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

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Silver wrote:

I actually think it's a little frustrating. It's forcing only ranged players to be quick on the draw. Melee players will never ever have the problem with this because they will always be close to the action. Ranged players pretty much get the short end of the stick, if a good item drops for them, they must run to it, thus breaking their fighting. They must also attempt to venture into enemies, were they may be weak to defend themselves from. The main point of this is that it breaks up the game-play and causes players to scramble for loot just as much as free-for-all.

I don't know that ranged players are getting the short end of the stick still. If I'm a ranged character in a party and I decide I'm gonna hang back while the other thank, there probably won't be a lot of enemies between me and the rest of my party. As far as running to get an item, it's not like it's gonna take that long, and you're still gonna be an effective fighter if you're a bit closer to the enemies.

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Oasisbhrnw wrote:

I don't know that ranged players are getting the short end of the stick still. If I'm a ranged character in a party and I decide I'm gonna hang back while the other thank, there probably won't be a lot of enemies between me and the rest of my party. As far as running to get an item, it's not like it's gonna take that long, and you're still gonna be an effective fighter if you're a bit closer to the enemies.

well the point for me is this, the melee is already in the action as thats his role, to mix it up and take the agro so his ranged mates can slaughter whatever it is while hes doing the same

not so much that a range player cant be in close but 90% of the time im pretty sure you shouldnt be in close, yet the melee should be in close 90% of the time and guess where the loot drops?

;-) the melee does not have to alter his gaming style to pick up loot as it falls at his feet, the ranger however is constantly having to worry about the distance just for loot sake and not tactical positioning in regards to the best position for killing those mobs

as for the timer it will just break up the flow of the game along with range classes having to run everywhere just for loot

doesnt sound appealing to me and thats the 1st time i have said that about something in POE

just for the record im planning on melee classes or a battle mage so dont think im a bitter ranger lol

Just think for a second.

A non-white item drops. Countdown starts. Everyone gets ready and.... GO!!!

After a min another non-white item drops. Countdown starts. Everyone gets ready and.... GO !!!

The race continues...

Until some party members get sick of it.

I wanted FFA loot but even allocated loot is better than this.

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permaximum wrote:

Just think for a second.

A non-white item drops. Countdown starts. Everyone gets ready and.... GO!!!

After a min another non-white item drops. Countdown starts. Everyone gets ready and.... GO !!!

The race continues...

Until some party members get sick of it.

I wanted FFA loot but even allocated loot is better than this.

The idea is that the person the item gets allocated to has the best chance of getting it. So there should only be a mad dash for items by all party members if the person the item dropped for wasn't paying attention.

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permaximum wrote:

Just think for a second.

A non-white item drops. Countdown starts. Everyone gets ready and.... GO!!!

After a min another non-white item drops. Countdown starts. Everyone gets ready and.... GO !!!

The race continues...

Until some party members get sick of it.

I wanted FFA loot but even allocated loot is better than this.

i think that is a really good point but depends on the number of non-white item drops... If the droprates are as high as in d2 the different counters on items will make everything very confusing...
Really good point!

Maybe if players couldn't even see items assigned to other players until the timer ran out. That could definitely give the original player an advantage. Plus it would remove most of the countdown timers on the screen for those players worried about immersion.

Let's not forget, though - if your melee buddy is in the middle of taking on all those strength-aligned monsters, you as a ranger aren't attracting any attention. Are they suddenly going to switch targets and maul you as you breeze past to pick up that bow? Maybe some will - but that'd be a novel AI mechanic. So long as an enemy is already attacking someone else (read: your buddy), my experience is that they tend to ignore other targets (read: you).
Plus, while said buddy is dealing with all those monsters you have mysteriously stopped shooting at, you can pick up whatever loot was allocated to him.

The way I envision this working graphically is the countdowns are attached to the "alt"-text, below the name of the item. While the countdown is active, the text (and cooldown) is visible to the allocated player, giving them a sense of where the item dropped in addition to what it is - so, you can make that split-second decision on whether it's worth dashing over to pick up.

Next thought: ranged versus melee enemies. The paradigm that comes to mind is that the melee fighters match up with each other and likewise with the ranged enemies; since the ranged (read: dexterity and/or intelligence-aligned) enemies are more fragile, the ranger can pick them off first and have their choice of that loot while the marauder's still handling the zombies and such.
In short, FFA loot (and the suggested compromise) favors melee in some circumstances, and ranged in others. The horror?
Besides, if you're fighting alongside them, is there anything wrong with dropping (or trading them) a few items that'll help them fight better?

I like the idea of giving a little fairness to the drops, but same time it could raise the amount of people standing around doing nothing but waiting to pick up gear.

I think in favor of keeping the action moving, it should stay free for all. Maybe place a time restriction on rares/uniques, but white items and magic items should remain free for all.

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tpapp157 wrote:

Maybe if players couldn't even see items assigned to other players until the timer ran out. That could definitely give the original player an advantage. Plus it would remove most of the countdown timers on the screen for those players worried about immersion.

It would be almost "allocated loot" with an unnecessary mechanic. Better make it "allocated loot" we all know then.

Im sorry but am i the only 1 that doesnt fully understand how this works?


White items are ffa, ok i get that.
Rares and the rest will be allocated to 1 of the party members and he will have first dibs on it? Or he needs to wait a few seconds until everyone is close and then its who can click faster?
I have read through all the posts and i still cant figure this out.

I gotta say i really dig what you guys at GGG have done with this game so far, and i understand the whole cut-throat feeling u want for this game, but sometimes cut-throat isnt so good for a game that emphasisez on co-op. A drawback for this would be that people just make passworded games like i did in D2 and just collect all the loot w/o having to worry every second about having to be super lightning quick after every single monster dies.