Item hoarding

[Visengarde]

Seems most of the complaints wrt. the TR cache are a result of people hoarding items. Item count bloat is a problem in many games, not just DDO. There seems to be something in the psyche of people that causes them to accumulate "junk".. not just in games, but real life as well.

I do agree that BTC should go away, it would help, but so should many other things. Spell components for example, imo, should be removed. So should all the +x arrows of acid , etc.. Many things should go away and it would probably have a substantially good benefit to the game.

So, my advice : clean your room. Feed/sell/destroy the stuff you are never going to use, ever. Most of what you're holding onto is stuff you're never going to use. Ever.

 

[IanMoon8]

Not all of us do nothing but play inquisitive naked until cap.

 

[Ying]

DDO's inventory management system does not adequately support its gameplay loop. Spend some time raiding and accumulating BtC items with mythic and reaper bonuses. Then TR into a different archtype (melee -> nuker). Blaming players for holding onto hard to acquire items is a third raid topic because you're telling them "your fun is wrong".

 

[Zretch]

They went through an entire pass re-tuning items so that older items are more relevant and items from different expansions can be mixed and matched with one another. There is no way to know which items are "never going to use. ever." because you never know if the next expansion won't provide a tetris hole that a random item from a random expansion fits perfectly into.

Believe me, I've already thrown away everything that isn't an end game raid item or a minor artifact and I still have somewhere between 100 and 200 items in the TR cache on each of three different characters that I play in end game. Play the game for 15 years and accumulating 30 items per year total given new expansions and new raids isn't exactly hoarding.

If you want to talk hoarding, let's talk collectibles.

 

[droid327]

My usual suggestion here is to let us crunch any X named items (with some level range restrictions) into a ~30 sec 100% Named Item Chance Potion. Wouldn't guarantee a specific item drop, but it'd make it far faster, especially if you're willing to reroll the chest while the pot is active. The X could be calibrated so you still need to run an appropriate average number of quests to get a specific drop.

That'd make it easier to farm items when you do need them, so you dont feel as obligated to store everything on the off chance you might eventually need them

 

[danzig138]

So, my advice

My advice: Tend to your own house, son, and let other people worry about theirs.

 

[IanMoon8]

Blaming players for holding onto hard to acquire items is a third raid topic because you're telling them "your fun is wrong".

This.

The game intensely rewards "hoarding" items and is built heavily around doing so in every aspect except the inventory management system itself.

 

[droid327]

DDO's inventory management system does not adequately support its gameplay loop. Spend some time raiding and accumulating BtC items with mythic and reaper bonuses. Then TR into a different archtype (melee -> nuker). Blaming players for holding onto hard to acquire items is a third raid topic because you're telling them "your fun is wrong".

No one has fun playing inventory management, that's why its always such a constant source of acrimony

Holding onto items simply because they're hard to acquire is a problem with the wetware, not the software. A lot of hoarding is a result of players not being able to calibrate the utilitarian value of a lot of items, or believing they need to min-max more than they actually do (that's more prevalent for leveling gear, in fairness)

 

[TrinityTurtle]

DDO's inventory management system does not adequately support its gameplay loop. Spend some time raiding and accumulating BtC items with mythic and reaper bonuses. Then TR into a different archtype (melee -> nuker). Blaming players for holding onto hard to acquire items is a third raid topic because you're telling them "your fun is wrong".

This. I made a spreadsheet to be able to track my crap, so I know what I want to loot or share and keep or feed to a weapon (and I was basically a shut in for two years when my hip went out to arthritis beofre I got it fixed and needed a project to occupy myself when the husband was at work, and knowing what toon has what that I'm looking for has made life better) and there are like 3500 bta and unbound items. Are a lot junk? Sure. But still. That is a lot of things. And even more from the btc list.
And some people *like* collecting things. It's not just fomo that you might need it later.
Like ages ago someone on the old forums suggested a type of item manual like hte monster manual, that you could feed an item to get the credit nad it was show down, but honestly, I think it would be a good compromise with minor cosmetic based rewards so that for people who don't find collecting things no harm no foul that would give the players with nostalgia items or those who like chasing rare things fun without harming those who don't and give the players something to do with those curiosity's like Skarltongue's Ladle.

