backseatdev

When new games come out they are expected to have learned from previous generations of games. Looking briefly at WoW (one of the largest and most prominent MMO in North America), they started out with a random loot chance against a loot table and evolved into the token/progression based system. I am sure people exist that dislike this system, but I haven’t met them.

WAR releases years afterwards on a system of random chance for item drops, but adds even more need for these items by implementing a WARDS system whereby you can’t even progress in content until you ”get lucky” with drops and get the items you need for WARDS. The problems with WARDS were eventually corrected by implementing alternate ways to earn your WARDS through unlocking achievements, but this came late. The Tome would track the amount of times you killed a particular boss, and unlock the WARD if you still had not gotten your class drop. You could also earn WARDS from various tasks in RvR as well. This was a great step to help fix their unique progression system.

The loot system however, is still based on an antiquated loot systems and is as frustrating as ever. The people in charge need to find some middle ground between what they want to do and what players have been progressing gaming towards for the past 5-10 years. Obviously the random chance for good luck in PvE is liked by developers and players, but no one likes to be on the bad luck end of things, and I can’t imagine developers like that kind of thing happening either.

What I would propose is actually a hybrid system. WaR already has a great system in place with the Tome of Knowledge. Using the Tome, you could put a cap on someones bad luck.

You could keep the random chance at loot table items in place which enables people to always wonder if they are going to get lucky, but have you Tome keep track of how many times you have killed a particular boss that drops the item you need. I am sure most decision makers have some sort of plan for the average amount they would like someone to do a  particular instance/boss before obtaining their loot. Set the cap above that, or even double that. If someone hits that cap, it unlocks the item in their tome and they can pull it into their inventory. (the system for pulling gear out of your tome and into your inventory is already in place in the game, and can be done for various pieces of armor and accessories based on unlocks)

I lost great people from the guild/game due to this poorly designed loot system and the frustration they had trying to get drops for their classes, with no end in sight. Count me still amongst the disapointed in how far Warhammer has come in PvE item systems.

Thoughts?

If you play Warhammer, you can view my feedback suggestion on the official forums, here:

http://forums.warhammeronline.com/warhammer/board/message?board.id=pts_ff&thread.id=68847