Developers, can we talk about the Binding status of items?

[Wizza]

Why, at some point in DDO history, we changed from Unbound or even BtCoE items to BtA items in quests?

Trading has always been a big, big part of every MMORPG. Trading is fundamental to interact with other people, to give a feeling of purpose to questing other than fun or farming for our own items. Trading and selling is that carrot that many endplayers have always wanted and it's not something that I'm making up. We have few historical examples:

EE GH was absolutely fantastic. Items were rare enough and everything was BtCoE. I remember tons of players farming ToR, PoP to sell their items and get some Astral shards or trade them for their wanted items.
EE Stormhorns was amazing as well. People still farm it, after all this time. Same goes for Haunted Halls.

ToEE, for some reason, has some items Unbound and some BtA. I still have not understood what is happening in that quest.

What made you change your mind and make everything BtA? We want to farm items and trade items. Why are you preventing us from doing that? Why can't we have BtCoE items anymore? Once we get our own items, a pack is dead for many players. Look at Necro 4. Noone runs the quests anymore, unless a friend needs an item. The only thing that is run is the Raid. Same goes for 3BC, a pack reduced to XP farm during eTRs.

Speak to us Devs. Let us know. I don't want to do these quests once and done. I WANT to play this game but I want to have a reason to play. Why would I do a quest when it offers me nothing, after I got my item? XP is zero, since I'm capped. Fun factor is always there, I still run HH once in a while because the quest is fun but what makes me run HH even more is the fact that I may or may not loot something and sell it (unless it's the Purple Dragon Shield).

I don't even care about tiered loot at this point, that is obviously not coming back.

Why have you killed trading and selling?

[Vellrad]

People whined that they want bta, because, as they said, trading ee loot makes you evil capitalistic swine that exploits unskilled noobs who can't complete ee, because u will demand ridiculous amount of astral shards, you filthy greedy pigs!*, so devs listened.
I personally like trading stuffs I don't wanna for stufs I wanna or moneyz, so I can save up for stuff I wanna, and, even if I get everything I want from questpack, I still have reason to farm it, so I can sell it, unlike BtA junk that after getting I don't need to run that quest again (unles I wanna favor).
Of course, some ppl want bta, because they don't care for anything other that ******** farming xp, discarding xp, repeat until world explodes, because that means they need to stop at hated lvl cap, where they dont get precious disposable stacking points only for a while before they can go back to true/heroic/iconic retardation... I mean reincarnation.
*Not exact quote, but I swear, that's spirit behind many people's thoughts on tradable loot (and its quite close in wording anyway).

[Wizza]

People whined that they want bta, because, as they said, trading ee loot makes you evil capitalistic swine that exploits unskilled noobs who can't complete ee, because u will demand ridiculous amount of astral shards, you filthy greedy pigs!*, so devs listened.
I personally like trading stuffs I don't wanna for stufs I wanna or moneyz, so I can save up for stuff I wanna, and, even if I get everything I want from questpack, I still have reason to farm it, so I can sell it, unlike BtA junk that after getting I don't need to run that quest again (unles I wanna favor).
Of course, some ppl want bta, because they don't care for anything other that ******** farming xp, discarding xp, repeat until world explodes, because that means they need to stop at hated lvl cap, where they dont get precious disposable stacking points only for a while before they can go back to true/heroic/iconic retardation... I mean reincarnation.
*Not exact quote, but I swear, that's spirit behind many people's thoughts on tradable loot (and its quite close in wording anyway).

Okay, I can even get the "trading ee loot makes you an elitist jerk" complain. Let's say I can get behind it, even tho I really don't. Harder difficulties = better rewards, simple logic and rules of every game. Whatever.

But now there isn't tiered loot anymore. There isn't that Epic Elite only loot that only Elitists can get, everything is the same tier. So why keep them BtA? Haunted halls did this pretty good and it worked. The good stuff was selling for good money, it was tradeable, people were *gulp* interacting with other people. Let's go back to that please.

[legendkilleroll]

I dont really use the astral shard AH but can see how some people who like that sort of thing dont have much to sell anymore

Saying that, i dont like how people not capable of running EE, could just buy EE loot, EE should have some exclusive BTC/BTA stuff imo

Pugs could be trouble tho, as if your looking for specific loot, unless its a friend/guildie or just a generous person, most are just going to take the item to sell

[Wh070aa]

As a pack rat, I like BTA or unbound items. I can store them on other characters, instead of trying to fit them in my overfilled bank.

Also the grind is bad enough for a one item if you don't have good luck. 20+ runs for stuff kinda kills it for me.

Market/trading is dead as hell, since everything worthwhile is BTC. Also for the "you must earn your EE loot" crowd, you guys are reson why there is only one build anyone is running all the time. I want to have loot on my flavor build. I don't want to TR to FOTM build, farm **** for 60+runs, then TR back to my flavor build, and only then play what I want.

