Thank you for the link and excerpt!
I wasn't going to read through it but as so many questions popped into my head I just had to. I highly suggest others READ THE WHOLE PLAN as well before you start shouting that CIG has gone crazy! They have, but....
I see where this is going, and it might work out in the end with enough changes and refinemnt, but I don't like a lot about this current plan.
Frankly, I don't see why the current loot-em-all system isn't good enough. The problems lie elsewhere...
T0 is dumb:
- if it's to help with griefing for the short term, it won't, the faster you're out the safe zone the faster you will get griefed again. They only win with this.
- It's a bit more convenient but also hinders consensual PVP gameplay. Being unable to loot enemy weapons and armor will lead to frustrating situations. (example you can't just grab another gun while yours is running low. this works in a game where ammo is just ammo, not here where you got per-gun-type ammo.)
- hella confusing to new players why they can and can't loot certain items
T2 "final" proposed implementation is REALLY dumb:
- itemization in SC kinda sucks already, this will totally and utterly devalue what's left of it...
Most items carry no real gameplay value outside of their looks over other similar items. If you played long enough you know this is a fact.
Gun, P4AR dropped by the first NPC you kill. All you actually really need. EVER. Add a sight and silencer if you suck at FPS.
Armor, whichever has the color scheme you like and can attach at least a medium backpack. The rest don't matter.
T2 unbricking looted items will lose their look, and revert to default! WHY??
That's like 90% of the reason to kill someone in the game! Because they have a nice shiny "other than mine" colored variant of something!
I can buy everything necessary for the gameplay loops in like 10 mins after spawning in, cos everything really necessary is available at the shops. Thus a lot of the value in the loot is just how it looks, that it's different! Loosing that means a lot of stuff looses a huge chunk of it's perceived value.
- unbricking fully destroys the rarity system
If you want to give someone a railgun which will be a rare weapon at some point I presume, you can just ask them to shoot and loot you, you forgive them, they unbrick the railgun, you get yours back from a terminal, and there, you have halved the rarity of said item. It won't be free but it will make it super easy.
- this whole brick-my-gun from the other side of the galaxy by the push of a button on a terminal, or by a "dead man switch" timer feels very forced for gameplay reasons, and immersion breaking. Things like this, the "suddenly we have antigrav landing gears on the Nomad" and such breaks up the coherence of the games universe for me.
All of the above makes Piracy even less worth it. You can't use the item without paying, so the monetary incentive is gone, you can't have the exact possibly rare variant so the item looses a significant chunk of it's value, and you can't have it as a trophy cos it will just be a default skin version.
I do agree that the griefing is at stupid levels, but it's not pirates doing it! Pirates kill you to loot you, to make money, to get the booty, to get the trophies, to show off the fancy rare variants ! That is FINE!
(they can occasionally go on a killing spree without concern for loot, that's understandable, but also rather dumb of them. You don't want to kill the cow you trying to milk again and again)
Griefers only kill you to kill you, again and again to satisfy their impulse to make you suffer outside of your control. It's two very different things, and none of the above helps stop it, or helps with getting to a worthwhile "bad guy" gameplay loop that CIG seemingly wants to have!
robertsspaceindustries.com
