Loot amounts dependent on difficulty

[Destined]

Hi guys,

 

I was recently pondering about loot amounts, especially in regard to campaigns. In general, on higher difficulties the required amount of loot is increased as this requires more exploration and thus increases the difficulty of the level. This makes sense for a single level, but I think it is counterproductive for campaigns, because the player will have more loot at his disposal from which to buy tools, which in turn decreases the difficulty of the campaign on this difficulty setting. So I thought, it would make more sense to keep the loot requirement constant, but remove loot (preferably the more obvious pieces) on higher difficulties (which is quite easy via spawnarg, cannot remember the name right now, but I know it exists for example in the player tools). This will keep the amount of exploration needed on higher difficulties similar to the "hiher loot requirement" as it is still more difficult to find all loot and at the same time will increase the difficulty of the campaign as the player has less money at his disposal on a higher difficulty.

 

If I am to ever finish my WIP I will implement this system, but right now I am in a low motivation period. Anyway, I wanted to ask what you guys think of this system? And maybe someone else likes the idea and will use it in his own campaign.

[demagogue]

Makes good sense to me. The other option (which amounts to the same thing without taking anything away) is to simply make shop items more expensive on higher difficulties. We can do that, can't we? (Also: "use in his -or her- own campaign." )

[Oldjim]

That was done in "In the Black" currently in beta and it introduced a problem where the loot was removed from a large area rather than reducing the loot items in each room (I think that this was because a lot of rooms only had one loot item). This has now been corrected I believe.

I am raising this as, when reducing the loot available, you need to consider the gameplay so that the search for loot doesn't become boring with lots of empty rooms/areas

[Taquito]

But that's like Chinese Torture to a Kleptomaniac. I want to feel somehow compensated for the effort, specially in difficult missions. Like as a thief I like to feel I'm not losing my time someplace with no loot when I can be in a manor making myself rich. The difficulty system is TDM is annoying. There should be a consolidation between the difficulty in missions and the difficulty of the AI light/Sound in the menu options.

 

Perhaps making stuff more expensive in difficult?

Edited May 20, 2016 by Taquito

[VanishedOne]

That was done in "In the Black" currently in beta and it introduced a problem where the loot was removed from a large area rather than reducing the loot items in each room (I think that this was because a lot of rooms only had one loot item). This has now been corrected I believe.

I believe you're referring to an item which changes location, not one which only exists on some difficulty levels. (This still happens, but the original Expert location was removed during a performance pass, so Hard and Expert locations are now the same.) Not that that affects your point about creating empty rooms; I'm just noting it in case anyone wonders what that item was.

[Destined]

Makes good sense to me. The other option (which amounts to the same thing without taking anything away) is to simply make shop items more expensive on higher difficulties. We can do that, can't we? (Also: "use in his -or her- own campaign." )

 

Yes, this would be a viable alternative. (I did not know, that political correctness / gender neutrality was that improtant in this forum and did not want to upset/discriminate any female forum members, so I will remember it for the future)

 

That was done in "In the Black" currently in beta and it introduced a problem where the loot was removed from a large area rather than reducing the loot items in each room (I think that this was because a lot of rooms only had one loot item). This has now been corrected I believe.

I am raising this as, when reducing the loot available, you need to consider the gameplay so that the search for loot doesn't become boring with lots of empty rooms/areas

 

Yes, of course, rooms should not get too empty. I myself am a fan of more loot with less value each, rather than less loot with higher value each. In some missions you can almost reach the required loot amount simply by emptying a cabinet full of golden plates and/or goblets. This I find quite boring. On the other hand, there are players who want to focus on the main goal of a mission and not want to go loot hunting that much. I think it is best, if you have a couple of low value items in each room and a few high value items as rewards for hidden areas or other tasks.

[stumpy]

maybe there should be a spawnarg with the ability to reduce value of loot by a percentage, depending on the difficulty setting, a spawnarg that's set by the map maker and not just some hard coded setting.

[Obsttorte]

You could also reduce the loot values difficulty-dependent. This way the amount of loot to find is the same, but it is worth less.

 

Regarding a loot objective, I don't think that this is needed in a campaign, as the player already has a motivation to find a sufficient amount of loot to buy equipment. On the other hand, some players may not use much or even no equipment, and may be a bit annoyed if they HAVE to search for loot which they don't need.

 

In the end you should implement it the way you consider it best.

[demagogue]

Loot is a good candidate for optional objective. I think it's good for the objectives to recognize accomplishments like that, but not necessarily keep a player that wants to be done from finishing with the story if they're ready, and an optional objective allows that. Of course the loot count in the stats screen can serve that purpose too. It's just nice that you get a little checkmark to validate that you successfully crossed a line sometimes.

[Obsttorte]

For this purpose one could also use a percentage marker like in TDS. Or something similar.