With the advent of Salvaging in Diablo 3, as well as the perceived increase in the value of gold, it was suggested in the battle.net forums that perhaps Diablo 3 should include some sort of auto-pickup feature for loot. As it stands now, it appears that practically all drops will have some value in Diablo 3, even if it’s simply just for salvaged materials or vendor trash. Because of this, it seems as if players will be picking up most of the loot they encounter anyway, so why not add the convenience of making it automatic..?
Well, first off… players won’t always have the bag space to grab everything that drops. At that point a decision has to be made whether or not an item is worth stopping for. Also, auto-pickup would exacerbate this problem by quickly filling a player’s bags with items they may not have wanted to bother with in the first place.
In short, the picking up of loot is a decision that needs to be made by players themselves. The acquiring of loot and the management of inventory space is an important element of an RPG game such as Diablo – it’s all part of the experience.
Another idea proposed was to offer players a choice in whether or not they wanted to automatically or manually pick up loot. This concept seems practical, as it would allow the purists to carry on as always, while offering a convenience option for the lazy, yet Blizzard doesn’t really seem hip to the idea.
Personally, I agree with Blizzard’s stance. Auto-looting could turn into a real mess. As convenient as it sounds, it would likely lead to the continual stoppage of play in order to salvage, or to determine which items need to be dropped in order to make room for new ones. I prefer to make that decision on-the-fly myself, as do many others apparently.
However, Blizzard does not seem opposed to the idea of auto-pickup as far as gold is concerned. Gold does not take up inventory space, plus it’s promising to be a more valuable commodity in Diablo 3. Now this idea I like.
Whether or not any sort of auto-pickup feature will be implemented in Diablo 3 is uncertain, but it does appear that the bit about gold may actually go through.
Here’s what Bash had to say in response to this topic…
Quote from Bashiok
We don’t like and don’t want to encourage any type of item-hoovering. Killing monsters, seeing items pop out, and then picking them up is part of the game.
We don’t mind auto-pickup for gold because there’s never any reason you wouldn’t pick it up, because it doesn’t take up inventory space. Anything that takes up inventory space has some amount of choice attached to it, regardless if you think you’ll salvage most things or not.
It’s important to note that fewer items drop in Diablo III as compared to Diablo II, and the chances for rarer items to drop is less extreme. So you’ll be picking up fewer items, and they’ll generally be of higher quality as compared to the previous game.
(Source)
So… what do you think..? Do you like the idea of being able to plow through monsters, hoovering up all the goodies as you go..?
Would you prefer determining what to pick up and what not to, as the items drop..?
Or… would you like to have the option to toggle between both options..?
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