Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

The RNG

    • 184 posts
    October 12, 2017 3:54 PM PDT

    Liav said:

    Considering that rare-common is nonsensical, I'd say you're right on point. Not sure where you got the idea that such a thing is what I'm asking for, though.

    You know you're all out of ideas when the only thing left to criticize is a post count.

     

    Yeah, if you can do simple math, youll realize even with tokens, any of your ideas, it's all math that makes a rare item less rare. And I'm not criticizing you, I want you to see the difference between being a biggot and being constructive. Don't make a post if you have nothing informative to say. You're mouthing off to everyone here, saying we see black and white. Maybe it's just you and not everyone else my friend? Calm down : )

    • 2130 posts
    October 12, 2017 4:00 PM PDT

    I'm perfectly calm.

    There is a huge difference between rarity as a result of pure random chance, and rarity as a result of exceptionally dedicated work leading to a guaranteed result. It would be unreasonable to expect that RNG be removed from the game entirely, but that isn't what I'm asking for despite numerous attempts to assert that it is.

    Guaranteed results are a good thing. You don't run epic quests and expect a 10% chance for the quest to actually give you your epic. This is no different. Well, it is different, because it's only one item out of hundreds.

    • 172 posts
    October 12, 2017 4:30 PM PDT

    My favorite solution to this is to simply spread out the possible ways in which an item can be found.  Instead of having the Skeletal Knight, which drops the Sword of Death just 2% of the time, why not have:  1)  Skeletal Knight drops SoD 1% of time, Skeletal Mage drops SoD 0.3% of time, Skeletal Slayer drops SoD 0.3% of time, and the Mad Wight drops it 0.4% of the time.  To make things even cooler, don't have all of them in the same zone, or even the same continent.

    Instead of having a target mob (group not raid) that drops just one rare 2% of the time, it will instead drop a few rares totaling 2% of the time.  It will share these rare drops with other mobs across the world.

    • 281 posts
    October 12, 2017 4:31 PM PDT

    Liav said:

    DragonFist said:

    Perhaps, loot tables can just have an algorithm that has access to the the drop history of that raid mob (and possibly the raid forces that were involved, though that could get rather resource expensive) and maintain a balance of drops.  In other words when one item has only dropped 5 times and most other items in the loot table have dropped 50 times, it'll favor that drop for a while until it catches up.  And, if it is desired that some items are to be more rare than others, the calculation can be given a curve so that it only catches up to, say, 15 or 25 instead of 50.  The main point being that one never gets into the situation where one item literally never drops or drops so infrequently that it might as well be never.

    Statistically, someone will still get utterly screwed. On an infinite timeline with infinite universes, a theoretical 99.9% chance will be an actual 0% chance.

    While the odds of that happening in a video game loot table are statistically zero, I'd rather have at least some type of chance-defeating mechanic.



    Hey, I'm just throwing out ideas to mitigate the issue.  I'm not all that opposed to a "Ticket" system for mid range items and maybe a limited, if I do this same raid 1000 times, I'll be able to pick one item if it hasn't dropped for me by now kind of thing.  I wouldn't want a Lost Dungeons of Norrath or Rifts collect your points and pic your loot type system because, in both cases, and any other case that I've seen, the loot gets trivialized rather quick.  But, as I've pointed out before, as a method of gaining items a half teir below as a stop gap measure, I've seen it work.  And I can at least in theory, see that having tickets given like once per raid and needing hundreds, maybe thousands and having that shop close for you after one or two purchases, could also help mitigate the issue, as long as there weren't any unforeseen methods of abusing the system.

    • 3852 posts
    October 12, 2017 4:50 PM PDT

    Enough emotion here that maybe I'll stop lurking and add my two coppers worth.

    As a player I sympathize with both the "pure RNG can really hurt - dozens and dozens of raids and the one item I wanted never dropped" camp and the "please don't make raid or group bosses ambulatory atms with guaranteed tickets" camps.  But I'm not a raider and my goal is usually to have good gear but not necessarily the best gear. I think both sides have good arguments. 

