For a lot of hardcore MMO-players, the loot-system is a very important part of the MMO. Lots of Wow players use countless hours grinding for that one rare piece of armor, that makes them stand out and gives a lot of prestige in certain communities. In CoH, the loot system was incredibly anonymous, which turned a lot of people off from playing (along with the missing end-game).

I think that finding the right balance, would give the best outcome. Duh. Here, I'm thinking about a system like the one in DCUO, where loot is costumepieces with stats imbedded. This would serve as a way to please both kinds of players? The loot-system is IMO one of the only things DCUO got right. Of course, in a superhero game, one need an option to turn the visual on/off. Maybe a kind of transmog-thingy?

Do you people agree or do you have a better idea?

Mmmmh... Maybe instead some sort of equipment unlock? Say you kill a super villain who uses a sword, you could loot the equipment's stats and unlock its skin for you to use. But the stats and the look have to be independant from one another...

Or something along those lines...

that's pretty much how what he's talking about works. when you equip something it has an appearance tied to it, but your costume itself is selected from a separate pull down menu that's made up pretty much of everything you have ever worn, not just what you are wearing now, and certain heroes/villains can drop iconic costume pieces. the game isnt great, but that was one of their better ideas, imho.

Well then, I'm all for it.

Made a big long post with my views on this, then somehow failed the spam check. I think I actually got logged out while replying because I see I have to login to the site again...and now my reply is gone.

*grumbles and storms out*

captain_karate wrote:
*Unrelated post incoming : I find the logout time due to inactivity on this site to be too short... I understand your pain

The COH loot system eliminated all the drama. As you will be enhancing the powers, you wont be getting a supersuit that gives you powers. And to be honest, no one respects you because you were lucky and got a rare shirt. They respect you for your actions. People like OSHA that ran hami raids were respected, not someone with a magic jockstrap.

Not going to type out my big post again, but I will quickly summarize it below.

I liked the anonymous loot system in CoH. I think it was one of the strengths it had in keeping the community pleasant and tight knit. Being random, and anonymous, when people got good drops, there was a lot of congratulations, rather than griping.

I'm old school MMO, and probably not in the majority, but I'd still be willing to bet that if Valiance (hypothetically) gave individual players control over choosing an older loot system like that in CoH(whether an option to turn it on, or separate server type scenario), or a loot system more common to modern MMO...a decent amount of the playerbase would opt for the former. Oh sure, it might not be a majority, but even if it was 20% or more, it's still sizeable.

As for the cosmetic costume stuff with stats, I've got nothing about it's inclusion in game. But stuff like that is really low priority for me, personally. I spend maybe 5 minutes making my character. Eventually I might fine tune the costume, or maybe even do a complete overhaul but I'm much more content to just play the game than spend hours in the costume creator trying to achieve a certain look.

As usual, this is just my own feedback to the original post. I'm fully prepared for a barrage of backlash against my antiquated thinking and preferences. lol!

Slightly un/related, but..

I think that even when the auto-loot is a thing, there should be an _option_ for manual looting (individual), manual looting (AoE), and auto looting.

Here's why: sometimes players like to know WHICH of the thirty-eight mobs in the local area have dropped the super rare AR-33 WITH kung-fu grip, and it makes it easier to catalogue. I've noticed the problem in WoWhead where--unless the drop is specifically known to come from one enemy, say a boss--it is mostly all guesswork for who drops what how often.

Cekseiro wrote:
Thats it though...no mob drops ANYTHING specific. They all have chances to drop anything from the entire loot table.The only exception was Hami/statesman bosses. and everyone that completed the boss got a ho from the ho drop table. nobody got a super pistol of doom because they didnt exist in the game.

Philosopher wrote:
Absolutely not. Appearances must be absolutely seperated from gear 100%. Something like how Champions Online does it, with seperate loot pieces being accountwide unlock items for costume parts would work.

DCUOs system is horrible.

I much prefer CoH's loot system, separates it from the craptastic crap fest that is WoW.
Looting mobs wastes a lot of time in VO.

