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

Funny, how another troll makes his appearance, wondering how this thread got 600+ pages,
while at the same time deliberately trying to add another 10 pages minimum, just of ppl responding to his bullshit.

Based on the excessive use of blank spaces in the posts and the fact that his account was created today, with the only purpose of answering two threads, with a total of 20 BS posts atm, this particular fellow might as well be the clone of the chief troll of this thread himself, who is currently under probation.

Its staggering to see, how much attention spoiled little kids in this world need, if they only register to troll this thread.

It's obviously Voodu, his posts are every bit as terrible, same style and an account created yesterday.

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Devilnaut wrote:

It's obviously Voodu, his posts are every bit as terrible, same style and an account created yesterday.

You know what... it might be.

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TheSwampDog wrote:

I think it's admirable to seek out different solutions. The one you proposed might work, but it would require a LOT of tweaking to determine what value to give to each player's contribution. Is killing 30% more monsters equivalent to running 4 party buff auras? What about someone who is very good at slowing the monsters or otherwise debuffing them, but does low DPS and gets few kills? The balancing would take quite a while.

For myself, I think it's fingers-in-ears blind obstinacy to cling to this notion of loot tension, when clearly a considerable number of players dislike it. Not to mention that there are many groups that simply do an end-run around it by agreeing to gentlemen's rules.

If players are already effectively shutting off the loot tension, why not just enable the game to do it for them? Nothing is lost for those players.

I appreciate your efforts Disordered, but AFAIC they can shove the loot tension. Like many, many, MOST, pretty-much-every-other-grouping-game-I've-ever-played, I'm looking for a one for all and all for one team. I've no interest in being in a team that wants to compete amongst itself.

First thx for your feedback and second i totally agree. I for myself certainly hope that the devs will abolish their idea of loot tension, giving players the possibility to choose by themselves how their partys are going to work.

But i think its still important to craft some ideas in case they dont.

You are right that my idea requires a lot of work.
Its building a new system from scratch by using most of the functions allready implemented.
But this might also be the chance to do something right from the start.
And because the game is allready playable, they can take their time in realizing this sort of competitive gameplay and testing it out.

The balancing is indeed a lot of work, but then again its just balancing of supportive actions and how they are rewarded. This game needs continuous balancing. With all the player feedback they can get, i think the task of finding the right parameters, isnt such an big one after all.

Important part of my idea is to have a shortcut set to the functionality to dismiss all ownership rights of the allocated loot. So in your All for One, One for All parties you will basicly compete perhaps for some currency items and make all rares etc. free to pickup, so everyone can take whats useful to him.

The intersting thing about this is, that you have total control, whether its an all out everyone against everyone competition, for the FFA fans out there, or you rather like to share your stuff and being a team player.

And all of this, without hardcoding any different options/ party kinds/ adjusted GUIs for party creation, changing nothing at all on how parties currently work.

So by on the one hand requiring lot of work, it prevents lot of work being done on fields which dont necessarily need to be altered for a new loot system to work.

Regarding the balancing issues, how supportive actions likes auras, curses, totems etc. may or may not be rewarded, i updated the original post with a few suggestions.

i have weak pc, so for me getting loot on time is nearly imposible when im in 4 man party. GGG should modify pickup time to 1 min - thats it; everyone would be happy i guess.

edit: they can also use diffrent loot systems just like in wow - master looter, FFA,Greed/Need.

I like it when I get kicked in a group that doesn't say ninja = kick. Surely this is the cut-throat experience GGG was trying to communicate to us.

Sigh... it's just getting old.

I'm glad I only play with trusted friends who won't even ninja something off screen, but will instead tell me it's my loot. I would love to try playing in a full party but I know as a Ranger I'd get none of the loot unless I stop fighting and just circle the loot like a vulture. It's a dated and frankly terrible system and I hope something is done about it soon.

