid that you basically forced to run to grab it. Its exact opposite to what party playing should be - helping each other, not running around for loot while others fighting. Are you considering clicking items to get them mid-fight is some kind of high gaming skill? Don't see how it is.

In my opinion public parties should have instanced loot then its fair for everyone. Don't see any reason to not implement it except "we don't want to be like D3", but its quality of life thing and most annoying for me at the moment, so I think its not bad idea to copy good design.

Private games can have ffa with no timers at all, don't see any problem with that (althought I don't see any problem with instanced loot in private parties either). If people want to play together they can decide how to handle loot themselves. But problem with screen spammed with loot still remains and its very annoying by itself. So may be best solution would be to make loot mode switch in private parties either instanced or ffa so everyone will be happy.

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GregoryPOE wrote:

Don't see any reason to not implement it except "we don't want to be like D3", but its quality of life thing and most annoying for me at the moment, so I think its not bad idea to copy good design.

If you read from the beginning of the thread you would find that the pro-FFA camp hate the idea of instanced because:
1) EVERYTHING IS THEIRS - Unless you grabbed it first.
2) Instanced loot is hidden, which is wrong because of point (1)
3) THE ECONOMY, MAN! THE ECONOMY.
4) Some rubbish about artistic integrity, (refer to point 1)

The first 3 points are such utter twaddle, revisiting them gives me angina...

I see this :

White FFA

Blue FFA or current system

Rare and unique : Random (no restriction on classes or built, irrelevant in POE)

Next rare and unique item : Random, the player who won the last roll do not roll this time.

Rinse and Repeat : each time a player wins a roll he has to wait for all other party members to win one in order to be able to roll again.

The random queue described above would be distinct for rares and uniques.

Random popup got the 3 same old button : Need, pass, greed. Option allow to "always" choose one of them. (reduced clickfest)

I see it fair enough. Btw I have no idea if such thing could even be coded in Poe, tech wise.

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Vooodu wrote:

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Mertak wrote:

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Vooodu wrote:

Thats a load of BS.



Path of Exile delivers a very cut-throat anything goes, good vs evil kind of atmosphere. A feeling not felt since D2.

Its the soul of the game.



BTW. I never said i took more loot then i deserve, i just take as much loot as i can. Thats the soul of the game. I also, help as many people as i can and offer them items. If they ask me nicely il give them the shirt off my back.

Thats the joy of what a game like this brings.

No you're full of BS, you're just not a big enough man to admit that you get pleasure from looting our items!

*face palm*



Your items? Confused about what the timer actually means are ya?

Not my fault.

-(Couldn't quote more than 3 posts)

I know that the devs are siding with this FFA system. But, to think about it rationally, yes it is my loot, or it must be my loot. The loot belongs to the group (can't argue with that can you?) I am part of the group, so part of the loot is MINE. Whoever thinks else is not thinking rationally..

Why can't I have some tea for 3 seconds while i am in a group dungeon? If i do that I will lose some loot.. lol that is harsh for a game imho.. I donno really how the brain of those "hardcore gamers" works.. who doesn't like to relax from time to time? this loot mini game is hurting my eyes I swear they are turning red because of instant focus on the screen looking for those shinies and trying to click most of them lol.

I love PoE and i thank the devs for such a nice game which is free and excels most of the paid games. I just don't like this part of the game, which is cut-throat-suspense-on-your-toes loot feeling and I wish it wasn't there(donno what cut-throat means, not native English speaker but i definitely don't like the sound of it lol)

BTW Voodu, try to relax man, roll a joint or something :D oh but i guess you love cut-throat feeling even when you are writing on forums, don't cha? :D

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IHouseI wrote:

BTW Voodu, try to relax man, roll a joint or something :D

... Puff Puff GivE