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I wish MMOs would handle loot like Dayz.
tixylix
Member UncommonPosts: 1,288
What I hate about loot is you get just tons and tons of crap that you have to keep running back to sell as for most MMOs it's the major source of income, so you need to pick it all up. It just makes loot feel boring and annoying and I never get excited for it because it's more boring trash items and really the only useful stuff is probably from a dungeon.
What I love about Dayz though is lootis rare, especially on populated servers and you have to travel far for the good stuff. I still haven't seen a silenced weapon in the game and I've played since may and I've only had nvgs and a 50cal once. You drop all your stuff when you die and it's a long trek back to which point the player has probably looted all your stuff and hidden your body. Dayz really makes loot feel special, it really only gives you the good useful stuff, it doesn't just throw tons and tons of loot at you.
I wish more MMOs do this because how they currently handle it is loot is like a birth right and you must be bathing in it at all times. I miss games like SWG where it was 100% player crafted and schematics just dropped in the world. You had item decay which you couldn't just run to a town and repair to full, everything was consumable and you had to keep buying new items. I miss EQ where if you died like Dayz your stuff laid on your dead body and quite often you couldn't get it.
The problem with MMOs now is you essentially have God mode on because there is no risk, there is no loss and loot is so common everyone has everything. The whole Jedi system in SWG at first I thought was genius, until they unbalanced it and got rid of permadeath because whiners couldn't take dying. It really made you feel special and in Dayz loot makes you feel like that, no other game does today.
Comments
⇒What I hate about loot is you get just tons and tons of crap that you have to keep running back to sell as for most MMOs it's the major source of income, so you need to pick it all up. It just makes loot feel boring and annoying and I never get excited for it because it's more boring trash items and really the only useful stuff is probably from a dungeon.
I do agree to an extent with you here. The problem with MMOs ( actually it's not a problem) is that... each person finds joy in various things. For example, you may like to run to a location and kill mobs for hours on end and finally get one item drop. However, another person may find enjoyment in looting the crap out of everything and then taking their jaunt back to sell, to them it's progression. The key is trying to find a "healthy" compromise when designing loot methods.
⇒What I love about Dayz though is lootis rare, especially on populated servers and you have to travel far for the good stuff. I still haven't seen a silenced weapon in the game and I've played since may and I've only had nvgs and a 50cal once. You drop all your stuff when you die and it's a long trek back to which point the player has probably looted all your stuff and hidden your body. Dayz really makes loot feel special, it really only gives you the good useful stuff, it doesn't just throw tons and tons of loot at you.
Now I have witnessed the joy of such things on both ends. However, to a person who has a career, possibly a partner in life or children I can tell you "running a long distance to have some kid on summer vacation hide your corpse" isn't... "fun" in their mind. However, if you're a guy with all the time in the world and obsolutely no real life obligation, then yeah... running a long distance, dropping your stuff is just peachy. I'm a supporter of the old ultima online system where it provides fear from death... but that also meant very fast travel and teleporation to locations.
⇒I wish more MMOs do this because how they currently handle it is loot is like a birth right and you must be bathing in it at all times. I miss games like SWG where it was 100% player crafted and schematics just dropped in the world. You had item decay which you couldn't just run to a town and repair to full, everything was consumable and you had to keep buying new items. I miss EQ where if you died like Dayz your stuff laid on your dead body and quite often you couldn't get it.
Unfortunately, the mentality of these games do not cater to the "majority" which is what companies want. You are what's considered a niche market. All those old games that aren't designed for casual gamers ( seriously they weren't designed for people with obligations) had to adapt to the popularity increase. There was a time when I missed old school EQ and the death penalties, getting my body stuck in plane of fear or lower guk. I miss some of SWG and being one of the only few chefs/firework makers. However, in my personal current state in life with a busy life... I can honestly say, to hell with those penalties. Those games gave favor to people who were able to sit on their ass 12+ hours a day and a massive upper hand.
MMOs these days are more balanced so that the hardcore can still excel while the casual can be right behind them and the gap isn't major. I remember in EQ, I would walk around with full vermiculated armor and realize... out of the 100+ druids on my server only 3 actually had vermiculated. Why was it you ask? well guess what, those "3" were not employed. The gap was so major in EQ, UO, SWG that I almost feel sorry for the people with careers at that point in my life. I honestly don't know many people who can work a full time job and actually enjoy those penalties. Especially when a good half the time you died it was because of some jackass training to zone, a disconnect from server or other means.
