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

FFA is a terrible idea IMO. Unfortunately there are way to many d-bags in any given game as it is. I play fair and if an item dropped that wasn't suited for my class I would not touch it but I can guarantee that there will be many instances where a selfish prick will grab whatever he can. All this will do is leave honest and fair players jaded to the point that they either wont party up anymore or they to will start being this way creating a cycle of douche-baggery.

I know one solution is to play with friends. But not everyone has friends playing the same games as you do. Most of my friends play MMO's or that abortion called D3.

Honestly I myself can't see why anyone supports this idea other than to basically say "Hey if I can loot it I will because I'm a dick". Sorry but that's the way I see it and my opinion.

Either way I will play the game. Love the game and will continue to support it. If the FFA stays the same then I'll just opt out of partying all together and enjoy the single player experience.

in space, no one can hear you scream.

when was the last dev update on this?
do they even *want* our suggestions on this? or do they want us to STFU and just be fine with what we have?

Why does looting need to be cut-throat? If I'm competing against other players then I would just play solo. Isn't the whole point of party's to cooperatively do things?

I really don't like the current looting system and also detest the screen explosion of items after killing a unique/boss. Guess I'm sticking to playing solo.

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pilnomi wrote:

in space, no one can hear you scream.

when was the last dev update on this?
do they even *want* our suggestions on this? or do they want us to STFU and just be fine with what we have?

Great question. Here is a response that I received from Chris in a PM.....

Re: Loot discussion
Sent: July 20, 2012 7:19 AM
From: Chris
To: iamstryker


Hi there,

The current loot timer represents the way that we intend it to be played in the near future (we're happy with the results of it mitigating unfairness and also keeping people on their toes). I think the user interface for it may be improved (a progress bar rather than a countdown, for example).

Of course, this can definitely change in the future. If you feel strongly that it should be more or less FFA, you're definitely not wasting your breath. This is just how we're going to leave it for a little while while we work on other things.

Kind regards,
Chris

For me this is good and bad news. They intend for this to be the system for awhile while they work on other stuff. Maybe after open beta they will reevaluate. The good news I think in this post is that he says that it can definitely change in the future and that he basically wants people to voice their opinions. What do you all think?

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Laellu wrote:

It does occur to me however that the ninjalooters and the designated loot people are in closer agreement than they think. Both groups are in my very humble opinion a bit selfish by design.

That right there is a horribly rude thing to say. I do believe if you take some time to think it over, you might agree. After all, you aren't worried over regular loot are you? You are worried about uberweapon01 dropping and you not getting it because someone was faster and inconsiderate. With designated loot, you really only solve the *faster* problem, but you no longer have to feel inconsiderate for keeping loot that someone else could use.

Overall, the problem for me is inconsiderate. You can't *cure* that.

For the record, when I say *you*, I do not mean YOU. =)

Your so far off the point. Be it designated loot or at very least FFA with fair timer that gives you chance to browse through the stuff without needing to make haste decision as many do to just loot all certain criteria stuff and then looking them up at inventory later.

You could also call it self preservation rather than beign selfish and with experience of playing among other people i can say majority of the people are usually fair to each other. But even so why does looting need to be like piranhas after their prey. If you work together hours and cant have more than 5 seconds to choose what you might like to loot theres something wrong in my honest opinion.

More i think about the matter, the FFA visible loot itself is fine, i dont mind showing people what dropped under my name or seeing theirs either. Just make it so its not frenzy. People dont die of waiting 20 or 30 sec, assuming they are intrested some of the stuff dropping under my provision.

thanks for that update, stryker! much appriciated

Even playing with friends I find FFA (and tiny timers that expire while the party is still fighting stuff) loot to be incredibly annoying. Why not give players in a group an option to set? FFA, FFA with timers, Instanced. Everyone is happy then.

Every time I play a game recently where loot is instanced my first utterance is "Thank god, now I don't have to stress over getting a fair share of loot." I want to play the game, not spend time worrying about digging through a vast pile of loot to grab a certain item.

That's how *I* want to play. Others obviously enjoy seeing a giant explosion of white items and love to stop attacking things trying to kill them to try and grab some sparkly piece of loot.

So give us both what we want and neither of us will complain any longer.

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sschrupp wrote:

Even playing with friends I find FFA (and tiny timers that expire while the party is still fighting stuff) loot to be incredibly annoying. Why not give players in a group an option to set? FFA, FFA with timers, Instanced. Everyone is happy then.

Every time I play a game recently where loot is instanced my first utterance is "Thank god, now I don't have to stress over getting a fair share of loot." I want to play the game, not spend time worrying about digging through a vast pile of loot to grab a certain item.

That's how *I* want to play. Others obviously enjoy seeing a giant explosion of white items and love to stop attacking things trying to kill them to try and grab some sparkly piece of loot.

So give us both what we want and neither of us will complain any longer.

One of the suckiest things about this whole thing is if this issue isn't fixed to make most players happy...Its just going to keep coming up again and again and again. I bet theres an explosion of complaints after open beta hits. I have already lost track of all of the posts saying that they will never play in public games. I want to see this resolved not only to make myself happy but so that this isn't a long term issue in the forums thats rehashed over and over forever.

Perhaps they want to experience the *explosion of complaints* before they address it. Right now they may have more pressing needs to fix/adjust as opposed to an optional gameplay that not everyone will use.

I'm sure they will revisit this during open beta, or just change the mechanic of that gaming option so it's "cutthroat" in another manner; right now in a John Lennon world no one will be angry or hurt and everyone cooperates nicely before rushing to loot.

Now, if they put a *serious* heavy expense for repairs and mechanics/penalty where people won't loot and drop group, then this may work since people won't just stop fighting and loot and then drop group because it will work against them. Internet woes not excluded; you join this option and there's no turning back.

I respect GGG's decision to keep FFA loot and I understand their reasoning. But I personally hate FFA loot because I want to go kill things, not play this stupid whack-an-item minigame where words pop up and you have to stop fighting and click it in time or you don't get loot.

I could try to play some public games just to see if I can get a friends list of well mannered people who let me have items, but I'd likely have to go through so many greedy d-bags that I just won't bother, I'd rather stick to solo.

I suggest a small tweak that would really fix it for me: timers only start counting down when there's no mobs within a screen's distance of the item. Ensures that you only have to rapidly pick up stuff when the fighting is over.