Potential Solution for the Auto-Collecting Shards Issue

Feedback and Suggestions
1

I think most new players encounter this as a really odd occurrence that when you start collecting the affix shards, realize you can just cram them all into a craft box, and how the crafting works… The immediate question is, “Why can’t I just auto-collect these like every other game?”

I’ve asked around about this a bit, both in the community and a couple of our friendly devs. The consistent answer seems to revolve around the notion that not including that feature somehow gives them “weight.” Memes aside, the goal from the developer perspective is to have the player see what they are getting, presumably to impart some kind of value or interest in these shards.

The problem I have encountered is that this just doesn’t work in practice. I still don’t read them. I just scoop them up. I’m not going to be excited about my 117th Fire Resistance shard. I suspect I’m far from alone in that. However, I do have an interest in obtaining certain affixes and wanting to know when I do. The devs have the right idea, just not the right solution.

My loot filter looks like this:

(For those curious, the Red is for +skills and the Yellow is for class affixes)

Because I have it set up that way, it gave me the idea for where the disconnect lies between what the devs want and how players actually play, and how we can fix it!

Solution:
Auto-collect the common affix shards, but not the rarer ones.
I DO want to see when +skills and class-related shards drop. I don’t care when another max hp or armor shard does. Therein lies the beauty. When you’re running around picking up shards and suddenly a few on the ground are still on the ground, now you have cause to notice and care. Now these shards have that weight, whereas in the current system they are all the same.

I hope this makes sense to some of you and that it’s something the devs can consider in their internal meetings. Given a bit of thought, I think the soundness of this reasoning becomes pretty clear pretty quickly. It isn’t just a “middle ground compromise” for a highly desired feature–it actually solves the desires of both the devs and the players. Hard to see a better win/win than that!

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2

I don’t know what games you are talking about, but I don’t know that many games that have auto-collect aside from gold pick up.

The problem here for me is not how valuable some of those specific shards are, but I simply don’t want any automated looting process.

Looting stuff should be a conscious decision.

If mobs drop shards you are not interested in, don’t loot them.

I could also see affix shards being implemented into the loot filter at some point.

What’s a win for one player is a lose for the other player, simple as that.

In things like this, there is never a solution that everybody will 100%like.

I can see that your suggestion indeed is a middle ground and I wouldn’t be super mad about it, if something similar gets implemented, but I would still prefer everything how it currently is.

1 Like
3

There’s no reason it has to be mandatory. A simple checkbox in the settings and you can still play it your way.

As for it being a “decision,” this is the same disconnect that the devs currently face. A lot of players don’t think mundane stuff that you might need some of down the road is worth conscious effort. That’s why I stated that in the current system I don’t even read them. Your notion doesn’t match reality.

Edit:
I don’t read them precisely because the mundane and the special all look the same and it’s time-consuming to read through the mundane. It’s more efficient to just scoop them up and worry about if I got them later when I go to craft something.

5 Likes
4

From your OP I gathered that you already researched a little bit of discussions.
I am not sure what discussions you did read exactly but here is one of the hottest ones I would say

I already stated there my opinions.

Short answer from me for your argument of a toggleable feature:
As soon as there is such feature, that objectively makes the game faster/smoother the majority of people will choose that option anyway.

I would prefer people being forced into actually engaging with their loot.

5

That’s the problem. It doesn’t force them to engage with it. It actually is just busy work. It’s because there is no differentiation between the mundane and special that it is not engaging.

Further, you say that you don’t want to be forced to use auto-collection, but you want to force others to not use it? Seems you have hypocritical principles. It’s much better to give each person the choice.

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6

Devils advocate here…

If shards had limited storage instead of the current bottomless store would the issue go away naturally?

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7

I don’t think so, because the core issue doesn’t seem to be of capacity, but of quality. Players chase the more valuable/useful affixes and the difference between 20 or 2,000 of the others seems minimal at best.

Edit:
On further consideration, I think this could potentially create problems and backlash without actually achieving anything.

2 Likes
8

There are some features where having different choices is not necessarily the best solution, because some of those choices will have clear game play advantages.

For such features as this I would prefer any way, that is equal to everybody.

9

I don’t buy that argument for a few reasons.

  1. The game is full of choices. The way you build and itemize is all about choices. Eventually some meta builds will come out and will be considered “optimal,” carrying those advantages you are talking about.

  2. This isn’t a competitive game. It doesn’t matter if someone else farms more/faster than you. It’s how they like to play.

  3. Having the choice to use it or not is equal for everyone. If you really think auto-collection is strictly superior, you already admit defeat in opposing it.

2 Likes
10

No, that would be hideous. You’d end up with a load of shards in your inventory after a run, then you’d hit the transfer to storage button but only some of them would be moved to storage! Then you’d either have to sell the others or drop them.

11

I didn’t say it’s strictly superior, I just said it’s more efficient for game play pace.

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12

But that would stop you from just picking up every shard and wanting an autocollect feature… You would only pick up the shards you wanted in the first place… not everything.

Sure… but only because there is an unlimited store in place already… if the store was already limited this entire thread would probably be asking for more crafting material store and not for an autopickup feature… :wink:

13

That ship has long sailed. If they tried to do that now, the backlash is something they probably wouldn’t recover from. Can already see the review bombing and mass exodus…

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14

Doubt it would go that far… the game is beta and they are constantly still changing things including crafting in very big ways… they did it recently with changing glancing blow, resistances and previous to that crafting… Plenty of time to rework things still - imho at least…

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15

I agree there is a lot they still can change and be fine, but that idea would be crossing some pretty severe lines. There’s no way it goes well for them.

16

So you’d rather swap the current scenario where all shards nearby are picked up with a single click to having to click on every shard you want individually but they then go into the stash by default. Wouldn’t that be a lot more clicking? I’m assuming that you’d then be able to filter for just shards that you want.

17

It kind of doesn’t matter. The problem is in his premise that players wouldn’t want everything. Players naturally want an abundance of resources when they go to craft. However, the devs want a sense of purpose and weight to these shards as loot. The problem is the current implementation is why players (including myself) view it as currency and not loot. The mundane stuff we need for any build (particularly defensive affixes) are needed, but not special. The special things that can define a build (+skills and class affixes) look the same as the mundane, so it’s all “currency” and none is “loot.”

This is what my proposal aims to correct. It satisfies the devs’ goals while acknowledging the reality of player tendencies. It also doesn’t try to trick or manipulate the players in negative ways like this limited capacity idea seeks to–it only tricks them in positive ways. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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18

That’s why I preficed the idea with “Devils Advocate”

The problem is that there is something in play already…

If collecting crafting resources was already implemented as something exactly like normal loot with limited storage capacity and/or required clicking only on what you wanted then this discussion would be entirely different…

Suppose that was my purpose… to get a better view of the entire idea… Makes for a much better discussion & ultimate decision in the end… Even though I have probably over 15k crafting resources and losing it all would not be plesant, I honestly would’nt really care if the devs changed the entire idea on its head and chose an entirely different option…

19

So how about best(or worst) of all worlds.

Idea:
Shards drop and are picked up like they are now.
But you can only have maximum number of each one.
Say, 50 of each.

A number big enough that it satisfies the needs of people when crafting, but not so big it takes too long to reach.

After reaching that number, they are filtered out and cannot be picked up.

So the longer you play, the more ‘rare’ shards will seem. Making them more exciting to find since you find fewer and they will be rare types of shards.

This could feasibly solve all your issues in a single swoop.

20

You just repeated the idea of vapurfire here^^

He already mentioned this above