    I like the idea of involving crafting - no shock I always like things that make crafting relevant late in the game. 

    Instead of a ticket or a token or some other currency that you can cash in after you get enough of them, let us have (as suggested above, I'm not being original here) some item or part drop that a skilled crafter can turn into one of multiple pieces of gear if he or she has the recipe. It doesn't need to be a 100% drop rate either - but common enough that if you kill the boss half a dozen times you will almost surely get at least one. Logically is this really different from getting tickets - not hugely, the purpose is the same - a near guarantee that you can get the item you want in a reasonable number of tries. But it *feels* better to me at least to have some luck involved and no guarantee that if you kill the boss 5 times you *will* get exactly what you need. And it also *feels* more old school to get a body part as a fairly common drop as distinct from a ticket. We are killing *mobs* not standing in line at a *bakery*.

     

    • 1860 posts
    October 12, 2017 4:52 PM PDT

    JDNight said:

    Instead of having a target mob (group not raid) that drops just one rare 2% of the time, it will instead drop a few rares totaling 2% of the time.  It will share these rare drops with other mobs across the world.

    Because you are increasing the amount of total spawns of mobs that drop that item?  I understand what you are trying to say but I think it comes with more complications than you seem to realize.

    So, using your example of a 2% drop rate.  Lets say, all things being equal and assuming they are all camped all the time, you increase the number of mobs who drop said item by x4...and decrease the drop rate by x4 so that there are the same total number of the item in the world over the long run.  You get to the point where you have decreased the drop rate so much that it actually is counter productive to what I believe you are looking for (which was not having a single spawn that was perma camped and the only way to get the item). 

    You start to create a scenario where you have to make the drop rate so rare that you actually make it worse trying to camp any of the 4 item droppers.  Instead of killing it 50 times and hoping rng smiles on you, you have to kill that mob 200 times and hope rng smiles on you (and we all know that rng is a fickle *****).  They are going to be camped regardless but now it requires 4x's longer to acquire. 

    I don't think that's what you were going for?  I'm the first one to encourage stretching out content duration...but I don't think that is what you were trying convey in your thought process, was it?

     


    This post was edited by philo at October 12, 2017 4:54 PM PDT
    • 172 posts
    October 12, 2017 5:07 PM PDT

    philo said:

    JDNight said:

    Instead of having a target mob (group not raid) that drops just one rare 2% of the time, it will instead drop a few rares totaling 2% of the time.  It will share these rare drops with other mobs across the world.

    Because you are increasing the amount of total spawns of mobs that drop that item?  I understand what you are trying to say but I think it comes with more complications than you seem to realize.

    So, using your example of a 2% drop rate.  Lets say, all things being equal and assuming they are all camped all the time, you increase the number of mobs who drop said item by x4...and decrease the drop rate by x4 so that there are the same total number of the item in the world over the long run.  You get to the point where you have decreased the drop rate so much that it actually is counter productive to what I believe you are looking for (which was not having a single spawn that was perma camped and the only way to get the item). 

    You start to create a scenario where you have to make the drop rate so rare that you actually make it worse trying to camp any of the 4 item droppers.  Instead of killing it 50 times and hoping rng smiles on you, you have to kill that mob 200 times and hope rng smiles on you (and we all know that rng is a fickle *****).  They are going to be camped regardless but now it requires 4x's longer to acquire. 

    I don't think that's what you were going for?  I'm the first one to encourage stretching out content duration...but I don't think that is what you were trying convey in your thought process, was it?

     

    I see what you are saying, but if the mobs also dropped other items, one could find those as well.  I know what you are saying...   If I want an FBSS, I want an FBSS.  But what about all of the enchanters and clerics that had to camp that mob while you, the tank, were waiting for your FBSS.  Set it up so that the mobs had a 2% chance of dropping a good rare, but make that item random.  That way there is a chance for anyone in the group to get something they need.

