The Daily Grind: What do you think of random loot?

Not having any (meaningful) random loot is my main gripe with MMORPG's

99% of MMOs have loot tables instead or random loot. So given MOB will drop certain pre defined things from its loot table based on random roll.

Also quest reward or crafted items will be more powerful than loot in most cases.


Now that really irks me. If you all ready grinding, why not have element where you can have randomly generated loot drop. Get that gamble effect. Keep things interesting.

Not everyone having exactly the same items.


So yes...there is no random loot in MMOs

If you know one that has it, please do tell !

Not a fan of random loot myself.

But then, I just hate killing the same mob 100 (or hundreds) of times go get the loot. I don't mind working for meaningful loot, I would just rather it be an undertaking of a massive quest chain, or perhaps some epic quest chain than kill 'this' mob 'this' many times for a 'chance' that the item you need drops.

Plus killing the same boss over and over again kinda ruins the immersion of a game...

:P

One of things I liked from WoW was the token style raid drops. Kill X boss get N*Hunter marks N*Priest marks and so on. That worked pretty well, on top of the random loots of course. In terms of quest gear and crafted gear being better than raid loot. I would be ok if it was on par, but the raid loot needs to stand out. If only to show that you actually killed X boss. A title even would suffice if the game supported them.

I like a hybrid system where you can get the loot after getting enough of some currency and random loot dropping off bosses. It allows people to get some loot without needing to worry about having to have that one particular piece drop.

You realize its not actual random loot

Its pregenerated - set loot. You can know exactly what loot drops from every MOB.

Like
89% to drop item A
10% to drop item B
1% to drop item C


Random loot is when items are themselves generated randomly.

I'm not the biggest fan of random loot (as I've been on the losing ends of those rolls a lot more often than average), and its actually turned me off from WoW (although WoW has fixed this to an extent with the badges/tokens/etc). Like the poster above me, how do you keep immersion when you have to kill the same guy over and over and over again?

Of course, random tables do have their purpose... if every mob dropped the same predictable thing over and over again, where is the excitement of it? Having randomness spices things up a bit, but if you need the low percentage randomness in order to proceed further in the game, thats where I find the problem.

I think for a system like you describe, you'd have to play a "classless" game, with no restrictions on what equipment players can use. Asheron's Call is such a game, perhaps as close as it'll get to your ideal. And I remember a lot of "random" loot when I played.

But by and large I think players would hate actual randomly generated items. It is a enough of a grind to accumulate tokens or hope for the right boss drop... replacing that with random items? As in shields or heavy armor with spellcaster bonuses and wands or robes with fighter stats? Yeah, that would rate a big fat zero from the playerbase.

Even in Guild Wars you get random loot, those greens that you need to farm and farm until you get what you need, or, you can go to an outpost and buy em there

ok everyone chucking % at us, what is not random at the change the item you want does not drop? 20 times it doesn't and then drops 5 times in a row and you dont get it due to bad rolls? i do believe thats classified as random. yes 1% drop-rate means it will fall, but can you predict in advance it does or does not drop? only that you have a 1% change of it does.

i totaly hate it, it is totally a disregard of skills and more a mechanic to make sure you keep returning to certain area's just to make sure you have a small change to get the item.

I dislike random drops and prefer a crafted/quested loot system. Most of the time it feels like there's a conflict between needing a certain level of gear to actually play and the desire for high-end gear to be rare and therefore a big deal. The complaints I heard in WoW against making epics more accessible mostly amounted to, "But now that anyone can get them, epics don't mean anything!" whereas the more casual players had been frustrated by the fact that you previously had to be a hardcore player just to get the gear necessary to go into the places where skill starts to be what sets people apart.

"Well, why not just give everyone access to the same level of gear?" people fumed, but really, why not? Guild Wars actually has a nice system that I was surprised by: everyone can get the gear that gives max stats with some work, but there are more interesting and complex armor skins that cost more in the way of effort and money. You can work toward being a badass in your awesome-looking prestige sets, without feeling gimped or getting shut out of groups just because you haven't gotten X item to drop. In PvE, at least, there's really no reason to keep gear that's nicer stat-wise scarce, but I think it's important that people who can invest more time and work get something to show for it.

The loot system has to be accomodating AND allow people to feel they are rewarded for their "work". Totally random loot aggravates people if they continually lose out on the rolls and a system of "collect your token and buy your gear" removes any sense of wonder from the game and turns it into a grindfest.

I would prefer to see something along these lines:

Boss killed, loot window pops up for each player.

You then choose from the following:

Tokens (for those who like to buy their gear)
Random Class-specific gear
Crafting items only available from "dungeons"
Extra cash
Totally random gear piece not "soul-bound" so it can be traded/sold

You then pick one and go on about your business. Everyone should be happy. Those that have gotten all they want from a particular instance in the form of gear still have incentive to go back for crafting materials, cash, etc.

Just a thought.