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

Well if you break down the psychology of grabbing loot:

1. loot drops
2. player knows they get first dibs if they grab it first then drop it
3. it's best to have first dibs always
4. it's best to gank look as fast as possible

So the way to create a more balanced system is to change the psychology to something more like:

1. loot drops
2. player must decide if picking up this item is worthwhile
3. if item is not worthwhile then there was a high opportunity cost
4. if the item was worthwhile then there is a low opportunity cost.

The 'radiation' idea sorta jives with this, but is sorta an inappropriate mechanic. There has to be a consequence for picking up items and then dropping them... the question then is, what could that be, and how would it make sense in the context of the game?

With enough experience, the noises items make when dropped and holding 'alt' to see all the items dropped (e.g. rarity/type colors, names), that should be enough information to even the playing field a bit. You could even make it so if a player drops an item that they spent some points on and another player picks it up, the other player could do so without penalty.

That would penalize 'ninjas', while giving everyone else a chance to pick up loot for free (that another player dropped) or with the points they otherwise would not have had a chance to spend (the 'ninja' spent all their points). The 'radiation' system would be a ward against impulsiveness and greed, two of the worst things that can ruin the playing experience.

The idea however, as far as I understand it from my ignorant position, is to have a system that provides everyone with an equal chance to loose but not more. Not to have a system that provides an absolute equal distribution.

If someone fails to pay attention or react quick enough or not care the system is not supposed to catch the items for them.

"is not supposed to" reflects my ideologies. I'm not talking for the developers.

That is correct. The system should not punish people from taking what others don't want or stuff they aren't paying attention to.

Things would have to be built in such a way that only outright greed would be discouraged, and some sort of intelligence would have to be at work when ganking items.

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zeto wrote:

That is correct. The system should not punish people from taking what others don't want or stuff they aren't paying attention to.

Things would have to be built in such a way that only outright greed would be discouraged, and some sort of intelligence would have to be at work when ganking items.

As I stated before, people can relinquish their claim to specific items thereby granting it to another player for free, or they can lose all claim to an item after conflict has ceased for a certain amount of time. They could also make an agreement like, "if you let me have this item this time, I will let you have an item you want next time," they could even put the item in escrow (an uninterested third party) until the agreement fulfilled. Also, there is nothing to stop people from putting the item (they did not want) into the chatbox and trading it to someone in the party mid mission for an item or even going back to town via a waypoint and depositing in their stash.

Bottom line, there are plenty of ways to work within the guidelines of any system, if you are creative enough...

The number of points an item costs could decrease over time. It would stay at full price for about 5 seconds after it became available to everyone (remember the system in use is a timed allocation system). After that, the price would drop a certain percentage every second until it was free about 30 seconds later. That way if someone really wants it then they can grab it for full price but if no one wants it then someone can just take it for free before long.

You know... If you guys stop writing walls of text and instead use bullet points with straight to the point answer maby the devs might respond more.

Also when they say "discuss this" im pretty sure they mean discuss what can be altered a little with this system. Not "HEY GUYS COMPLETELY CHANGE THE SYSTEM WE JUST WROTE DOWN LAWLLAWALWLAWLWAL" As they probably picked this system for a reason.

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Also when they say "discuss this" im pretty sure they mean discuss what can be altered a little with this system. Not "HEY GUYS COMPLETELY CHANGE THE SYSTEM WE JUST WROTE DOWN LAWLLAWALWLAWLWAL" As they probably picked this system for a reason.

And this is based on what? your assumption.

Simply put we wish to explore every possible alternative. Some are good some are bad.

However perhaps in this forum we can find something better than the original system they have.Or they could mix and match parts of ideas.

Even if they don't change the existing system the developers will still be able to see the communities view on how looting should be handled.

Also do we have a option for bullet point. I don't see it? Let me know if i am wrong.

Do them like this :P

-=bla bla bla


-=bla bla bla

I dunno something like that. Just makes it a little nicer to read.

Fair enough on the rest of the stuff then I guess.


Also how often do you see the devs post in here compared to the other threads that are smaller : P.

Well just because they don't post in response to every idea doesn't mean they don't read them. It is a very long thread i have trouble keeping track of all the ideas sometimes.

bullet points are probably better. Perhaps applying a name to an idea for easy reference. Like FFA,Allocated, EXP counter, etc. That would make it easier to sift through the ideas.