PROS of Free Trade Loot and the 1 CON

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Typhus, Apr 15, 2023.

  1. Typhus Lorekeeper

    Here is what I believe Free Trade brings to a server.

    1. This is the number 1 reason for me. People become more friendly and charitable as the game progresses. I have never been on a server that has been more welcoming to players than Mischief. Now I don't know if this is a direct result of Free Trade, but it sure does feel like it. My perception anyways.

    2. Free Trade and more specifically Random Loot breaks up monopolies. DBG you pride yourselves as being somewhat democratic right? Well having Free Trade to me balances out the economy and allows everyone to flourish not just the big Krono Farmers.

    3. Free Trade allows new players to catch up much quicker. This is very important especially on TLPs where once the server progresses, the harder it is to find groups leveling up. Generally all you are left with are Krono farmers aka Powerlevelers to level you because generally the only gear you can buy is not good enough to allow you to level fast enough on your own before the best expansion drops.

    4. Free Trade keeps people engaged in the game. It allows people to explore more of the game. Generally people get tired of the grind with poor gear which therefore ends in boredom and ultimately they end up quitting and unsubbing.

    5. Now this is my one CON. Some would say that Free Trade takes away the hard work and achievements of raiders, which in a sense I see their point. Really what that is though is just a perspective that is relative to a individual not a whole community. If someone works hard to make platinum in game to buy a raid piece, isn't that an achievement in itself? And you might say we'll they can just buy Krono, yeah they could but they also had to work to be able to pay for that too. One way or another you are working for what you get. And in the end it's a win/win scenario because the raider can always just sell his/her/they/them old raid loot to either have plat kronos for a new gear or whatever they want.

    That is all I have to say. And these are just my opinions on the matter so don't crucify me too hard.
    Goomba and Appren like this.
  2. topple good idea generator

    I will admit that, personally, free trade takes a bit of the wow factor out of raiding. Killing the boss and winning the bid on a power spike piece of armor or weapon was always an instant dopamine hit when it gets assigned to me. Having it show up a day or two after I’m the parcel doesn’t have the same umph.

    With that said, I think the upsides you listed above still outweigh the reduction in instant gratification I have from winning an item on other servers.
  3. Rygan11 Journeyman

    Why would you have to wait to get a raid drop from a parcel?
    Familycat23 likes this.
  4. topple good idea generator

    The guilds I have been in use the opendkp website to bid out raid loot at the end of the night. Then whoever it was looted to sends it out via parcel that night or the next day sometime.
  5. Kahna Augur


    You need a better guild then. The one I am in uses opendkp after each kill and I get handed the loot as soon as I win it. That's a lazy guild thing not a free trade thing.
    Familycat23 and Waring_McMarrin like this.
  6. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    There is no reason that they can't do bids in between events and hand the loot out to the winner at the point in time.
    Familycat23 likes this.
  7. Mithra Augur

    There is no time between events - and I wouldn't want to frequently alt tab to watch bids. Nothing wrong with doing it all at once after raids and letting Officers parcel em out before next raid.
    Appren likes this.
  8. Kahna Augur


    Closed bids, only have to tab out once, bid, and you are back in the game. Or, just use your box computer. We don't hold up raids at all to bid out loot and somehow manage to get it all handed out during the raid.
  9. KobalWR Lorekeeper

    Dont forget that Mischief also has double loot. It's easier to be charitable when items are plentiful and, therefore, a lot of them are meaningless.
    That being said, I agree. Mischief is a solid ruleset. Free trade is cool.
    If I had a complete choice of a ruleset, I'd go with Mischief minus double loot and with a Kunark (or Velious) launch, with BER/BST available from the start. One can dream :)
  10. Mithra Augur

    Do you also not do any split raiding?
  11. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    That sounds like a problem with the system and a desire to rush through all the raids as fast as possible. If it wasn't a free trade server you would be forced to do the loot after every event.
  12. Mithra Augur

    So? Getting through the raids fast is awesome. And of course we're taking advantage of the Mischief ruleset.
  13. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    Getting through the raids so fast that people can't even use the upgrades they will win on raids that same night?



    If your reasoning for not doing the loot at the time it drops is split raiding it sounds like a problem with the system as if you have enough players to split raids you also have enough leaders to help run the bids after each event is over.
  14. Mithra Augur

    It took just 60 minutes to clear the 5 events + trash in FC2. What's the point of slowing the raid down to do bids & hand out loot? What does it matter to equip an upgrade midraid when it almost certainly has no noticeable impact?
    Appren likes this.
  15. Falafel Lorekeeper

    Free trade also makes group loot nigh worthless, as even raid stuff from a couple expansions ago, which will be very cheap, is better than current group gear.

    Group content is still good for AAing, aug farming, progression, and achievements....so it's not all bad I guess.
  16. Kahna Augur

    Even when we split raid we bid out loot when it dropped. On the very rare occasion that it went to someone not on the raid it was given to them when the raid reformed. We never did full night split raids. Basically it was only for times when we had to be in smaller groups or we needed keys and smaller groups got us there faster. Which I am grateful for. It is super annoying and loot is already so plentiful that it isn't worth the hassle. People can get what they want without it. The more often I do this TLP thing the more my tolerance for pointless shenanigans like split raiding drops.

    Handing out loot after each event doesn't slow down our raid at all. We have a guy who throws it on the website, another guy who hands it out and a third guy who is already herding us to the next mob as soon as the first one dies. It takes me 15 seconds after the "Loot's up" call to alt tab, put in my closed bid, and alt tab back to the raid. No one waits for anything. No slow down occurs
  17. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    The same could be asked about waiting to do bids until the end if you are moving that fast.
  18. Kahna Augur

    Look, if handing out the loot at the end of the raid floats your boat more power to you. Just saying it's not a staple of Free Trade, there are plenty of guilds that do things differently. So the "one con" isn't really a con at all.
  19. FranktheBank Augur

    No, it couldnt. The sentence does not work about waiting to do bids.
  20. Goomba New Member

    my guild also grabbed all the loot and handed it out as we moved
    it was far more efficient