The loot system does not feel good. I should not be tossing named loot into garbage bins, because I can't use it on the character playing it.

[stoerm]

Perhaps it's their way of saying thanks?

[laurawilder]

What they should do is make more things bound to character and rare. That is what made quests played more in the past. Back when the bloodstone was rare people ran the desert, and the shroud was ran often to make unique stronger weapons.

Now that common loot is better than most named items at level or within two levels and nothing is unique and can be sold people farm certain quests and challenges and use a stone to raise their character to wear their shiny things.

More things bound and less things to be sold are what is better for the game and its economy. The should have only items drop that are rare in quests btcoE and the rest of random loot be +1 and up. If the want items with complex sufix and prefix they should need to be crafted. That would make crafting more useful and make it worthwhile. It would create an economy for those with ability to create and sell and create rolls in a guild for characters that took the time to raise crafting levels.

Plus the more rare the loot the more people will need to run and rerun those quests and raids. Not just the first month, flood the market with items and whine for more new end game quests.

[Lonnbeimnech]

What they should do is make more things bound to character and rare. That is what made quests played more in the past. Back when the bloodstone was rare people ran the desert, and the shroud was ran often to make unique stronger weapons.

Now that common loot is better than most named items at level or within two levels and nothing is unique and can be sold people farm certain quests and challenges and use a stone to raise their character to wear their shiny things.

More things bound and less things to be sold are what is better for the game and its economy. The should have only items drop that are rare in quests btcoE and the rest of random loot be +1 and up. If the want items with complex sufix and prefix they should need to be crafted. That would make crafting more useful and make it worthwhile. It would create an economy for those with ability to create and sell and create rolls in a guild for characters that took the time to raise crafting levels.

Plus the more rare the loot the more people will need to run and rerun those quests and raids. Not just the first month, flood the market with items and whine for more new end game quests.

But I soloed it TWICE on normal and didn't get (insert item name here)! This game is too much of a grindfest, I'm going back to candy crush!

[laurawilder]

But I soloed it TWICE on normal and didn't get (insert item name here)! This game is too much of a grindfest, I'm going back to candy crush!

I have lost myself in your words but Boo thinks you're just ducky. Boo sees what you did there.

[Wizza]

I dont really use the astral shard AH but can see how some people who like that sort of thing dont have much to sell anymore

Saying that, i dont like how people not capable of running EE, could just buy EE loot, EE should have some exclusive BTC/BTA stuff imo

Pugs could be trouble tho, as if your looking for specific loot, unless its a friend/guildie or just a generous person, most are just going to take the item to sell

There is no EE loot anymore. Its only one tier, so lets keep it in mind in the discussion. Noone is excluded by any loot at the moment, they even removed Mythics apparently from Shavarath. Everyone can farm stuff on Normal or Elite and get the same kind of loot.

Perhaps it's their way of saying thanks?

IMG]http://i.imgur.com/XXHS7wK.jpg[/IMG]

Not sure how this is relevant to the thread. Pretty sure it is not.

[Lonnbeimnech]

Isnt this baiting and/or trolling?

It's bringing up an type of complaint without actually going to the bother of searching through the forums to compile specific examples. Though it is common enough that a regular forum user should be familiar with it. ie, people complaining about low drop rates, and not being interested in running things more than a small handful of times to acquire loot.

The devs have listened to these complaints, recently increasing the drop rates of many, many bits of named loot.

Asking for items to be super rare, while I agree with it, is probably not going to happen.

[Wizza]

My bad

[Lonnbeimnech]

Have you even bothered to check the OP? Or the thread title? Who is asking for items to be super rare? Just...wow. At least read what you are replying to.

I didn't respond to the OP at all. I responded to laurawilder's comment... smh

[Wizza]

I didn't respond to the OP at all. I responded to laurawilder's comment... smh

Holy, I apologize. For some reason I thought you were replying to the OP Gonna edit previous posts.

[whereispowderedsilve]

Bind to Account on Equip -- problem solved! No? So you can loot it, but then decide whether or not you want to keep it or sell/trade it.

Also forgive my ignorance, is there a way once something like that is equipped & bound to the account, can you go ahead & unbind it & sell/trade it again or no?
(I forget).

I haven't played DDO since June 2014(but am active on the forums). Keep fighting the good fight! Cheers!
(and back to Marvel Heroes 2015 I go!) :P! ! !

[laurawilder]

Bind to Account on Equip -- problem solved! No? So you can loot it, but then decide whether or not you want to keep it or sell/trade it.

Also forgive my ignorance, is there a way once something like that is equipped & bound to the account, can you go ahead & unbind it & sell/trade it again or no?
(I forget).

