The Trouble with Randomised Loot Drops

[sriven]

I think maybe there could be a blacksmith shop where you could buy or sell weapons and armour? they would have to be very expensive to be bought.

[Ere Was I]

I think it's difficult to really decide on the effectiveness of a loot system until we know the sort of scope Overgrowth's going to have as a finished product.

Loot systems like the ones in this thread really lend themselves to open-world games. Like, I thought the later Assassin's Creed games had a surprisingly fun little weapon-drop system, where between missions you had a "default" weapon, but you could pretty much take any weapon you wanted in the world, it just wouldn't stick around forever.

If Overgrowth turns out to be a more kinetic, focused action game, things like loot would muddy up the combat, and potentially draw focus from any especially good or bad fighting mechanics that might warrant inspection.

But I'll concede, everyone likes customization, right? Some form of character customization would indeed be nice.

(Of course my whole post is irrelevant if I've missed some official announcement by the devs about the type of game Overgrowth will be, but I don't think I have.)

[adwuga]

allow damaged armor with dripping blood to be pried off defeated foes, and if there is a sentry patrolling, after he passes you, press z to act dead(wont work without damaged armor except on stupid enemies, such as a villager), and when he comes back around and sees you, he will run over to see what happened, and if you time it right, you surprise attack him for an instant kill. if you go too early,he will be too far away, go to late and he will have his weapon out and be looking around(or he could check your pulse, but then you could still attack him). this attack will make noise unless you have a knife. that would be so cool.

[Wilbefast]

Interesting idea. There's this clever feature in Hitman: if you want to use someone's clothes you need to kill them without their bleeding. A bloody uniform looks super-suspicious (unless you're playing dead in it)

[WillGreen]

I like both of your ideas guys, being able to get the armor from someone after killing him/her and the way you kill affects the loot is amazing!! very inmmersive and makes you think before killing, just like in hitman

[capn.lee]

That there is one damn fine coat you're wearin'

[Wilbefast]

That there is one damn fine coat you're wearin'

... I especially like that red-dot pattern all over the front - very abstract - very you

[Vibhor]

Random loot would be too rpg.
Maybe enemies could have random generation of predefined weapons (like a bandit would have a wooden staff and the other would have a wooden sword but never better than wood) but static loot once generated. Not much different from randomized loot drops but still if you are gonna implement loot, this kind of thing would prevent the samey and scripted feeling from the game.
Also, if overgrowth is going to be like lugaru then I don't see how would you fit a loot system in the game.
Seriously, loot only works in Rpg or Sandbox. None of which overgrowth is going to be.

[Endoperez]

Random loot would be too rpg.
Maybe enemies could have random generation of predefined weapons (like a bandit would have a wooden staff and the other would have a wooden sword but never better than wood) but static loot once generated. Not much different from randomized loot drops but still if you are gonna implement loot, this kind of thing would prevent the samey and scripted feeling from the game.
Also, if overgrowth is going to be like lugaru then I don't see how would you fit a loot system in the game.
Seriously, loot only works in Rpg or Sandbox. None of which overgrowth is going to be.

Wooden sword, yeah!

I agree otherwise.

[Vibhor]

Wooden sword, yeah!

I agree otherwise.

Lern to serch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokken

[Endoperez]

Lern to serch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokken

A sword is a cutting and/or thrusting weapon. A bokken can't cut, and its thrusts don't really penetrate. It is at best a practice sword. If you're limited to only using wood for your weapons, you'd be better off with a staff, a club or a spear with fire-hardened tip, since they don't rely on a cutting blade to be properly used.

The only war-worthy wooden sword I know of would be this one, the Aztec macuahuitl. The video contains test cutting into an animal carcass, so if you're squeamish you might want to stay away.

[Vibhor]

A sword is a cutting and/or thrusting weapon. A bokken can't cut, and its thrusts don't really penetrate. It is at best a practice sword. If you're limited to only using wood for your weapons, you'd be better off with a staff, a club or a spear with fire-hardened tip, since they don't rely on a cutting blade to be properly used.

The only war-worthy wooden sword I know of would be this one, the Aztec macuahuitl. The video contains test cutting into an animal carcass, so if you're squeamish you might want to stay away.

Do I really need to state that the guys with those sword are bandits and also bokken is a sword. No matter how you bend the definition it is a sword.

[Endoperez]

Do I really need to state that the guys with those sword are bandits and also bokken is a sword. No matter how you bend the definition it is a sword.

By that logic, a toygun is also a gun. It is, too. It is a gun, it looks like a gun, and is modeled after a gun. However, it can't be used to shoot bullets. So while it is a gun, it doesn't kill people as guns do: with bullets. You could use it to bash people's heads in. Might be hard with a plastic pistol, but if it's a wooden shotgun or something, it should have enough leverage and weight to work.

While I can imagine that some crazy bandit carries a wooden shotgun and kills people by bashing them with it, and while the thing he carries could be called a (toy) gun, he isn't armed with a working gun. I just found it funny that these bandits are carrying weapons that are not very good at killing people.

[Vibhor]

-snip-

Do you really want to argue over this crap?
Just to counter your toygun point.
Ofcourse toygun is a gun but the prefix toy makes the gun part pretty useless.
Also I do not see how a wooden sword would not be able to cut considering people suffer paper cuts and get wounded when moving around in a thorny bush.

[Endoperez]

Wow, I never thought of it that way. You're right. I'll make sure to ban all toyguns and wooden swords from all my future kids. I'll have to get them boffers or something.