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

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TremorAcePV wrote:

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WhisperByte wrote:

I'm sorry for asking such a noobish question since I play solo (except Kraityn killing) but I have to ask:
What do the player see when an item drops?
I assume every player sees a timer, right? What else is shown? Name of the player who can pickup that item?

Yes. They see a timer, what the loot type and name is, and the name of the person who it's currently allocated to.

Oh. Then...
I'm sorry if I offend anyone with this suggestion and if it's been mentioned before but:
What if that item is invisible to everyone except the player that it is allocated to for the duration of the timer? Then that player can only blame himself (and desync ^^) for not getting there in time.

The current loot system is shitty as fuck. It ruins partying. People are running off from the group to try and kill solo for items and running around trying to ninja instead of actually fighting.

Bump up the damn timers at least. Are you serious with that 3 seconds shit?

There are four fucking people surrounding it like vultures spam clicking it anyways, so it's not like you can even get near it to pick it up.

"Oh some people like it it's a mixed opinion". BULLSHIT. The only people who like it are the ones who get more than their fair share. It's a no brainer.

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WhisperByte wrote:

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TremorAcePV wrote:

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WhisperByte wrote:

I'm sorry for asking such a noobish question since I play solo (except Kraityn killing) but I have to ask:
What do the player see when an item drops?
I assume every player sees a timer, right? What else is shown? Name of the player who can pickup that item?

Yes. They see a timer, what the loot type and name is, and the name of the person who it's currently allocated to.

Oh. Then...
I'm sorry if I offend anyone with this suggestion and if it's been mentioned before but:
What if that item is invisible to everyone except the player that it is allocated to for the duration of the timer? Then that player can only blame himself (and desync ^^) for not getting there in time.

This is a pretty excellent suggestion, actually. The timer should also stop if you are nearby the item in question. Make me right click or something to offer it up to the group otherwise.

And before you say "Oh waaaah but what if WE want it and now we can't get it!"

Well, trust me, if it's something that you want then chances are it's something I want too. What's valuable or useful is pretty universal. Whites and stuff for crafting don't use timers anyways.

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WhisperByte wrote:

Oh. Then...
I'm sorry if I offend anyone with this suggestion and if it's been mentioned before but:
What if that item is invisible to everyone except the player that it is allocated to for the duration of the timer? Then that player can only blame himself (and desync ^^) for not getting there in time.

That's a good suggestion, but it defeats the purpose of the timer.

The timer isn't there so that the player who's name is on it can get the item.

It's there so that all players in the group can have a fair chance at getting the loot in a Free-For-All system.

It calculates which group member has the largest disadvantage (based on distance and lag) and gives it to them, set so that they have JUST enough time to get close enough to the item, but not enough so that they can get it without contest.

It only chooses from the group members who are within a certain area range though, I believe. I could be wrong about that. And it has a maximum time (5s I think, for rares<--could be wrong but I know there's a max time).

The problem is that lag is not constant, so lag spikes combined with people being REALLY far away from the item make it so that it isn't particularly fair.

The system assumes the group will stay together and lag is constant. Neither of those two things is true 100% of the time. So the system fails.

It was also deployed without people understanding this, or it's purpose (to make FFA fair, not to allocate loot). So people think it's an allocated loot system because of the name on the timer. When it's not.

I think it could all be fixed by removing the name, but leaving the timer, as is. Insta-fix.

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shifted1119 wrote:

[What you said.]

Read this post.

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TremorAcePV wrote:

It's there so that all players in the group can have a fair chance at getting the loot in a Free-For-All system.

Too bad this doesn't happen. Definitely not a "fair" system.

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killbilly wrote:

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EdgeVII wrote:

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Kalakunka wrote:

I currently refuse to party at all. I absolutely am not interested in fighting the rest of the party for the loot instead of the monsters.
Even in the beginning of the open beta when my friends still played there was always that nagging feeling of "am I ninjalooting?", "was that my item or that of somebody else?".
I completely do not enjoy the current system. So here is one more vote for instanced loot.

Correct me if i am wrong but, isnt there PARTY exp bonus which is huge?
Starting area with party member %30
Per additional member %50, total %230 for 6ppl party?

i feel more comfortable while im playing solo but i dont wanna lose my exp gain at86 level which is already hard to ding

no there is no exp buff anymore..there is not a exp penalty also tho..so you get more exp cause you kill things faster

Really? OMG.. i was just partying 5-6 ppl if possible.. otherwise i was just sitting afk cuz didnt want to farm without exp bonus. This is the bad + me bad lol didnt play CB.. still dont know some mechanics.

I think I should say a few things...

1) Very long timers are bad. Anything in excess of 10 seconds is just silly and unnecessary, and may as well be instanced looting. Also, longer timers will slow down the game (although I don't believe it would be as significant as GGG suggests), so significantly lengthening the timers doesn't necessarily improve the experience for all players.

2) Instanced looting is bad. I think the whole "playing in a bubble" or "playing with bots" line of thought is an extreme exaggeration, but at the very least you don't know if anything interesting drops in a friend's instance that you might want, so you couldn't even ask for it if you needed to improve your gear.

3) FFA looting is bad. Some players will just not get a reasonable share of loot with FFA looting in a public game. Gear is an important part of character progression in any ARPG, and FFA looting makes it so some players just do not progress in terms of gear in a party.

All the extremes are bad for different reasons, so what's the solution? Put an option in the game. Let people decide what trade-offs they want to make with their loot system at what times.

If you want loot tension in a cut-throat environment, then make the goddamn cut-throat league already. Then all the FFA looters who think that their gameplay experience is somehow made worse by having the option for FFA looting can all go play Cut-Throat and be happy.

Note: To whoever said that valuable gear is valuable to everyone, you're wrong. A simple, low-level, blue bow with a nice +damage mod isn't all that valuable to anyone except a low-level character that uses bows. To that character, is a very nice thing to have since it makes his character a lot more effective for a time. To everyone else, it's Augmentation shards.

ffa loot should be an additional option for the party leader with instanced loot by default. Personally FFA loot is fucking shit.

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Leeway wrote:

ffa loot should be an additional option for the party leader with instanced loot by default. Personally FFA loot is fucking shit.

Except GGG's vision is to have FFA by default, which is acceptable. Offer loot options to those that desire them though.

I love losing uniques to random shitheads because the fucking game won't path through shit to loot, get stuck on allies while they steal your loot HOW FUCKING FUN. Sure makes me want to play more of your game /s