Old thread title was What are your reasons to object to ploot/how do you think it should work? “ruins the game” isn’t a reason, it’s an end. Let’s try something different.
For the sake of definitions, let’s say “contested” refers to how item drops work now. A boss dies, all the items that drop are up for grabs for all players. For a ploot system, an item would be “assigned” so only that assigned player can see it/pick it up.
How would you design a ploot system to satisfy people’s concerns? The most common ones that seem to pop up:
- Should it drop the same number of items per player (Diablo 3 style) or the same number of items as it would drop now, just randomly assigned instead of all contested? [Bold because this is such a common complaint/misconception.]
- It should be optional if it has to exist.
- What happens to people who join a game just before a kill.
- How do you ensure people actually worked for the drops they might get.
- Should loot become contested if it’s not picked up after a certain time? Maybe this can satisfy some people who genuinely love the loot-grab mini game.
- Should you need to be near the kill to get loot?
- Should the loot still be tradable like it is now?
- If people drop before picking up their items, do their drops become immediately contested (perhaps with the familiar loot explosion and not simply appearing)? Maybe you need to kill a new, maybe very weak or strong “contested item” monster to trigger the drop.
- How do you prevent one class from having an advantage over another in ploot.
My hot takes:
- I personally don’t think 4 is necessary as you don’t need to work for it now, either.
- I think the answer to 7 should be a definitive “yes”. I don’t think anyone’s out to drastically change Diablo 2’s trading.
- I don’t even understand 9 but it was brought up somewhere. Melee generally have an advantage in contested loot, whereas ranged need to stay farther away due to lower survivability.
My suggestions:
- See the number list below for 4 options. 1 seems to be the most popular.
[Original Post]
Please don’t use any of the following reasons:
- It will ruin the game.
- It will ruin the economy.
Those are not reasons, they’re statements and without any kind of reason, they aren’t contributing to any possible discussion and are just noise. I’ve heard so many people complain but I’ve heard almost no actual reasons to object.
[edit]
PERSONAL LOOT NEED NOT BE IMPLEMENTED WITH THE IDEA THAT MORE LOOT DROPS. THE OPTIONS BELOW GIVE WAYS TO HANDLE DROP COUNTS. I’M SURE PERSONAL LOOT CAN BE IMPLEMENTED SUCH THAT THE GAME DROPS THE SAME AMOUNT OF ITEMS PER KILL AS IT DOES NOW. This is a valid argument but it’s easily handled.
[/edit]
The following may be a legit reason:
I’m worried about the changes to loot distribution and how I may wind up either getting less loot in multiplayer games, or more loot, thus pushing people toward high player count games and punishing single player or lower player count games too much.
I’m worried about the atmosphere/design feel of the game dropping just a bunch of loot and then the scramble to get what you can being taken away. (I don’t personally feel this is a very strong reason but hey.)
Personal loot could do any of the following when a monster dies. I would assume in all cases, you just see the drops on the floor like you do now, and not that they simply pop into your inventory like WoW.
- Generate one set of drops with no changes to the item generation rules as they are now and distribute them to all players near the kill evenly. You may get a potion several games in a row. Or uniques. Or nothing. This keeps the loot distribution the same as it is now, just without the hazard of all loot getting taken by one person with quick fingers or a program. Each person has a fair shot at the drops.
- Generate one set of drops for each player at the equivalent of “/players 1” no matter how many players in the game. There would be no difference in playing single player vs. a group, except people pulling not capable of pulling their weight would have a higher chance of getting gear than they do now.
- Generate one set of drops for each player at the equivalent of the number of players in the game. This dramatically favors high-player-count games and people may feel punished for playing solo or in games that aren’t full.
- A new loot generation rule is made. Maybe each person has a chance of getting a high quality drop (unique, rare, set) in addition to the lower quality drops (potions, whites, gems) and any runes the boss can drop.
I’ve seen arguments that “it will put more items in the economy” but I’ve clearly listed ways it can be implemented with and without that effect.
I’ve seen arguments that “oh that guy got a Shako, why didn’t I?” but that can already happen now and I don’t think is a legit argument. It happens in D3 and WoW already and no one complains about it.
