Loot Dropping In MP

[The Old Farmer]

One suggestion I haven't seen is about loot dropping in MP. I liked how this was handled in Hell Gate London. You can only see and pick up your loot and not all the loot. I was missing this while playing Borderlands with my wife and my buddy's as I was playing a melee char and tended to finish a combat before picking up loot, only to find that the area was picked clean. Now they would share (well I had to twist my wife's arm a bit) but if this had been an open game I would have stopped playing. Sacred 2 had a similar idea too where every one could see the loot but it was only pickable by one of the characters for the first 30 seconds then was a free for all. This was a good idea too as you could see what was being dropped (if you were paying attention) and bug the owner to see the newest "shiny".

Any other thoughts out there?

[Renevent]

I like this as well, I never liked loot that dropped for everyone as ninjas could really ruin things, plus, it stops people concentrating on nabbing loot and play as a team better.

[Iceciro]

As a self-admitted/confessed loot ninja, I do prefer not to have that feeling of "I need to run in and get that purple before someone else does!" so I can concentrate on killing.

Also, it really screws ranged players if there's a melee up front: he's already there when the loot drops.
Loot should be player-specific for like, 60seconds.

[yerkyerk]

It was discussed on tq.net somewhere I believe.
And I agree, seperate loot for each character (and preferably not with a timer, like in Sacred, but just keep them seperate until a player picks up the loot - nobody's going to wait for more than 5-10 seconds in any area anyway, and it made the interface cluttery and unintuitive). Ninja looting is what ruined battle.net for me.

[JackKerras]

Begin unpopular reputation:

I like having loot shared for everyone. Having to talk out who gets what and show items off and, yes, even be quick to get your stuff? All good things. Frankly, I find it somewhat insulting to have a computer moderate my drops -for- me.

That said, I also have a tendency to peek at something, go 'hey, this would be great for our archer!' and hand it right over. That is a majorly agreeable situation for me, and while sharing loot would be available for folks who have a non-shared loot system, I still have a good time with the item-grab and subsequent comparing and sharing of items.

I usually play with friends. This is when I expect to get loot like that. If I'm playing with strangers, it's the Old West all over again, and that's okay with me.