Brian's Feedback to Looting (quote from reddit)

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JoannaDark wrote:

You know - it kinda bothers me that anyone from GGG would post there, and not here, in relation to this overly exploded issue.

But w/e.

no shit right?

i mean we only have how many loot threads an hour being flooded into the forums.. so lets post on reddit... whats that tell you? even GGG doesnt want to see the crap that is being posted (they have to, but they probably dont want to)

I think people don't realize why game development has been going down in the recent years and why when GGG goes against everything, it is good. Remember every game you love. Now, remember the infuriating moments about the game. Every game that you love has them. This is why Diablo 3 sucks. Because it doesn't have them. It is so oily sleek, there is no obstacles, no annoyances. You may like CoD, but you don't LOVE CoD. Only stupid 11 year olds love CoD. Strong design decisions, like loot distribution here, is what distinguishes a great game from a good game. In recent years, development has been developers just picking the cop out that satisfies the most customers' wants, which is bad. I don't want a developer to give me what I want. I want them to give me what I need. I wanted D3. I wanted it! But what I got was nowhere near what I needed.

Somebody stealing an item right under your nose, making you ragequit the game right there and then... is a good thing in game development. Diablo 2 survived for 11 years with the flawed system that it had in place. Good itemization aside, it created emotions. If you end up arguing with someone over something - this is good. Emotions are good in games. They create the love.

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Zenn3k wrote:

I don't see why they can't just make all loot visible (as is current).

But make certain items (the same ones with a timer currently) only loot-able by the person who's it was.

If they want to give it to another person in the group, they need only drop it or trade it. This prevents "theft" of loot, but still allows everyone to SEE the loot, avoiding the D3 "Bubble" issue.

This is probably the stupidest suggestion ever. Awesome item drops, and it is bound to you for pick up. It's useless to you, but you have an alt ranger that can use the item and you want to give it to her. Ookay, but if some ranger douche begs for the item and you explain the issue to them, you're instantly an asshole. I would rather be an asshole for exploiting the system than for being slightly selfish and using it the way it is intended.

i dont agree with that stance and will probably roll a melee char because of this soon.

i already planned that a melee char would be my next toon, but now i'm feeling forced to do it so that i can group with other people.
under normal circumstances i prefer ranged characters, but with the really low timer on FFA-loot and the horrible servers this is not viable if you want to play with a party.

i did act 3 today with my ranger and decided to try grouping with some random people and the experience was horrible.
as soon as some rares or other valuables dropped everyone else rushed to the spot only to spam-click on the items.

not an experience i want to have again - especially with the horrible 150 ping i get from germany.

another thing that is bothering me deeply.
do i really need to check shitty reddit for developer posts and not the official forums?
this is ridiculous.
the reddit community is even worse than blizzard forums.

That quote is a good explanation of why the mechanic is the way it is. I know this came from reddit, but maybe a sticky here wouldn't be a bad thing. It could help curtail the constant loot threads.

So i found this:

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/86290/page/2

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Elynole wrote:

Once again reminding myself to never pug, in which case I haven't done since oh....never...in my gaming career.

And then this:

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Elynole wrote:

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EwokVillage wrote:

Elynole, what is your stance on the situation?

I think FFA loot fits the overall atmosphere of the game. If you were exiled to a desolate island, you would need to fight for whatever materials you could find to survive or band together with other like-minded individuals to create a democratic system of using resources/materials.

FFA Loot does that. Either you're fending for yourself, or you find individuals in the game that can agree upon a system in which loot is distributed and through teamwork succeed. Personally, I look at this as a win for the teamwork department btw - If you look at some of the top league racing teams we have right now they all have systems that are put in place for both item crafting and item distribution. They're synchronized with each other to maximize one another's builds. Thus, they are rewarded heavily for it.

Either way, it allows you to create your own loot rules instead of having to be boxed in by loot mechanics of the game, such as other games where Need/Greed is your main option.