    I hope there will be huge amount of situational gear in the Pantheon, and that finding new gear will always be beneficial.  There should not really be any BiS gear, as most gear should be situational at the top levels.  True, there may be people that just HAVE to have the Sword of Death.  Well, they can buy it then.  But if you are willing to take on whatever rare/powerful gear you happen to find and use it in intelligent ways, there should be plenty of opportunity for you.  I really do hope that the days of being log jammed by a single piece of equipment that just must be that one-special-rare are long gone.  I hope there are literally hundreds of high quality, rare, powerful swords out there that are each stronger than another depending on circumstances.  Ok, maybe not hundreds, but atleast dozens.


    This post was edited by JDNight at October 12, 2017 5:11 PM PDT
    • 1860 posts
    October 12, 2017 5:35 PM PDT

     I hope there are literally hundreds of high quality, rare, powerful swords out there that are each stronger than another depending on circumstances.  Ok, maybe not hundreds, but atleast dozens.

    I'm not a huge fan of horizontal progression. It leaves the player feeling wanting.  I think I might be disappointed with all of the situational gear in game that is barely noticeable as an upgrade. (it will definitely be a thing with all the various resist gear that will be required). 

    Side grades are not upgrades.  I need to have the feeling of increasing my characters power in order to keep me playing.  Maybe others feel diferently? I play to increase my characters power.  That is the driving incentive.

    True, there may be people that just HAVE to have the Sword of Death.  Well, they can buy it then.

    As a hypothetical situation we have to assume the item in question is no drop...and that it is a good enough item that people do feel like they have to have it.  That is the type of camp that is being discussed I thought?


    This post was edited by philo at October 12, 2017 5:35 PM PDT
    • 172 posts
    October 12, 2017 5:48 PM PDT

    philo said:

     I hope there are literally hundreds of high quality, rare, powerful swords out there that are each stronger than another depending on circumstances.  Ok, maybe not hundreds, but atleast dozens.

    I'm not a huge fan of horizontal progression. It leaves the player feeling wanting.  I think I might be disappointed with all of the situational gear in game that is barely noticeable as an upgrade. (it will definitely be a thing with all the various resist gear that will be required). 

    Side grades are not upgrades.  I need to have the feeling of increasing my characters power in order to keep me playing.  Maybe others feel diferently? I play to increase my characters power.  That is the driving incentive.

    True, there may be people that just HAVE to have the Sword of Death.  Well, they can buy it then.

    As a hypothetical situation we have to assume the item in question is no drop...and that it is a good enough item that people do feel like they have to have it.  That is the type of camp that is being discussed I thought?

    I am not referring to side-grades or any upgrade that is barely noticable.  I am referring to gear that either has a purpose, or has some sort of power to it that is remarkable but is either situational or based on strategy.  An example...  Sword of Lizard Slaying  or Amulet of Frost Potency or Invisibility to Undead or Clock of Fire Protection

    Each of these will make you much more powerful in certain circumstances, but will be a moderate upgrade in others.  Want to be the ruler of all things cold, you can do it.  It just won't mean you are anything special when dealing with things that are fire based, or disease based, or undead.  You will need other gear for that.

     


    This post was edited by JDNight at October 12, 2017 5:50 PM PDT
    • 1860 posts
    October 12, 2017 5:56 PM PDT

    Ya, gear that is only an upgrade situationally is basically the definition of horizontal progression.  There is still some "progression", but it isn't a general increase in power as a whole.  I knew exactly what you meant.  That type of incentive only keeps players playing so long...

    Edit

    This is an exageration:

    Each of these will make you much more powerful in certain circumstances, but will be a moderate upgrade in others. 

    Situational gear could make you barely better situationally...and worse than normal in certain situations.  Lets not overstate horizontal progression.  It is what it is.  It definitely isn't the end all solution that you seem to be making it out to be.


