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Bringing back the satisfaction of earning loot
Iadien
Member UncommonPosts: 638
Does anyone else want to see EQ go back to where the majority of toons looked ordinary, which made the people with rare items stand out a lot more than in MMORPGs released today. I know it's highly unlikely, because people want instant gratification, but "earning" most gear in today's MMOs doesn't feel anywhere near as satisfying as it did in early EQ days after obtaining a manastone, Yak, FBSS, fungi tunic, etc., etc.
Also, while I was leveling up my first toon, it was immediately obvious that a person I was looking at had rare loot. Seeing people with rare weapons and armor was motivation for me to want to go attempt to obtain the loot myself. Nowadays it is difficult to tell toons apart to the same degree as old EQ, because everyone has cool looking stuff.
Comments
I would have to say I agree. I'm currently playing Neverwinter and while I like the game in general it is way to easy to get top tier loots. Never, ever should a top end game epic boss drop be BoE. Make me work for my loots and levels so I'm not running end game content in 2 weeks and posting on the forums to hurry with expansions lol.
The Original Ultima Online and EQ were the best MMO's ever. They never had Panda's
I agree completely with this, half the fun (to me at least) is theory crafting armor sets and stat allocation. I'd also like to add that I really would love to see a psuedo- classiEQ loot table b/c it encouraged grouping and meaningful relationships to obtain the goodies. Everquest's (and to a lesser extent WoW vanilla) epic loot was always that - epic, in WoW's case legendaries. Stuff like that always made me love EQ.
Argh, I hate saying this but, it depends!
I do miss "earning" loot, but I don't miss the typical methods of keeping it away from me.
See, I have no problem with long epic quests or a long grind, but I always have a problem with RNG. If Joe Schmoe can waltz in and get lucky with little effort it truly diminishes my satisfaction to almost nothing.
Now if something takes a great deal of time, fine. At least that way I know everyone else who has that particular item went through the same slog I did. It's like a club of people who persevered rather than a few people who spent countless hours trying to get something with a bunch of other people who just got it right away.
That's why the legendary items in GW2 suck. It revolves around lots of luck or just buying it. Well that's nice.
This poll doesn't really give alot of options does it.
Yes I want unique looks and loot to be hard to get...but yes just camping one spot for hours/days is dated and shows no skill whatsoever.
There are ways to have meaningful, difficult, rewarding content without camping. I'm all for having loot that is hard to get and is rewarding...I'm against camping spots for days to get it. To me that shows no player "skill" at all.
* edit - I would also like to point out that if this game is going to end up being nothing but a loot treadmill, not sure how interest I would be in it. If I want to have a main that is strictly a merchant, I should be able to be one and have that a viable option. Altitous in other games usually prevents that from being viable though.
I want that feeling back to when I got a set of Steel armor like in eq, I felt like I had accomplished something major. You could walk through freeport with just standard steel armor back in those days and people thought you were something.
Now days in mmo's people see you with awesome gear and are like "oh look (insert random person number 20000 here)".
Vanilla WoW had this.
If you were in Org in tier gear.... you were hardcore, you stood out.
if you held rank 12-14 for pvp,... damn you played
i would like to stand out again
I had more options, but I went to post and it messed up. Then I forgot to include a few. lol
No risk means no real reward.
The difference between EQ and EQ2 was risk. EQ had risk. You messed up and you died and had to spend quite a long time on corpse runs. Even if you got to a dungeon, you had to fight for spawns if you were on a PVP server. And even if you won, there was no guarantee a rare mob was up. And even if one was up, there was no guarantee it had a rare item. Mobs usually had a common drop and a rare drop.
EQ2? Everything was instaced. No PVP, no fighting for spawns. Bosses were always up and always had loot and if you died, just do it again. No risk in that game, death was usually a transportation device.
So it's not the stats thing, it's the time it took to get a specific piece of loot.
I refuse to play a game where I upgrade the same piece of armor on almost a daily basis.
I remember having the same pieces of armor for months at a time, and not just at low levels. It was special being able to finally upgrade.
I would much rather the majority of players look semi "normal" then everyone running around with crazy looking gear on. I dislike tiered systems because everyone starts to look the same at different intervals and there is no real mystery to how they got so cool looking. With cash shops this becomes even more of a problem as in GW2, you could buy "cool" skins and slap it on crappy gear.
To get away from this, I think there needs to be some real effort involved in getting the pretty shiny gear and there should be a variety so that there isn't a small handful of options to choose from to begin with. No "best" sword or must have items. I want a huge pool of gear to choose from.
But what I really want is something like GW2 item skin copying and Rune/Sigils + DAoC spellcrafting system but taken to another level. Didn't play EQ2 and can't really remember SWG's systems, but I believe both worked well.