If you were to put a system in place, such as instanced loot, Need/Greed Roll, Longer Timers, etc. You'd still be playing with the same assholes that "ninja" people's loot if given the chance - Which is really what people complain about - So I don't see the difference it'd make. That's the biggest complaint. If you're in a group and feel that someone has cheated you out of some gear that they couldn't use but you could then just blacklist them. That'd be the adult way of handling such.

Blacklists doesnt work in F2P games, infinite account creating and all that.
And a *choice of loot style* would fix alot of issues.

And i think this poster has a nicely worded post:

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Omnivore61 wrote:

What I don't understand is how supposedly hardcore players and the devs can support this FFA looting mechanism when it is so wide open to griefing that it isn't even funny. The timer is a strawman, as is named loot, totally irrelevant. FFA is just begging for griefer/ninja/jackass players to exploit.

Worse, the game provides all sorts of interesting skills and equipment that helps the ninja. Spells like ice wall, skills like leap slam, supports like chance to flee, movement speed boosts, etc. Add in a bit of antisocial creativity and I'll steal you blind. I'll loot chests screens away, drag mobs on top of you to keep you busy, beat you to the loot ever single time unless it drops on top of you, and block you from getting to anything I want. It is completely stupid.

I'm a retired programmer, a former developer, and have some experience in game design and programming; if I set out to deliberately design a system to be easily exploitable by griefers I could not do better than FFA. It is a masterpiece of antisocial engineering.

Sounds like the devs are aware and working on a solution. I shall shut up about it now.

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Dudebag wrote:

if GGG were to implement new FFA system.

id like see it like

FFA - loot drops rates stays the same or increase by 25%

50% more time to loot - 25% decrease in drop rates.

Non FFA, personal loot - 50% decrease in drop rates.


Grouping makes the game so easy and faster XP.
Must have some sort of penalty for easier loot option. IMO


so many loot thread. sry for copy paste but this is my idea of FFA

I actually really like this idea. Let them know that they're losing something by taking the instanced loot option. If you want the most, best loot, you're gonna have to compete for it.

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What I don't understand is how supposedly hardcore players and the devs can support this FFA looting mechanism when it is so wide open to griefing that it isn't even funny. The timer is a strawman, as is named loot, totally irrelevant. FFA is just begging for griefer/ninja/jackass players to exploit.

Yup, that's the point.

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BurnOutBrighter wrote:

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Dudebag wrote:

if GGG were to implement new FFA system.

id like see it like

FFA - loot drops rates stays the same or increase by 25%

50% more time to loot - 25% decrease in drop rates.

Non FFA, personal loot - 50% decrease in drop rates.


Grouping makes the game so easy and faster XP.
Must have some sort of penalty for easier loot option. IMO


so many loot thread. sry for copy paste but this is my idea of FFA

I actually really like this idea. Let them know that they're losing something by taking the instanced loot option. If you want the most, best loot, you're gonna have to compete for it.

Except that instanced loot reduces the amount of loot one gets already.
The main gear comes from *godly white items* and as such instanced would already decrease the drop rate of such.

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Non FFA, personal loot - 50% decrease in drop rates.

This absolutely should never be applied to solo players.

Not to say this would ever happen one way or the other, but yea, just a point out here.

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Fundamentally, POE is a game about tough choices, about making your way in a harsh world with few initial resources. This is a theme that runs through the whole game, from the starting areas, to the cryptic early NPCs, to the lack of respecs, and the quickly ramping difficulty. Having quasi-FFA loot definitely falls right in line with the general cutthroat, competitive aesthetic of Wraeclast.

Having not grouped, is it possible to toggle a switch and enter PVP mode? Otherwise I don't really understand this agruement. If you want a cutthroat aesthetic in all game modes when people group then you should be able to...cut someone's throat. That being said I am loving the game and will continue to solo and plan to spend money in their store, so while I enjoy the current aesthetic (while avoiding PUGs like the plague) is just seems inconsistent.