Darth Hater

I like the idea of loot bags. First off I don't remember them saying the tokens would get you gear of equal value. Also they said there would be enhancements for gear. Not to mention Repeats on regular loot. I'm assuming that all things in this bag will bind on pick up.

All this coming together I believe there will have enough frustration with getting what you actually want and force you to raid for a long enough time to satisfy any vanilla wow player. I believe it will be easier to get started in upgrading your gear, but just as hard in getting every single thing needed to have the best full set.

The bag has many excuses to give you plenty of stuff you don't want (in order to slow progression) DPS can be given healer gear, badges for weaker gear, repeats of gear, enhancing items that you may not need, companion gear, and hell you could get a sick helm that you wanted but there is an actual better helm in this exact place that is very rare or only drops off the last boss in your bag. (boss loot tables could still easily exist)

Actually it does say that it is the very same loot that can drop which you buy with the commendations.

So, Loot bags. I voted that I like it, but I do need more details.

It depends how it pans out after testing. We have no idea how it works beyond a brief description at the moment.

For example; can the same loot drop in the bag after you have 'bought' it with your commendations? Or is it intelligent, and wont drop you duplicates?

What is the ratio of commendations per boss, and cost per loot piece. What is the total number of boss kills needed to buy everything, assuming you *never* get anything drop in the bag? What are the relative drop rates for getting an item you need in the bag? Is it high enough that you need not worry about the risk of never getting anything?

Can you get stuff drop for both of your Specs? IE Healer and DPS items? What about your other ACs? (given that you could now change AC)

All these things will be a factor in how effective the idea will be.

Some good points about this;

Class stacking. Now it doesnt matter from a loot perspective if you have 5 trooper healers and no Consular/smugglers. They all get loot, and don't need to "share". Should make it easier to form raids/groups, no pressure on anyone to "reroll" because they play a class which is popular in your guild.

No arguments. Dunno about you, but after years of wow.. I'd kinda like a system that eliminates the need to settle loot disputes.

I have a question... what's the difference in regards to a loot bag dropping a duplicate item as opposed to the normal system where it drops duplicate items, or items that no one in the raid can use? Even if their system doesn't solve that problem out of the gate, it really doesn't have any drawbacks that aren't already present in typical loot systems. It has only additional pro's.

Easy to answer, its part of how it works. We need to know that to evaluate a system.

Current wow system; Kill boss, get X loot. X is 2 for 10man and 7 for 25man. Each boss has a loot table of say 10-15 items.

Now, everyone gets a bag in TOR. This logically says to me that the drop chance from the bag needs to be pretty low in order to balance out loot distribution over time. If you get a bag and there is ALWAYS something in it, then you're going to gear up quickly, or at least get lots and lots of duplicates.

Assuming each class has a comparable amount of gear slots to fill, say 10-15, that is a whole lot of drops to try and get the "one or two" you may be wanting/missing.

Does it work that way? We don't know. An intelligent system with a lower drop rate seems better to me, but then they may simply say that each bosses loot bag is different, and can drop different items. That would be pretty similar to what you experience now in most MMO raiding. Pehaps boss X gives you a bag that can have your chest or legs in, and boss Y drops your weapon mods in the bag. /shrug

Loot on a group basis, obviously there is a need for duplicates. Loot on an individual basis... what is the point? Duplicates would do nothing except annoy you. Granted that after a while they would in a group looting system too, but its instant and immediate when you are talking about player specific loot.

These are the questions I think the DH people need to be asking Devs when and if they are ready to talk in more detail about how this system works. Which is the entire point in posting them.

The benifits of loot bags in terms of not having to manage DKP/EPGP and avoiding loot drama far out weights the downsides. The most real complaint is not being able to reward the people who work the hardest for all their hard work. If I were a GM in SWTOR I would likely implement a system to score raiders on attendance and guild bank contributions then use that score if I have too many people show up then I would take people with the higher score to fill the slots first.

I think a lot of competitive guilds will evolve systems that do that.

What is your take on "loot bags" being given to every raid member upon a successful boss kill?

I like it in the sence that it will just get the raid moving faster after a boss kill. If i was playing with DKP. Sure need and greed works fine too. but in some ways it blows when you have a major upgrade drop and some one ells needs on it just to get a minor upgrade. like i get +50 str and he gets +1str " example ". So thats why i voted: I like it.

If selected for the September Beta Weekends, will you play the class you intend to play at launch?

I could not vote on it. since i simple just dont know. I have no expectation on getting picked for the weekend. but say if i was picked. Id like to play trooper / commando " at launch ". And for the beta. id probably make my alt that is a sith warrior. But it would have been nice to get to know the trooper / Commando, So i would know that i picked the right class for me. I am torn in this question. just dont know what to pick.

Individual loot bags are really good, if they contain badges and sometimes good gear. But only if the boss also drops a normal shared loot bag which exclusively contains the very best loot in the game.

It's good that everyone feels that they are progressing every time they do instances, but that feeling in raids of sometimes be in the spotlight of the entire raid when you finally get the loot you want is not worth loosing.

You'll still get that moment in the sun if there's not a shared loot drop from the bosses. The way the system seems likely to work, most people won't get an actual piece of gear from the bag. If you're one of those that do, either everyone will be able to see the fact you looted an epic item in chat log, or you just spam raid chat with the item link anyways. Hell, I spammed party, raid, local, guild, and any customer chat channel with loot any time I won a piece, rarely.

I am really excited about some truly top notch VO from all classes, and every article about IA says that the male VO is some of the best heard in any game and defines immersion. And knowing that the legendary snake is VO for Jedi Knight, I have an automatic choice for first alt.

My questions are Companions, how many are each class expected to have? The BH is up to Four with Mako, Skadge, 2V-R8, and newly added Blizz. What should the possible limit be by the completion of the Class arc for all classes?

it's been confirmed that every class gets 5 companions by the time they get to the end game content.

What is your take on "loot bags" being given to every raid member upon a successful boss kill?

I like this idea b/c it helps out the time limited players.

I just hope they can let you toggle which class/gear you want to roll for. This will help with alts and companion gearing.

I like the Idea of loot bags but would like higher numbers allowed in raids with better rewards. The higher number of people required to do the raid the less rewards (but better gear) in the bag. Then again I also am from the EQ days of 40+ people per raid. I think this would work in SWTOR if you had to divide up your raid forces in multiple groups. This would also stay true to movie lore. Obi-wan heading off to turn off the tractorbeam while luke and han went looking for leia. ect... many examples in all the movies I can pull from.