Just a turtle thought really, and I can't remember whose suggestion it was, it was not mine, I just liked it.

 

[droid327]

My advice: Tend to your own house, son, and let other people worry about theirs.

Your house is now so full of junk that its becoming a problem for everyone

The "if I want to hoard, that's my fun, and it doesnt affect you" argument stops holding water when the devs need to stop actually developing the game to go deal with the hoarders, and when hoarding becomes a barrier to implementing other improvements to the game

 

[Synwell Thorne]

I've played off and on since late beta. Some of the stuff I've held onto is the result of countless hours of grinding to obtain. I would need something compelling to compensate for their loss. Perhaps like the free 100 shared bank slots, each toon could have an expanded character bank... even if it only lasted one lifetime.

 

[Ying]

No one has fun playing inventory management, that's why its always such a constant source of acrimony

Holding onto items simply because they're hard to acquire is a problem with the wetware, not the software. A lot of hoarding is a result of players not being able to calibrate the utilitarian value of a lot of items, or believing they need to min-max more than they actually do (that's more prevalent for leveling gear, in fairness)

Since you want to play gatekeeper, please inform us what an acceptable number of items is in your TR cache.

Then I'll tell you your fun is wrong.

 

[Seppi Pearlsmith]

Your house is now so full of junk that its becoming a problem for everyone

The "if I want to hoard, that's my fun, and it doesnt affect you" argument stops holding water when the devs need to stop actually developing the game to go deal with the hoarders, and when hoarding becomes a barrier to implementing other improvements to the game

They developed the game this way:
- You grind past lives using different builds that need different items.
- You collect little bits to make bigger bits to make a whole item.
- The more powerful items are bound to character - god forbid you pass it onto a different character instead of rerolling with said character.
- They intoruduced systems that are significantly more powerful then others (hint: cannith crafting vs set bonuses).

You can bet I keep my raid items! I cannot solo VoD, every loot I got from there stays with me.

 

[droid327]

Since you want to play gatekeeper, please inform us what an acceptable number of items is in your TR cache.

Then I'll tell you your fun is wrong.

<100, and on 3 or fewer chars

And you can tell me its wrong all you want, because my fun doesnt affect others

And also because I actually *have* fun instead of repeatedly engaging in gameplay that just leaves me frustrated, and then complaining the game isnt tailored to my play, rather than changing what I can actually control about it. I'm far less upset about the handful of items I've deleted and then had to farm again than all the people I see posting about how inventory management in the game is so un-fun.

 

[Anurakh]

DDO's inventory management system does not adequately support its gameplay loop. Spend some time raiding and accumulating BtC items with mythic and reaper bonuses. Then TR into a different archtype (melee -> nuker). Blaming players for holding onto hard to acquire items is a third raid topic because you're telling them "your fun is wrong".

This!

 

[TrinityTurtle]

They developed the game this way:
- You grind past lives using different builds that need different items.
- You collect little bits to make bigger bits to make a whole item.
- The more powerful items are bound to character - god forbid you pass it onto a different character instead of rerolling with said character.
- They intoruduced systems that are significantly more powerful then others (hint: cannith crafting vs set bonuses).

You can bet I keep my raid items! I cannot solo VoD, every loot I got from there stays with me.

To be fair, TR was introduced long after initial game development, I was already playing when TR was introduced, and I hadn't joined til the game went f2p/premium options. So the original management systems designed for a game that had no multiple lives and alts were the option stayed in place, and the shared bank was really small back in the day. In a game that was barely making it due to a complicated history of inter-company fuckups between Atari and turbine including lawsuits nad Turbine was just trying to save their investment. It wasn't perfect.