I feel remorse for GGG for having to make some sort of decision about this issue, i mean at least we can all agree that a %, unbiased of how high or low, is unhappy with the current looting system. Obviously, not all player types, despite their backgrounds and play style, will be 100% satisfied with whatever they decide to do, should it be anything at all. And, instead of throwing insults and belittling others, making it more difficult to the GGG staff. We, as a community with the same goal in mind being to enjoy the game and add our insights, should come together and try to form concrete, realistic ideas that conform to how the devs what the game to be.

GGG has stated, they want the game to have that cutthroat feel to it. They want to make a game that they themselves would love to play. Completely understandable. I mean think about it for a second, you're playing as a character that's an exile, not all of them have the cleanest of backrounds, i'd picture those type of people to be do what they can to stay ahead.

That being said, GGG has to keep a solid player-base to keep going. So they may have to conform to some ideas thatstill have to work with how they envision the game

So. Whatever is done has to have that "cutthroat" feel. Otherwise, they won't like the idea and obviously won't include it. So the question becomes, what are our options?
disclaimer: including options as seen by posts in this and other threads, any and all possible options aside from my own personal opinion

1)Revert back to original plan. Complete FFA drops.

Pros: ad-hears to the cutthroat plan completely. Appeals to that genre of gaming audience.

Cons: people who are Ranged, Squishy, bad computer/latency issues, and things of the sort feel untreated based on the fact that they may or may not have equal opportunity to their tanky/melee/good computer counterparts.

2)Keep timer as is, increased time based on distance of player, and included slight increased time for latency issues.

Pros: Still has that slight cutthroat feel. No additional work would need to be done by GGG, so they could focus on something else. allows a slightly larger chance for ranged/those with computer issues to still have a chance at some things.

Cons: doesn't feel cutthroat enough for some people. On the opposite side of the spectrum, ranged and computer issued players still feel the time allocated isn't long enough, resulting in still feeling cheated in the system.

3)Increase time allocated by "X" seconds.

Pros: Players have more time to acquire "their" loot, despite any sort of range/computer issues. Players may have more incentive to kill mobs before going to items, as apposed to the reversed.

Cons: as "X" increases, the inverse happens to the cutthroat feel, which is what GGG intends.
Players with a more hardcore feel, then feel that players are being coddled.

4)The ability to toggle longer times based on party leader's desires.

Pros: allows player-base to decide on a more personal taste type basis. Players who are in favor of the original timer is allowed to stay with it, while those who desire more time receive so.

Cons: Goes away from the cutthroat feel even more. Divides the player-base in game from the more FFA feel and the item goes to player feel, possible tension in game and on the forums.

5)Toggled, or complete instanced items.

Pros: Everybody gets items. No need to throw around the name "ninja"

Cons: absolutely no cutthroat feel to it. Hardcore players may completely oppose. A complete change to how items in parties drop, their quantity and rarity and how being in a party affects such things.

Now, obviously the list is not complete, nor does it contain all the detail possible. But i think that we can all see, this a very touchy scale and that leaning too far one way or another may not be the best option.

Let's all just stop flaming at one another and realize that there are different spectrums of gaming and we all will have differing opinions. Take that time and energy, and put it into constructive, concrete ideas with the opposite side of gaming in mind.

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MrNecro wrote:

You mean to tell me that people are not crying and whining every other post about players getting drops that they think belong to them?

All I see is a vague accusation not backed up by any kind of quote. I also see someone with an obvious agenda not even attempting to be fair about the issues people have with the loot system.

Edit: If you have another account then use it, otherwise you appear to be some kind of noob troll.

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iamstryker wrote:

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MrNecro wrote:

You mean to tell me that people are not crying and whining every other post about players getting drops that they think belong to them?

All I see is a vague accusation not backed up by any kind of quote.

lmao.. Vague accusations?



Im sorry but why the hell should i back up anything with a quote when all anyone has to do is pick a random page on this thread and read it.