Your Feelings on Randomly Generated Loot?

[Gorilla Gunk]

Personally, I love games with random loot. It adds a certain level of unpredictability to everything. I like how in games like Borderlands the pistol doesn't become obsolete the second you get a shotgun or machine gun.

But I can see why a lot of people hate randomly generated loot. I once suggested Skyrim have randomly generated loot and the idea was quickly (and brutally) shot down.

So, thoughts?

 

[Harkonnen64]

I absolutely love randomly generated loot in games, especially RPGs. It gives a feeling of excitement, like opening Christmas presents (assuming you didn't rummage through the house and already know what they are.) However, I'm not completely opposed to placed treasure either, as long as it fits a certain theme (i.e. finding a scroll/wand of summoning/animating undead in a necromancer's chamber.) It really makes the world feel fleshed out. If it happens to be a really good item, but it could just as easily be put somewhere else in the world and have it not matter, then I don't really see the point in placed treasure.

 

[blackdwarf]

it is also a lot easier for the developer. they don't have to create 1000 uniques items. they only have to make 150 and set variables.

 

[ZeroMachine]

As long as there are also unique, specific items as well, I think it's an amazing system.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Not a fan because the loot has no context, it's a cheap way to weasel your way out of designing stuff and that is exactly how it feels, cheap.

 

[Aris Khandr]

I prefer it. It makes the world feel more real. Sure, it's convenient to have every chest contain magic scrolls and cloth armour when you play a sorceress, but it isn't realistic. Getting stuff you can't use sometimes reminds you that you're not the only person in the world who has figured out how to pick up a sword.

 

[Zantos]

Well when spiders are dropping a suit of armour it's getting a bit ridiculous. But if one of the guys you kill happens to be carrying a valuable little trinket, yeah I can roll with that.

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

It seems kind of strange that your idea would be shot down for Skyrim because it will most likely have randomly generated loot of a sorts. Sure its going to be far more limited then borderlands but its still going to be there.

It got shut down because a lot of people just didn't like the idea of an iron dagger ever outperforming a glass claymore, which sucks because when I play Elder Scrolls games I like to use daggers but after a certain level you're all but forced to carry around a giant broadsword everywhere.

 

[mikey7339]

I once suggested Skyrim have randomly generated loot and the idea was quickly (and brutally) shot down.

Going a bit off-topic, but didn't Oblivion have randomly generated loot on top of set loot? Is this not going to be the case in Skyrim?

I specifically remember opening up the chest by the celestial mudcrab and getting an awesome piece of gear out of it, then screwed myself over by reloading a save and something completely different being in the chest when I opened it.

I love random loot myself, does add a bit of excitement to games and adds a certain bit of replay value because you can always try to find better gear.

 

[2733]

It's okay but it shouldn't be random on bosses or rare creatures. nothing's worse then finally beating the big nasty boss in something like Monster Hunter, only for him to drop dragon skin instead of dragon scale. It's like the game is trying to steal all satisfaction of victory.

I could do a full rant on this but I will not.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Good way to add variety and avoid spending years having to create unique weapons. Works in certain RPGs but probably isn't good everywhere.

 

[Mykin]

As long as there are also unique, specific items as well, I think it's an amazing system.

This is my feelings on the subject as well. I like randomly generated loot (Kind of like opening a Kender egg but with a chance of getting some awesome death dealing sword instead of a cheep toy) but there needs to be some unique specific items thrown in there as well or else I get the feeling I'm being cheated in a random game of chance.

 

[tharglet]

Depends on the context. It's nice to have relatively fixed high tier rewards that give you something to shoot for, but it's nice to get the odd random bit of loot.
Also helps to keep it themed - so if the game consists of different areas and classes, random magic items are much more likely to pop up in places where there's casters. If it's an immersive RPG, then the items need to be appropriate for the place you're in or the thing you killed (e.g. killing a caster's not going to drop a claymore, but maybe a junky dagger that they'd use as a last resort, or an average to decent staff).

I find if there isn't too much variation in stats, it helps. Sometimes in Borderlands the stats system felt *too* random, and you'd end up with a stupidly good "rubbish" weapon.

 

[Zanaxal]

I think there is a good way and a Bad way of doing random generated loot.

The Bad way would be where everything is random, and its a billion lootable chests that you loot and there's only like a obscenely low chance of getting something half decent (Gothic 3 style, World of Warcraft out of dungeons, Oblivion, Dragon Age? Blehhh). Typical uses of this would be like you kill a big difficult dragon boss thing and in the chest you find like a toothpick and a rotten ham bone, RAAAAGE.


Good randomly generated loot would be like in Diablo 2, where it scales to the difficulty level and also have Bigger and better drops on boss-fights and the hardest areas.


In singleplayer one play-through games i prefer scripted loot in as much areas as possible, As it won't make the game entirely luck-based if you get to play through easily and excitingly or stupidly hard.


It may have been random generated stats on a big item pool that you were referring to, and that i very much concur to as being good and i would the right term would be randomly generated itemstats.

 

[Yopaz]

I think there is a good way and a Bad way of doing random generated loot.

The Bad way would be where everything is random, and its a billion lootable chests that you loot and there's only like a obscenely low chance of getting something half decent (Gothic 3 style, World of Warcraft out of dungeons, Oblivion, Dragon Age? Blehhh). Typical uses of this would be like you kill a big difficult dragon boss thing and in the chest you find like a toothpick and a rotten ham bone, RAAAAGE.


Good randomly generated loot would be like in Diablo 2, where it scales to the difficulty level and also have Bigger and better drops on boss-fights and the hardest areas.


In singleplayer one play-through games i prefer scripted loot in as much areas as possible, As it won't make the game entirely luck-based if you get to play through easily and excitingly or stupidly hard.


It may have been random generated stats on a big item pool that you were referring to, and that i very much concur to as being good and i would the right term would be randomly generated itemstats.

This. I feel I get slightly frustrated while playing Monster Hunter Tri and I just can't get a jumbo pearl. However I also think that random loot adds something to the game, for one it give me a reason to fight the boss monsters several time, and honestly, that's what makes the game fun.
So there are good parts and bad parts to random generated loot, but dismissing it is bad by default.

 

[King of Wei]

I like the small bit of uncertainty it provides in my otherwise thoroughly planed out playthrough of a game. Helps keep things interesting.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

The mechanic has its uses...for one, replayability. By making things random, it encourages players to keep going on the off chance they get lucky, or play the system (reload tougher bosses, f.ex). The main alternative is the way BioWare handles such things...every weapon/armour piece, at least those of note, are scripted to appear only in a certain place or as a reward for a particular mission. This latter method means that character progression is well structured, though at the expense of the excitement of stumbling across something great by chance (at least after the 1st playthru).

I think something akin to a hybrid of the two would be a great system. For example, there are a great number of pre-determined items (so not randomly generated on the fly), in sets, and standalone. Some of these items can of course be scripted and specific mission rewards, others can come up as reward choices, for sale or crafting. And other stuff comes up randomly...wait, isn't that exactly what the second system described above already is?

 

[Versuvius]

Love the stuff, need more of it.