Since season 7 launch is around the corner, I went to my usual end of season stash cleanout. and since it was a few months since i last played, and put around 100 hours into PoE2 as a new player to that franchise i decided to run a few rifts.
even though there are just massive and massive lootsplosions all over the place there wasnt a single moment of dopamine to be found anywhere.
In PoE2 you can set your own loot filter to hide items you dont want, but when items you do want, or possible upgrades, good bases etc drop you can set a nice DING sound, custom light pilars, custom labels to indiciate you get something nice.
But D4 doesnt have this, everything just drops, and legendary items drop just as common items with no way to hide them. Now D4 is a different game and early game items can be upgrades so you want to check through them. But once you get to mid-end game where you build has taken shape and all you want are upgrades sorting through all this loot is a heinous waste of everyones time.
I could understand if D4 doesnt want to let us hide loot because all loot can be turned into crafting mats and have value there. So instead of hiding loot, give us a loot highligher.
make it so we can set items that dont meet that filter dont get a light beam. Make it so when a GA item drops with a GA affix i actually want on my gear i can create a custon light pillar with a satisfying ding. So when 20 legendary items drop from a boss. and i see no pilars, i can just walk away. But when i kill a boss and then hear a ding and see a giant pilar of light I know thats a possible upgrade.
Same with custom labels. Its currently very hard for me to distinguish when a rune drops for example. Let me give runes a green hue or mini green pilar when they drop so i know what it is. I dont want to have to pick up every single textbox from the ground only to play inventory manager simulator.
I only want to pick up items that have value to me. So let me customise that.
Personal take: I don’t like the idea of a filter that discourages you to not pick up items as the ‘solo economy’ is built around selling or dismantling drops. That being said… I would LOVE a filter that gives what your looking for a yellow tint in your stash. It would feel like a legendary should… maybe it has poor rolls and you got your hopes up, maybe its perfect and you can scream in excitment. As of right now… especially during the transition from rando pre-level 60 gear to a functional end game build (before you’re eyeing only GAs), going through that much each run is the worst part of this game.
I’m torn on this. On one hand, I feel like you shouldn’t need a loot filter. That is a big barrier of entry for most players who aren’t already hardcore ARPG players. It feels unnatural to want to just skip loot that drops and I personally think that is a deficiency in game design when one is needed. Given this is a more casual ARPG, I’d prefer we don’t need/add something like a loot filter.
On the other hand, you have a point that once you get to end game, you do spend quite a bit of time filtering through loot in your inventory that you may have otherwise not picked up at all once you have enough crafting mats. It sucks having to go to the Blacksmith and just salvaging everything as it breaks your flow and slows you down. Still, you don’t want to leave potential affix upgrades on the ground so its usually a good idea to pick up every legendary.
I wonder if there is a happy middle ground here where we just make salvaging much easier and part of the natural flow on the game. Instead of needing to go to a blacksmith, just let us salvage directly from the inventory. Everyone can keep picking up each legendary, but once your inventory is full, you just quickly salvage and keep playing rather than teleporting back to town, running to the blacksmith, and clicking a button on that UI. Maybe there needs to be some sort of progression mechanic there where you only learn to salvage yourself after having the blacksmith salvage X amount of items or something for you (as I personally think this is only really a problem at end game).
This doesn’t necessarily solve the dopamine issue you were looking for, but I think that can be solved with other mechanisms too. There could be set pieces added, more uniques, or something like that which could be core to characters but still not requiring a loot filter to get that big upgrade.
And don’t forget to make all the dropped items graphics the same size…
Why does a pit key has to be sooooo big and a staff sooo small when they drop?
Some consistency around here could help, no?
And since we’re talking about loot, another not so stupid idea. At least, to help somehow newbies that can’t read:
Put a red lock on the right hand corner of the stash space of a account bound gear, please…
I’m not even asking anymore for flashing warning lights or something, but you already have icons over gear for anything else, why not for account bound items?
Is that hard to do?
Need a filter if for nothing else than boss runs. You get your friends together for the epic battle, crap drops 5 time, then you all need to go back to town to clear because if you leave everything on the ground it’s just a mess.
It’s really a terrible end game loop and I don’t know how it hasn’t been fixed yet.
Either give us a way to hide stuff or stop dropping so much crap in confined spaces.
I think part of the problem is really that it doesn’t take very long after hitting max level that the gear you need is extremely selective. You don’t care about normal loot. You only care about GA items.
Upping the rate at which GA items drop makes loot more valuable.
Making it so you get the drops you actually need is even better.
The customisable light pilars is a very cool idea.
I suspect the devs dont want a loot filter because it goes against a certain philosophy of having an easy base loot system. I think the moment a player is allowed to customise affixes, this philosophy is damaged. If thats the case, then it wouldnt make a difference if it is a light beam or hidden text.
I think this is the case because Diablo 4 already has several loot filters, like said light beams, minimap icons, drop sounds and a few items got extra icons for their text panel with season 6. These are weak filters, but helpful nonetheless.
My point is, the devs seem not entirely against filters, but they draw a line that no powerful feature is allowed to cross. sry for my weird english, I am in a hurry
Btw, I created a mockup just recently. It is deliberately limited to not not work with affixes. If someone is interested:
PoE2 has excellent and flexible loot highlighter! Loved it. You can change even sounds of specific item drop.
Check for yourself legal plugin: NeverSink-Filter-for-PoE2
How is an optional filter a barrier of entry?
Oh, no! D4 requires you to remember to breathe once in a while… think of all the new players we lost because of this artificial barrier we have in place!
Loot filters are ARPG specific things. Most games don’t throw such an endless amount of useless loot that you have to sift through. They tend to very quickly become non-optional in all of the games that support them in my experience. It also requires you to have a really good idea of what you need so you can set it up before you play. This becomes a barrier of entry for new players who aren’t familiar with the genre or the stats of D4. Given D4 is tailored towards the casual audience, I just don’t think it’s a good idea to add one. Instead, the game should be designed in a way that a loot filter won’t be needed. This is just my personal opinion
That’s why I suggested making them optional. You will not be forced to use it, but players that need/want it, might be able to use it.
Why is having more freedom a bad things for new players? Also, on that note, why is every game design decision revolving around new players?
