SQENIX: You have a SERIOUS loot problem in this game

[Synovius]

I've played MMOs for over a decade. To date, I've not played one that has the issues with loot that this one does. This is not an exaggeration. This is not a fabrication. These are facts:

- Over the last 6 weeks of clearing turns 1 - 4 every week, and I chose the last six weeks because that's when I "officially" started keeping track of loot, we have received, at minimum, 4 pieces of DRG or MNK loot per group, across all three of our groups.

To put this in perspective, all three of our Coil groups have only one melee. To further put this in perspective, here's some simple math for you:

- 6 weeks x 3 groups = 18 runs through Turns 1, 2, and 4.
- 18 runs through Turns 1, 2, and 4, with 2 drops per Turn = 6 x 18 = 108 pieces of loot.
- A minimum of 4 DRG or MNK loot for each of those 18 runs through Turns 1, 2, and 4 = 72 pieces of DRG or MNK loot.
- 1 melee / group due to your melee-punishing raid design = 1/8 or 12.5% of eligible raiders are DRG or MNK.
- 72 DRG or MNK pieces / 108 total drops = 67% of our drops are DRG or MNK.
- 67% of the loot is for 12.5% of our players.

All three of our melee are decked almost completely out in i90 gear. The ONLY reason they're not is because of lots and lots of duplicate drops (insult to injury) that simply rotted.

You recently, and supposedly, fixed Turn 1 at the very least acknowledging that DRG loot had too high a drop rate. Tonight, the loot my group received was as follows:

Turn 1: DRG, DRG
Turn 2: DRG, Healing accessory
Turn 4: MNK, MNK

What I want to know are answers to the following:

1) Why do you feel it makes sense to drop MNK loot at all when we do not have a MNK in the party? Take a poll. Ask the players if they want loot being dropped for specs that are not present in the raid. You will get an overwhelming majority against it.

2) Why have you, nor has any other MMO, implemented adaptive loot for raid instances? Instead of generating loot for all encounters the moment the instance is created for a group or at the moment an instance is "locked" to a group, why not generate the loot at the time of the boss kill, only for that boss, based on the party makeup? Further, why not take that a step further? You have the entire history of every piece of loot ever obtained by every player right there in your database. Why not assign a significantly higher drop percentage to loot that is needed? Don't tell me this can't be done because it absolutely can. In fact, a decade as a developer and 3 years specifically in the game dev industry says I could probably write the code for you.

You are on the verge of losing players to your loot system and that is a shame. There are several members of my Free Company that are seriously considering leaving the game because they have been unable to achieve ANY sense of gear progression in order to stay competitive in the area of this game they enjoy most: raiding.

Please fix your looting system. Do something inventive. Be resourceful. Lead the MMO industry instead of following in the tired old mechanisms of every MMO gone before you.

[ImDingDing]

The only problem is they make a loot drop 18 items. They should just let it drop ticket and who win the loot will be able to exchange it for their class. This is not tome system you still have to win the loot in the 1st place but it will be fair as everyone will have the same chance for something useful for them.

[Altena]

Funny you say that, because since the 2nd week after release, our group have only seen 1 major piece of DRG armor - hands (accessories & belt we have seen of course, but similar story for all jobs) We have seen bits and pieces for all roles, although we often go 2-3 weeks without seeing a single major slot (head/body/hands/legs/feet).

The biggest problem from I can tell is simply turn 1 - We have seen a very large number of BRD wrists, shields, Casting rings, and Tank chokers.
They said they "fixed" the loot table for turn 1, 2-3 weeks ago, yet every week since this update on both my main and my alt characters - there has only been 1 run where I have not seen the casting ring.

[Tanama]

Funny you say that, because since the 2nd week after release, our group have only seen 1 major piece of DRG armor--

I am with Altena on this one. I hear groups complain that all they get is DRG loot yet all I have seen is an earring. We've mostly received BRD gear with a mixture of tank and healing gear + a small number of casting gear.

[Wonderbound]

Maybe DPS gear drops more cause DPS is more expendable? (obviously i jest to an extent but there is some truth to this statement) I can actually see why SE would have mnk/drg/brd stuff drop more often from a couple of different perspectives. A; in an 8 man party with 2 healers 2 tanks and 4~ dps, there are just more dps to cater too than the other players. B; I know people arent actually likethis but what if all the tanks n healers got the gear they wanted and just stopped doing coil all together, leaving all the poor dps with no one to do the rest of the fighting rolls for them. Creating a system in which healers n tanks get gear last or not as often keeps them coming back and keeps your party flowing smoothly. lastly maybe they give DPS the items first so they can increase DPS and get you through to higher levels of said dungeon faster, seeing as how this game has so many fights that focus specifically on DPS "racing". im just playing the devils advocate though...

[Synovius]

I am with Altena on this one. I hear groups complain that all they get is DRG loot yet all I have seen is an earring. We've mostly received BRD gear with a mixture of tank and healing gear + a small number of casting gear.

It's arbitrary, really. Random loot is "random". While we get nothing but DRG/MNK loot, you get mostly BRD loot. The issue is with the system at its core. I've no idea why MMO developers simply don't implement adaptive loot wherein you look at the history of gear received by the players whom took down an encounter and drastically increase the percent chance for "needed" items to drop.

[Menae]

It's arbitrary, really. Random loot is "random". While we get nothing but DRG/MNK loot, you get mostly BRD loot. The issue is with the system at its core. I've no idea why MMO developers simply don't implement adaptive loot wherein you look at the history of gear received by the players whom took down an encounter and drastically increase the percent chance for "needed" items to drop.

Because they don't want you to finish gearing your character quickly, as people are more likely to leave the game once everything is dead and they have all the gear they want. Also, any system where players can manipulate the probability of something dropping will probably get abused.

[Synovius]

Because...

So an artificial barrier to progression must exist in order to keep people playing the game? Shouldn't they be striving to keep subscriptions by releasing quality content and interesting features instead of using the loot system as a proverbial ball and chain disallowing departure from the game?

Using a poor loot system to maintain subscriptions is essentially the same idea that most cable companies use to deter folks from canceling/switching their service. They build in arbitrary headaches and wait times by way of phone menus and obscenely long phone times on hold before you can get a hold of a customer service representative to cancel your service. Tell me: do you enjoy that kind of tactic? If not, why would you be okay with it within the confines of an MMO but not otherwise?

[Shinebox]

They can't turn it into a ticket system because then Coil becomes as linear as everything else at 50. Personally, I haven't seen a single tank drop but I'm sure if it was a token system there were would be 40+ PLDs standing AFK at Mor Dhona Tuesday-Sunday that look exactly the same.

You will get gear for your own class faster through a token system or system that recognizes classes in the party when items drop and they definitely do not want that.

[Xystic]

I've played MMOs for over a decade. To date, I've not played one that has the issues with loot that this one does. This is not an exaggeration. This is not a fabrication.

If this was true then you need to go post this exact same thing on the WoW forums.