It's all about the loot

What was it about Christmas that excited you when you were a child?

For most it was the pile of loot under the Christmas tree. That mysterious, surprising collection of unknowns that you didn't have to pay for. You didn't know what they were going to be, but you knew that the act of discovery was going to be a highlight of the year. For you those were probably the best items that you would acquire since your birthday. You would eagerly tear off the wrapping paper and marvel at your new toys.

Now imagine that Christmas and birthdays did not exist, and that those best items had to be saved up for and purchased. That is the difference between a purely loot-based economy and a purely player-based economy. While the latter will provide plenty for crafters to do, if handled poorly it will do so at the expense of fun for everyone else.

What if we could have both? What if the best physical objects were made by crafters, but a number of special spells could only be found as single-use consumable scrolls included in everyday loot. The ability to one time only envelope your enemy in a poisonous mist, or be impervious to damage for five seconds, or pass through a locked door. Suddenly looting bodies would become exciting, because it would be like Christmas every time. You would have no idea what spell, if any, you would find. The possibilities are endless.

Other games know the power of loot, and employ it shamelessly. (I'm looking at you Borderlands, and you too Grim Dawn.) Maybe we can have the best of both worlds.

 

In so many games one thing that keeps me playing is the loot thrill. Hitting bigger monsters with stronger sticks is fun for whatever reason.

Pie in the sky system for me would be one where the player that gets the loot doesn't have to wait for a person or even play it multiplayer to get it crafted. They take it to a special vendor/crafter/enchanter... or whatever NPC and pay a fee. The player turns it in and get their item right then. Then a 'purchase order' is created for a crafter to fill to replace the stock. limit the number of purchase orders that a crafter person can fill by a time limit to spread the wealth or make high end people chose to wait on high in stuff. The crafter gets paid the fee the adventurer paid to the NPC.

 

Although it is a little second hand but there is rare loot drops for materials that work in essence the same way. Because you can then sell it to buy the item you really want tailored to your needs. Although one time rare spells would be interesting they would be harder to balance as either they would become a necessity resulting in endless grinding or they would be useless and not have any value. The crowns of the obsidian also drop as loot to work in that manor also.

 

@Womby that was brilliant. Completely agree that we need both.

 

Camping for nice loots is fun. Buying nice loots off a player is fun ..... no loots, not fun!

 

I hate posting on mobile.
Second try:

What about recipes for special items, armor, weapons, potions and so forth that are one use (2,5,10 whatever) only and can only be crafted by a GM.
So you get both. The loot thrill, the exclusivity and you stimulate the economy and give crafters a more valid existence.

Edit:
Man that's actually one of my better ideas. Especially if you take into account that it is a brain fart on my way to work.

Support my idea NAU!

Edit 2:

It would even work with every profession. A rare table is for some people as valuable as a rare sword.

@DarkStarr @Berek @Chris

 

Indeed, to find new items is always interesting but there are also some doubts on my side. E.g. if these scrolls are too strong they get a “must have” in some situations e.g. PvP or boss fights.

One possibility to delimit this could be that you are just able to have one scroll of one type or even just one scroll in general.

Another possibility could be that you do not know what the effect of the scroll will be. Maybe there are two or more types of scrolls but the effect is random. E.g.

Darkstarr’s Tricks (possible effects of this scroll below)
- Poisonous sweat (3x3m, your currently selected enemy starts to emit poison for 10 seconds doing damage to himself and everyone around)
- Raise the dead (4 random skeletons appears in front of you, and they are not your friends)
- Fear of the meteor (2x2m, in 3 seconds a small meteor striking at your current position…you better step aside)
- Breathe of the Dragon (5m cuneiform, you start to cough and release after 2 seconds chaotic flames out of your mouth)
- Ice cold (4x4m, you start to make a cool move (emote) and at the end everyone around you freeze to ice for some seconds)
- Play time (6x6m, everyone is transforming for some seconds into toys (e.g. teddy bears) and doing only 1 damage point with their attacks)
- …

Lord British’s enhancements (possible effects of this scroll below)
- Bless the Lord (you and everyone in your group is getting a short time but strong buff on regeneration)
- Heal me Father (you and everyone in your group is healed by 100*number of group members)
- Sinner’s punishment (you and everyone in your group sink to the floor apologizing for their sins (stun))
- Hail Brittany (you and everyone in your group praise Brittany (emote) and is getting a mid-time defense bonus)
- Death to the traitors (you are declaring your chosen enemy to an enemy of Brittany and for some seconds all damage against this enemy is intensified)
- …

Maybe for every one of the devs could be there such scrolls with individually randomized spells. The spells could still be strong but as you do not know what will happen it is not such a problem.

Oh...and by the way...regarding loot isn’t there still the possibility planed that everything that has been destroyed/recycled/whatever is possible part of some loot? E.g. someone is dumping his epic sword because the repair costs are too high that there will be a possibility to find somewhere a similar (new) sword?

