Soulbound Gear :(

I'm gonna address something I've seen referred to a few times in the threads, and have always despised. It's this idea of a piece of equipment somehow becoming magically attached to me so that it cannot be traded, sold, purchased, or mailed. Seems to happen in most MMO's these days, it happens sometimes as soon as the game rolls the loot into your bags, and I think it's dumb. Firstly, because it is used indiscriminately without explanation or sense, secondly because it restricts my actions unnecessarily, and thirdly because even when there IS a sensible explanation, it isn't universally or realistically applied.

First, unless the item is magical, and that presupposes a magical world, what force exactly is it that is doing this attachment? I've seen it used in high tech sciencey games, low tech cave man games, star wars games, actual magic games, as well as games that actually address the existence of souls. Never have I actually seen the effect justified. It's just there. I'd like to ask, just for a moment, what would happen here on Earth if someone found a mysterious force that made it impossible for, say anyone else to ever use my smartphone. Say they literally couldn't pick it up, let alone make calls. I'd say there would be a Government run investigation, several private companies trying to reverse engineer it, a few dozen cult movements, and of course, I would never get a moment's peace from the media again. Not until the "mysterious force" was understood. At which point, it would be commercialized, mass produced, and applied to a few hundred industries. We wouldn't just shrug it off. If I found that your sword could become bound to your SOUL, I'd immediately start thinking about a weapon that uses that connection to attack your soul itself, through the link.

Second, since when could I not give my used stuff to friends or people who want to pay me for it? Used stuff is a major marketplace in the real world. I mean, Craigslist, hello?

Lastly, has anyone ever wondered, if you, an incredibly powerful high level mage, couldn't give something to your best friend, an incredibly powerful high level priest, why you could easily sell it to some pissant vendor?

I get the need for preventing total free sale of rare and precious drops. Or noobs will buy endgame raid gear and pvp gear from skilled players, and create an unfair situation. But how about this to deal with it? When I get my gear, I take it to town, and I customize it just for me. I have the armor fitted, the blade rebalanced, the staff attuned to my voice, etc. Then it works great, for ME. But not for any other player, ever again. I CAN give it to them, but it will forever be secondhand. Say, 15% less effective. Just sorta generally not as good. But still, it CAN be handed down. There would be a benefit to the economy right there. Help players get a leg up on getting geared and up to speed, but never able to really get AHEAD, because that gear would never be just as good.

 

I understand the feeling. But if you don't have this, the game becomes grind to win. If you're an PvE / Achiever had you have "cloak of dragon slaying," it may bother you greatly that someone else has the same cloak and they got it running a bot all night or paying $20 on eBay or otherwise mindlessly killing pigs all day.

I don't care must for that kind of PvE. And I'd hate for that cloak to have an imbalancing statistical advantage. But I do believe that there's merit to allowing that person to have their trophy. Today in say WoW, you can inspect someone's achievements to the same effect.

 

I like Blessed items that stay with you even when you die but are still tradeable however I understand that certain quest items shouldn't be useable by other players if they didn't complete the quest to get the item that basically makes the quest pointless in a way.

 

You mean like buying a game on steam and then it being bound to you for all eternity so it can never be sold again? maybe the items just come with a EULA that prevents there resale, kind of like the xbone was going to

 

MalakBrightpalm you have nothing to worry about on this topic. They have stated many times that they are not planning on having bound items. They did indicate at one time they where considering a very few items may be, but also they would be extremely rare to have anything like that and the majority of everything will not be. Since then I believe they have even discarded the statement of a very few and have said none but im not 100% sure on that. Either way (YAY!!!!!), no bound items.

 

You start this complaining that soulbound items being bound to you when you pick them up doesn't make sense, then offer a solution where items aren't soulbound when you pick them up, just specifically designed to be wielded/worn by you specifically, but can be worn/wielded by others with a 15% reduction in effectiveness.. How does that make more sense??

