LOOT: A Sad Reality

[Aedrict]

Hello everyone!
Well It is almost a year now since FF14:ARR has been released and we all had our shared experience of it. Most of it are really good, actually! But there are somethings that can really down play all those nice things. One of them is the LOOT SYSTEM of this game. Okay, 1st and foremost I think, that the loot system of this game really auto imbalance the whole game, specially for those individuals who do not really play the game in a hard core way. This game's loot system basically rewards a SINGLE RANDOM PLAYER in the party, after the completion of a certain dungeon or trial. The really bad thing about this is that:

1. The game NEGLECTS to understand that the dungeon or Trial was a combined effort of 4 to 24 players, and only rewarding 1 person at the end of the said quest completely undermines the other 7 individuals who helped achieved the said goal.

[Aedrict]

2. If for some reason the LOOT for the said Trial, Raid or Dungeon is not really useful for anyone in the party, it is even worse, since all the efforts for getting such a gear or item is totally lost.


3. Giving out LOOTs for certain job class can imbalance the game, Let's be clear here, there is a huge disparity between the numbers of DPS versus tanks and heals. If you give a loot to those classes that is already few to begin with, all the more it is harder to form a party for the quest. Just imagine if most of the tanks in any one server have the loot they need for that trial, dungeon or raid. Clearly, forming a party for that task is harder now, since those people will rarely think about helping others, since their primary objective to join such quest has been done.

[Aedrict]

I think FF14, should correct the way they give out LOOT, my suggestion would be to give out items that can be used to either;

1. Exchange to a certain NPC, so that you can attain the gears you need.
2. Craft the actual armor or weapon with such items.

[Aedrict]

Primal weapons and accessories are very frustrating to farm, as months go by, fewer parties are being formed, as a result of the loot system they have. One can not even imagine how many times I did Ultima Weapon before just to get the choker, and all attempts in getting it FAILED because most drops are not for my job class. After almost 7 Months, I am still farming for it, BUT NOW, the situation is far more FRUSTRATING, since there is hardly any capable party now to farm it. IF ONLY FF14, MADE THEIR LOOT SYSTEM LIKE THE ONES OF MONSTER HUNTER, I THINK IT WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE ENJOYABLE AND LESS FRUSTRATING TO FARM YOUR GEARS. If they have instead, gave rewards to each player with items they can use to either craft their weapons or accessories with, things would have been different. sadly I do not think this will ever change anything.

[Saradina]

Random loot is and will always be a part of an MMORPG, it's the sad truth. It gives you less chance to obtain it but you still feel that "today is your chance" that makes you play the game longer than if you would get everything in a few runs. Which ofcourse means more subscribers which is not only good for money but to make a better community. So in the end it's a win win situation for both Square Enix and the players.

[Thaliss]

random loot

+ tomes to buy some loot => everyone rewarded

[William_Almasy]

1. I'm actually glad NM hunts(FFXI) have translated to HUNTS(FFXIV).

2. I think some 4 man dungeons should be as hard as 8 man coil raids.

3. Those who complain to much should be offered a casual subscriber-ship to leave me alone

[The_Last_Dragoon]

IF ONLY FF14, MADE THEIR LOOT SYSTEM LIKE THE ONES OF MONSTER HUNTER, I THINK IT WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE ENJOYABLE AND LESS FRUSTRATING TO FARM YOUR GEARS.

The Loot/Armor system is entirely luck based in Monster Hunter, and uses it's own sort of crafting system for all of it's armors (it's more of an exchange system, but the same basic premise of needing multiple drops to make one piece applies). Could you imagine farming a rank S Hunt from the current Hunt system and having a % chance of getting the exact materials needed to make the armor? It would be extremely frustrating since you can't even get mercy from your party members and are purely at the mercy of the random number generator. Not to mention that if you really want to go by Monster Hunter loot rules, if I remember right, whoever skins the beast/picks up the item first gets the drop where as everyone else who helped gets nothing.

Either way, you will always get "something" from a Duty. Whether that be experience, quest progression, gil, tomes, or a valuable piece of loot. Even in an Alliance (24 man) group, only 8 players will share a roll on a piece of loot with the exception of a single treasure chest which opens at the end of the Duty. In terms of Syrcus Tower, there's 4 different pieces of gear that will drop for your section of the Alliance, and a player may only take one piece of gear per week from the Tower.

In terms of low level dungeons, players will always gain experience which should be your primary reason for entering that particular dungeon pre-50 anyway. Normal mode Trials are almost strictly for story progression and lv50s doing their roulettes. They don't drop gear, but each player will have to complete all of them at least once.

Once you do hit 50 you can use the roulette system to get tomes, which will allow you to get ilevel 90 and 100 gear for whichever class you want it for. the tomes are a guarantee as long as you get into a duty that will grant them.

[sheepysheepy]

ultima partys are much rarer to find now than they were 3 months ago yes, because 95% of people who were farming it have what they want from it, but if we were using OP's suggested loot method that number would be more like 99% with only a few people doing it to help fc members

[Staris]

The problem with putting everything on a token system is peoples motivations.

If it takes 10 clears to get the item I need, a lot of people will say never mind and not bother, others will do 10 and stop and never do it again.

If it takes 1-Infinity clears. A surprising amount of people will do it forever and ever. Its just a fact, random interval rewards are the strongest at influencing behavior.

Not saying I like it, just it is how they sustain the game. Now being able to do something with all the unwanted loot would be a better idea. Say... You can take 3 drops no one wants, give them to some NPC and get a random other same tier drop. Would alleviate the bs a little.