That being said, they obviously did save the game, and Tr has been a thing for 14 or 15 years, I forget if it was intro'd in 2010 or 2011, I'm 53 now and minor details like that, meh. I'm down with them doing a revamp on storage and loot issues and coming up wtih a better system than we have now. But the current deves weren't here then for the most part, and are in a position most of us have been in in our various jobs, stuck with things people we never met put in place nad it's a giant mess to fix with bosses that doesn't want to green light money to fix it. LOL

 

[droid327]

They developed the game this way:

I agree there's some blame to be put on the item design philosophy

- You grind past lives using different builds that need different items.

"Need" is carrying too much load there. Grinding past lives is not an exercise in min-maxing. Its an exercise in efficiency - you only need to get to where you can comfortably run familiar content at R1, and that doesnt require a bespoke optimized gear set for every possible build. Heck, a lot of players (most?) run a lot of lives on a template build that can use the same gear for any PL.

- The more powerful items are bound to character - god forbid you pass it onto a different character instead of rerolling with said character.

Those are relevant at endgame, yes - but if you're staying at endgame long enough to need to optimize, then you're optimizing for a specific build, and dont need to hoard every possible item. Those park-at-cap characters tend not to be ones you TR into a bunch of different builds anyway, but build for a role ('my raid healer', 'my raid DPS', etc.) so there's less point in holding onto build-irrelevant BTC gear.

You can bet I keep my raid items! I cannot solo VoD, every loot I got from there stays with me.

I cant see anything from the VoD list that I can imagine using over other endgame raid alternatives. Especially now with Sun/Moon slots letting you fit in secondary and tertiary set bonuses far more easily.

The obsolescence window in DDO is very narrow, more narrow than many people seem to think. You'll see people constantly complaining that they spend time and money grinding and rerolling for items in the new pack, only to have them become obsolete when the next expansion hits...but then when it comes time to clear the stash, those items suddenly have perceived value again.

I dont mean to single you out personally here, you're just providing a lot of common arguments to be countered

 

[Monkey_Archer]

As long as the same goes for those dirty past life hoarders as well... Delete everything, transfer nothing! Fresh start go!

 

[Hafeal]

To be fair, TR was introduced long after initial game development, I was already playing when TR was introduced, and I hadn't joined til the game went f2p/premium options. So the original management systems designed for a game that had no multiple lives and alts were the option stayed in place, and the shared bank was really small back in the day. In a game that was barely making it due to a complicated history of inter-company fuckups between Atari and turbine including lawsuits nad Turbine was just trying to save their investment. It wasn't perfect.

That being said, they obviously did save the game, and Tr has been a thing for 14 or 15 years, I forget if it was intro'd in 2010 or 2011, I'm 53 now and minor details like that, meh. I'm down with them doing a revamp on storage and loot issues and coming up wtih a better system than we have now. But the current deves weren't here then for the most part, and are in a position most of us have been in in our various jobs, stuck with things people we never met put in place nad it's a giant mess to fix with bosses that doesn't want to green light money to fix it. LOL

I blame THIS guy ...
https://forums-old.ddo.com/forums/s...DO-Menace-of-the-Underdark?highlight=Fernando
:LOL:

 

[Rusty_helmet]

DDO's inventory management system does not adequately support its gameplay loop. Spend some time raiding and accumulating BtC items with mythic and reaper bonuses. Then TR into a different archtype (melee -> nuker). Blaming players for holding onto hard to acquire items is a third raid topic because you're telling them "your fun is wrong".

You can hang onto a lot of those mythic reaper raid items before this becomes a problem. And the drop rate on mythic reaper items in raids is virtually zero so if that is your problem, then I’m pretty sure it is a good problem to have. The vast majority if bank bloat are things that are not and in most cases, never were, relevant. And if players raid regularly, you have plentybof runes to buy the items again.