Allow us to completely customize everything we have. Maybe you like the Fungi Tunic's stats but don't like the look, shouldn't be forced to take one or another, want to keep your newbie starter gear look forever but want better stats, go for it.
Instead of upgrading constantly to whatever everyone else has (stats and visually), allow us to tailor to our needs and likes.
I love theory crafting, but it is such a pain when gear is half amazing/half crap stats. Would like to be able to "salvage" or drain the magic from an item and put it on another item and just keep progressing without needing a full new set every X levels. This still gives us the chance to impress by having certain skins or attributes, but without sacrificing things we might lose by going with those items.
This also fights against the imaginary "end game" because you couldn't get the "best" items. Everything would be in a constant state of change and progression.
Ninja loots.. GOOOOOOO!!!!
I voted for Yes... bring on the grind..
Although I'm sure there's new ways to handle this, maybe something like Diablo 3, GW2 (whatever else) where loot drops for individuals, maybe even if its just the super unique drops that funcion that way..
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
Hell i felt uber back in the beginning of EQ when a friend of mine made my pally a full set of BRONZE armor I stood out just in that armor alone. Once i got my first piece of magical gear that has added stats I felt uber more so.
Bring back no lvl restrictions on items like EQ had and get rid of BoE,BoP, No trade, and Bind in general. There is no reason why you can trade a piece of gear you worked hard for it shouldn't be bound at all just like RL. If I put a flak jacket on or I upgrade to kevlar or wear plate armor there no age limit on it or restriction but I still gain the stats if you will for wearing it.
Also bring back if you see a mob wearing armor, weapons, accessories they will drop it for the love of god. Hell Skellys in east commonlands has rusty weapons that if they had it in their hand it would drop it.Same goes for King Guk when he had the ghoulbane you knew because he was wooping your ass with the damn thing lol.
It's a game, earning should not come into the vernacular of a game!!!!!!
I miss the old days of spending 14+ years and still not having the perfect suit of armor or the perfect weapon. The last thing I want is to see someone have to Earn an item, but instead Find and item.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
The reason why people keep upgrading new gear is because there isn't anything else to do in these Themepark games but gind gear.
Give me massive things to do that are just as fun as killing rare mobs. Combat or Noncombat related.
I fully agree with you. Play EQ2 and its all teh same gear upgrade daily but not a lot else to do just like WoW,Rift, Etc.
I prefer when loot meant something..
When items were rare in such a way that every person you passed looked actually different.
As opposed to GW2 for example.I watched my sister the other day doing the island living story,so she could get some flower and tentacle looking back piece.........that EVERYONE else had.
Why does it have to be about gear... let alone, the look of the gear. It never really made sense to me that a piece of clothing would somehow make you stronger. When does it stop? Why can't it be different? Why can't our characters just grow and get better... We have levels to gain, sure... But at some point you hit a wall and your only advancement is something you hold or wear.
Armor should be just that... Armor. It is designed to protect you, not give you more health, strength, or spell power. Weapons on the other hand shouldn't be an extension of that armor. It can protect you to some extent, but it's definitely not your primary source of protection. Weapons should add to your effectiveness, but again only to a certain extent. Weapons also should have their strengths and weaknesses. <insert don't bring a knife to a gun fight quote here>
If we all spent more time honing our skills, both as a player and character, and less worrying about the gear I think games would become more enjoyable. When a game makes you depend more on your gear than yourself then that's when it loses it's fun. Your gear's dependency should stop at the point where you equip yourself for a certain scenario. For instance, if you're going up against a boss that does a lot of fire attacks and is a difficult opponent in close quarters then it would be smart to equip yourself with the appropriate gear for combat that boss.
I'd also like to add that if there's one thing I like about GW2, even though I don't like it at all, it would be the way weapons effect your skills.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
I really have a feeling a lot of you are going to be real disappointed and not because EQnext will be a bad game, because I don't think it will. It will be because you really want to rekindle what EQ1's experience was when you first played it. That kind of MMO doesn't exist and probably never will.
Sony wants to make money and EQnext ,like WoW, will appease the masses. That isn't a bad thing to most people, but I feel a lot of fanboys will be pissed.
I know for a fact (ok well maybe not 100% fact) EQnext will be a lot different. I read somewhere that, like EQ1 pretty much created and made a new genre called MMORPG and made it main stream. In the same article it said that EQNext will be built the same way. I predict the game will be an MMO in the basic sense of the word.
Might be a good point right here ^
EQ was the first real OMG this is awesome MMO game (even more so than UO for me). It's kinda like a first love...hard to rekindle that same feeling ever again, no matter what else comes after.
I have to say that I agree.....working for items and getting people to help you get worked great. If it meant camping for days...you would have to risk someone else killing you for the spot (PvP server) then figure out how to get back in line.
The rewards of getting the item, after working so hard...that was the best.
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