One man’s opinion

I've never used "top" gear, nor have I ever found it necessary to buy "top" gear to play the game. I tend to keep my gear until it's not worth the cost to repair it with COTOs, and I do just fine in places like the Rise, ruined keep, etc. I've not really ever understood the fascination people have with having the "best" gear in this game (it makes sense in WoW).

As for making gold, there are lots of ways to do it, and combat is often the least lucrative method.

To note, none of my gear has ever cost me more than about 55k gold, and most of it is in the 10k-30k range.

 

Well the op is generic in nature, it’s not about better gear or end game gear it’s about drops that are exciting to find like fishing now. People love to catch a rare something and loot should be the same way imop. Mabey even tailored gear like my example finding a sword with bonus to skill base like +5 to thrust. People like finding fun stuff there is no fun stuff in current drops with a few exceptions.(btw 5 skill points to 100 in thrust is very little power)

Go play what mmo, this is the only one I know of with the current Mw and enchanting that we all enjoy. More interesting gear drops does not diminish that.


Interesting and not power is what we want.

 

So how could the current interesting system of the artifacts be made better since it seems to cover the things you are describing (or an attempt to)

 

I admit that could be a angle, most of them are junk but they also do compete against the crafting argument many of you are trying to make. I think we the player should get excited about a potential corpse we are looting. You have to admit there really is nothing to get excited about with a few exceptions dolus or a ring but 98% of the stuff is pretty much vendor trash or salvage pieces.

 

+5 thrust skill is like 2 billion exp at some point, hyperbole, but its something crazy. Also, rare mats that can make some of the best gear are already salvageable from drops.

 

Let’s say you had 150 in thrust you would not even notice 5 more points, if you were lucky enough to find 2x +5 thrust swords 10 points might be a 2 damage points more. 2x crafted with tier ingredients would be more powerfull.

Now if every equipment piece had +5 that might be worth collecting you have to weigh it against all the tier crafted components though. look these are just raw ideas the real point is this. (That above idea was just a concept point).

More interesting and useful drops would be good for the game. if making the current artifacts more useful then well that’s something.

 

There is already some of this stuff, and it takes away from the gm crafters market, how many people sell top teir cloth hoods?

 

Yes but that’s not at all what I’m suggesting that’s what we have. I’m not suggesting items to best crafting but items players new and old can use till they acquire an end game piece.

When was anytime you found a item like a tunic that you said I might wear that?

Never!

 

already to many artifacts/ non player crafted gear.

just work on new components

*two separate statements my bad*

and more patterns that are 100% drop rate.

 

Thats not how it works, or what would be the point of gathering to make hard leather bowstrings if you just had infinite imbued elven of speed?

 

edited above post.

I don't want 100% component drops. just thoughts running together.

 

Yes it would be too much of a good thing I agree

 

Man, you know there is a big chunk of the existing population of this game that loves going out and mining, or farming, or gathering from low level zones. And some of them craft, and they put all the medium low quality stuff on vendors in the newbie towns at low prices, to recoup some of their losses and so people dont have to buy plain platemail from a vendor. But hey forget them, everything should just fall off a monster that you need.

 

I didn’t say any of that, all I said is people like to find cool stuff as loot. The drop rate could be very low but as long as a possibility existed people would be happy hunting for it. Though there are some artifacts that are useful and a few that are made too strong and not by any suggestion of mine. Cool does not mean powerful or common infact rare is better like the tiger shark or the blue fin but possible.

 

A system, where player crafted gear is pretty much the majority, is one of those decisions that keeps the game niche. I don't think it is about wanting the most powerful stuff, it's an intrinsic part of RPG's. Even going back to pen and paper D&D I remember the excitement of a magic item. Was it a +1 ring, a +2 longsword. So what we have is a system where one of the most fun parts of the RPG gameplay loop pretty much across all RPG's, is almost missing.

As someone who creates SOTA content, the loot system is one of the issues I see brought up a lot. Once you have looted a rusty sword or explosive potion for the 1000th time, it gets old and people move on.

SOTA is in an interesting time at the moment where Port are trying to make the game more appealing to the average MMO player as they need more people in the game, but the people who seem to be pushing against it are the old guard who have invested a lot of money I would guess.

This is another one of those situations where a change to the loot system would attract and keep more players, but annoys the players who have been funding the game for years and there is some form of entitlement there to keep the game as they expect/want it to be. The crafting system also feels like is was built with RMT in mind. Crafting requires lots of gold and resources, it is allowable that players can spend real money on gold/resources, that real money probably gets pumped back into the development of the game by the players selling the gold/resources. A better loot system would impact that.

I guess ultimately it could reach a point where is it more important to keep selling your +10 Sword of Slaying or the health of the game long-term.

Maybe as a suggestion an item drops, like a rare magic sword for example that on it's own is not practically usable but requires a crafter to bring out it's powerful values. So the player gets a drop and a crafter is required before the item can be used. These items would need to have values though that means people would want to use them.

 

I have to say i completely disagree.

Now you want adventures to get the best gear from drops. Epic drops..
This just leads to gear creep. When new bosses are added then new gear needs to be added. To make that gear seem "worthwhile" it needs to be better than the gear from the boss N-1.

Adding more tier 3 components I can get behind. Like the imbued strings and Torc's weapon components. But completed gear, no.

I would also say that gear is not expensive in this game from a crafter's point of view. It is only expensive from an adventurers point of view that have no idea the amount materials and gold (in fuels) it takes to make an even mid tier piece of gear. Crafters have to bear nearly all of the gold sinks in this game.

I'm a level 120 MW leather armourer and I choose not be a crafter, I can not make armour for sale, because it loses me money with every piece i sell. This does not include the gold investment to get to this kind of level in crafting that is impossible to recoup. I did it because it is fun to me not because it makes gold. If I want to make gold I farm humanoids in adventure scenes, I don't craft, i make MUCH more gold that way. I make gear for my guildies and myself if they supply the materials.


Regards
Spung

 

I am a new player. I'm playing becuase it was an interesting game that has a player based equipment system and economy instead of a basic hamsterwheel of loot progression, which I'm frankly tired of, and it has an interesting skill system.

 

There is quite a bit of truth here. Loot definitely does need some flavor, but it shouldn't hold a candle to what @Spungwa is making. A 2x2 item (2 MW, 2 EN) requires 80 gold and silver ore. It's a completely absurd cost that is very challenging to economically recoup.

Better loot could well be beneficial for crafters if it were to inflate the cost of mid-range gear (drops being sufficiently rare of course) thereby pushing 2x2 items markedly out of the mid range and into the high end.

Or it would wreck the crafting economy. Flip a coin, I guess

 

The threads not about finding epic loot/gear it is about finding exciting or at least interesting gear/drops. As someone suggested even reworking the artifacts to be more useful would be something.

It disheartening most everything you find is garbage and some balance between finding items and crafting them is needed.

 

It may be, but it was your suggestion below i completely disagreed with.

As i said more tier 3 components with rarer drops and MUCH higher salvage rate for that component I can get behind. Meaning getting one is actually getting something, not a 1% (or whatever chance) of getting something But looted usable gear just kills the crafting economy more than it already is. I would also be good with colour coding items that are pattern salvageable and different colour for component salvable to let people know they just got something "special" beyond vendor trash.

I personally spent a long time killing mobs to get all the Gambeson and Clan of the X items.


Regards
Spung