0.10.3c Patch Notes

Lack of names on greyed out items does not serve players well

An example:

You have a nice pt with loot to name rule. You have 2 melee and 3 ranged characters. A rare or unique monster is killed and 3 people are outside range to see what drop is for them. The 2 melee chars can't see the names either. General confusion is created as noone know who the drops were for.

Either bring names (not times) back to grayed out loot or give notification for off-screen drop like an arrow and item name at the edge of the screen.

"

idky88 wrote:

is that rly hard to add an option to set the type of loot in a party ? so every1 would be happy, those who want ffa and those who want it instanced....

Is it really that hard to understand that the game designers WANT FFA loot to add a certain amount of tension to it? That's the loot system of this game, period. Crybabies, these changes are already more than enough if you ask me. As long as pathfinding and physically blocking loot gets fixed, this system is pretty fine.

And before I get thrown in the fire and get called a 'ninja', I play solo or with friends, if one of my friends takes something I forgot/was too late for/... that's it. Get over it and move on.

"

Antistes wrote:

Lack of names on greyed out items does not serve players well

An example:

You have a nice pt with loot to name rule. You have 2 melee and 3 ranged characters. A rare or unique monster is killed and 3 people are outside range to see what drop is for them. The 2 melee chars can't see the names either. General confusion is created as noone know who the drops were for.

Either bring names (not times) back to grayed out loot or give notification for off-screen drop like an arrow and item name at the edge of the screen.

Came here to post almost exactly this.

I play with a regular group and we let the game allocate the good loot for us. We all keep an eye out on the items and let each other know who the loot drops for in case you don't see it yourself. In the chaos of big battles that happens a LOT. Taking away the names means we're not going to be able to help each other out anymore and we'll be guessing who's loot it was.

I really don't like taking away the name at all.

Smart patch actually GGG but don't let afew whiny people who were to slow to get a exalt push you to far.

Just did a public map run with a ''no ninja'' group and it was a cluster shit.

"

garath wrote:

"

Antistes wrote:

Lack of names on greyed out items does not serve players well

An example:

You have a nice pt with loot to name rule. You have 2 melee and 3 ranged characters. A rare or unique monster is killed and 3 people are outside range to see what drop is for them. The 2 melee chars can't see the names either. General confusion is created as noone know who the drops were for.

Either bring names (not times) back to grayed out loot or give notification for off-screen drop like an arrow and item name at the edge of the screen.

Came here to post almost exactly this.

I play with a regular group and we let the game allocate the good loot for us. We all keep an eye out on the items and let each other know who the loot drops for in case you don't see it yourself. In the chaos of big battles that happens a LOT. Taking away the names means we're not going to be able to help each other out anymore and we'll be guessing who's loot it was.

I really don't like taking away the name at all.

+1

"

We want there to be tension around the drops

Why? There is no social or game-play advantage to this. I am honestly astounded the loot issue has gone on as long as it has and that an actual correct solution has evaded you guys this long. I would love to hear the actual thought process and reasoning behind this.

There are far too many de-sync, and user interface issues with this game to have this kind of loot system. Everyone has had loot that they have clicked on 500 times and the game still has not triggered that they clicked on it.

The map system already has a fantastic way of forcing the players to chose wisely what they want to pick up and leave. This is all you need; A conflict driven 'click to pick up' system is simply juvenile and adds no value no matter how much trolls like to say it adds to the game.

I would suggest that the timer is removed on 'timed' loot and it remains 'greyed' out until the 'owning' player leaves the zone, or loots it and drops it. That way groups that actually work together can still see all the loot so no-one is left in the dark about a drop.

I also agree about a way to turn off timers for races and such (or just general parties where the participants aren't all complete twats about sniping loot).

_L

Seems like this patch turned out highly controvercial.
My personal opinion is that names as they used to appear were a hindrance.
They simply take too much screen space. As for the timer, it did take some space, though
not as much as the names themselves.
I do understand the need for differentiation between loot which originally dropped for a different player, as some use the system to split loot with their friends, myself included.
I personally have never played with public parties, so some concerns aren't there for me, however I too approve of the increased timer duration.
A solution to the naming problem is possibly an indicator(like an asterisk) can be placed on an item as it drops and persists until it is picked up, akin to how the sockets are shown. This would indicate for example that the particular item has dropped "for you"(other players will not see this) and will make it a bit easier to differentiate between loot for cooperating party members, without causing the same amount of clutter as having a character name does.
As for timer indication, I imagine it could be easily handled by using the item-name background in progressbar fashion - just like the previous one. Another option is having a small clock-like circle running that turns into an asterisk when the time runs out, which would also be only visible to the player "for whom" the item dropped originally.
Being able to adjust a specific option for a particular party is probably a good idea, however I'm not sure if it's possible to implement.

One thing I am firmly against is instanced drops. This "feature" in games somehow makes me feel like I'm playing single-player instead of in a party and it's even possible that I will miss something which a buddy, could have seen and picked up/pointed out for me.
Also generating separate loot for each player seems way too casual, which I don't believe is the goal for PoE.

My feedback to the changes:

0) Well done GGG, you showed balls nerfing the FFA loot system like that in the face of your hoard of closed-minded fanboys. I salute this, welcome the precedent it hopefully sets, and am much closer to throwing real cash at the game now!

Now the real feedback...

1) A step in the right direction for looting, no question, but not far enough. The increased timer should reduce ninja'ing and make people more willing to play in groups as a result, which is a good thing, no question. However people will still be unwilling to open their Map to the public; only true instanced loot will result in that. Until then, you are going to have a lot of high level players starved of endgame who didn't need to be

2) I don't get why you turned off names on the timers. This simply makes it harder for groups composed of friends who would share loot logically anyway, but grab currency assigned to themselves. Now if I see an item drop that isn't mine, but the group has moved on, I do not know who to give it to. No biggie I guess I could just keep it, but still not seeing the practical reason for this change.

Not sure if this is working right, but all my items that dropped rare/orbs/scrolls/etc - none of them has my name on them. I don't run in pubs, I run with my own team and not one item had a name on it or a timer...


This is a step in the wrong direction...