[Role Playing Game] Dungeon Idea Loot, Feedback

[CroMoX]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about an idea for a multi-player ORPG for Warcraft 3, and the one thing I find with ORPGS like Twilight's Eve, is Gold late game becomes completely useless for armor/weapons, the reason for this is Dungeon Loot Drops.

Now everyone loves running a dungeon and getting really great loot from one of the most intense battles, but I find it once you get late game say 50-60% in, gold starts becoming not needed, since Item drops are much greater and overpower any other item you can buy.

So what I was thinking is instead of using the simple loot drop you get a temporary Buff (Not sure if another OPRG has this never seen one), and this could be Damage, Armor, Mana Hp Regen, gold gain, anything really. This eliminates loot drops allowing for gold to be used more effectively late game, but still make it seem worth the hard battle. Obviously money eventually will become not needed, but this Dungeon System would allow for Crafting to seem much more worth it and rewarding in the long run, since you could combine god-like weapons.

So what does everyone think about this? Feel free to drop of any ideas you may want to add, or other dungeon rewards instead of loot.

 

[DZerpic]

What if you make a more complex crafting system? Instead of getting a rare set of armor from a boss fight, you'd get some random crafting materials with wich you can craft rare armor. (remember Diablo 2's socketed weapons?)

These strange materials would give you buffs when kept in the char's inventory and you can either keep it or use it to create an equipable item.
You'd at least need money to pay the craftsmen.

You could also use money to hire mercenaries with different skills and abilities.

 

[CroMoX]

What if you make a more complex crafting system? Instead of getting a rare set of armor from a boss fight, you'd get some random crafting materials with wich you can craft rare armor. (remember Diablo 2's socketed weapons?)

These strange materials would give you buffs when kept in the char's inventory and you can either keep it or use it to create an equipable item.
You'd at least need money to pay the craftsmen.

Yeah the crafting system in Diablo 2 was good, but I don't think materials should give buffs, since they are no real value till you actually craft them together with other equipment. I guess you could get materials from a boss, but to make it seem more worth while it would have to be like rare crafting equipment, easier to find on bosses.

 

[Sick]

I dislike the idea of removing loot, because that will make the boss fights a lot less satisfying why don't you just make items that are more powerful available for extreme gold costs? and then make a tech-tree requirement to purchase them of a building called "Boss: Name is slain" and make a trigger to create that structure somewhere when the boss is dead, so that people can't farm spawns for gold to get the best item before you want them to.

DZerpic has a good idea with making the boss drops an item that is crafting resource. I think it would be cool to have a recipe system that you can use to combine the boss drops with other things to create a powerful weapon if you have the gold for it. Also making it so you can use the boss drop to combine for multiple results, example: Combine boss drop and sword for 500 gold get boss sword, combine boss drop and sword for 1000 gold get boss sword+, and so on. This will make it so the players will have many options of what to do with the boss item and will allow them to choose how much gold they want to invest in making it useful.

 

[CroMoX]

I dislike the idea of removing loot, because that will make the boss fights a lot less satisfying why don't you just make items that are more powerful available for extreme gold costs? and then make a tech-tree requirement to purchase them of a building called "Boss: Name is slain" and make a trigger to create that structure somewhere when the boss is dead, so that people can't farm spawns for gold to get the best item before you want them to.

DZerpic has a good idea with making the boss drops an item that is crafting resource. I think it would be cool to have a recipe system that you can use to combine the boss drops with other things to create a powerful weapon if you have the gold for it. Also making it so you can use the boss drop to combine for multiple results, example: Combine boss drop and sword for 500 gold get boss sword, combine boss drop and sword for 1000 gold get boss sword+, and so on. This will make it so the players will have many options of what to do with the boss item and will allow them to choose how much gold they want to invest in making it useful.

That idea is good, and I know I'm removing loot, but I'm not removing a reward for the triumph. If I was to make an ORPG, I would probably do crafting, like items you get from normal units, because it doesn't seem conventional getting crafting from bosses.

But then again, I could do both ideas together

 

[DZerpic]

The crafting materials fom the bosses would be unique. For example, you kill a dark knight and you'd get the magical gem incrusted on his helmet. The gem you could combine it with a normal sword and get a unique sword. Effects varying on the weapon you combine it with.

On the other hand, the characters could learn special abilities from the boss. Just adding to the feeling of satisfaction for the player.

 

[Dr Super Good]

In true Open RPGs you use the gold to build troops to help you, but those are few and far between.

You would probably find it better to allow gold to be used to buy every item in the game but dungeons have a chance to drop them for free. People will see the high price and then go to a dungeon to try and earn it. If they did not earn it after 10-20 runs they should be able to buy it.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

You can also just seperate your loot into equipment categories.

Let's say you can find a good sword and armor on boss X, but you can not find a ring. An equivalent ring is sold by vendor Y.
It's an elegant, easy solution, as obviously, farming bosses and buying stuff are never redundant.