Loot Changes

[metaquad4]

1) Allow each person's loot to scale off party size, as follows:

Solo (1 party member) = 2 items per chest.
2 = 3 items per chest.
3 = 3 items per chest.
4 = 4 items per chest.
5 = 4 items per chest.
6+ = 5 items per chest.

(The details can be changed. I just used this as an example. 2 items per chest is a good starting point, that is about how much players get currently in solo play.)

This won't hurt the people who enjoy going off on their own (we have to be sure not to nerf loot in this case), and it will encourage groups to gather and hunt together (thus, encouraging RP).

2) Remove mundane items. Mundane equipment is usually bought at merchants, then scrapped as soon as they get anything better (which is usually fairly fast). Bottles/Spoons/Broken Items/Rags/Etc serve no purpose as loot. Allow players to buy them from various merchants instead, for people who use them in RP.

People don't use these items, often throwing them on the ground (contributing to lag), disposing of them in trash bins, or occasionally selling them for a few coins. Why keep items, that essentially amount to a relatively good chance that your chest will be wasted? It's a silly system and it really needs to go away.

Thanks for reading, and happy RPing!

[Calodan]

I concur

[Mallore]

I like this.


It would be healthy and help promote group play.

While it does not have to be more items but could it increase the chance of items. I am unsure how treasure in this mod works but if it's a percent chance when chest is open it would be nice to see a bonus to that percent dependant upon the group size.

Any bonus would be cool and good for the game

An increase chance I would have in mind might one extra item per ten chests assuming you had a party of 5 or 6 on the map.

Maybe an extra item per 20 chests for groups of 3 and 4.

What I mean by extra item is the probability you would get an item do to a percent bonus. It is possible you get nothing or twice.

[metaquad4]

How about something like this?

1 Person = 100% Loot amount and 50% loot quality (current loot table)
2 People = 125% Loot amount and 50% loot quality
3 People = 125% Loot amount and 100% loot quality (current loot table, minus spoons/broken items/other misc stuff)
4 People = 150% Loot amount and 100% loot quality
5 People = 150% Loot amount and 150% loot quality (current loot table, minus any none enchanted items)
6+ people = 175% Loot amount and 150% loot quality

Increases in loot amount mean that the chests will drop that much of what they would have originally dropped. 100% means original amounts (4 items=4 items), 125% means 25% extra over what was originally dropped (4 items=5 items), etc.

[mrm3ntalist]

The biggest problem I see is the people that would start multiboxing to gain advantages without actually doing any grouping. There's a few people that multibox already but I don't think anyone actually does this for anything beyond muling or playing separate characters.


In any case it'd have to be tied to character level somehow as well, in stricter forms than it is now. I'm sure we could come up with a good system.

Players multiboxing are an extreme case. I personally know of 2 players that do that and both have no impact on the server. This is an extreme case.

[AC81]

With epic level loot available in stores now for bargain prices why are we still wanting more/better loot in chests. Just go earn some gold and buy what you need.

[Calodan]

With epic level loot available in stores now for bargain prices why are we still wanting more/better loot in chests. Just go earn some gold and buy what you need.

I think a good portion of us would prefer to get better loot for both the gold for that pre built epic loot and maybe just getting something in the server loot tables that is not being seen more often. The way it is now is just horrendous for the everyday gamer who does not run loot like you do. Nor has anywhere close to your luck on these tables. Besides part of the fun is finding something neat in a chest. Right now I personally am a little burned out on 30-120 gold pieces and MAYBE one other item in the chest and it most likely is a fecking spoon or a copper ring? I mean seriously that is just wonky no good.

[AC81]

The way it is now is just horrendous for the everyday gamer who does not run loot like you do.

Newsflash mate, I haven't 'run loot' for years. I did a few loot runs maybe a month or so ago to see just how much gold was still available from the dungeons close to the FAI and I was consistently getting 20-30k in gold from a run on the following dungeons:
Orcs
Mino's
Hag's
Haunted House
Cloakwood Mines
Gnolls
Seaside trolls
Beregost Mines

As an epic character it took me less than an hour. I didn't often find many good items (ie, items that I'd consider selling at the forum Auction House) but I do pick up everything, even basic +1 gear. My PC has decent lore:arcana and decent appraise, so he cut costs by id'ing items himself and selling most things at a slightly better price. This is a grind and yes, it's boring. That's why I haven't participated in this sort of thing for several years. Every now and then I'll adventure but loot isn't my goal.
It has been stated many times, the secret to wealth and item accumulation on BG is by trading. This is my basic method for trading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_red_paperclip. Karond has his and it is also very effective - I use it as well. The benefit of trading is that you don't need to be in-game that often to prosper. But you do need to put ALL your good gear on the table too - everything has a price after all. The thing is, that everyone currently who has decent stuff did it without needing the loot table enhanced. They did it through hard work and patience. I'm sure you see where I'm going with this ...

[metaquad4]

The random loot generator has so much potential for interesting items. Right now, that potential is wasted on unenchanted items, or junk items which are found far too often. It can't be defended from a lore perspective and its just silly from a gameplay perspective (there is no element of risk vs reward, as well. Its all the same reward!).