City of Heroes/Villains enhancement drop system having randomized drops on every mob (other than specific raids (hamidon) , trials, strike/task force) is the only formula that I have experience with. The ability to buy enhancements on a market allows the formations of teams for specific raids, trials, or task/strike forces that reward a specific drop on completion.

what i liked most about CoX was not having to grind for endless hours to acquire a piece of gear as they introduced more and more gear grind i played less and less.
as for having appearances linked to gear thats not going to work in a hero mmo unless you want everyone to look like superman or whoever it happens to be
id like them to phase out having to click on bodys to loot thats always been a annoying unnecessary additional operation that ive rarely found immersive

ZeeHero wrote:
I would HATE, I repeat **HATE** a system like CO has. I think it is completely idiotic that I pick up a vest or glove, and "equip" it, but it does not show up on my costume. Being a super hero MMO, where your costume is unique to your character, having costume pieces that impart stat boosts is a very flawed concept, whether the costume pieces actually show up when you equip them or not. I would prefer something similar to enhancements in CoH, just generically named items that provide a stat boost.

KidRad wrote:
Good thing CO doesn't have a system like you describe. I can see you've never played that game. in CO costume pieces dont get equipped to your character at all, you simply click on them and unlock them to your account. of course they dont show up when you unlock them, you need to goto the cosmetic tailor. No "Stat boosts" involved.

ZeeHero wrote:
I disagree. Costume/armor loot makes sense. I defeated the boss with the "Flaming Ninja Shoulderpads", now I can use them for my self. (Even though, legally, that would be stealing evidence). But since it is a game, which focuses so much on individuality through visuality - costumes/armor/w.e., I think you should have the option to get the stats from that, but not have to show it. DCUO has a build-in module, that allows people to make it visually go away (english isn't my first language, so I cannot recall the correct word here). WoW has the transmog-system.
I've heard, back in the CoX-days, that many WoW-players didn't like CoX, because you had no visual representation of your achievements, which they had in WoW (and other MMOs.) I, personally liked the CoX-loot, because I don't give a crap about armor-rarety as long as the stats makes me do, what I want to do. But I think the superhero MMOs will miss out on a lot of players, if they don't offer this - or a better/more innovative solution. Does that make sense?

ZeeHero wrote:
Ummm....what? I definitely have played the game, and I get all kinds of gear from a lot of the bad guys that I kill and missions that I complete. I equip it. It shows up on my character screen and in my equipment slots at the bottom of the screen. It boosts stats. You can compare and contrast the stat boosts between different equipment before you put it on. That is what modding is all about, boosting the stats of your equipment. That is a huge part of the game. Yet, it does not change my appearance at all. It is lame, IMO. If it is possible to actually add it to your costume, that's news to me.

I am all for stat boosts, but just not through equipment, because I hate the idea that I would be missing out on stat boosts just because I refuse to change the appearance of my character, which I worked really hard to design, and it seems really silly and not at all immersive to me to have something equipped, but not have it show up on my costume. Enhancements solve this problem. You get stat boost. Congrats. If people want special costume pieces, that you can get from fighting bosses, or a temp power that changes you into a zombie or ghost or alien (which I would love actually), or stuff you can craft or buy to alter your appearance(again, could be cool for fun social times), that is totally fine with me, but adding in stat boosts to costume pieces, whether they show up or not, creates too many logical problems for this particular genre for me to get on board with.

KidRad wrote:
If you want gear which actually changes your appearance go play a generic fantasy MMO. a unique costume is important to the super hero genre, people should not feel forced to wear certain things for the stats which change their appearance.

Costume parts and Gear/stat boosts should remain 100% seperate and I think you'll find most people here agree with that.

ZeeHero wrote:
I think you're misunderstanding me. I am not saying that I want appearance changes. I am saying that I do not want gear (gloves, bracers, boots, vests, etc) that provide a stat boost. As in the system that CO has. There are other ways of providing the same functionality the skirts around the logical inconsistency there....namely, enhancements from CoH.