Enough of the Quest Specific Loot, more gold please

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

Yes, I am bitching. Yes, this is insane! However, I must protest the current state of things.

When we do a quest, say Troglodytes, Hive, or Vrazdn, items are dropped with utter predictability, to the point, that I, as a Player, can tell you specifically what will drop on a quest, where it will drop, and what the reward should be.

This does not look good to the player Market.

There is an utter reliability of things like armor, half plate, +1 large shields etc...to the point that I know by level 6, I can have half plate, +1 shield, an ac amulet, and ac boots.

In old EFU, quest specific loot was dropped on hideously tough quests. And even then, the good stuff didn't always drop. I remember walking away from gnolls once with only 10 coins in my pocket and a few herbs. With the current quest, you can be damned sure something good always drops with predictability. Some players are experiencing consumable bloats. Indeed, while this players are veterans, it doesn't take much to learn how to do this.


Back to the issue at hand.

Quest specific loot reduces the viability of a player market. With the reduction of the availability of gold, loot turn out has gone up. I protest this change on the basis of this is self destructive. You have an utter bloat of useful items that no one can possibly have on hand at all times. In the Underdark, yes, you had characters with loads of healing, etc..., but the amount of decent loot they had was lacking. Some of the loot I came across was on par with the DM loot I had in OLD efu.

My point is made where you find characters, absolutely normal, selling half plates with +1 fortitude atop the Ziggurat. I once saw 5 people selling a variety of wares, more than often, precisely the same ones, and this tells me something is wrong.


There are quests that always drop the same thing. Quests where I know this at least will drop and will make the entire run worth it. The quests are set up to be a power questers dream, because somehow, the quests always drop enough supplies to ensure that you will survive the next one, (Orcs, for example.)


Maybe I am asking for a sharp decrease in loot and an increase in the amount of gold available, yes, I am asking for this. Less loot, more gold. While I do not expect these to be implemented, a Player Merchant will have a hard time making a good business.
 

I am saying that the quests that are to be made should give out more gold. While making gold isn't hard, it should be more available, as it was in old EFU.

[Meldread]

I agree.

[Gwydion]

I have not seen an amulet or boots of AC +1 in the dozens of scripted quests I have been a part of.

Of course if you know what quests drop what from a previous character, and somehow "improbably" just happen to show up in the area with a quest area or clickable start, then yes, you can load your character up.

And although it is easier to find chain, banded and half plate, its very much harder to get full plate, so I think it more than balances out what TIW is suggesting.

Of course, I just like to argue though.

[ScottyB]

I've only seen +AC amulets drop twice, and one of them was monk-only. I didn't know there were +AC boots until now.

While there are certain junk items that I see all over the place, often discarded but just as often sold by overzealous merchants, anything that I would seriously consider using has been rather hard to find, and anything really good requires going on what I'd consider an "epic" quest.

Additionally, I almost always exit certain quests (like Orcs) with significantly less in supplies than when I started, because when I go on those epic quests, I burn everything in an effort to stay alive (and I don't always succeed).

Overall, I have no problem with the current EFU:A loot being the standard fare on an island sporting ancient Netherese ruins. If anything, this place isn't wacky enough, just yet.

[Egon the Monkey]

+Ac boots...
Er...
I know of 3 sets. One of which is +1 vs reptilian only, and one of which was rare, Ranger only, +1 vs anything and *doesn't drop anymore*, having been horribly nerfed to +1 reflex saves instead. Boo :(. The last is +1 vs Good, and I've only seen it once on non-quest spawns.

As for +ac amulets, one is seriously rare and has some huge penalties attached to it, one is good, but also very rare, and the last one is the only really good pice of loot of that quest unless you're a specific player race.

As for "it's hard to make a living as a PC merchant", Escevar Malatesta for one thing seems to be doing well. Just dont hope to carry a load of spare halfplates to sell.

Yes, there's a lot of loot around, but I like that. It means most people are more or less well equipped, as opposed to it being restricted to the powerquesters and people lucky enough to end up on big DM quests. More gold, less loot would lead to a huge bloating of the wand/potion market instead, whereas here, there's good stuff around, but often it's too much bother to try and sell. This situation means you're better off varying your quests to gain different specific useful loot, than just spamming the same profitable one.

[Nihm]

Things weren't any better in efu.
 
However more randomness would be a good thing.  What about multiple versions of each item that differ in quality but look the same, with the really good versions almost never dropping.

[Oroborous]

More gold isn't useful anyway, unless more items are available in shops.

Things seem pretty good all around though.

[RIPnogarD]

With the influx of Bolt, Stygian and now Oldport arrivals, I think gold would be just a tad more common at least. [shrugs]

[Listen in Silence]

I agree with Thomas, currently new and old characters have almost the exact equipment since it is so incredibly easy to get to the middle point of armor/weaponry, but almost impossible to get past it.

Either make it harder to get to the middle point, or raise the roof a little bit, imo.

(Less armour and weapon drops, more consumables and gold drops)

[Egon the Monkey]

Nihm's idea rules.
I'd love to see the pre-nerf versions of some of the specific loot drop again as extra-rare items. For example, Jergal Halfplate. I like the idea of lower quality versions too.

@LiS
I think that's also because there's a lot of "trash loot" that doesn't see much use. Examples: Wild Orc Mail, the Gnoll banded with Shield of Faith and so on. Also that certain weapons have more good ones than others. For example, there are a lot of good Bastard Swords and Clubs but few Scimitars or Heavy Crossbows with offensive bonuses, to name a few examples.

I'm in favour of all the new halfplates because it means everyone's not wearing Orc plate, or Jergali if they can't get it.

As for everyone having about the same gear, I think that's best solved by a variety of loot as more quests turn up, rather than making everything harder. Maybe even rare items that aren't necessarily *better* than their counterparts, just different. Different skins, a different save bonus, dyable versions of stuff that's usually plot etc.

[Letsplayforfun]

As for each quest dropping specific loot, that's because you quest too much Thomas! I'm still discovering hoards of new loot, powergame as i may...

[Mort]

@Letsplayforfun: I think hit the nail.

But alright, I'll lower the number of quest drops for the high-end quests by half or something... Makes everything rarer that way.

I fail to see how replacing loot variety with Moar gold!11 will fix everyone looking the same however... On the contrary.

And player merchants having a hard time making good business? This is ridiculous, as far as I know, player merchants ARE ridiculously rich to a point that it doesnt make any sense.

[RIPnogarD]

I for one, as a low gold player (for some reason) managed to be able to afford a few of those 1000+ items while in the underdark (Harpoon guns & fish cloaks etc.). Here in Ymph, though I’ve spotted an item or two I would like to purchase, I have yet to be able to afford any of those special items the NPC merchants sell.

[shrugs] Just food for thought.

[Badcompany]

I must say that playing a merchant i do see alot of the same stuff, like the half plates mentioned earlier, as every tom, dick and harry wear one and i could give a list of what's worth selling and what's always thrown in the junk piles, the idea of different quality's of the same item is very interesting, As there is not that much quality stuff around.

I could also say give more coin on drops, but i've found if people want something, they will save for it.

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

The Quality items should just drop less. All I am saying.