Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Loot continues to be a big issue

I know it's probably been brought up in the past, but I felt like it needs to be stated again. The way loot and stat generation of the items currently works, is just awful. The fact that they are random, combined with no respawns is the big issue. Really, you should be finding your much needed upgrades through adventuring, and not some random store.

This was one of the weak points of the first game, and it currently appears to persist across the second. Short of hand-crafting every piece of loot, and having a form of smart detection that draws upon your skill allocation to determine drops, I had another idea that could help out.

Mainly, making crafting a skill that can be raised without spending points, but rather by finding books. In addition to that, rather than have an aspect of crafting be something that tries to outright replace the gear in the game, instead have it be something that enhances and supports it.

1. Changing the appearance of the armor/weapon within its type (for example, if there are multiple leather class appearances, you can change a piece to a different appearance as long as it matches type)
2. Dying armor/weapons, including individual parts
3. Enhancing their magical/physical defenses and durability
4. Exchanging stats. For example, say you find a weapon with +1 single handed, well with some investment, it could be possible to change it to dual wield

This would also, I imagine help a lot in dealing with the issue of random itemization. The problem I had with the crafting in the first DOS in my opinion was that it supplanted gear you found, rather than adding to or enhancing it. It pretty much made every piece of equipment in the game obsolete with the only downside to it being how unbearably tedious and unfun the process was.

So your sollution to bad loot is mainly to make it *look* different. Eeeehm... I can point out a few flaws with that.

Durability is useless. +stats could work, but I would bind it to another item (say, the repair items as I stated in another topic, removing durability and making it do that).

[quote=Hassat Hunter]So your sollution to bad loot is mainly to make it *look* different. Eeeehm... I can point out a few flaws with that.

Durability is useless. +stats could work, but I would bind it to another item (say, the repair items as I stated in another topic, removing durability and making it do that). [/quote]

No, I'm suggesting that after getting the base item, it should be possible to tailor most or all of its attributes to your uses, if the randomized nature does not fit. Similar to how we get alterations for clothing in real life. The rest is mostly fluff I added in as an aside to go with the basic idea of using crafting to modify our gear.

Ideally however, I would rather they outright fix the system entirely, as it is right now it is essentially worse than the random loot systems of Diablo like games. But if they won't do that, we could at least have an in-game method to "fix" it ourselves as we desire.

The only way I could get good loot in D:OS 1 was by buying thousands of empty potion bottles and going to a poison barrel and spending hours filling them all up one by one and selling them, then leaving my game on literally all day long so that I could check stores every hour and buy the equipment that was actually good. And that's obviously not how the game is intended to be played.

I have found no good loot in D:OS 2 so far. Also, I have no money, since you're almost guaranteed to get caught if you steal...

There was no point in OS1 where you ever needed BiS gear. The gear you found may not have been the best but it was more than enough.
In OS2 you get not enough loot. It feels like OS1 gave like double or triple the amount -> better chance of something good or atleast usable.
What we need is just a bit more loot and not the ability to choose the stats ourselves.
But i would like to see some changes in how the stats are rolled on the items.
First remove durability and by this indestructible ( its worthless ).
DO not roll Strength or Finesse if there is a Intelligence roll ( same for the other too. If there is Finesse i dont need Intelligence ). Nobody needs Strength/Intelligence Hybrid items. If i want to play Hybrid i take 1 Strength item and 1 Intelligence item. For pure characters + Endurance or + Memory would be way better -> less trash equipment.

Yep, D:OS 2 so far not only has very little loot, it's also pretty much impossible to find any money and almost nothing you sell gets you more than 5 gold a piece. I'm level 4 and I've only just managed to replace my "Twig with a string" bow and "shabby wand" pieces.

My Red Prince warrior was specced for 1-handed and Strength, but he's been using 2-handed Finesse spears because that's the best stuff he's been able to find.

I also found a pre-placed Level 2 sword in a hidden area. The problem was that it needed two characters using teleport to get there, and you're pretty much guaranteed to be level 3 before you can possibly find it, thus making the find worthless.

