Barrels / Lockers everywhere with $1 in it, etc.

[cah]

Let's get back on topic;

Method 1: sprinkle containers everywhere with small amount of useful loot.

vs

Method 2: smaller amount of containers in relatively hidden places with better amounts of useful loot.

vs

Method 3: containers everywhere with crap loot, smaller amount of containers of useful loot in hidden places.

I prefer method 2 as it makes more sense and makes exploration more about exploration than mindless clicking on every box.

How about the amount of containers, amount and type of loot being appropriate for the setting/location?

[Ratboy]

How about the amount of containers, amount and type of loot being appropriate for the setting/location?

For an '' undiscovered " location, a full complement of equipment that has not been scavenged before makes sense. For a location that has been rooted thru so many times its a roadside attraction, nada?

[cah]

How about the amount of containers, amount and type of loot being appropriate for the setting/location?

For an '' undiscovered " location, a full complement of equipment that has not been scavenged before makes sense. For a location that has been rooted thru so many times its a roadside attraction, nada?

Pretty much. And an easily accessible but inhabited place would qualify as case #1 above (subject to the nature of the inhabitants).

[Proton Axeman]

Pretty much. For instance, if you just wiped out a band of raiders in open combat (and not in a surprising fashion; e.g. this wasn't a parley where you'd somehow talked their leader into showing up unarmed), you'd expect that they might be storing some ammunition and personal possessions in their lodging, but you shouldn't be finding armor vastly superior to what they were wearing without damn good reason (like they're religious fanatics to whom it's a relic not to be touched for some reason).

But if you've managed to reactivate access to a long-sealed base where there's no plausible reason that you weren't the first one there since its ruin (e.g. you had to fight your way through automated defenses, or clear a collapsed passage or blow up a non-functioning vault door), then you might find nifty stuff that was stored previously, and some of it might even still be usable. (Many power cells would likely have been drained through self-discharge or the like, some stuff may be non-functional because of required conditions for preservation failed due to breakdown or power loss, et al).

[Imbunche]

How would i do it?

I want there to be clutter items and such you cna pick up but the main thing is, put something where you expect to find it.

Ammunition should be found in ammo crates, corpses of enemy/friendly gunmen, or in someone's stash or safe.

Spoons forks, table ware in kitchen oriented cabinets, or mess halls.

Lockers should be full of paper, clip boards, clothing, possibly some weapons. Some more random crap and such that people put in their personal belongings.

Desks full of paper and such, maybe some gum.

Safes should be full of something valuable like, ammunition, drugs, money, etc.

Batteries, machines, etc should usually be found in a repair shack or some kind of supply closet.

I don't want gold coins on dead animals, or someone carrying around a toaster on their person. Or to find food in some locker outside. Or to discover someone keeps machine parts in a refridgerator.

Not every pack and sac has to have something of interest but if it should hold what it logically holds.

Of course some weirdo might have a fork collection he keeps in his safe, Or someone keeps alot of raw meat/food stuffs outside in a trashbin for some animals, just odd things like that from time to time.

[Zombra]

If I can pick up gum and clipboards in Wasteland 2, I will demand my money back.

[Sub-Human]

Abstract it into a character skill if you have to...

Hallelujah. There should be a character skill for looting, finding more interesting stuff in various lockers etc. If there's a gun, maybe it's hidden behind junk; maybe you're able to spot a diamond in all that metal; other times there's a grenade or a clip of extremely rare ammo on the corpse.

Of course, you should make it useful. But don't make it a necessity for every Ranger party to have one (turning the game into a gold mining experience).

[Hertzila]

I think loot should be tied to the place, mostly. In habitated locations and ruins, most of what you'd find would either be actual trash (preferably non-pickable, after all what's the point) or belong to somebody else, whether it be in their kitchen drawer, scavenged safe or a stash. However, if you manage to find an untouched ruin or secret base or room or some such, expect to find logical stuff there, sprinkled vendor trash included. Not that I'm a fan of finding 1-5$ in every single container but if you search an office drawer, a stack of paper and some odd pens and such would be logical findings. Not that those papers would be lootable, maybe the game just tells you that there are papers there but they're of no value so they won't appear on the item list.

[Seytan]

By the same token IF I run into hostiles using a AK 47...let the SOB drop a AK 47. Dont pull the omg he zapped you with a rocket launcher and when you loot him he had a can of pork and beans on him...DONT DO THAT.

[Zombra]

By the same token IF I run into hostiles using a AK 47...let the SOB drop a AK 47. Dont pull the omg he zapped you with a rocket launcher and when you loot him he had a can of pork and beans on him...DONT DO THAT.

Hahaha. Agreed with my whole heart.

[newyawk]

By the same token IF I run into hostiles using a AK 47...let the SOB drop a AK 47. Dont pull the omg he zapped you with a rocket launcher and when you loot him he had a can of pork and beans on him...DONT DO THAT.

Agree 400%. They need to come up with a less lazy way to control player strength and economy in the earlier stages of the game.that's why I agree with the whole bullets are scarce argument. Nothing has posses me of more during years passer then getting attacked with something that magically vanishes upon looting

[SagaDC]

By the same token IF I run into hostiles using a AK 47...let the SOB drop a AK 47. Dont pull the omg he zapped you with a rocket launcher and when you loot him he had a can of pork and beans on him...DONT DO THAT.

