In a game like this with procedural generation, being able to have highly unique drops can add to the variety.
The way the items can be modified could be by having types of tools, weapons or armour split into modules which could then be rearranged , different colours or textures, stats and names or race specific.
With these new items could come new crafting resources and the ability to deconstruct and create new varients, specific or random.
Another reason for this is to insentivise battling the toughest enemies and bosses for the coolest uncraftable loot. By creating rarity in resources and tools you can create an economy and an end game.
Tell my your thoughts, point out flaws or suggest improvements, I would love to know.
There are two things I don’t really like about this idea.
First, I really hate it when a monster drops something it isn’t supposed to drop. Like a spider drops a chainmail. If we keep the loot realistic then this point can be scraped.
Second, i always disliked the big random factor in Borderlands. I mean sure, IF you get that insane weapon you’re as happy as you can get but most people would have to farm the same Boss for an unknown period of time.
This problem could be solved by having the mobs drop weapons appropriat to the thread they pose. Or even better they can only drop the weapon their holding so if you’d be hit really hard by a glowing sword you’d know you really want to kill that mob just to get that sword.
Although I don’t know if we’ll ever get mobs that can use tools. If not they should just drop the materials so it depends on the skill of the crafter how good the weapon or armor made out of them is. Of course harder mobs should give more or better materials.
Btw. If I remember correctly we already have or had a thread with almost the same name.
edit. No there is no such thread. But I could’ve sworn there was one already.
I think the devs could do mob specific drops and story driven drops. I would say almost all drops could be crafted or traded. If you don’t like the time it takes to get a certain item, you could exchange high level loot woth another player for sonething similar but more desirable. The time it takes for large builds shows how far people will go id they want something.
My problem doesn’t lie with the time requirement itself. Good loot has to take time. I have a problem with the uncertainty of the Borderlands system^^
But to be honest I don’t know if my “solution” is better.
There is no uncertainty because when you get a high tier item, even if you dont want it, you can exchange it for a form of currency to trade for the item you want. It’s also the end game so you shouldn’t get it the first time every tine. Or you could have a difficult recipe to complete, but i think it takes away and devalues the randomness of the loot.
I just dislike the randomness that’s all. But yes I can see why you shouldn’t be able to get everything first try. Just make the variance small enough.
Oh and you just got too much trash in Borderlands that’s another thing I wouldn’t want in Boundless.
Hence the ability to deconstruct and reclaim crafting materials which would give the activity of fighting tough mobs multiple uses so the drops won’t be trash. Of course the better the loot, the better the reclaimed resources.
I still hate it to trash my inventory with so many useless drops. I also wouldn’t want to have the ability to deconstruct stuff everywhere. So the problem stays.
I mean sure the way it looks now we won’t get many weapon drops if any at all. (At least if the mobs drop logical stuff) So we won’t have the problem of weapons cluttering our inventories and there might be always only one or two types of the same material. Instead of weapons that won’t stack.
Ok, what about only using the system for the truly top tier loot. That way when you defeat a titan you have your own unique piece of equipment to show off your prestige.
Hm that’s an interesting idea. And since the titan is basically a gigant dungeon you could find equipment in chests so it would be logical.
No cluttering because you’d know that lower tier equipment always has the same stats and you don’t need to check every piece?
I’m thinking if the problem really comes from the drop system or if the cause goes deeper to the stat system of the equipment itself.
Or all loot could be aesthetic only, if all items had the same stats but different appearances. It makes items less unique but more balanced. It also makes it predictable which was your main concern.
The question is whether which varient of the system fits into the game if at all.
Randomly generated loot in an mmo is just kinda…atleast from drops, i wouldnt mind if you could craft something and you had a random chance to craft it better, but within boundaries. i really dont believe a system like borderlands would work in this game even though i love the game.
EDIT: let me phrase it better, randomization in random effects like exploding weapons and stuff i dont see fitting, but if we have something alone the lines of normal stats, in some way (str, int, dex) i wouldnt mind a min and a max value you could get for each stat for each item (±5 forexample) but Kuma also touched on something important, the idea of realistic drops, i asked the devs and the community what they would prefer and i am pretty sure i got confirmed that the drops would be realistic, but i cant quite remember how and when.
I think a minimalist way of approaching a system like this that nobody would object to is by making it purely aesthetic.
However, I would argue what’s the point of completing the titan dungeon for a non builder, especially if they have done one before.
How I would implement a system with stats is the way you said plus unique stats for the type of dungeon or biome to be creative so that there isn’t a clear cut best weapon so your weapon is a preference and you have a vague idea of what you will get from a dungeon’s loot. Unique art assets for these stat effects could be created such as elemental particles to make them more unique.
I didn’t even think of that^^ That would most likely not be the way to go that’s true.
But yea as I mentioned as long as the variance is low enough I don’t really have a problem with slightly different stats for each weapon drop. If there will be weapon drops at all.
Also another point I’m not sure about is: Do we want to have gear in game that can’t be crafted?
The other way to go about top tier loot is by recieving the best crafting materials from titans which could be used for the best items. I feel this would be less interesting and exciting.
Do you? I’d rather have to search for the materials than hope for an (unrealistic) weapon drop^^ Might also be a reason why I loved Monster Hunter that much. It would be basically that system. Maybe a bit simplified.
I’m very reluctant to make a compromise about the realistic drops but apart from that I have no problem with a mix of some parts MH drops and some part of Borderlands drops like we discussed above.
I say no drops unless an NPC or MOB is wearing a type of armor that can be crafted in game and you can see the items on their person, so when you kill them they drop what they are wearing, then I’m all in for droppable loots, maybe a random generated currency drop between 1-20 coin value currency could be implemented as well.