Loot

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Silenkiller wrote:

But for a game that prides itself in being unique for its cut-throat atmosphere, removing FFA loot pretty much defeats the entire concept. It's like real life. Trust me, if you drop a case full of money in front of a crowd, the person closest who grabs it isn't going to share it with everyone because they weren't there.
Reality check please.

I don't understand the argument that FFA looting is a big part of what makes this game good/unique. It's not like it's listed in the game features section of this site. What's getting people excited about this game is the dark look of it and the skill system.

It's not like when IGN reviews it they're gonna put:

Pro: Looting is a mad dash free for all weeee!

Well all I can say is that we enjoy different fundamental aspects of the game. To each his own!

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Chris wrote:

The motivation for FFA looting is that Wraeclast is a cut-throat world filled with dangerous and horrific threats.

I'm against FFA looting, because I don't think the "dangerous and horrific threats" should be the people you're grouped up with.

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I'm against FFA looting, because I don't think the "dangerous and horrific threats" should be the people you're grouped up with.

The story is "you are exiled" with everyone else who is "exiled". Think of it like a system where all criminals and scum are sent to an island.

In this scenario it makes sense that you SHOULD be worried about the players you're partied with.

All that will really do is encourage people to either solo, or group with those they already know, hindering the formation of pick-up groups.
It also leads to the well known "baal run" phenomenon where half the group stops fighting in order to grab items, hardly a situation conducive to immersion and flowing gameplay.

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All that will really do is encourage people to either solo, or group with those they already know, hindering the formation of pick-up groups.

In my opinion .. thats a GOOD thing. PUG-ing to kill a boss/dungeon/raid or whatever is just an easy way to get a free ride. There should be a downfall to ganging up on your enemy.

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It also leads to the well known "baal run" phenomenon where half the group stops fighting in order to grab items, hardly a situation conducive to immersion and flowing gameplay.

I dont see why this is such a big deal. If you're looking to find good loot dont play with random people, if you're looking to get exp then it doesnt matter who you party with. People stopping attacks on Baal when hes got little hp left never really bothered me.

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Tenka wrote:

In my opinion .. thats a GOOD thing. PUG-ing to kill a boss/dungeon/raid or whatever is just an easy way to get a free ride. There should be a downfall to ganging up on your enemy.

I guess that really depends on whether the developers are envisaging a game where it is possible to solo every single encounter, or whether some areas might require a group... I'd love to hear their design philosophy on this.

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I guess that really depends on whether the developers are envisaging a game where it is possible to solo every single encounter, or whether some areas might require a group... I'd love to hear their design philosophy on this.

http://g4tv.com/videos/48432/Path-of-Exile-Video-Walkthrough/

This video is a pretty good watch to get a good idea of the theme/approach of the game.

At 7:10 -

"Although there is no offline single player mode, the game is designed to be completely accessible to players who want to play alone. We feel that playing in a real econemy with other players is important, even if you aren't teaming up to kill monsters."

I don't know how old the video is but I'm pretty sure their stance has'nt changed.

I'll just go right out and say that this approach suits ME perfectly, and I would be dissapointed if this game suddenly took a different direction.

It's most likely you can solo just fine, but I think i heard/read that grouping with others makes the monsters harder, but also drop better loot. So if you want to get the real good stuff you may need to group with a bunch of cut-throat players who will of course take your better loot and you will be left about the same position you started.

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Chris wrote:

The motivation for FFA looting is that Wraeclast is a cut-throat world filled with dangerous and horrific threats. Creating tension with item drops was one way we planned to manifest this design goal to the player.

We've read this thread carefully and have seen a general consensus against FFA looting (at least in terms of people who posted). We take our fans' opinions seriously, and are discussing solutions that allow us to still retain the tension whilst solving the very real problems of ping disadvantage and ranged characters being too far away from the drop location.

I agree with Chris completely. FFA loot system is a must for a cut-throat realistic ARPG. Also he is absolutely right about the disadvantages FFA brings.

For ranged characters, there can be a skill gem like Telekinesis from Diablo.

As for the ping issue, it's a little bit technical but servers can calculate the pings of all party members, do sync with the ping factor involved and give calculated advantage (timing of the appearance of drops) to players with higher pings than the player with the lowest ping.

Anyway, i'm glad FFA is gonna stay.