Make Shards/Seals unbound

[Ausdoerrt]

Just a correction - the last, ahem, 'event' was all about getting something for nothing, creating something out if thin air within the game space. This curent, ahem, 'event', is not about getting something for nothing, quite contrary - it's all about trading.

You have people who can get fully geared in epics without ever stepping into an epic quest. As far as I'm concerned, that's still getting something without putting in time and effort - hence "something for nothing", though in a less literal sense than the prevous cheat.

I would like to see more unbound stuff in game and lower drop rate...

Herecy... There's 100s of half-baked Korean/Chinese MMOs with such a setup, there's absolutely NO need for DDO to follow suit.

Seems easily solved by letting people buy seal/shards with raid tokens or trading in other shards/seals for the one they want. Or better yet a combination of both. By requiring 20 raid tokens you make it like a 20th named item end reward loot list without a lot of coding. By requiring a shard/seal for trade you ensure they ran that particular raid enough to at least get a shard/seal. That way you couldnt just farm the easy dq1 chest for a seal to trade for a harder to get chrono seal.

A drop of sanity in the sea of madness which is this thread.

[GermanicusMaximus]

The fact that no significant raid loot would be up for roll ever again is not enough?

I'm not so impressed with the "raid loot for roll" system that I'm willing to structure the game to facilitate it. I put raid loot up for roll now if I can't use it on my toon. I'd much rather stash it on a mule if I have a toon or a plan for a toon that could use it.

There are far too many people in this game who feel entitled to loot that drops to other people in raids. I wouldn't miss them if they decided to leave.

As it stands, there is a lot of end game content that I seldom run because my cleric already has the loot from it or doesn't want it. If there is a guild raid or a group of people I know, sure. A PUG full of strangers? Those /tells just get diplomatically declined.

Giving people reasons to NOT run content hardly seems like a good idea. When the grind for gear becomes excessive, people tend to only run what they think they NEED to run, not what they want to run. At that point, the game starts to look like a job.

Grind just leads to player burnout.

Or that you just made it possible for people to fully gear any newly rolled toons via alts? Heck, they wouldn't even have to run anything, just grab a full raid gear set from bank.

And the downside to that is?

How someone gets the gear for their toon doesn't matter to me, as long as they do something to earn it. Just about anything constitutes "earning it" more than begging other people to pass their drops in a raid.

[~sumptingwong]

/signed

The game IS dying, slowly but surely. The combination of lackluster, buggy updates and a whole array of new games coming out makes the future of this game questionable. The game itself will go on for until it becomes unprofitable, but that doesn't mean it would still be worth playing to anyone except the diehard veterans who have been here since the beginning. The community is everything in this game and it is slowly evaporating as people move on. Would you still want to play if there were only 100 active people per server? I wouldn't.

Making these items unbound would reduce a great amount of the grinding in this game, making it more enjoyable for all and more importantly, making it much easier for new players to close the power gap between themselves and veterans, which is probably the biggest issue plaguing the game right now. More happy players = more retention, and more happy new players = they tell their friends = more new players = more vibrant community = better game for all. And there would still be a substantial grind because there is still a wealth of BtC raid loot that you have to get in order truly twink your toon. Torc, Litany, Tod Rings, base items for many of the epics, etc.

/signed

but sadly turbine probably won't read this

[GermanicusMaximus]

So you're saying, because some people can work around the mechanic, we should completely remove any effort to acquiring the items? By your logic, everything in the game should be unbound and freely tradeable. Thanks but not thanks - I like playing a game where 90% of the players aren't plat-for-cash farmers.

Unbound and freely tradeable? You mean like a free economy? Yeah, I'm a fan of free market economics. Most people who are adept at doing things actually like free market economics. By and large, they also tend to be willing to put in the effort to acquire what they want.

Nothing about the current lottery system of random shard/seal drops has anything to do with people putting in effort to acquire what they want. If you think the lottery system is good and you work for a living, you should think about talking to your boss about having a lottery system for your paycheck.

I'm not sure how "plat-for-cash farmers" fit into this discussion. If they somehow do, and the plat farmers are more adept at running a quest than you are, I'd rather group with them.

[Jasparion]

Since all the older players got their hands on all the shards and seals they wanted within a very short time by trading their unwanted stuff, it gives the established players a even bigger advantage over people that are new to the game.

As a result a new player will ask himself/herself why to bother with this unbalanced game and not start "some new mmo". Otherwise I don't see many new players joining and staying with DDO... only a old player base slowly crumbling apart.

This is a very good point. The cat is out of the bag. Either the cheaters get away with it, or Turbine bans half the players on every server.

Frankly Id go with option 2. Ban then for a week and strip ALL their epics regardless of how they were earned. Show the cheaters that they dont belong in the game.

Or, if you really dont care about cheaters, come out and admit it, get rid of the cheating clauses in the T&C and let it become a standard part of the game. Like Diablo. We all loved making invulnerable toons with insane weapons, didnt we? And equipping shields in ring slots and all the other fun stuff?

[Rizzia]

Bound or unbound doesnt help most people, I'd love it if say every raid run you gain a "fragment of a shard", combine 20 for a shard of your choice (fragment of seal for quests) It gels with 20th completions then too. You could make them "shard of VON" "shard of adq" etc so no cross pack combining.

At least that way it eliviates the grind. (or you get lucky and pull the shard/seal you want anyhows.

[NaturalHazard]

Have you?

The fact that no significant raid loot would be up for roll ever again is not enough?

Or that you just made it possible for people to fully gear any newly rolled toons via alts? Heck, they wouldn't even have to run anything, just grab a full raid gear set from bank.



.

Well at least he tried, which is better than lol nope, even though I dont agree with a lot of what hes saying.

As for raid loot normally I would agree with you, but I thought back to all the times I pulled something on a toon that didnt need it, or could use it but I had been farming for forever on a different charactor. I would personally have better luck with bta items and im sure a lot of others would, but it doesnt bode so well for newer players with only one or two charactors, but it is often these players who loot first and ask questions later, I still remeber being in a party full of blue bars and a fighter looting the torc, I was on a blue bar toon and said congrats, you tring soon? and he said nope, lol he didnt even know what a torc was, it was funny but I think I was one of the few people in the party who was laughing, I got the torc on my 80th lol.

I guess removing the rolling system or making it occur less in the game would be a bad thing because it would cut down on so much popcorn worthy drama, ive seen it all, proxy rolling you name it.