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

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Crizaig wrote:

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SL4Y3R wrote:

Problem is, the timers are already too long in team play.

That is your personal opinion. If there weren't so many people complaining about how short they are, the developers wouldn't be extending the timers.

The timers are fine if you are a ranged character but if you are melee, most of the time they are super short because the timer is given by your distance.

People say ranged characters are screwed, but the fact is, melee characters are the ones who are screwed in the loot situation since they are the ones close to the mobs and tanking all the damage.

In TEAM play the timers are too long.

Not grouping with strangers.

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Juggernaut448 wrote:

A rare two handed axe drops and you're playing your two handed axe marauder. You've been looking for a new axe for a while now and this one has just the right sockets. Oh no, it's for the Witch, she passes it and acts like she doesn't care one bit.

Well, even if that witch cant use that item it doesnt mean it has no value.
You know, people need currency too and one way to get currency is thru trading.
So that witch would stop, id the item and if its crap throw it away. Of course, being crap you probably wont want it either but you can pick that crap up if you want without waiting 30-40 secs.
If its good then the witch will try to capitalize the item in the trade market.

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Crizaig wrote:

If you stack life, the other difficulties are just as easy. Especially, if you are running with a group.

Your situation with the 2h axe is stupid and pointless because you don't know what the developers are going to extend the timers to.

They never said they're extending the timers. Either way, if it be 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 15, it's the same all around since it's all relative to how far you are from said item.

So it really isn't pointless unless you don't think.

I think with them announcing that they have to lock the other threads because of saturation, means there is a problem with the loot system.

It is probably the only thing I do not like about GGG and this game (ok and the chat interface).

Until they fix the loot system I personally will not group in public games. I cannot accept stopping DPS on a mobs to pick up loot because if is first come first serve. Even when something is rolled for you and is on a timer and people say PAY ATTENTION...well I am paying attention to the dps I am doing, not so say "oh look something shinny on the ground".

I know GGG really wants it FFA but they may need to bite the bullet here if they want to promote more people grouping together.

After reading on the forums of people bragging about how they ninja people, I'm really not intrested in investing the time I have for nothing...progression is not only how far you get in a game, it is about maximizing the equipment your toon has as well as the enjoyment of doing so.

If I can only get 1 out of 3 then I'm ok soloing, though at the same time may put an experation date on how much involvement I put into the game over-all.

I started rolling a Tank to play in groups and I am very happy with the result has I have an excellent mesh of DPS and Defense. But to waste time tanking for a group just to have gear ninja'd, taking away the enjoyment of the game then my intrest may sway, just like others.

Right now the game is new and is in beta, so I am not mad and I am still playing my toon strong...but if grouping is going to cause a hassle.

Since I probably going to get into closed beta of Elder Scrolls Online we will see what happens then...but from my experience from Closed Beta testing WAR, SWTOR, Rift, D3, GW2...ect. How loot is handled for the individual player is just as important as the gameplay in the game...If the individual cannot benifit from their efforts as someone else and be screwed from rewards because they cannot get an equal chance of the spoils, then the solo play will wear thin.

Sure you will cater to certain players and they will stick around, but a larger player base will move on to something else.

This is different then changing the difficulty of a game to cater to part-time players...this is not a nerf. An example is going Kara in WOW and it would take 2 months just to get attunned for that instance, just to have it nerfed because people bitched it was too hard...they took it away for the casual player pissing people that put the effort in doing all the work to be able to do this.

All this does is take away from the griefers and loot whores that have to take advantage of others to get loot, since they are too lazy to farm it for themselves...since bigger parties get better loot, which makes it easy for them to get good loot, ninja it and think they are all bad ass...

The solution lies in not getting rid of FFA loot, nor turning something into a carebear leauge...there has to be a middle ground.

People want the Cut Throat feeling when looting, well if you steal or ninja some loot from me, I cannot PK you and take all the gear that drops that is on you. So how is that CT? All it is basically is giving an advantage to someone who has a better internet connection or someone that stops DPS when they see loot on the ground. So FFA give an advantage to people, weither GGG wants to admit it or not...weither it is lag, internet connection, or the jerk that rather loot whore then play the game.

Since in end FFA doesn't give a fair advantage to everyone who plays, GGG needs to explore a system that does...again giving a timer is suppose to help people for this (which it doesn't), then take it a step further...keep it FFA, just allow static loot for that player only and they have an option to keep it or pass it up and it free game for anyone.

Right now the system is not fair for everyone and I am not speaking for myself. I have a 15meg/2meg connection with 14ms latency from the network...so yes you could say I would be one of those people that could take advantage of it...so why am I saying this...because we are in Beta and we are Beta Testers and it is my opinion that this is hurting the games grouping more then it is helping and I want to see the game succeed not fail and I feel if the loot system stays at it is, then it will hurt the game.

Sorry for the spelling and grammar.

Kind of late, but congrats on reaching 500 pages everyone.

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Juggernaut448 wrote:

So... you're blazing through the game at mach speed right now? They've already said they toyed with increasing timers and said that it wouldn't work out.

There was a reddit post by Brian recently. In it he stated that they tested out longer loot timers but found that it slowed the game down. I was in closed beta for over a year and never saw loot options so I can only assume that they tested this in the Alpha Realm. Players behave differently in a FFA environment based on how exclusive the group is. The move from closed beta to open beta is proof of this phenomena.

The Alpha realm is a great resource for some testing but the Devs need to realize that it does have limitations. An increased timer can affect the pace in an exclusive group like Alpha differently than a large anonymous realm like open beta.

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Crizaig wrote:

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Juggernaut448 wrote:

They never said they're extending the timers.

Brian_GGG said it. It was even posted a few pages back. You can go look for it. Just look for a spoiler tag.

"Swagandboners: Briant - is it ever possible you guys will cave in on the loot system becoming something other than a very close to FFA system?"


"Brian_ggg: Swagand: very very unlikely that it'll every be purely FFA, but we will likely adjust timers, and what things get timers"

That doesn't read extend. As I said before if you bothered to read. Adjust can mean anything.

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Crizaig wrote:

Considering most of the arguments about loot is the timers being too short, I think it's safe to say they will be extended. By how much? Nobody knows except GGG.

Whereas, I don't think it's safe to say anything when it comes to GGG. Really if anything, the way that Brian's quote reads, it implies that he thinks the timers will be shortened on some loot, and *removed entirely* from others.

Xaxyx was posting in the thread over 200 pages ago. Probably has a dozen since. He's likely just as informed as anyone else here.

Anyways, if they reduced the timers any more, or eliminated any, they may as well go full FFA. Anything less than what they have now wouldn't have any meaningful effect on who gets what loot.

FFA loots is the big pain of this game.

All the rest is great. Keep up the good work !