Loot-To Twink, or Not To Twink

[Kuro]

So, since I bet this'll lead to caustic/funny/insightful commentary, what do people think about the various loot systems kicking around, and which would be best?

Method of Dropping (With games I know for sure that it's encountered in)
Trivial Loot Code (EQ1/EQ2)
Bind on Pickup/No-Drop (EQ1/EQ2/World of Warcraft/Anarchy Online)
Bind on Equip/Attuneable (EQ1/EQ2/World of Warcraft)
Lore (EQ1/EQ2)

Method of Equipping (With games I know for sure it's encoutnered in)
Recommended Level Items (EQ1)
Required Level Items(EQ1, EQ2, World of Warcraft)
Required Skill Level Items(Anarchy Online)
No Requirements (Tons of older games)

[Braen]

I like the Firionia Vie server rules. Most everything is Dropable and the only true NO Drop stuff are quest involved items.

[Faille]

I'm not a big fan of contrived loot systems and prefer something more open. It really needs to be combined with a real economy like EVE's to work though, where you can have enough outs for loot, unlike eq or wow where loot lasts forever.

[Tuco]

With an MMO of the scope that Uberworlds is, I'd like to keep almost all things tradable.

[Ahnkosis]

Ripped from the other thread where it was mostly N/A:
Whatever the setting / theme is, I would like to see new direction in terms of gear/equipment/items.

For most MMO's out there, the system is flawed.

The entire concept of NoDrop / Soulbound items is crap. The notion that you underwent a grueling quest to obtain a Legendary sword that you can never drop/trade/sell/dispose of is unrealistic. On the flip side, being able to give the sword to a level 1 person is game-breaking in some ways.

Here is my overall proposal for an gear system.

1 - All items are tradeable. From your newbie food, to the armor you take from the current "last boss" of the game, it will all be tradeable.

2 - Tiers of items. Where some items are marked Legendary/Artifact/Epic/Rare/Uncommon/Common/etc., you can use this classification to keep one player from amassing all of the Legendary Items persay. Like a Paladin in AD&D, you can impose a limit on the number of certain items that a player can have and use at one time...say for instance:

Legendary / Artifact - One Item
Very Rare - Two Items
Rare - Four Items
Uncommon - Five Items
Common - No limit

If a player wants to get another Rare Item, but already has his limit of 4 Rare items, he'd have to give up 1 Rare item to get it. These measures will help the player driven economy in that a player cannot amass a wealth of Rare items to become the most "uber" player around and dominate all the others, he will still have to exercise skill and caution in his decisions.

Combining those two things together would make balancing easier. Instead of assuming that players will have the best of all available gear, you can assume that they will have a somewhat "standard" gear profile of Rare/Uncommon gear, allowing the Very Rare and Legendary gear to give the player the slight boosts above the norm that they are expected to give.

[Big W Powah!]

under that system, a player should be able to have all rare/uncommon, and not be forced to wear common.

also, it should only apply to worn items, or the economy is dead right there.

[Ahnkosis]

The limitation would only apply to worn items. It would make the gear you wear into combat a more tactical decision, rather than just a put on the best that you have decision.

My idea is more driven by an overall game balance, rather than just loot control. I always wondered why designers tuned all of the newest/current high-end content assuming that the players had farmed most of the previous high-end gear. To me, that entire model seems flawed, because the people who don't have high-end gear are essentially screwed until they go back and farm (farm, not just go through) the content previous to the latest high-end content.

I'll give brief examples from other games:

Want to have fun in the Elemental Planes? Go get your VT key and farm in VT some...you'll need the gear. Good luck doing anything in Ele plans in your scrub Velious gear.

Want to have fun in Blackwing Lair? Go get your gear from MC first. Good luck doing anything in BWL in your scrub DM/UBRS gear.

If you were to balance the gear around a player having all Rare gear, then the Very Rare and Legendary gear become options...not mandatory for proceeding with the content (See Thunderfury).

The Tactical decision side of things means you'd have to ask youself before going into battle - Do I want to Equip my Elementium Reinforced Bulwark and Spineshatter and a Rare Trinket, or should I drop some of my DPS and go with ERB, a Rare Weapon and Styleen's Scarab?

It would make game balance easier from many aspects...including PvP.

No more worrying about T2.5 DPS Warrior marauding through AV...he'll have a slight leg up due to his few pieces of gear which outclass some of yours, but you in your Rare and Uncommon gear still have a good chance...instead of no chance at all.

[Vinen]

This is one of the areas I feel Vanguard had right...

Why not just set equ values on every item that scales up and down based on the level of the item vs the level of the player?

Say
20% = Legendary
...
10% = Rare

Or different slots could have different values for each quality of an item and so forth.

This could also be used in nifty ways such as in events, etc that may force a player to only use a limited amount of Expertise. AA or something could allow the player to go above the start 100%.

[Ahnkosis]

Originally Posted by Vinen

This is one of the areas I feel Vanguard had right...

Why not just set equ values on every item that scales up and down based on the level of the item vs the level of the player?

Say
20% = Legendary
...
10% = Rare

Or different slots could have different values for each quality of an item and so forth.

This could also be used in nifty ways such as in events, etc that may force a player to only use a limited amount of Expertise. AA or something could allow the player to go above the start 100%.

Wait, I'm not sure I understand that system fully? The Equ values ~ rec. lvl from EQ?

Maybe something like a proposed base system would be a better means of discussion...I'll come up with something a little later

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Ahnkosis

Wait, I'm not sure I understand that system fully? The Equ values ~ rec. lvl from EQ?

Maybe something like a proposed base system would be a better means of discussion...I'll come up with something a little later

No, what I mean is say

Legendary BP = 20/100 Expertise for a level 20

A level 10 uses it and it costs 30
A level 30 uses it and it costs 10

And so forth, you cannot go over 100... cept say through AA or some other method..