Perhaps the higher areas could have less or no unenchanted/junk items, speaking of risk vs reward. Something like:

CR 1-10 = Current Loot Table
CR 11-20 = No junk items
CR 21+ = No unenchanted items

Especially given the few overhauls to the epic areas (to make them more challenging), and the current trend of making more and more challenging ones (which is GREAT btw, keep it up builders).

More enchanted items won't necessarily create more gold into the system. Item's selling points are capped. More enchanted items means more trade, which means more RP. Which is good.

[Valefort]

There is risk/reward, there are 6 tiers of chests with corresponding chances to get better stuff and obviously the high tier chests are placed in the difficult areas. Junk loot also makes sense despite you repeating ad nauseam it doesn't, chalk it it up to the intelligence of the mobs you just slaughtered who actually tricked you.

[Mallore]

Look this is getting off course a bit.



The proposal is a possibility of treasure reward for parting as this game is based on Dungeons and Dragons and should reward party play. Encouraging it at the least.


I saw a Double Box comment which is a valid concern, but I do not think for the tiny amount of people who would do this, should cause scrapping this suggestion. I feel setting the party minimum to 3 for a bonus would help make multi box even less of an issue.

We are talking about the possibility of getting an extra loot for having like 5 people in your group. And one extra loot on average per 10 chests. This is not game breaking.


I saw a comment about how to make 30k ago, thats nice. Not everyone builds OP toons for the server, my level 30 can not solo haunted House, it just can not deal with chaos effectively. There are plenty of people level 22 to 30 who can not solo many areas for quick loots. Who have to slog it out.

Further there are people who log in mostly to rp and not loot grind, but when they do dungeon they do it in a group. Whats wrong with a bit of a spiff?

Is this hurting the economy of the server? no
Does it hurt the solo players.. only their egos that they get the possibility of one less item.

the game is a dungeons and dragons skin.



If you think parting with a group makes loot running faster and thus a reward on its own, we are not talking abotu the same party. I party for the role play, we walk there, we talk, we make jokes. and it is not faster. Not once has it been faster, all it has done is allow me to access the area's where higher chests are that other people can solo and i can not.

[Mallore]

There is risk/reward, there are 6 tiers of chests with corresponding chances to get better stuff and obviously the high tier chests are placed in the difficult areas. Junk loot also makes sense despite you repeating ad nauseam it doesn't, chalk it it up to the intelligence of the mobs you just slaughtered who actually tricked you.

Because not everyone can access these chests can we not get rid of them and make them all the same? Why do some people get special chests that there custom power builds can get to and everyone else can not?

Also opening a chest still breaks stealth.. so even the best ninja has to still face bosses that have no business existing but to make a scoff of a challenge to some Power Build.


I do however see your risk reward issue though Valefort. is there a way we can cap the percentage. SO lets say you had ... (made up math!))

10% on a tier 2 chest.. and with party of 6 it made it (18%)

while on a tier 6 chest you had a (16%) chance. but even with a party of 6 you max at (20%) which is the cap?


so yes. this would encourage people to take larger parties to even these teir 6 chests. and maybe help those classes and players who do not get to see this game content often get to see it. It rewards everyone.

The Solo grinder power toon gets a bit bonus on getting the loot.. and the poor rper rando trash build gets to see the content.

[metaquad4]

As for chests breaking stealth, another server implemented a sleight of hand check to open a chest or a door without breaking stealth. Perhaps similar could be implemented here? The DC could correspond to how many nearby entities there are, or somesuch.

[dedude]

The Solo grinder power toon gets a bit bonus on getting the loot.. and the poor rper rando trash build gets to see the content.

1) if you make a poor rp rando trash build, you are making a choice to be a character that is not "all you can be". I would even argue that most of the heroes of Realms lore are pretty well built. Adventuring and combat is such a huge part of D&D and especially NWN, so the strong builds will naturally have an easier time getting loot. Isn't that how it should be?

2) I'm sure most rp builds can see all the content if they are in a decent group. And that leads to what is really the problem here. Why can ANY build solo the tough dungeons? The best chests and loot should be in places where you absolutely need a good group to make it. That is incentive to group up - we should do it for the grand adventures, not for a few extra copper rings in the gnoll caves.

I wish we had more than just the random loot generator to drive the server, mechanically speaking i mean...

[Valefort]

The chests used to reset once every 10-15 minutes, if you had a party of 5 there was still only one chest that you had to split, now you have one chest for each : there is 0 reason to solo for loot, absolutely none.

Remember that many people are bound to play solo, for various and perfectly valid reasons, how can you justify getting better chances than them ? It would be absolutely unfair.

As for chests and their tiers, same story, how can you justify making everything equally rewarding ? More risk, more reward is a pretty sound system. And yes it does advantage powerful builds to an extent, the extent of partying up and learning to play.

Regarding opening chests breaking stealth tell me where the risk would be for the sneakers if they could loot everything while stealthed ? 0 risk, again that's a totally revolting suggestion in my eyes.