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

well, fact remains that drops distract from fighting, and that can sometimes lead to bad situations.
If u play with friends, u can just finish them off and then check loot, but when playing with randoms, ur more or less forced to keep checking for loot if u dont wanna risk loosing something u need/want for whatever reason.

Even thought i can live with FFA Loot, i dont like to play with randoms cuz of it.

Might be a stupid thought or mentioned befor but, What if any loot would be droped X seconds after combat ends?
Then still be FFA but atleast one could focus on the fight and then watch for loot.

That's the main point... one time isn't too bad, but if you are considering people dropping what they are doing constantly to grab items... it REALLY will detract from playing the game... particularly with pick up groups (PUGs.)

This is the biggest flaw of all drop systems... and is only solved by known drop points, like bosses. However bosses being the only place that drops stuff would be boring.

I have no idea how to solve this problem.

People don't seem to like the idea of paying XP to pick up items. I thought it was pretty good.

I have think of a solution to make sure every players have the same chance of getting items only by adding an attributes on items. I dont care whatever the name is but for my exemple I'll call it radiation.

So lets just say a magic/rare/unique/currency/gem items drop. Like the actual looting system, it will be allocated to a nearby player (randomly) for a very small amount of time. This item has 150 radiation because it is really good so the player who has the loot have to think if he take it or not, so maybe he'll esitate and then another player will pick it. The player who picked it has now 150 radiation and the more radiation you have the less items allocation chance % between nearby player you have, depend on they radiation too.

Radiation bar (or not visible numbers, or anything that apply) could be for a character, so it never reset, so the more items you pick, the less chance you have getting items. But in this way, hardcore players who has more ingame time will be penalize and they will not want to party with others.That's not what we want.

Or it could be for the created game, so everyone know that the last boss drop better items so items dropped while heading to the boss will be more likely passed on allocation. This will also give hardcore players with high ingame time and good gears to let others have good loot and they have better chance % of getting better items (upgrade) from bosses. It is like a compensation for beeing strong in the party and making the players gain faster XP.

I know that if someone join in mid-game, they will have 0 radiation, so it has to be criticize if it make sences. Maybe he gain half of radiations from party members, so a players will be more likely to stay to the end in a fresh created game.

But in this way, a player could just stand in the town and wait till players are near the boss then join them for the final fight and has better chance % of allocation. Maybe a report afk players would be good, or maybe just dont let him party with others, so he cannot join them.

-->Or maybe the opposite system, when you are fighting mobs, you gain XP to level, and you gain points for items. The more points for items you have, the more chance % you have for allocated items, depend on other players points. when you pick an items, it spend points. When you enter a new game, points reset. So if you drop from game and rejoin, you still have the points.
Something great should be trading remaining points at the end of the game, or upon leaving for golds, or something else.

What you guys think of that idea?

I guess having points that are built up over the period of time a party is cooperating is a pretty good idea... The higher the level the item is, the more points are deducted from the player's point pool. So, if a boss drops five 50 point items and you are a marauder standing right next to them with 100 points, you cannot scoop them all up (only 2 at most), thus other players have a chance to spend their points for the other items. An added benefit of this is if a player dies and has to start from the nearest town or waypoint, they could potentially still have a chance of acquiring items, if the other players in the party ran out of them or did not want them enough to spend their points.

I would add, that if no one wanted to claim the items, the players can either actively relinquish their claim or they could lose any claim to the items after a few minutes after combat has ended, so that who ever wanted them could pick them up without a point deduction. Also, as I noted before the points would be acquired over the time the party began cooperating; so a person suddenly joining the party, should not receive any points as they did not contribute to the progress of the party, only after they have made a contribution would they then begin receiving points.

I have an idea.
I dont know if it fits and maybe it is mentioned already but still:
On each players screen there is a little bar with "Killing frequency" score.
The score drops when you take an item and it grows when you kill monsters.
That way there would be no "ninja-grabbers" ( players who run around and steal items ) each player would have to earn the points and eventually earn the items.
If you don't kill monsters then - you are not active and wont earn points.

It has been pointed out before that glass cannon type of classes (certain ranger styles and likely witches in general), are quite physically weak in comparison to the damage they put out out. Marauders and possibly some of the hybrid classes purposes would likely be that of walking meat shields, blocking passages and acting as decoys, so that the ranged classes can finish off the enemies without as much fear.

Also, in accordance with that, ranged classes can 'kill steal', i.e. waiting until a monster is almost dead and then finishing it off for the credit. So, what you are suggesting obscenerainbow, would likely be unbalanced from the outset...

The problem with counting kills is that it discriminates against supporting rolls like healers. A healer may not kill anything the entire time but they're just as integral to the party's success. If you wanted to count quality points then you would have to keep track of a whole lot of different statistics. It'd be way too easy to inadvertently bias the system toward certain builds over others. You would need a ton of playtesting to work it out.

What may be a lot easier and potentially just as effective is simply having your points increase at a constant rate up to a certain point. So you get 1 point every 2-3 seconds until you reach 100 points. The number of points that picking up an item uses would vary based on the item's effectiveness relative to your level.

Thank you for your opinions.
Now i see the system may really be unbalance.
That was only a suggestion. Lets keep waiting for more.

Ya its hard there are so many different ways to control how loot drops it hard to get your head around it. There is a reason this thread is so long. Sometimes i wonder if we'll ever find a perfect system lol.