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

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but I don't know how to use the search function on a specific thread.

I don't think white items should necessarily be FFA, because there are some very valuable ones. 6-linked items should definitely not be FFA, and possibly 5-linked and 6-socketed as well, and 4-linked for items that can only have 4 sockets.

The fact that there is no personal loot will significantly impact my allocation of time on this game, a shared loot system makes people angry and brings nothing to the experience. I do not believe the temporary timer is a fix for this, in my eyes it is no different than FFA loot as it still impacts being in a group or not. This is a multi-player game, if there is more negatives to playing with others than positives I do not see a reason to play with others at all. Why hurt those trying to play the game the intended way?

I don't like this compromise because I don't think it will satisfy anyone. The cutthroats will never get the thrill of stealing items because of the time on the good loot and the casuals will be paranoid that their loot will be stolen so they have to consistently rush towards their reward.

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Banggoo wrote:

I don't like this compromise because I don't think it will satisfy anyone. The cutthroats will never get the thrill of stealing items because of the time on the good loot and the casuals will be paranoid that their loot will be stolen so they have to consistently rush towards their reward.

Indeed, I could not have said it better. Some people don't like to have to rush for the loot all the time, other like the thrill of that. The in-between version of timers doesn't seem to really satisfy either crowd.

I too think the time is too short. If I'm playing with a party and I'm taking quite a beating I don't want my teammates to stop attacking to pick up that rare.

What about this:
Instead of an item being dropped next to someone a key gets dropped only visible to one player. The key can then be used on a chest and that chest will contain the item.

There will be 1 second for the player who used to key to pick up the item before other players and if he leaves it everyone can pick it up.

It comes down to the same thing except you don't have to stop focusing on the battle to pick up your rare item.

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Miljaker wrote:

I too think the time is too short. If I'm playing with a party and I'm taking quite a beating I don't want my teammates to stop attacking to pick up that rare.

What about this:
Instead of an item being dropped next to someone a key gets dropped only visible to one player. The key can then be used on a chest and that chest will contain the item.

There will be 1 second for the player who used to key to pick up the item before other players and if he leaves it everyone can pick it up.

It comes down to the same thing except you don't have to stop focusing on the battle to pick up your rare item.

I think its a great idea too.
The single key can be use to open chest in town. Thus, you can do away the assets thingy during fighting. That would also solve partial the latency spike.

So what are the items that you can obtain from chest loots, I think just all the equipments (weapons and "armours") is enough.

Leave the orbs and materials to the loot drop.

But, then i think we should leave it to the dev.

cut throat league should be FFA , after all if someone steals your loot you can call in backup to pk said person and they will drop all thier loot anyways.

normal mode should have a 10-15 sec timer.

IMO, FFA loot or short timer is a bad idea.


I think the best idea so far is to make it an option when you party up to do FFA or assigned without timers.

I play with friends and stuff like this just makes people angry regardless of how 'mr nice guy' the group happens to be.

You should assign magical items to players on a random but rotating basis and if they drop the item after they pick it up its FFA. Good friends typically share anything their class can't use anyway, and introducing greed and bitterness into the mix is bad.

After all if someone really wants it all, they can just solo.

I too think a FFA loot system is an outdated idea and adds nothing to the experience. It was always a big complaint with Diablo 2 and they fixed it in Diablo 3.

Having said that, I know some people like to be loot ninjas, and I think instead of the timer system, it should be based off league. Primary leagues should be casual friendly, and everyone's loot should be their own.

I want to play with other people and if it is not beneficial to do so then I might as well play by myself or another game.

Part of the big issue with looting and loot-rights is the issue of the inventory. Having to play 'inventory tetris' just to get the items you want while leaving the 'junk' was something that worked in a gold-based economy (because you were always going to increase your net worth when selling) yet it fails with the lack of a gold-based economy because most items, regardless of size, still equal the same amount of 'currency items' from vendors.

Without a centralized 'broker' to facilitate player trading when afk/offline, it becomes especially difficult to have a timely sale of certain rare and unique items.

I mean 'sucks to be you that you work nights, this game isn't for you' isn't a message you want to send to your potential customers. Many people play in off-peak hours.

With all that said, I'd propose some simple changes that would greatly improve the game, IMHO.

-Centralized server-wide market broker (separated by league) where players can list and buy items. You could list a stack of 100 of an item and instead of being forced to buy all 100 of them, you could buy them individually (a handy feature I loved from 'Sword of the Coast 2'). Instead of flooding the broker with different variations on price/quantity we would have less manipulation of the economy and better deals for everyone while also (hopefully) keeping inflation in check.

-Each inventory item takes up one slot and one slot ONLY. The artists have a lot less work to do because they don't need to make special custom 2D artwork for each type of item (and each unique item), just nice small icons and in-game 3D modeling artwork (when it is on the ground). The 3D model can even be 'previewed' by shift/control/alt-clicking it or w/e other combination works. This lets you have way more space to pick up all the loot (and we LOVE OUR LOOT). Less work for your artists, more loot for your players, win win for everyone. And again if you're worried about inflation, the exchange/trade values from vendors can be adjusted as needed on the fly with each patch (or server-side patching) in order to facilitate better data for how it affects the economy.

-Let us see the hp/resists/etc of monsters that we have killed before. An in-game bestiary would be nice as well so that we could keep track of what we killed and maybe get some nice lore/data on the various creatures we encounter.

-Charge microtransaction currency for teleporting. Yes, it is a convenience and with the loot changes above you won't need to return to town as often anyways. You've got town portals that'll take care of that. You could also have it cost a town portal scroll to return back to where you were, and maybe cost more scrolls depending on the area.

As soon as I don't have to play 'inventory tetris' and I'm able to gather tons of loot to sell, I'll return to the game to play a bit more. :)
Math class has got me bottled up right now but once it ends I'll be free as a bird =D