New item drop system suggestion

SayChoy·Jul 15, 2019·3 votes·2,215 views

I feel like the lack of consistency for item drops makes it very aggravating to play TFT like if you get no items and go against someone with 2 full items. I think a solution to fix this is to give a special currency to buy items but to keep some of the RNG aspects the items are from a limited pool. This would let you choose to save you currency to buy from later creep rounds or spend it that round. This would make it so everyone has the same amount of items unless they kill fewer minions or lose to the creep round.

An example of this would be if melee and ranged minions dropped 1 item currency. So in the first 3 rounds, you get 9 item currency. Let's say items cost 3 item currency and you get to pick from 5 items each creep round (balanceable).

Having this kind of consistency can allow players to choose if they want to power the team up before a fight to gain all the currency or maybe someone is just 1 item currency off so they don't upgrade their team to econ more gold.

As an example we could have: Minions- 1 item currency Krugs- 2 item currency Greater Murk Wolf- 2 item currency Murk Wolf- 1 item currency Crimson Raptor- 2 item currency Raptor- 1 item currency This would let you get 3 items in the first 3 rounds 2 items when fighting wolves 2 items when fighting raptors plus any carrousel items

5 Comments

PorglitJul 15, 20191 votes

You have to keep in mind that items are not supposed to be plannable. The RNG of which items you get keeps you on yours toes, and makes you have to adjust what you're doing based on new information (The RNG for how MANY you get is awful). If you made a shop where you can always buy what you want, it takes the element of thinking on your feet entirely away, and you're left with planned tactics, rather than having to adjust.

SayChoyJul 15, 20191 votes

So when I thought of this system I took inspiration from the dota underlords item system where you chose from 3 items if you beat the creep round and you just get a random item if you lose the creep round. I like the choice of getting an item you want but I wanted to keep the rng so I suggested from a pool of 5 items. You don't get exactly what item you wanted but you get some choice because i feel like it's pretty shitty to get like 4 chain vests.

anjogrTestJul 16, 20191 votes

{quoted}

So when I thought of this system I took inspiration from the dota underlords item system where you chose from 3 items if you beat the creep round and you just get a random item if you lose the creep round. I like the choice of getting an item you want but I wanted to keep the rng so I suggested from a pool of 5 items. You don't get exactly what item you wanted but you get some choice because i feel like it's pretty shitty to get like 4 chain vests.

yeah. i hear you. but your last point is a balance issue, rather than something that suggests redesign. The real issue is the variance in the number of items people get, and especially the drop rates for "meta" items, I think.

Again, I agree that there is an issue, but I think there are more straightforward ways to attack it.

anjogrTestJul 15, 20191 votes

There is nothing wrong with the existence of an RNG for items. It is just improperly tuned and dominates the RNG for champs right now. Also, there is a sleeper RNG factor: who matches against who? This also probably matters more than the average 5 champ pool roll.

In general, creating currencies means you have to think about exchange rates between it and anything else of value in the economy, which is a hard problem, even for economists, let alone computer scientists. It would make more sense to consolidate currencies by being able to sell item components and buy random ones than to introduce yet another currency (we already have items, champs, gold, and xp).

SayChoyJul 15, 20192 votes

I like rng with items as well but as you said it is poorly tuned. I think know exactly how many items you get based on how many creeps you kill would do a lot of good as it makes the game more fair. You're right that adding a another currency system might make it more difficult to play. Also, I agree that there are other problems with the game but I think items make a huge impact as well.