Limits Of Randomness

Purely random item spawns is a method often used in game design to provide a variety of loot for players. This is intended to let players experience a sense of discovery and anticipation every time they play a level. It is like Christmas all over again.

Unfortunately, random loot has its limitations. Even when loot is balanced towards player levels and game difficulty, sometimes the desired loot simply will not drop. For example, a swordsman may wind up with loads of awesome mage staves while finding lousy to mediocre swordsman equipment. This may be tenable in games where it is intended for players to trade with one another for better loot, but it is plain irritating in single player experiences.

Take for example Dawn of War 2. Loot is randomized so my Devastator squad may never get the high end heavy bolters or their usable equivalents in Terminator armor. A possible solution to this would be to subtly weight loot drops according to fielded troops. For example, having a Devastator squad on the field will automatically grant me a +3% chance of getting Devastator drops. This value may need to be modified in order to make the drops still feel random, but will result in sufficiently high good drops to keep the players happy.

On a separate note, loot must be available for looting. DUH! I am still peeved about levels ending immediately after killing the boss creature, often preventing me from picking up that nice looking wargear that was just dropped. Talk about waste of effort. If loot cannot be automatically retrieved at the end of missions due to balance issues, the least they could do is provide a small window period for players to retrieve the items...