Itemization Primer II

The original Itemization Primer post came out so long that I just had to break it into two posts to avoid the new standard (and quite sad) “to long did not read” crowd. Enjoy the second half of the primer and the ultimate conclusion. This article can pretty much stand alone but you should catch part one to get the full effect.

Point systems suck

It is fairly common knowledge these days that most items are generated in a system that tries to avoid an anomaly that occurred occasionally in EverQuest. For those unaware an item would show up in EQ from time to time that was massively over powered. Every item was hand crafted by a zone developer and balance wasn’t a massive priority. These days itemization is handled in a more centralized fashion and teams use programs that weight stats with a point value. A raid breastplate might get 90 points to spend. A group breastplate might only have 70. These values just don’t work out in practical terms as well as teams believe they do.

Does it solve the problem? Yes, it very much does. In fact it solves it so well that we usually have items that are under powered and have to be improved eventually. The reason the pointing systems miss the mark is because every class has different values on each stat. Critical chance cannot be the same value to a templar as it is to a swashbuckler. Why, you ask? A templar gets alternate advancement abilities that push it closer to the cap sooner. All of these things must be taken into account and the points must be constantly adjusted and evaluated. If you’re doing that then they fail to meet their purpose.

You also run into the issue of “remainder” points. This occurs when the developer has left over points that will not fit snugly into anything that actually benefits you. As a result they will toss them into a cheap statistic to “round out your character.” That is a polite way of saying “just giving you the points so the final number is zero.” A 90 point breastplate may only be 75 for one class. Another class might end up with more. This overly strict policy is neither fun nor logical.

Using imagination, lore and having a basic knowledge of what classes want beyond “priests use wisdom omg!” is a far superior way to create loot. Will this take more time? Absolutely yes! That is why MMORPG developers are employed though right? If the amount of items being created is decreased an emphasis can be put back into quality. Keep the point system around to “check” an item and make sure it doesn’t go too far over or under the mark but please stop throwing random and completely useless stats on items to make the points zero out.

Tokens are good

Tokens are by far the lamest form of loot you could ever get in an MMORPG. They fly in the face of everything our genre is built on. Fighting your way into a dragon’s lair, slaying it, and finding a chest full of tokens is pretty anti-climactic. Despite that, tokens are basically the best thing that ever happened to MMORPGs.

The sad truth is that tokens are the market correction mechanism for poor itemization. You can clear the same boring instance over and over again and never get that one item you’ve been hoping for thanks to the overgrown loot tables. If you get a token for every boss you kill, however, you have the option to eventually go and buy something you actually want.

Tokens keep players playing, period. Even if you have every item you need out of a dungeon you’ll be more inclined to help someone else go through it if you’re getting tokens. We can always use more tokens!

Of course tokens can be abused. When you can realistically only generate ten tokens a day and the average item costs 600 there is a problem. Yes, you are guaranteed the item but having to play every day for over eight weeks straight is excessive. If you haven’t gotten the random drop after clearing that dungeon 60 times there is an issue. If you have to wait that long to buy your item, there is an issue.

Keep the tokens coming but set more realistic time frames for how long it takes to get an item from them.

Smart loot is great

When dealing with long lock out zones you have to make additional considerations. The old system where you could literally kill a raid boss weekly for an entire expansion and never see some of the items on its loot table is no longer acceptable. Smarter loot is required. We know MMORPGs can look at the classes that are in a raid and what items they are wearing. Using this data is important!

Limit the amount of absolutely useless loot that raiders get when they clear through a zone. Nothing sucks the fun out of an evening than killing a difficult boss and having it drop an item that no main would want or could use. Given how many raiders it takes, how few items mobs drop, and how infrequent we can do the zones it is acceptable to ensure the items are at least usable by who is there. Even if nobody in attendance needs the drops that situation is better than a raid with no gnomes getting a gnome only item.

Sharding/Disenchanting sucks

Being able to destroy items for trade skills has got to be one of the least innovative itemization actions I’ve ever seen. Any time someone says, “well, I guess we can shard that item” I just want to toss a grenade into a gnome pre-school. The notion that players are being trained to accept terrible itemization because they can “get something out of this” is unacceptable.

This trade skill was literally developed to make us feel better about getting things that are worthless instead of making fewer things that are worthless! That just isn’t going to do it for me. If you’ve ran a dungeon a ton of times and no longer need the upgrades I am okay with this sort of trade skill. If you want to break down your old items that you’ve upgraded, I also get it. Creating items just so they can be disenchanted and passing them off as loot? That just isn’t acceptable. There needs to be a lot less of this, even if that means destroying the trade skill.

Conclusions

Itemization is an often overlooked part of MMORPGs these days and I don’t understand why since developers continue to make item-centric products. Launching a new expansion with an unfinished loot system is insane! Not having a clear idea how your inflation will effect play is borderline delinquent. Using a bit more common sense, reducing the sheer volume of items, and spending time learning about who will use them can go a long way. Lets go forward by taking a few steps back and building a solid foundation.