Items And Loot Archive
Thread: The rarity problem and why it makes for unhappy players
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HowieRaisin
Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:45 am
#1
Powerful 'uber' items, the rare, the exceptional ... I was just thinking of how difficult it must be to keep everyone happy no matter how these items are provided. Think of what the developers are up against:
When powerful items drop frequently enough to become common, they lose relative value. The current availability of skill tapes might be a good example. Is a +9, a +11, +20 or +25 skill tape really powerful or valuable if everybody has a couple? Being a 14-point artisan is cool. Having a bonus to your combat speed is cool too. But if the enemies you PVP against are just as fast, or if competitors for your business can experiment 14 points too, what's the point? It only raises the bar when everybody can get 'uber' items. What was exceptional becomes the new standard. And in the meantime, those who know where these items can be found camp and loot, sometimes AFK, to collect as many of these as they can.
What about when powerful items are rare, as they should be? Then, players are unhappy because they can't get their hands on them. It cuts both ways: if an item really IS unusual, your odds of finding it should be low ... like winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning. And the number of people who have it should be low too. Then there is status attached. Then the bonuses or advantages mean something.
But nobody plays SWG to be 'average.' Everybody wants the best equipment, to be a Master This-or-That, or a Jedi. Everybody wants the winning lottery ticket and a bottle full of lightning. Everybody wants the prestige of owning something rare or the ability to do something unusual. What a pickle.
/select soapbox
/store
Girad Khago, Radiant
Master Artisan, Master Shipwright,
Fair Pilot and Laughable Ground Combatant
SWG Guinea Pig since day two
When powerful items drop frequently enough to become common, they lose relative value. The current availability of skill tapes might be a good example. Is a +9, a +11, +20 or +25 skill tape really powerful or valuable if everybody has a couple? Being a 14-point artisan is cool. Having a bonus to your combat speed is cool too. But if the enemies you PVP against are just as fast, or if competitors for your business can experiment 14 points too, what's the point? It only raises the bar when everybody can get 'uber' items. What was exceptional becomes the new standard. And in the meantime, those who know where these items can be found camp and loot, sometimes AFK, to collect as many of these as they can.
What about when powerful items are rare, as they should be? Then, players are unhappy because they can't get their hands on them. It cuts both ways: if an item really IS unusual, your odds of finding it should be low ... like winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning. And the number of people who have it should be low too. Then there is status attached. Then the bonuses or advantages mean something.
But nobody plays SWG to be 'average.' Everybody wants the best equipment, to be a Master This-or-That, or a Jedi. Everybody wants the winning lottery ticket and a bottle full of lightning. Everybody wants the prestige of owning something rare or the ability to do something unusual. What a pickle.
/select soapbox
/store
Girad Khago, Radiant
Master Artisan, Master Shipwright,
Fair Pilot and Laughable Ground Combatant
SWG Guinea Pig since day two
Craile
Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:11 pm
#2
Physkoris wrote:
A pickle indeed.. The only loot items that remain exceptional are Black Sun Helmets and Nightsister Bicep's (if they still drop). I think this is perfectly fine because both items won't enhance a player's ability, whereas CA's/AA's being dropped very commonly now helps put everyone on equal footing (the whole point of the CU).
Hold up here. We have been through this on this forum already about this. Are you talking recently like the last 30 days? Or recently post Pub 20? Because, post Pub 20 has been very bad for SEA, atleast for the ones discussing it here over the last 2 days.
Physkoris
Sat Jul 23, 2005 12:08 am
#3
A pickle indeed.. The only loot items that remain exceptional are Black Sun Helmets and Nightsister Bicep's (if they still drop). I think this is perfectly fine because both items won't enhance a player's ability, whereas CA's/AA's being dropped very commonly now helps put everyone on equal footing (the whole point of the CU).
Wookus
Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:24 am
#4
what twists my gnards the wrong way is that even "Krap" loot is silly rare... i go nuts looking for my smuggler schems (bubble tank, gambling table, ONY ONE SHISHA?!?!?!?!), and they should probably remain rare, but lets be real, MOST of the other basic schems, paintings, and loot kits shoud be dropping left and right.
I go on loot hunts regularly, and the drop rates are lousy across the boards. I wish they would turn them all way up so that i've got something to do when i dont feel like grinding. It can feel pretty pointless and frustrating these days, and good luck getting the rare schems/components/what-not.
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