I agree with your point that OS1 never needed BiS gear, but I disagree that you don't get enough loot in OS2. You're in a weird prison camp on an island, being dominated by the magisters. It makes sense that you wouldn't get good equipment there. However, once you escape the prison, and as you go traipsing through various explorable locations, the loot you get magnifies. I ended chapter 1 just now, I spent 90% of my gold on buying skills for my characters, and the other 10% on gear to fill out gaps I still had or get gear that was a massive upgrade. Overall, the gear you get once you leave is really good. I had very little instances of getting gear that wasn't suited to ANY of my party members. And if it wasn't I sold it for something that was, the volume of loot you get overall is more than enough to buy stuff you need (I didn't steal anything). You don't need to keep up with gear EVERY time you level. Every couple of levels getting an upgrade is more than enough.

I'm personally fine with loot being scarcer... having to swap out every 5 minutes and having to go through 15 potential new weapons gets tiresome. So far D:OS2 does fine. Especially seeing the magic/physical armor needs balance I would hate to switch equipment more often.

The real issue is with the ability calculation currently anyway.

I'm liking the scarcity of loot so far as well. The economy aspect of this game so far is very good. You have to watch every penny as they say.

I would rather see a way to upgrade gear - if I do find a piece of gear I like, (especially a unique or +skills), it would be nice to be able to enhance it, or level it up to your current level.

I like the scarcity as well, but the early loot could stand to be a bit more interesting.

I don't mind the scarcity myself, so much as the possibility of winning a hard won fight, or making it to an ornate chest and getting stuff that is worthless to your entire party, and then having to just sell it for peanuts. I'm talking for example, getting two handed axes/swords when your party has nobody who uses them, or finding 1 handed weapons with bonus to 1 handed, when your only melee character dual wields, but doesn't use daggers.

Random loot is a big issue for a game without respawns, and as I noted earlier, having to sulk away and find an upgrade off a merchant, or going through the tedious process of crafting equipment for every level kind of kills the sense of adventure and accomplishment from either fighting a tough boss, or solving the puzzles of a tomb.

Well I'm no great fan of random loot, but I think you're overstating the negative effects here.

For example if you find a really great Finesse item but you're a strength weapon user, more often than not at low levels you can use the really great finesse weapon and not have many negative effects. Unless you absolutely just must have the proper weapon for some reason.

Overcoming a loot shortage or scarcity is a rewarding challenge of its own.

And that level of scarcity will become less of an issue once the economy plateaus, it always does.

I see a lot of complaints about a lack of loot, but in each one of my four playthroughs so far, I was able to get an abundance simply by checking the merchants after leveling up each time. Not sure what the problem is - are people looking for OP items? You just need decent gear, and if an occasional really good item shows up, that just makes it an extra special day. It wouldn't be good to be inundated in items.

Yeah, I think this is the biggest problem. I've found a lot of loot which was not useful for my current party, which also sells for pretty much nothing. If I could get better value for it in trade, then the scarcity of loot would matter much less.




I CAN'T AFFORD TO BUY THAT **** BECAUSE THE GEAR I DO FIND SELLS FOR ****.

Well, you can always use Lucky Charm.
You bash it, yet it seems you can kinda use it.

With lucky charm, I find pearls...which sell for 1 gold. Seems like they nerfed sell prices into the ground for some reason. It really wouldn't be so bad if the stuff I scavenge would sell for more than 1-2 gold.

Paintings are 70-90 gold (reputation 0)... there's about... 8 or so paintings inside the fort.

[quote]I see a lot of complaints about a lack of loot, but in each one of my four playthroughs so far, I was able to get an abundance simply by checking the merchants after leveling up each time. Not sure what the problem is - are people looking for OP items? You just need decent gear, and if an occasional really good item shows up, that just makes it an extra special day. It wouldn't be good to be inundated in items.[/quote]

I CAN'T AFFORD TO BUY THAT **** BECAUSE THE GEAR I DO FIND SELLS FOR ****.
[/quote]

Eh, if you put up a couple points on barter on at least one of your characters, and collect everything you come across, you end up with plenty of gold to buy anything you want.

Things are less expensive too compared to D:OS, but there is a larger gap between sell prices and buy prices.