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

"

Chris wrote:

We initially announced that looting is free-for-all in Path of Exile. Players would be able to see and pick up any items that dropped.

It's important to us that Path of Exile has a cut-throat feel where players are not only competing against monsters, but also their fellow players. We do not feel it is an option to arbitrarily hide items from players who have not been allocated them.

As we saw here and here, many players really objected to this.

Several legitimate problems with free-for-all looting were raised:
- Ranged players are unable to get to the items in time.
- Items might just get scooped up by one player with substantially lower latency than the other players.

Over the past few months we've thought long and hard about this topic, and have come up with a system that we feel captures the cut-throat feel that we're trying to go for, but helps mitigate the valid complaints.

We're proposing the following system:
- All white text items are free-for-all.
- All magic/rare/unique/currency/gem items are allocated to a nearby player for a very small amount of time.
- All players can see the item, and a countdown of how much time remains until it's available to anyone is shown.
- The allocation time is intended to be very small (enough time to compensate for a little latency, reaction time and travel distance). We're thinking a base time of something in the order of 1 second when standing next to the item.
- The time would be increased by the time it takes for the character to run to the item. An item allocated to a ranged player might unallocate after two seconds, for example.
- It's important that the time is low enough that the player can only get the item if they are paying attention and make an effort to immediately grab it.
- The allocation times can be lower or non-existent in hardcore or cut-throat leagues.

Players who wanted an allocated looting system will hopefully be happy that this system mitigates item loss due to latency and travel distance.

Players who wanted a free-for-all looting system will hopefully be pleased - with this system they can take any item they want if the allocated player is not paying attention to the drops.

This is a concept based on feedback only. It's not locked in stone, but we like the direction it's going in.

What do you guys think about this suggestion? Please don't just post "allocated sucks", or "I won't play if it's free-for-all".

"

Magni_Steelheart wrote:

From what I've read, all those who are in favor of allocated loot have the same justification: "fairness." If you look at what little story has been released for this game, nothing indicates that ANYTHING is supposed to be fair.

Your character has committed a crime. Instead of being tried for that crime, they've been banished to a post-apocalyptic land of monsters and demons. Your character is not necessarily a good guy, and not out to save the world. You're out to make yourself as powerful as you can. This does not sound like the kind of person who care the slightest inkling about somebody else getting their "fair share" of the loot.

With a party full of characters like this, there SHOULD be tension and mistrust. Everybody is out for number one. Any kind of permanent allocation would really kill immersion.

"

Isobar wrote:

"

Magni_Steelheart wrote:

From what I've read, all those who are in favor of allocated loot have the same justification: "fairness." If you look at what little story has been released for this game, nothing indicates that ANYTHING is supposed to be fair.

Your character has committed a crime. Instead of being tried for that crime, they've been banished to a post-apocalyptic land of monsters and demons. Your character is not necessarily a good guy, and not out to save the world. You're out to make yourself as powerful as you can. This does not sound like the kind of person who care the slightest inkling about somebody else getting their "fair share" of the loot.

With a party full of characters like this, there SHOULD be tension and mistrust. Everybody is out for number one. Any kind of permanent allocation would really kill immersion.

Using this logic, why should hacking be banned? Why should characters and skills be balanced? It's terrible logic to apply for this kind of argument. We are playing a co-op type game, so there should be some options of being civilized.

"

TerribleDamage wrote:

Is paying attention to every drop as it happens fun? I say no, I say it detracts from the fun of actually killing things.