I haven't played DDO since June 2014(but am active on the forums). Keep fighting the good fight! Cheers!
(and back to Marvel Heroes 2015 I go!) :P! ! !

What would be the purpose of making items bound to account, if everyone could unbind them as they saw fit and sell?

[laurawilder]

Why, at some point in DDO history, we changed from Unbound or even BtCoE items to BtA items in quests?

Trading has always been a big, big part of every MMORPG. Trading is fundamental to interact with other people, to give a feeling of purpose to questing other than fun or farming for our own items. Trading and selling is that carrot that many endplayers have always wanted and it's not something that I'm making up. We have few historical examples:

EE GH was absolutely fantastic. Items were rare enough and everything was BtCoE. I remember tons of players farming ToR, PoP to sell their items and get some Astral shards or trade them for their wanted items.
EE Stormhorns was amazing as well. People still farm it, after all this time. Same goes for Haunted Halls.

ToEE, for some reason, has some items Unbound and some BtA. I still have not understood what is happening in that quest.

What made you change your mind and make everything BtA? We want to farm items and trade items. Why are you preventing us from doing that? Why can't we have BtCoE items anymore? Once we get our own items, a pack is dead for many players. Look at Necro 4. Noone runs the quests anymore, unless a friend needs an item. The only thing that is run is the Raid. Same goes for 3BC, a pack reduced to XP farm during eTRs.

Speak to us Devs. Let us know. I don't want to do these quests once and done. I WANT to play this game but I want to have a reason to play. Why would I do a quest when it offers me nothing, after I got my item? XP is zero, since I'm capped. Fun factor is always there, I still run HH once in a while because the quest is fun but what makes me run HH even more is the fact that I may or may not loot something and sell it (unless it's the Purple Dragon Shield).

I don't even care about tiered loot at this point, that is obviously not coming back.

Why have you killed trading and selling?

So just that I understand your point of view. making all(more) items unbound and allowing more trading and selling will create more traffic in quests? Was not the best system pretty much ever in the game the shroud and green steel item creation. But was that not tied in with flagging and many items and ingredients bound to account? Did not that end game work for years and always stay active? How have recent endgame cycles gone?

I think if you look back at the history of the game and what has succeeded and kept interest and made quests ran often it was the opposite of what you seek to change. The easier items are made to farm and sell the less people will run quests. All that will accomplish is satisfy the short attention span folks that hop games and spend less time and money in ddo.

Endgame interest is not about buying and selling. I mean seriously after you have one character reach level 20 and have over a say 1 million plat you will never go broke. What value does the AH bring to the game? It brings convenience and an easy button plus it allows items to be sold to people that may not have those packs purchased.

Making things unbound and easier to acquiring does not benefit quest traffic or Turbine in any fashion to be honest.

[slarden]

I really like bound to account loot because it's easy to move around and people have to earn their own loot.

With that said, probably a mix of having some things bound and some things unbound is ideal for people that like to selling/buying. I still hope most loot is bound to account even if they add some unbound items.

[Spekdah_NZ]

I really like bound to account loot because it's easy to move around and people have to earn their own loot.

With that said, probably a mix of having some things bound and some things unbound is ideal for people that like to selling/buying. I still hope most loot is bound to account even if they add some unbound items.

I'm another one in this camp. When playing rounds of necro 4, I could pick up loot for both my char and the odd time something for an alt. Otherwise I could give stuff to other peeps in the pug when I could not use it, which was alot. Compared to say GH, didn't matter what dropped, for years playing GH I still rarely see loot gifted away in pugs, those helms still net some good shards.

To me BtA is nostalgia to some old school MMO's play styles where you never looted what you couldn't use .... before some kind of auction house ruined it (looking at you EQ1).

Does it have to be set in stone? I am liking the variety even if unbound (Haunted Halls) isn't so recent.

[Wizza]

I really like bound to account loot because it's easy to move around and people have to earn their own loot.

With that said, probably a mix of having some things bound and some things unbound is ideal for people that like to selling/buying. I still hope most loot is bound to account even if they add some unbound items.

But what is in fact happening is that content is dying right after people have "earned" their loot. So why not make content last longer by making it either unbound, BtAoE or BtCoE? GH, SH, HH are still being run from time to time for their awesome loot system.

Loot is one of the most important factor when it comes to longevity of content. It is important for everyone, capped and uncapped players, vet and non vet. Trading is a huge part for Veterans, it gives them something to do. Playing the Auction House game is fun for many veterans, or just trading with other players to get the best stuff. People might sell their Otto's boxes for 3-4 Epic items like we used to do, people might sell Turbine points for Epic items.

The previous poster talks about nostalgia. Well, I've a bad news for you: nostalgia does not keep content alive. And content not alive means less people playing.

I honestly see a win for everyone with making stuff unbound, BtAoE or BtCoE.