Friday Dev Update: Loot and the Feeling of Awesome
The point is this: it feels awesome to get good loot.
We wanted to take this loot based aspect of RPG's and implement it into Salt. When designing a system like this there are a lot of questions to keep in mind. What type of rarities will be there be? How hard will each one be to obtain? How many ways can you obtain it? We asked ourselves these questions and have tried to design a loot system that flows naturally into the world of Salt, but gives you that 'feeling of awesome' when you do finally find that rare item.
Today I want to talk about some of the design choices we've made behind this system and how we plan to expand upon it in the future.
Item rarities and item name color
In Salt we decided to split up items into five rarity categories: common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary. These types of rarities will be found in the world of Salt and are indicated by their item name color. This was a concept that we really liked in some RPG's where the moment you saw a different colored text you knew you had found something different and possibly better. It gives that quick and instant feeling of gratification even before you see what the item really is.
Unique items
One thing we definitely did not want to do was to arbitrarily give rare items (by rare I mean anything above uncommon level items) stats that really meant nothing. We didn't want to randomize stats on items just to get more into the game. For us, the feeling of awesome comes when you find an item that is static and unique. We have intentionally designed each item as having its own unique stats and effects depending on the rarity type. This means that when you find an epic mace in the game, that is the epic mace. It's not a mace with better randomly generated stats, but rather it is a weapon with a specific set of stats and specific effects unique to that item.
When you get an awesome item, it means something
I'm going to reference Morrowind again as it stands out in my mind when I think about having awesome gear in a game. In Morrowind, if you have a set of really awesome gear, it meant something. It wasn't as if you just bought the gear. Sure, you could steal gear and sometimes get lucky finding something rare, but in general nice gear was hard to come by. This is a game element that we wanted to implement into Salt. If you have an epic or legendary item, it truly means something. We want these items to be difficult to obtain and encourage you to show off your epic loot to other players.
Rewarding Playstyles
One very important aspect of our design behind Salt is what we call playstyle focus. In short, playstyle focus is a way for us to let players play Salt the way they want to play. If you want to be a hunter and wear light armor then we will find ways to reward you for doing so. If you want to be an explorer and chart out the seas then we will find ways to reward you. This design aspect was important to mirror in item rewards as well. We don't want to force you into a certain playstyle in order to get good loot. We are constantly trying to evenly distribute item rarities among item types so that there are more epic items out there than just weapons and armor. We want you to be able to show off your awesome pickaxe or awesome compass as well!
Going Forward
As we continue the development of Salt, we want to constantly be expanding upon and adding depth to the loot system. We plan on having a lot of unique and rare items in the game that can be obtained through various means, some of which are very challenging.
We would love to hear your thoughts on the loot system and what kind of awesome items you would like to see in Salt!
- Will Sterling (Game Audio and Design)