If I had to guess, the only time this happens with me (and, arguably, it is rather frustrating) is when I mouse over to click a shard, but because of where it is on the map, my character actually moves in a different direction than where I clicked. By instinct, I immediately react thinking, ‘no, not that way’ and try to click again and it sometimes happens a couple of times before I realize, “okay, stop, just click once, let your character move to it, see it disappear, THAN start moving again.”
It’s weird sort of result that I see because of how the layering seems to be working when things drop on the ground, especially in larger numbers. I also find that two items might look close to each other, and I’ll click one, but that is the only one that gets picked up, even though they look like they might be part of the same group…
I don’t honestly mind having to pick up shards, but I do feel, and have commented before, that there are little wonky oddities with the implementation of the ground drop/radius vacuum/layering.
Let me ask you this: Do people read shards when they pick them up? Do they EVER inspect the shards they picked up in the inventory or do they just send them to forge? Does lowering shard frequency actually change if people pay attention to what shards drop or do they just automatically pick them up then send to forge afterwards?
Can they even remember that they picked up shards a few seconds after doing so?
In what way is a shard drop psychologically different from a gold drop besides the extra steps to pick them up and send to forge?
Honestly, Mike… I get the overwhelming majority of rare shards from removals and shatters. Why? Because I can get multiples of them off a single drop, not having to rely on the 1 in whatever_ridiculous_odds chance that it happens to drop for me as loot, not to mention multiple times. I’ve seen maybe one or two rare class-specific shards (that i was needing for my build at the time) drop as loot, but have gathered 50+ of them from removals/shatters.
Seeing how you want shards to feel special when looted, it seems silly that picking them up as loot is the most inefficient way to acquire them.
There are a lot of fundamental problems with this reasoning.
Not all shards are created equal, but at the same time there is no visual indication of what is super rare. Worse noone is making a decision on which shard to pick. Picking a shard is never a bad decision. You get a bunch of shards to drop, you collect all of them and there is that.
Its not the same with items, as they do take time to sort out and they also take inventory space. Shards are just extra clicks, without any decision making. Fairly carpal tunnel friendly too.
There is also the super unnecessary button to send shards from inventory to stash. Why is it even there? Every single person I know who plays the game thinks this button is extremely stupid.
This, if I want to get THE ONE SHARD I NEED, I set a filter with gear of that shard to shatter
I do not watch dropped shards for this, and usually end up with a bunch of shards I need that I didn’t even remember picking up before I do the shatter.
but besides that nothing, and also that would only be an argument for making rare(highlighted) shards require clicking - not an argument for making COMMON shards require a click.
why i need to click for picking up my 9999th resistance chard I do not know
Exactly. All my filters include coloring for rare/class specific shards on items. As well as specific filters for shards specifically needed for the build (that I might not have in overflowing abundance in my shard stash already). I never… NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVER bother reading any shard I pick up – only when I’m having trouble clicking on the damn nameplate, or the location is bugged so I keep missing it.
If it is good it is sent to forge, if it is useless it is sent to forge, why take half a second to decide if it is worth picking up when that half a second could be spend picking it up anyways?
Then again reading takes more time than a single mouse click, the only downside to picking up bad shards is the time spend picking up. Reading shards is wasted time.
I’m completely serious. Tell yourself whatever you’ve got to, though.
The reality is that everyone complaining about shard pickup being an active action is being melodramatic. It is not an inconvenience to click on an item on the ground as you run around, and I strongly suspect a lot of people are going out of their way to pick up shards they don’t actually need just so they can be frustrated by having done it. As they say on the playground: Stop hitting yourself.
EHG has repeatedly revisited the topic over the last year and more, and come to the same conclusion every time - autopickup is not happening. You’ve given your feedback and you have your answer. If it’s not a big enough deal for you to stop playing the game, it’s time to cut the rhetoric and hyperbole and let it go.
Speak for yourself. I read them all the time. It’s how I decide whether I want to pick them up or not, especially if they’re not already right next to me.
That’s not a conclusion, it’s a decision. If you’re going to be condescending, at least use the proper words.
Not to mention, they said the same thing with trade, but after enough feedback offered a new solution. Just because you enjoy reading and clicking all the shard drops, does not mean everyone else shares your enthusiasm.
con-clu-sion
2. a judgment or decision reached by reasoning.
- Oxford English Dictionary
I’d also define irony, but I think you just did that for me. Sorry your cape fell off.
I never said I enjoy it. Clicking shards as I run around is just a thing I do. That doesn’t mean I enjoy it, it means I’m not manufacturing frustration over something that is not even remotely an inconvenience unless I make it one on purpose.
Really? I’m with @doombybbr on this one, i don’t care what the shards are, I’ll pick up everyone amd just dump them into the crafting stash when ever I go to my inventory and see a load of shards.
IMO they’re just a faceless crafting currency that i don’t particularly care about unless I don’t have enough.
The fact is that there is no mechanics that the shards are currently using (like maybe combining them to get rarer shards or whatever) - except for being crafting currency.
And they don’t even stack.
They are just like gold, since I see someone above said it’s not. Yes it is. As a pile of 10 gold is worth less than a pile of 300 gold, so too an Attunement shard is worth less than an All Resist shard (or whatever, in the end the rarity of it may be subjective to your build).
The fact that the player can empty his inventory with one more click just underscores how no decision must be made. Just dump them.
This is the main difference between shards and items, you can’t really dump items (not without resetting the whole echo) so from this perspective too, shards are just like gold.
Imagine all the gold you pick would take 1 slot in the inventory, would not stack or add up (so two piles would take two slots regardless of them being of equal value or not) and then you’d have to open your inventory and transfer the gold to your gold bag or whatever.
I agree with the rest, shards are just an amorphous mass of things.
I click them out of habit more than anything else. I never intentionally read them, and whenever I read them, I end up questioning why I am even picking them up to be honest.
I never found a shard I was looking for as a random and noticed (probably dropped them at some point, just did not read them).
To this end, let me recycle a post about shattering uniques into rare affix shards:
Rare affix shards have such a minuscule chance to be useful, it is delusional to believe you can ever find a useful one on the ground.
EHG are well within their rights to withhold any future plans, roadmaps or design documents.
As demonstrated by Mike’s earlier post, they are already sharing more than they had in the past (which was basically shards are items, as you said).
Yet.
To clarify and expand on my earlier post, auto pick-up and auto-transfer (and they should be considered separately) introduce a design constraint which doesn’t currently exist.
Yes, it would be more convenient, but it would also constrain future opportunities.
Here are some entirely rigorous and well considered dumb ideas:
a mechanic which explodes items on the ground and shards do more damage than regular items
a dungeon ability which upgrades or adjusts shards on the ground or in your inventory and then shards are exchanged at the end of the dungeon
a glyph which applies shards adjacent to it in your inventory to your weapon
fishing which uses shards as bait
Ok, that last one is impressively ridiculous, I admit.
These (and better ideas) are all opportunities which EHG would likely have to forgo if shards are not items on the ground and/or in the inventory.
Should a convenience feature (even a popular one) be implemented even if it means forgoing all these opportunities?
Perhaps.
But, for now at least, it seems EHG has decided against that.
You will miss a lot of rare shards…