Despite only releasing in April, the first few months for Outriders has already been a little bit of a roller coaster for the game and developer People Can Fly. The game released to overall positive reviews and an initially strong player turnout, but the player base has since dropped as People Can Fly work to address ongoing problems in the online shooter. One such issue now appears to be resolved as the game's newest patch brought with some significant changes to legendary loot drops.
Community Manager Toby Palm outlined the loot changes coming to Outriders, along with other changes, on the game's unofficial Reddit page. The biggest change is a 100% increase to all legendary loot drops, along with improvements to the game's luck system to reduce legendary drop droughts. Other changes made to the loot system include an anti-duplication system to improve gear's perk and stat rolls, removing level brackets so gear can drop at any level, and more drop sources for non-class related legendary gear.
Aside from the loot drops, the patch addresses some connectivity issues like load-in times on Xbox platforms and more stable connections for multiplayer. The patch also deals with various bugs, like select mods causing reduced damage and random enemy damage boosts, along with general crash fixes.
That said, People Can Fly addressing the game's loot drops is a big step in helping the game's overall ecosystem. The grind is a major component of most loot-centric games and plays a big part in getting players to keep replaying content to get that one god roll weapon or piece of armor. Similar games, like Destiny 2, have shown how a poor loot system can impact the game and contribute in driving players away. Destiny 2 experienced its own loot problems following release when Bungie did away with the random rolls in the hopes of making the game easier to balance. However, player feedback and a falling player base ultimate led Bungie to reintroduce random rolls with 2018's Forsaken expansion.
While Outriders' loot problem was not the exact same as Destiny 2's, the effect it had on the game's community was felt similarly. As mentioned above, players need to feel incentivized to grind the same content over and over to further grow their character. It does not mean higher-tier loot needs to be dropping the second the player starts a fresh game, but it should ideally become more common to reflect a character's power growth and time put into the game.
Outriders is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Reddit