I agree that I'd like to see that when rules are applied to help prevent exploitation, such as this one, they should be thought out to really make sense in the gameworld created. This is a perfect example for the developers to look at and say, 'lets try not to be like that'. I look forward to the new and different gameplay we'll experience in SotA..

 

Well, at this point in WoW, you could just pay a major raid guild like, say, Drow, real money via paypal, and you'd be the useless 25th man in their raid that night, and get your drops because they have the entire thing on farm status. Then you get the "achievement" AND the imbalancing item, and the only grind you did was at work that day.

Personally, I think that there SHOULD be a way for a solo player to work towards end game gear. Slow, yes, hard yes, frustrating yes, but some people just don't have what it takes to raid, and yet they do want to play. I'd love to see the system give something back to them.

@Sir Stile Teckel: Thanks for that, I hadn't heard that yet, but it's nice to have it stated clearly, I hope they stick with it past launch.

 

The difference is that my method A) makes sense, B) is more voluntary, and C) allows for a secondary market for items without invalidating the work done by the players who are raiding current endgame content each week, doing complex coordination that sets them apart as exceptional players.

As I stated in response to PrimeRib, really any item control system CAN be circumvented, just like any real world law can be circumvented by those willing to put forward the effort. Making a more reasonable path reduces the number of people who really feel the effort is necessary, while making life easier on those of us who actually plan to do the work.

 

I guess what I'm not understanding, is with your method, what's to stop someone from getting the item, and not customizing in town, but instead selling it as is with the nice stats? Then whoever they sell/give it to can customize it in town for them.. and the original character can rinse and repeat over and over.. this method isn't preventing the exploitation at all..

 

A limiter can be introduced. Adding a limiter to any system is far easier than creating the system itself. Maybe if someone is mining an instance to AH the drops, the stuff can drop in effectiveness on the first sale, because there was something about getting it there. But since, as I pointed out to Prime Rib, even a "you must come get it off the boss's still warm body yourself" mechanic can and is circumvented on a daily basis, there is no way to prevent the exploitation. I'm not trying to prevent exploitation. I'm trying to make it less appealing by letting players naturally deal with the market pressures. Ultimately, the entire player base will have the chance at some point to get that wonderful cloak. The dividing feature will be WHEN we all get it. If you get the item only after a dozen raid guilds in your area have put that boss on farm status, if you have to wait till the AH prices come down to a reasonable level, then you won't be using that item on the bleeding edge of game progress, and it won't imbalance anything.

 

It's still very much in the air, but the last time I looked:

- The intent was to make the best gear be crafted; it shouldn't be soulbound. Also, AFAIK there isn't supposed to exist über gear in the game.

- A system was proposed where the longer a character used a piece of equipment, the stronger that equipment becomes for that character, and that character alone.

- There should be soulbound items, but mainly prestige items; tokens that prove that the character completed some hard task, some difficult challenge, did some impressive feat, etc. The intent with those items, though, isn't to provide power, but rather to merely confer prestige, to mark the character (and player) as a dedicated and skilled one.

So, I believe your concern is currently misplaced (and if you have some info I have missed, please post a link, as I'm quite interested in following what the devs are planning for gearing and rewards).

 

I loathe bound items, so am also very happy with this decision and hope it doesn't change. Bound items reduce the opportunity for commerce amongst players .

 

Everything I paid cash for should be bound, and pretty much nothing else, unless there's some plot driven reason.

 

I think items paid for should be bound least of all. If your getting that because you paid real money for it, all the more reason you should be able to sell it to someone else for coin should you decide you not want it, eh? Im a pack rat so I wouldn't want to, but I could see where others maybe wanted 7 out of 10 items, and figure the other 3 would be something they could sell or trade.

 

Well, we are alike in that I am a bit of a pack rat too.
Perhaps for a fee some NPC will sell a gem that could use to unbind an item I've decided I want to sell?