What is the Point of Unidentified Gear?

[Jumpin Lumpix.6108]

When u think about it, unidentified gear now adds an extra step to salvaging gear. The point of unidentified gear was to be gear that stacks and not clutter your inventory up, unless you actually wanted the individual items.

 

But for some reason you make more money by identifying gear and then salvaging it, rather then just salvaging it. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the anti clutter aspect, which they were originally designed for?

 

It would actually be one less step in salvaging if they just gave you normal gear drops like they do in other maps.

 

Other maps > get gear > salvage

Pof maps > get unid gear > id gear > salvage

Both result in ultimately cluttering your inventory, unless you salvage before you identify, but then you make less money.

 

If you wanted to keep the individual items, then unidentified gear functions the same as loot bags, which we already have, so why not just give us bags instead of unidentified gear?

 

So what's the point of making unidentified gear give you less money if you salvage it before identifying it?

 

[Doctor Hide.6345]

The purpose is that it doesn't take up as much as space for when you are actively farming. It allows you to identify it later when you are not busy.

[eldrjth.7384]

As above. It would be far worse if each individual item was put into your inventory aka pre PoF. Also since you make more from identifying them/selling them on trading post you dont ever want to "simply" salvage them. I think unidentified bags should **not** be salvaged when you click on salvage all items of certain rarities, instead you have right click on them for the option to salvage. While we are at it another QoT change would be able to either make runes/sigils themselves salvagable or make it so that anything less that a rare quality not get extracted from salvage.

[Celldrax.2849]

> @"Jumpin Lumpix.6108" said:

> Other maps > get gear > salvage

> Pof maps > get unid gear > id gear > salvage

> Both result in ultimately cluttering your inventory, unless you salvage before you identify, but then you make less money.

DoctorHide pretty much already said it. The difference is you realistically get to decide when the best time is salvage your equipment. Instead of taking up 50 - 100+ slots of acquired items from a long string of events, they only take up 3 (one for each rarity). This allows for easy salvage and sell at our discretion.

 

 

 

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Jumpin Lumpix.6108" said:

> So what's the point of making unidentified gear give you less money if you salvage it before identifying it?

 

Besides what was said above (allowing you to stack gear until you're read to deal with it), there's an additional economic benefit: newbies with low MF can sell the gear on the TP to richer veterans, with higher MF. That allows for wealth transfer that doesn't usually happen with ordinary gear (farmers sell everything, but 'casual' players tend to gain gear in smaller amounts, and deposit|forget instead).

 

Another benefit is it allows ANet to use simpler loot tables for events, which ends allowing them to tinker with rewards more easily. Originally, practically every foe in core Tyria would have its own loot table, whereas in PoF it can be simplified to just "gear (blue|green|rare)" and "species-specific assortment of mats."

 

Finally, it also makes loot somewhat more interesting. In Core & HoT, getting gear is mostly a chore, although a high-value one. There's no mystery; just effort. And so we mostly take it for granted. Now, those who don't want the chore can let other people pay them for the privilege of processing loot and those who don't mind (or realize the potential value) can save it up, and roll the dice for good stuff.

 

 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I'd MUCH rather deal with inventory/salvaging when I'm in the Royal Terrace close to the bank and Mystic Forge than in the middle of a string of events.

THAT's the big advantage (for me) of Unidentified Gear. Also, the chance to get higher rarity items from each tier of bag because of stacked MF at the time, which is much cheaper and also saves inventory space (I don't have to remember to renew my Boosters and/or carry them around with me).

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

I am very glad for it because it saves slots in inventory. I now very rarely have full inventory. A bless... Beside, personally, I like to have the choice to either salvage or identify. Depending on my needs, I do one or the other. At the top of it, when I chose to identify the green ones, I regularly have the good surprise to get gold item(s). :)

[Etterwyn.5263]

> @"eldrjth.7384" said:

> As above. It would be far worse if each individual item was put into your inventory aka pre PoF. Also since you make more from identifying them/selling them on trading post you dont ever want to "simply" salvage them. I think unidentified bags should **not** be salvaged when you click on salvage all items of certain rarities, instead you have right click on them for the option to salvage. While we are at it another QoT change would be able to either make runes/sigils themselves salvagable or make it so that anything less that a rare quality not get extracted from salvage.

 

If runes and sigils were salvageable we would have never needed unidentified gear to start with.

 

Inventory clutter is by design. Why else would you want to buy more bag slots from the gem store?

 

Anet could have made a Pure Salvage Kit, with 0% chance of returning upgrades. Seems to me that would have been easier to implement than the whole unidentified system.

[Pifil.5193]

I build up stacks of these bags in my bank, once I fill a green stack or two I'll boost my Magic Find as high as I reasonably can and open them all in the Silverwastes.

 

That's the advantage for me, I can easily save them up and (theoretically at least) get better quality loot than if they were just normal loot drops.

[Dashiva.6149]

It is amazing for easier inventory management. Instead of constantly stopping and clear bags, you can let it stack up for some time and then clear the stacks when you feel like it, whether it is to sell bulk, salvage bulk or identify them at your own pace.

 

I don't expect it to ever happen, but if the concept of unidentified gear could be ported to HoT and Core it would make me so happy.

[Plautze.6290]

IMHO it's a very good implementation. I normally keep the first yellow/green/blue unid. gear in my invisible bag and as soon as they appear in my backpack, I know it's salvage time and then there goes 250 time 3 coppers to produce stacks and stacks of mats and the best part: Not a single friggin sigil!

What's not to love?

[Kay Hude.2910]

BTW, slightly off-topic... Has there been an official statement or hint if the unidentified gear will or will not be implemented in core Tyria and HoT maps?

[TheGrimm.5624]

Personally I don't find my inventory filling as fast in zones with Un-ID'd gear. To me it is saving on space. I don't mind the extra step when compared to boxes in bags in boxes that are wrapped in boxes. On top of that you have a chance of upgrading an item to the next level up which you didn't have with known items coming straight from another container.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Kay Hude.2910" said:

> BTW, slightly off-topic... Has there been an official statement or hint if the unidentified gear will or will not be implemented in core Tyria and HoT maps?

 

I haven't seen one (and I've been looking).

 

I think it's unlikely to happen "soon," because it requires adapting every single loot table for every event, every foe. And then considering that against the balance of other loot (and how the switch to unID gear has impacted the economy already). Additionally, the PoF unID gear drops PoF-specific skins (as exotic & rare drops), so they'd have to consider adding three new containers each for Core & HoT, to reflect the skins native to those areas. In other words, it was relatively simple to implement the unID gear system on brand new maps; it's a headache and a half to even discuss how to retrofit old zones to make use of the same system.

 

In the long run, it's probably far easier for ANet if they are able to adapt the old zones. But it's always going to be a question of whether it's worth the resources to do it "now" or postpone.