Loot Table Changes - Feedback

[TwistyShape]

First off, looting is way more fun now! Like, incredibly more fun, so let's get that out of the way to begin with. Love it, vast improvement. But.... (There's always a but)

Are others finding items that are pretty strong compared to what we've seen regularly? In the past two days, I've played three ventures and found three +1 Weapons and one Titansteel set of armour. Not to say I'm not excited that we're seeing items with functional and palpable improvements, but it feels like quite the leap, and I was wondering if the rarity of these items was either A. Not dialled in correctly, as they seem to be relatively common compared to how, say, a basic plate used to be or B. I have a misunderstanding of how common +1 items and materials like Titansteel are supposed to be.

Factoring in how quickly the dungeons are now being demolished regularly, as people are excited by the influx of new stuff, I'm hearing tales of people hauling up 'powerful' things en masse.

 

[Thaldrac]

I've got whiplash, from how things that were very rare beforehand are now dropping multiple times per dungeon. Think we've maybe got a bit too far in the other direction!

 

[MrZ]

Hi, some constructive feedback and suggestions to improve loot and experience adventuring in general.

Since getting better gear is main motivation of going out right now its important to have a good balance between dungeon experience and loot. At the current rate almost every active player will be able
to get high tier armor(titansteel etc), +1 weapon and +1 trinkets within a three weeks if not less, after that there will be little to no motivation to do go out.

Few things that might improve situation with loot and overall dungeon experience.

Loot:

• Decrease high tier loot drop % significantly, it should be a reward for completing boss fights or similar dungeon rooms, such rooms would host best chance for getting good items.
• Introduce locked chests, things just randomly spawn on the bone piles etc right now.
• Make max item durability decrease with each repair(UO style), items shouldn't last for a lifetime and generally degrade from continuous use, would give merchants reason to stock up on quality goods in a long run.
• Create an appropriate conditions that will promote players to actually use all those consumables in found in the loot tables otherwise things will be treated as junk soon enough.
• Not exactly loot, but keep track of active merchants and limit the price of max purchase price for any item that is sold, this is not beta anymore and things will be taken advantage off. Limit it.

Dungeons:

• Some tuffer dungeons are missing spice, like Malarites are just standing there and waiting for you to attack them, some just stand there even if you see them in straight line. Make AI more engaging - there were some AI improvement scripts ported for EE I believe somewhere. Stuff like running away, waypoints etc etc.
• Make enemies use consumables/bombs/abilities with appropriate DC's for characters that this dungeon is meant for, when people are putting more effort to defeat the dungeon it becomes more rewarding and less repetitive. I believe there are some dungeons that have some version of this, haven't seen these things in higher level dungeons thought.
• Main reason to go to the dungeons right now is loot, I suggest a bit more balance - decreasing high tier loot drop and award a single XP learn tick upon clearing all of the dungeon. It makes more sense to actually learn something while people are putting effort to clear the dungeon instead of sitting in the Cabin and chatting about weather. Such ticks maybe be earned once per 24/48 hours per dungeon, XP tick should depend on character level i.e finishing dungeon that is meant for same lvl range would award x2 'Learned from your experience' tick, x3 for lower levels and none for levels above.
• Update some of the mobs to have resistances that can be countered with applying appropriate weapon oil etc.
• Make dungeons that are meant for characters above certain level, for example after lvl9 should represent real danger to the party, people should plan and prepare appropriate supplies to venture there. This will create a nice dynamic where more experienced adventurers would actually need to use their knowledge and experience to best dungeons meant for them instead of doing the same thing they did back in being lvl6 .
• Put in some spellcaster NPCs, we are using magic - why mobs shouldn't do it? Make palestone knights actually matter!
• I have noticed that some are not treating going below 0hp as a threat, one probably should not shrug it off and do it again in the next room. Introduce some sort of concussion debuff aka penalty to ac/ab and/or ability damage for a few minutes after going below 0hp. Danger of going to the verge of death should not be treated lightly.
• Oh yes, there was a topic about most of players rolling two handed fighters. Main reasons of having a shield bearer in a party is to hold off bulk of enemies so that party is not overrun. When the line breaks things can go south quickly which is true for both nwn and real life engagements. Current TDN dungeon design, mostly, has encounters of 1-4 mobs engage 5-7+ players, thus chopping down enemies as quick as possible then heal up is current preferable playstyle. Might be a good idea to rebalance/create some of the dungeons where players will have much easier life with a shield bearer.

While some of these suggestions might be in the work already I hope that some this will help in one way or another. Best of luck to the dev team in making TDN a great and enjoyable place!

 

[Thouest Questington]

I'm in full agreement that the loot dial seems cranked too far in the positive direction, and currency sinks are absolutely breaking against the sheer value of bulk 'good' items that can now be sold.
(It's also been vast fun to actually get loot, though)

Just to piggyback suggestions to the above;
As far as repairs, I think a potentially better solution is to make repairing above Common Grade items require perishable items, like a lootable/craftable/buyable Repair Kit. That way we're always 'losing' something to acquire a repair, removing the permeance problem.

Stuff is selling for too much, IMHO.

Still a wonderful patch, and I'm sure we're all aware it's not in final stages at all; Or in how it interacts with yet unseen mechanics. <3

 

[Ithalan]

Just to piggyback suggestions to the above;
As far as repairs, I think a potentially better solution is to make repairing above Common Grade items require perishable items, like a lootable/craftable/buyable Repair Kit. That way were always losing something to acquire a repair, removing the permeance problem.

The current repair mechanism of visiting an NPC has always just been a temporary measure that will go away once crafting professions introduced, so undoubtedly we will be getting some form of this suggestion eventually

 

[Aschent_]

Just commenting, and this is true for any other thread on the forum, that we're monitoring and aware of the sentiment and making some more measured steps to address.

There is some whiplash expected since the original loot system was quite dry, however the degree it has shifted was a bit more than intended.