 

one of the things in sota i love is the fact that you want to bring evry thing back to your house wen you hunt
i played uo for 17 years and my biggest problem there was hunting and leaveing all the loot on the floor
if you make loot thats not worth it to pick up then its like why even have it in the game no point to it right

only hope that sota dont fall into they trap uo fell in to makeing old sones fall behind and be undesirable to hunt in
sure i know games want to sell there exspantions and stuff but sones shood not be favord so that only place any one hunt is the new sone as then you end up with a masse of land were evry thing is dead exsept the latest sone

 

You ever play Nethack? ;-)

 

I'm not sure I agree with the OP logic - having Christmas every day probably means you'll expect more and more from Christmas every day, because it's no longer special. You end up with a kind of loot inflation where it has to keep getting better and better to meet the increasing demands so that everything is constantly being devalued.

Making the special loot super rare without a schedule can be almost as bad, for the same reasons that people complain about masterworking. If people start hoarding those scrolls they might as well just be deco.

I'd rather play a game where I don't get massive rewards every day, or every week, or even every month. If I can work at my chosen tasks knowing that I'll make a certain amount of progress, with a chance to very occasionally get a COTO or similar, that'll keep me going nicely thank you.

 

It's all about anticipation. I don't want "uber loot" to drop off of mobs all the time. However, the slight, slight chance that fun/useful/rare loot will drop off of any given mob is key to a good PvE game, IMHO. It makes every kill fun, fueled by the anticipation of a possible (albeit remote) drop.

 

I think mobs should drop more gold. Maybe that way we wouldn't need the daily whatever from the Oracle. People say "we don't need to up gold drops" but...I dunno what game they're playing. For newbies it is very hard to make money.

 

Very cool idea, I love this for PvE. Not sure how I feel about the use of these in pvp, but I guess if they aren't too overpowered it would be ok.

 

Then there will be people farming mobs for no reason other than that tiny percentage chance of Christmas.

 

I basicaly stoped playing the game cos loot was so bad/boring. It could be so easy to spice it up without breaking it up for crafters.

 

Great read @Womby.

Like I said in another thread, the key is; rares.

All we need is a good rare system to encourage the pve and exploration (treasure hunting?). There are so many good ideas that I'm sure they know how to bring them all to SotA.

 

Wow, I really like that type of idea.
A buy order for a specific gear with specific stats on it, that a crafter could make and sell to a NPC vendor for like 1K gold.
So if you got that drop, you could either make the gear, or sell the buy order to a crafter who could make it!

That stimulates both adventuring and crafting!

 

I have played a lot of MMOs but never one with the loot system that I would think would be awesome.
I am curious if any like it exists ion any games that are MMO.

This would be kind of a rough draft of what my personal thought of something that keeps me entertained.

• The game would have this big list of possible effects like the OP suggests.
• MOBs like ebon cultists or bosses would have possibility of dropping an item that is an imbued scroll with a symbol/words of power on it.
  • When an adventurer gets the drop the adventurer can take it to a special NPC. The player would give the NPC a piece of equipment, the scroll, and money and the NPC would imbue the item and the player can use it right away.
• A work order is created to 'restock'. The work order has to be claimed by a player with the skill to make it.
  • The crafter then has to for example make a copper chainmail helm with crude/intracate/etc.. etched arcane symbol to fill the order.
  • The crafter turns the crafted item into the NPC for reward.
  • Limit the number of orders a player can fill per day. If orders get to be a certain age since filled allow old ones to be filled beyond new order limit.
• Scrolls would also drop that allow a bonus to a skill(not to proficiency).
• Scrolls can have more than one skill bonus on a single scroll.
• The special scrolls with effects can only be used on Weapons and Head armor.
  • Limits a player to 2 effects
• Scrolls that have a bonus to a skill can be used on any player crafted wearable.
  • Could get an item that is essentially worthless like +3 to Survey Field dressing, +1 to Light
  • Could get a perfect set of valuable complimentary skills. Its random.

• The etchings are easy to damage and would need to be replaced often.
• Gives adventures a lot of tinkering to do with various combinations of effects and skills.
• Creates work for crafters.
• Makes each loot experience interesting.
• Can add depth to game by introducing more effects over time.
• Real actions taken by adventurers will have real effects on crafters.

I love a lot of diversity and combinations of gear so everyone is going to be fairly unique, along with loot being interesting.

 

Just to be the dissenter ...

Don't care about loot ... don't want to be weighted down with rusty swords just to hope that i might get something "cool" on the next hit ... Would rather gold, so I can buy what I want when I want it.

If there is to be added "rare things" ... put them off the gathering skills, for rare crafting, I think we already have some.

 

animals should only drop materials for crafters to craft

humanoids should only drop items to salvage (scrap and item skin molds) and some carried odds and ends reagents pocket change ect.

dont add items looted directly from mobs that become a must to have. crafters should be the focus of the loot system not the hunters.