Items And Loot Archive
Thread: I just realized . . .
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ParadigmRed
Mon Oct 03, 2005 4:53 am
#1
. . . how much loot made me play this game, how much it contributed to my "logging on" when I had just sat down in front of my comp and thought: What do I want to play today?--and moved the mouse cursor over the various game icons on my desktop.
And now, where I used to think to myself, "Huh, got a few hours to burn, I think I'll kill some nightsisters for awhile, maybe I'll get something cool, it does happen," instead I think, "Huh, Last god-only-knows-how-many nightsisters I've killed didn't drop squat, or gave me something not worth the momentary high of the "You have looted the corpse of all items" message, given the effort and time involved in killing them.
It's not just nightsisters, it seems to be everything high level that might draw my interest as a worthy opponent doesn't drop anything interesting.I logged in after the CU expecting to be weaker, and not too pleased with the idea. Instead I found I'd become so powerful almost nothing in the game could defeat me.
Somehow this wasn't an improvement. Now, instead of finding a dangerous, life-threatening creature/NPC wandering around just waiting to give me a run for my money at least once a play session, I log in and spend the whole time seeing creatures and NPC's that are too far below my level to be challenging or at least fun to fight, and fun, in the end, is really what I'm looking for, fun spiced up with the probability, however slight, that I might get something really cool. And you know what, occasionally I did!
I'm not saying loot was so hot before the CU, but it was enough that I would play for the hope of getting something cool, something unique, something that maybe I would be the only person on the server to have. That possibility always existed, and now with the new system of "balance" it appears to be gone. No more exceptional or legendary weapons, not even weapons with special mods (that I've seen anyway).Noteven any more"hey, that's really cool, what the hell is it?" kind of loots. I know I'm not being terribly specific with that last comment, but what I'm talking about is the feeling I got when I went on random hunts, just logging in to find something powerful to fight, by myself or with my friends.
I'm not really complaining here, think of it as more of a philosophical question: "To play, or not to play, that is the question." --and lately, more often than not, I find myself leaning towards the latter. I really don't want it to be that way. I want to want to play, to click on the SWG icon and think, "Even though my friends aren't on right now, I'm going to log on and go find something to tangle with, it'll be fun, and maybe I can show my friends the cool loot I got."
I know there are still high-level creatures in the game. I've heard that there are still DJM's, DJK's, Dark Adepts, and so forth wandering around to trouble the intrepid adventurer. Problem is, even though I've gone to the places where these are supposed to be, I haven't seen any.I've been playing fairly consistently since the CU and haven't seen one of these. All the other NPC's/creatures that do appear with some consistency (nightsisters, n. Elders and such) just aren't that dangerous or interesting to kill anymore, and they just don't drop enough to justify the time and effort to begin with.
I know the reasons for changing the loot, and understand them. That understanding doesn't change the fact that the game just isn't as interesting without the probability, however minute, of getting something truly special, something that, god forbid, might be unbalancing.
Lets face it; the reason most anything is interesting to anyone is because of imbalance, not balance. Sure, we all say we want a fair fight, but really, do we? Military might is usually predicated on having something your enemy does not, whether it be a secret weapon, secret knowledge,or evenjust a larger army. The hero in a story is generally vastly superior in skill or wits than the numerous peons he pounds senseless while accomplishing his heroic tasks.
--and yes, sometimes it is triumphing in the face of adversity, defeating odds that are stacked against you, when you are the one out-numbered or out-powered,that gives you a sense of thrill, of fun.
My point is that what makes things fun is often the imbalance, not the balance, and maybe it wouldn't hurt to throw a little more imbalance into the mix. The developers, despite the ragging many people give them, are actually very intelligent people, and I'm sure they could figure out way to make it happen. In fact, they sort of did already, in the case of the exceptional weapons and so forth. Did anyone notice that, when these weapons used to drop, they often had a very bad stat on them to balance the good one? A high damage rifle would often have a ridiculously high attack speed, like 15 seconds,but itwas still a very cool thing to get.
Anyway, I'm not really making any suggestions here. This whole post originated from me sitting in front of my computer with my mouse cursor hovering over the SWG icon, and this is what I started thinking about. Forgive its length.
I guess I just want that feeling back, the one that made me want to play, that shiver of excitement when I was soaring along on my swoop and clicked on a red con, and saw something deadly:
"OMG, 75K ham force sensitive wandering around outside Mos Entha. He could probably kill me in three hits. He is sooo going down."
--and I'd leap off my bike and attack. Sometimes win, sometimes lose. (usually dependent on how preparedI was for that sort of thing at the time 
) And yes, Iguess that in the end, the possibility of getting something astonishing inthat random encounter IS what drove a major portion of my desire to play . . . and now that is gone.
