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

It's gotten to the point where I'm only looking at the loot and just holding down the button roughly in the direction of the enemy.

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Pinchyskree wrote:

It's gotten to the point where I'm only looking at the loot and just holding down the button roughly in the direction of the enemy.

Pretty much this.

In pubs, there's general 2 kinds of players:

1) People focusing on clearing
or
2) People more focused on loot than clearing.

I typically find 1-2 people per party who are hanging in the back inspecting the last group's loot rather than being on the front lines helping to clear the next group. Or people shooting at nothing, watching loot, instead of actually doing something. Of course, they get kicked, however, they're not removed from the instance.
It's also pretty shitty that unit collision plays such a big role in looting. Sometimes people are in the way and you can't move around them in time or there's so much other loot that there's simply not enough space to click around them.
There's also times where there's so much goddamn loot on the ground that you have to toggle the display on and off every other kill just to see if anything dropped for you.

Loot system needs work, and it's mainly only for pubs. I suspect pubs are the majority of the groups out there too.

I feel the loot pain, I grew up playing Diablo 2 though so I'm a bit used to it. While I play with 2 friends they have school so they aren't on as much as I am. Id say most of my time is spent in pub games. I try and join "ninja = kick" games but that doesn't help. Half the time its me focusing on the mobs and people watching loot. Its annoying that I have to pay more attention to loot than playing the actual game.

I also find it funny when doing felshrine runs half the party is off running for chests. Or in Dread Thicket they run by the 2 end bosses and run to the chest if its up.

It's just annoying. If they don't change it whatever but I wouldn't be against a change of some kind.

I dislike current implementation a lot mainly because putting names on items for a a few seconds turns people into loot whores. I see a bow drop, a ranger runs for it and the caster witch starts bitching about ninja looting because her name had appeared on it.

I'd much rather have a true FFA system (which wouldn't make that much difference really, except people couldn't cry that "their" loot got stolen). Alternatively, a fully instanced loot system would at least have the advantage of removing most of the screen clutter.
Current loot system just has the disadvantages of both without having any advantage.

Also, distance you're allowed to pick items from should be increased a bit. Most of the desynching I notice is when trying to pick up items and not managing to because my character is too far away on server. So increasing loot distance = desync fix!

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DisorderedMind wrote:

the one in my signature

First off, I like your proposed solution. People whining about "server resources" clearly have no idea what they're talking about, instancing loot is as simple as an integer designating which user it belongs to. They're already doing this with loot allocation, it is asinine to think otherwise. Your solution is very much what I proposed ages ago and virtually got ignored (it was probably in this thread, now that I think about it).

That said...

Learn to link. :p

Perform to earn Loot

Click quote, copy the above line and paste it over your signature (modifying the displayed text as you wish).

i realy must say that the current loot system is not fair especialy if you have a high ping when grouping like i do. i normaly try to avoid grouping cus every time i group up i get pissed over and over due to some ppl only watcing for loot instead of worrying about clearing the place. i had several times that i am clicking to pick the item and due to latency someother guy already took it for himselve even with me beeing close to the item. it realy sucks. i think a longer timer on the loot would be good or having the loot dropping reserved to the person and then ppl could simply trade between themselves. or you could also implement different loot distribution types and the person setting the group would choose it. as it is is realy unforgiving and realy doesnt motivate ppl to group up especialy when goin on random pugs.

Simple solution - separate loot. Only pros no cons.

The current loot system is broken, it's not "free for all" it's "ranged characters get nothing".

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TremorAcePV wrote:

And, btw, loot collecting is part of the game. The reward for the game is enjoying the game. Loot is what leads to that. And GGG is not a company. I suppose you are already wrong about that. They can't play? ... What is solo then? Bit off a bit too much that time.

How do you enjoy an ARPG when your gear sucks? If you play in parties up to level 20 and don't get any loot because you're a ranged character, because your connection sucks, because you desync, or whatever other reason, you can't play in level 20 zones. You will not kill anything, and you will die. Doesn't matter if you're solo or in a group, you're a level 20 character that can't survive in a level 20 zone.

Loot is extremely important in ARPGs. It's a part of character progression just as vital to your continuation through the game as Experience, and FFA looting allows the (high) possibility that people who play in parties will not progress through the game.

Describe it in whatever way you want: Players in parties are punished for doing so, players in parties do not progress through the game, players in parties are not rewarded as much for their playtime... It all amounts to the same thing: So long as the only option we have is this crappy, quasi-FFA system, it is absolutely better to party as little as possible, and solo as much as possible. An always-online ARPG that you are better off playing solo. That is SHIT.

I've been creating FFA loot games and having full parties and it is so nice to not have people bitch about missing "their" loot. Only 1 complaint so far and we just told him to leave if he couldn't take it. (Oh so stressful, haha) I know there are things I'll miss and I know I'll take something off the ground if someone else isn't paying attention. It happens both ways. Even when I play with just my brother, we try to get whatever we can from each other.

Oh, and I'm a ranged character. Build a strong enough character and you can get right up in their grills and be fairly close to the melee action.

If anything, I would suggest the following:

1. That you can pick up items at a slightly further range. Just a little cause it's easy to get blocked from a spot or sometimes you can't get right on it like you want to.

2. As soon as you party, all enemies have increased health/power/etc.. no matter how many people are in the exact "area".

EDIT: FFA worked in D2.