As another Adult with a very demanding Real Life... I would love an MMO with Long Travel and item drop. I find it funny that you try to paint someone that was successful in an older MMO as some unemployed irresponsibie no lifer...
Your observation about the "Compromise" of modern MMOs is a bit lacking, basically what we have at the moment is VERY little content or systems designed for Hardcore players and HUGE amount of Easy Mode, forgettable content entitlements so Casual players can feel special.
In My view the basic crux of the problem is simple....
Hardcore players want to adventure of a long challenging journey through the game. Back in the old EQ days it would take 1000+ hours to successfully reach max level and get your class Epic. Hardcore players where ok with that and in some cases it took years to reach thier goal but it was an challenging goal, one that was impossible if you frequently failed. They want thrill of achievement and working to "WIIN" with risk / penalty / learning that comes from LOSING.
Casual Players want to have adventure without the journey, they want instant entertainment, fast levelling, lots of rewards, easy to master game controls, no penalty for losing a fight, fast travel. The just want the excitement of "WINNING" but with no risk / penalty of "LOSING"and if they lose/fail frequently they want the game to carry them along since at least they tried.
Sadly many casual players try to paint challenge/risk based achievement as something can't be fun. Overcoming problems is labeled a waste of time... like the heavily need for Groups by spending time building strong connections with other players and forming solid guilds that work together.
Given the diametricallly opposed game styles it is impossible to satisfy both in the same game. A a hardcore gamer I would love to have a solid chalenging MMO to play for over a year, something that feels like a virtual world and not a Gaming Chat Lobby, instead of the current fluff MMOs that are designed for 2-3 months of play before the MMO Masses consume the next new launch.
⇒As another Adult with a very demanding Real Life... I would love an MMO with Long Travel and item drop. I find it funny that you try to paint someone that was successful in an older MMO as some unemployed irresponsibie no lifer...
I agree on the item drop and what do you guys define as "long travel time". As in, an old school EQ boat ride? on foot travel without spirit of wolf?. I think EQ and UO had the perfect travel time, Vanguard, did not. Its a double edged sword because the world doesn't feel as massive and if the game is too instanced it loses any form of static feel.
Also I make the unemployed reference because... well regardless of what you believe the very prominent guild I was in back in EQ ( and I mean.. VERY.. popular) guild there were only 5 people who had work. 2 were full time the others part time. The rest and "best" were unemployed or part time college students. I am talking about the original top tiered gamers in the old style of MMO gaming. Having 85% of the guild unemployed is stated from experience not just painting someone.
I work and I've played 16.8 hours of games in the past 2 weeks according to Steam as I've played nothing else but Dayz. Yet I still have a blast with it, I enjoy traveling and the stuff that comes with that. I mean you randomly meet people in the woods or you see someone and then spy on them and kill them when they come close. Travel doesn't mean boring gameplay, it means the game can be more dynamic.
Also Dayz has like 1 million players now or at least that many unique players and so that proves there is a market for this type of game. I bet Dayz has more players than SWTOR has and yet that was designed for the casual audience.
The original Jedi system in SWG was horrible. Only a small % of players ever got to be jedi and also the PD thing.
DayZ succeeded because it has zombies.. zombies are the new vampires. The loot system is not what made it a success. It became successful despite of its crappy loot system for a whole host of other reasons
'You are wrong starpower, the zombies have the worst AI i've ever seen in a game before' - It's zombies.. it doesn't matter
Zombie mods is not a new thing, in moddb website some even complained in forum when someone said he was going to make a zombie mod. Its the most common mod theme together with realism mods.
Yep, looting sucks.
Most crappy new mmorpg's will have a Shop Item you can buy to let you auto loot. You can usually get around this by making a macro instead. Looting is usually the only decent income for solo players. Even if a game gives you large bags and an option to "sell only gray items" at the shops it is still a big waste of time. Time spent looking at each gear dropped to see if anything is worth while. Time seeing you have seven different color pairs of the same stat pants so you spend 20 minutes trying them on for looks knowing you are going to go out and get a better stat pants in a few. Or running dungeons all day for hopes at a decent item and only one drops and all want it. Most of all, where was that mean tiny bunny rabbit hiding all that full adult chain mail - in his arse?
I propose goblins drop only coins. Rabbits can be skinned and sold for money. And chain mail is crafted. I could go on but I'm not, made my point.
That was the point. The time period SWG was set in Jedi were rare therefore not everyone could be one. I had no interest being a Jedi. I just wanted to hunt them and I did that very well.