) And yes, Iguess that in the end, the possibility of getting something astonishing inthat random encounter IS what drove a major portion of my desire to play . . . and now that is gone.Just so you have some specific examples of what I'm talking about, the kind of thing that made me go "ALL RIGHT, this is SO cool. I can't wait to show my friends." (In some cases, of course,they were there with me at the time.)
ALL THIS WAS LOOTED PRE-CU. I haven't seen anything remotely like it since then, though it *may* be that other people have been having better luck than me.
EXCEPTIONAL T-21 RIFLE:
LOOTED OFF: Nightsister protector/Dathomir
STATS:
damage 455-680
speed 8.9
special: Action poison 680 per tick.
Not really so special, but cool nonetheless, and a real thrill to loot. Just imagine if that had been mind-poison. Post Cu converted to average T-21 without poison of any kind.
EXCEPTIONAL SCATTER PISTOL
LOOTED OFF: Nightsister protector/Dathomir
STATS:
damage 120-340
speed 3.9
special: +25 terrain negotiation.
Huh? What's soexceptional about that? I don't know either, but it did say "exceptional", and it was still fun to loot. Sold this item for 5 million cr.
ADVANCED LASER RIFLE
LOOTED OFF: Dark Adept/Correllia
STATS:
damage 39-1340
speed 7.5
special: none
This probably should have said "exceptional", but it didn't. I loved this rifle. It was a helluva fight to get it. Post Cu converted . . . poorly.
That's just some of the fun stuff I (and my friends) looted. There were a lot more weapons and odds and ends that were much cooler than anything I've gotten in the last several months, but these weapons were thingsI remember off the top of my head. Very, veryfun to get them.
Well, I'm done. Like I said, this isn't really a complaint. I just . . . I wish that I'd wanted to click on the SWG icon, butinsteadI felt a growing wearinessas I thought about flying around endlessly looking for something to fight, something hardthat might, just might, drop a cool item. The more I thought about it, the more tired I became. I just didn't want to spendfour hours flying around Dantooine without seeing a single thing worth fighting. For crying out loud: It used to be you couldn't fly anywhere--not even on the lower level planets--without at least occasionally running into a random, powerful NPC that wanted to tear your heart out. It just doesn't happen anymore.
So instead of clicking on the icon I decided tofindsomething else to do. For instance: something like writing a long, rambling post that, frankly, was more fulfilling and satisfying to do than actually playing the game . . .
. . . and that, my friends, is the root of the problem.
Seraphim
istali
Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:45 am
#2
Nice post , havent read that much for a while 
But anyway , you are right within what you say , loading up for the game for me used to be so exciting - preparing to go Nightsister hunting etc etc , nothing quite like the feeling of looting something cool .
Unfortunatly with the CU this has been taken all away ,a large %of the games content was based on loot and we have not really had anything to compensate
For me soloing a Nightsister elder pre-cu was far morechallenging than anything post-cu by a long shot ...
All Memories..........
But anyway , you are right within what you say , loading up for the game for me used to be so exciting - preparing to go Nightsister hunting etc etc , nothing quite like the feeling of looting something cool .
Unfortunatly with the CU this has been taken all away ,a large %of the games content was based on loot and we have not really had anything to compensate
For me soloing a Nightsister elder pre-cu was far morechallenging than anything post-cu by a long shot ...
All Memories..........
ParadigmRed
Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:58 am
#3
Thanks for the reply istali. Yeah, I'm a little wordy. I type very fast,and it gets away from me sometimes.
I posted this in the radiant forum as well, and got a fair amount of feedback, some negative, some positive.
I shouldn't have posted it more than once though, I really don't feel like replying to two threads. Shoulda though of that before I did it.
Seraphim
drowngerbil
Mon Oct 03, 2005 3:24 pm
#4
i totally agree with you on the logging in part. pre-cu i was fencer riflemen and it was the challenge of the mobs that i hunted that made me want to sign on again( ever tried to fight an elder as a fencer with a vibroblade and dots?. often the loot recieved back then was not worth it ( heh got heavy duty clasps on 2 elders) but it was the challenge with the glimmer of reward that kept me coming back. now it just takes some healing and a decent set of armor and anyone with combat level high enough can take on high end content and usually come out on top with a outstanding reward of a stone knife( latest loot off of a giant krayt). i avoided becoming jedi for 2 years as i had fun running around and coming across something new and surprising. now it seems i have migrated over to jedi in an attempt to find something to do. i figure ill give the devs a few more months to implement something worthwhile or a new loot system that is balanced for risk/reward but i do not see this happening but what is 2 more months after 24 ?
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