[2021] Group Loot Options

Summary
Some players are frustrated that they do not have fine control over how loot is handled within their group. For this reason, we need to add loot options that will allow players to more fairly distribute loot that is granted from killing NPCs.

Group Loot Options

• One of the following loot types is selected for each Loot Category:
• Free For All - Any player can loot any item freely
• Split Evenly - This option is only enabled for Gold and distributes stacks of gold amongst all group members alive within the valid loot range (100m currently)
• When the gold cannot be distributed evenly, the player who attempted to loot the gold gets the remainder
• Roll or Pass - This option allows players to Roll on loot to see which group member receives it (See Roll or Pass below)

UI: New loot options group UI

Loot Options are split into the following categories:

• Gold
  • Gold loot can be set to "Free For All" or "Split Evenly"
  • Default: Split Evenly
• Item Loot Categories
  • All Item loot categories can be set to "Free for All" or "Roll or Pass"
  • Loot is split further into rarity based categories:
    • Poor - Default: Free for All
    • Common - Default: Free for All
    • Uncommon - Default: Roll or Pass
    • Rare - Default: Roll or Pass
    • Epic - Default: Roll or Pass
    • Legendary - Default: Roll or Pass

The Loot Options UI can be accessed by all players in a group.
Players access the loot option UI from the right-click menu on any group member's group unit frame

• All players can see the groups current loot settings from this menu
• The group leader can change loot settings using dropdowns from this menu
• Loot settings cannot be changed while any group member is in combat
  • If this prevents a group leader from changing settings, a popup explains that they cannot change loot settings while group members are in combat.

Loot Rolling (Roll or Pass)
When a loot drop is specified as Roll or Pass, Attempting to loot an item instead triggers a group-wide prompt that has an option to roll to acquire loot, or pass.

• The Roll or Pass prompt is triggered for all players who were group members within the standard loot max range and were not in Crow form when the NPC was defeated (100m max)
  • If a player is removed from the group after the NPC was killed, they can still roll for the item
  • If a player is added to the group after the NPC was killed, they cannot roll for the item
  • If a player enters the standard loot max range after the NPC was killed, they cannot roll for the item
  • If the player happens to be killed at the time as someone loots and generates a loot roll, they can still roll on that loot.
• Up to two roll or pass, prompts can be displayed at one time, and the rest are queued
• Players cannot roll on items while their inventory is in overflow
  • The roll option is greyed out, and hovering over it tells the player that they cannot roll on items while their inventory is in overflow
• When players move to another zone, they automatically Pass on the loot roll, even if they had chosen Roll previously
  • Death should not force an automatic decision
• Items cannot be looted normally while players are rolling for them
• All valid players have a set period of time to choose whether or not they will roll
  • After this time passes, making no decision defaults the player to "Pass"
• Players can choose to roll or pass by pressing key binds (Y or N), or opening a menu and clicking on the prompt
• Rolling on an item generates a random number (integer between 1 and 100) used to compare against other group members
  • This roll is announced in the Loot Channel in chat to all party members whenever the player rolls
• After all, players have rolled or passed (even due to timing out), Loot is granted to the player that rolled the highest
  • The item is automatically added to the roll winner's inventory
    • If the winner's inventory is full, the item goes into overflow
  • A chat message in the loot channel will declare the winner to all group members
    • The chat message contains a chat link to the item that they were awarded
  • Loot Rolls appear as integers to the player but are rolled as floats to avoid ties.
  • If all players have passed, the loot remains on the NPC corpse, and can now be looted by any player immediately without triggering another Roll or Pass prompt
  • The corpse decay timer does not begin until all loot rolls have finished
• Within game settings, players can choose to "Auto Roll," "Auto Pass," or "Prompt" on specific loot rarities whenever the loot type is set to Roll or Pass
  • By default, these options are always set to "Prompt"
  • eg. a Player can auto pass on poor quality items, auto roll on uncommon/rare items, and prompt on epic/legendary items

Dregs Specifics

• Since Dregs is free for all loot rules, there is potential for a group to “loot” a corpse and while the items are being rolled on, a 3rd party player can come up and also “loot” the corpse. In order to avoid this once, a group member has touched a corpse with loot on it, that corpse is locked to that group.
  • If everyone in the group passes on all the items, the corpse unlocks to FFA loot again.

Thanks for your feedback to the Group Loot options design.  The designers will be going over your feedback!