QUOTE(Honis @ Feb 9 2007, 09:00 PM)
I was playing Fly For Fun and it occurred to me that I was spamming my item pickup macro almost more than my health and special move macros. I decided that I didn't like it. I then started to think about all the different ways games (all genres) have handled picking up items.
FFXI:
The drops go into a treasure pool after you kill a monster. There are no items that can be found just laying on the ground. The item is always in some object (mob, ??? on the floor, chests, etc.) The treasure pool will then distribute it to your party based on the leader settings. If your alone it falls into your inventory automatically.
Pros: No needless clicking (of corpses, shiny objects on the ground, etc.)
Cons: You must go to your inventory to drop an item (ie grabbing it is forced), other players in the area can not grab your unwanted item.
Fly for Fun:
The items individually fall to the ground. Your given some amount of time to pickup the items before other players can pick them up. After a little while longer the item vanishes. To pickup the item you must click the item on the ground or position yourself close enough for the macro button to automatically pick up the closest item.
Pros: Can choose not to pickup an item. Other players can pick up your unwanted items.
Cons: Button spamming gets annoying... Really annoying.
Gothic, Oblivion, probably a lot of other RPGs:
In the first 2 Gothics you click the corpse of the mob to view items. Based on skills (that are not the topic of this thread) you get a list of items you can "harvest."
Pros: Choosing the items you want out of a list is easy. A monster body is generally a large clicking target.
Cons: Instead of spamming a keyboard key you spam your mouse button.
Depending on what I'm doing in an MMO depends on what system I prefer. If I'm farming a specific item I prefer the list like in Gothic. If I'm in a party gaining experience I prefer FFXI's system to keep the party moving. I absolutely hate FlyFF's system. I do like being able to pickup items that someone else leaves behind. Maybe being able to choose between auto pickup and list pick modes would be cool.
What are some of the other systems out there?
(Put this in general since there are no new ideas presented. If it should go in ideas please move it.)
I think the Gothic/Oblivion way would be pretty standard and that is what I would prefer. We could include a button to pick up every single item in the mobs (or players) inventory if you wish to pick everything up. It saves the player of a little button mashing, but that's rarely a problem anyways.