Agree 400%. They need to come up with a less lazy way to control player strength and economy in the earlier stages of the game.that's why I agree with the whole bullets are scarce argument. Nothing has posses me of more during years passer then getting attacked with something that magically vanishes upon looting

Well, I don't know. I mean, I do agree with the idea that you should be able to find inventory items still in a character's inventory when you loot their body, but I do like the idea of items being theoretically damaged or destroyed in combat. It's not really on topic, but if I take someone down with a flamethrower, there should probably be a chance that certain items are damaged or destroyed - although those items might be repairable, or the scraps might still be useful for something else. Precision shooting might be nice, but it would discourage shooting someone in the head if you want their helmet.

I think it's all a matter of balance. Giving the player every item that an enemy is carrying will give the player too many items, while giving them none of the items that an enemy is carrying will forcibly limit the economy. I think the potential for items that are damaged when taking an enemy down (or when blasting open a container, using a container as cover, etc.) might be ideal.

[Zombra]

System Shock 2 handled enemy loot with a nice compromise. The mutants who shot at you with shotguns would indeed have shotguns when you killed them, but the guns were always in terrible, terrible condition and nearly worthless. Certainly not worth the inventory space unless you chose to expend the resources to repair them. Since we know that W2 will have a maintenance/repair system, this could make for more interesting gameplay in looting, particularly if repair supplies such as gun oil etc. are limited and expendable.

I agree that item bloat is bad. We shouldn't be able to loot the wristwatch and shoelaces off of every enemy. In fact I will go so far as to say that I would rather have a slim inventory system than a rewarding one. But Seytan really does have a point; valuable equipment shouldn't simply vaporize when the wielder dies. It's fine if it turns out to be rusty and filled with sand, or riddled with bullet holes, but it should be there.

[blinko]

I'm against tons of worthless items and barrel hunting, but if it is included, I'd prefer it be like Diablo 2's.

Having item levels linked to character level modified by a particular skill would be interesting, that way in order to randomly find an item you've either got to be the appropriate level or have someone with that skill in your party. The same skill could be used to modify the likelihood of items being dropped in battle and being undamaged or still having ammo. It would also be great to have separate Take all Ammo/Items/Armor/Weapons buttons, or else have them drop like in Diablo 2 where we can press a hotkey to see what they are.

Additionally, for searching to locate items, if they do turn it into a CDO (they have to be alphabetical) person's nightmare, at least they could leave most of the locations empty and inform you with something like "There's nothing there." That way, you can rummage through every searchable location in the game if you want, and if there's nothing there it'll tell you, but if you do come across one with something hidden in it, while you can still take the lower level items, until you have high enough skill or character level for what's inside, all you'll get is "I couldn't find anything..." It'd also be great if the items were visually identifiable by the text color and ontology of their names or audibly recognizable by class if equipment is going to play any large role here.

[suz]

got to be the appropriate level

You're not yet of arbitrary level 5, you're not worthy of holding this mighty Butt-Owning Flaming Stick With Nails of Disease.
Please no.

PS OCD is obsessive-compulsive disorder, not compulsive-disorder obsessive.

[TΛPETRVE]

OCD is obsessive-compulsive disorder, not compulsive-disorder obsessive.

He made a pun (maybe even a Monk quote?) .

@Topic: Really not a fan of loot'em up gameplay in a game like this. I had my short-lived fun with Diablo, but the excessive amounts of stuff to pick up within the Fallout games often annoyed me. Nothing wrong with a few meaningless items here and there, but making it a necessity to dig through each goddamn container to sort rags from riches gets tiresome quickly.

[suz]

The pun went over my head >_>

@Topic: Really not a fan of loot'em up gameplay in a game like this. I had my short-lived fun with Diablo, but the excessive amounts of stuff to pick up within the Fallout games often annoyed me. Nothing wrong with a few meaningless items here and there, but making it a necessity to dig through each goddamn container to sort rags from riches gets tiresome quickly.

In a topic I've made about logistics - one of the points is delegate shifting through crap to the rangers rather than do it yourself - via a "trash" tab which is automatically filled with items and items in it are automatically thrown away by rangers if there's better value/weight item.

If you know what a thing is worth, then the rangers also know it and can throw bad value/weight ratio items away, but if I'm building a collection of supermutant shoelaces then I can have those aswell by moving them out of trash.

[newyawk]

Alright, can someone please explain how any of thos os an issue? I understand there being no logical way a giant rat would have a wallet on them (unless it was partially digested) but i dont understan how having a ton of loot everywhere would matter to anyone. If you dont like to loot eveything or look through a million trash cans... dont. If someone wants to spend massibe amounts of time scavenging through everything, more power to them. They also will most likely find useful stuff missed by others.

[Sub-Human]

If someone wants to spend massibe amounts of time scavenging through everything, more power to them. They also will most likely find useful stuff missed by others.

Bad, bad, bad. You're saying some people should not enjoy the game as others would simply because they don't feel like checking for useless trash which shouldn't even be there (as others said, you don't just hide one ammo clip here, another ammo clip there - you'll probably find a secure spot in a safe to place all of your ammo clips)?

[newyawk]

Again, I am not saying others SHOULDN'T enjoy it, I am saying that useless trash is most likely useless. If you feel the need to sift through it all to make sure there isnt a bullet casing or something of value in it, great. I am not going to go rifling through trash but it certainly wouldnt make me not enjoy the game if there was a ton of rubble you COULD go sifting through.

The only way I am looting stuff is if I see a safe or have a metal detector and a treasure map or find some kind of evidence that something is buried.

And I do agree, nobody throws a friggin full clip of ammo in the garbage, that is jack assian if they put that in. But the rubble and trash makes for more realistic camo, that MAYBE in a pile of rubble, some body is crushed with goodies on it. With so much of it, gestalt theory applies and is only there for those who have a divine love of scavenging through rubble / trash.

Am I making any sense or am I missing something fundemental?