Forums » Fan Creations

Intro to Loot in Pantheon

    • 2886 posts
    August 15, 2019 2:00 PM PDT

    What self-respecting MMORPG player isn't COMPLETELY in love with loot? It's just what we do. So I think it's about time we talk about the current facts of itemization in Pantheon. There's actually a lot to cover with this topic, so there's even more vids on the way! But in the meantime, I hope you find part 1 here helpful, which covers the overall philosophy behind how items are designed and hidden around the world: https://youtu.be/Yk3LgrO4bgs

    • 1315 posts
    August 16, 2019 7:27 AM PDT

    Nice compilation of all the bean bits about itemization that has been passed out over the last 2 years as always Baz.

    As we briefly discussed on the PantheonCrafters discord yesterday I hope this information is out dated.

    Itemization focused around Named Items is a recipe for mudflation and ultimately is too much of a good thing.  When every Named NPC has 1-4 unique items on their drop table the concept of Unique goes out the window.  Named Items will just become ranked by their relative value and that is what people will go buy based on the rank of items they can afford.

    When content creators create new itemization content they will be focused on the idea of “How can I make this cool?”  You can hear it oozing from Chris’s voice as he is talking about that dagger.  This in turn drives the creators to make each and every item tier more desirable than the last which is the definition of mudflation.  Unless there is a hard and fast math driven item building template with a relative power scale it is inevitable that many unbalanced, both over and under powered, will be created due to the rule of cool.

    I will argue that what we remember is not the Item but the Effort to gain it.  The item is just the reminder of your hard work that you carry with you.  If you want something to mean something then have it take long term effort to earn it that cannot be short cut.  Restrict those “Named Items” to items of real significance both in Lore and in effort to achieve then make them non tradeable.  That way having the items mean that you personally did something (perhaps dozens of times if the result is not guarantied).  Even then the Named Items should still be built from the primary item templates and just given unique object art and flavor text.  Even common raid boss dropped items should templated items of an appropriate power level for the challenge, though there is room for final bosses to have a signature bind on pickup item.

    Only through item templates can horizontal item progression really be achieved.  The horizontal progression component of the items need to take up a portion of the items build points rather than a Named Item that just gets created to fill the situational need.  Unless players have to make balance choices between which pieces of gear will best fit the content they want to challenge the horizontal itemization is meaningless, you just wear the best piece.

    • 2886 posts
    August 19, 2019 4:41 PM PDT

    I am just going to continue this thread as the series progresses, rather than creating a new one for each part. In this episode, I cover item recognizability and cosmetic gear. Enjoy!

    https://youtu.be/KXDyf38jluo

    • 2886 posts
    October 18, 2019 11:54 AM PDT

    Hey all, I know it's been a little while, but I finally finished my series on loot in Pantheon! This video discusses epic loot in Pantheon. But to cap it off, I'm giving away some real life pantheon loot that I've acquired during my epic quest to follow the pantheon devs to all their conventions. Watch the video to learn how you can have a chance to win ;)

    https://youtu.be/661r5LZ5o_0