    This post was edited by philo at October 12, 2017 6:14 PM PDT
    • 172 posts
    October 12, 2017 6:21 PM PDT

    philo said:

    Ya, gear that is only an upgrade situationally is basically the definition of horizontal progression.  There is still some "progression", but it isn't a general increase in power as a whole.  I knew exactly what you meant.  That type of incentive only lasts so long...

    To each their own, but for me the more avenues for progression the better.  I am all about having many dimensions, rather than just one.  And the last thing I want is everyone focused on the same goal.  For me, that would be boring and make this just another MMORPG.  It would signal to me that MMORPGs have not developed in the last 20 years.

    I just imagine walking into an area and meeting a player that has all, or nearly all of the highest tier Fire Resist/Fire Attack gear there is.  This gear would not just have stats, but also abilities and powers.  I would marvel at them and imagine the sights they have seen.  Then, I would want another player, from another guild, walk in with the best frost gear.  And then another one with the best undead slaying gear, and so on.  None of them from the same guild, as the gear is farmed in completely different areas and would require most of your guild to be attuned to that area.  Think of how cool of a game that would be.

    However, maxing out on fire gear does little for you in the frost zone and vice versa.  You almost start all over.  It is diversity on a grand level as well as a chance for so many different outcomes.

    I would hope that a new expansion, or new gear categories would come out before any one player has a chance to master them all.  Or atleast only a few.

    There would be 'combined' gear.  Gear that gave bonuses in more than one category, but the bonuses would be smaller.  This would be great for people starting in an area or for casual players.

    Maybe it is just me, but gear with only stat bonuses is boring compared to the idea I outlined here.

    • 1860 posts
    October 12, 2017 6:35 PM PDT

    I just imagine walking into an area and meeting a player that has all, or nearly all of the highest tier Fire Resist/Fire Attack gear there is.  This gear would not just have stats, but also abilities and powers.  I would marvel at them and imagine the sights they have seen.  Then, I would want another player, from another guild, walk in with the best frost gear.  And then another one with the best undead slaying gear, and so on.  None of them from the same guild, as the gear is farmed in completely different areas and would require most of your guild to be attuned to that area.  Think of how cool of a game that would be.

    I don't say this to try to be "uber" or whatever...but I fully expect many multiple players to be maxed out on all of those.

    Gaining each of those 100 pieces of resist gear, on an individual basis, seems like barely an upgrade.  That is exactly the horizontal progression that we are talking about.  There seems to be some sort of miscommunication?  I'm unsure why we seem to be repeating the same thing back and forth?

    I would hope that a new expansion, or new gear categories would come out before any one player has a chance to master them all.  Or atleast only a few.

    This is an impossibility.  Players play through content faster than it can be created.  Of course the devs can artificially extend content through systems such as AA's and Progeny (I am all for this).  But that isn't the same as new content. 


    This post was edited by philo at October 12, 2017 6:37 PM PDT
    • 1399 posts
    October 12, 2017 8:36 PM PDT

    Liav said:

    I don't really have a strong view on it, it's just that I prefer mechanics that reward skill and effort over luck. While I understand that luck will always play a role, I'd like to see some mechanics that at least negate it a bit in extreme circumstances.

    Luck <--------|----------------------------------------------------> Skill/Effort

    ^ This is how I view EverQuest, and also Vanguard in some niche situations such as the ring from Core, as well as Vercel's mask, the Monk/Disciple gloves from BoD, etc.

    I simply want to move more towards the center, if not biased to the right of such a spectrum.

    Im totally against a ticket idea, thats just too artificial imo. But I can see Liav's point and I think this should be easy enough to progress toward with some programming language behind the scenes. 

    If theres no Ranger in the Group/Raid then Ranger gear should be excluded from the loot table.

    If when Bob dies and everybody in the group has a pair of Bob's Gloves then those are removed from the loot table.

    Each of Bob's Items are given a %of a chance... when nobody in group has any of Bobs items, then all items have an 80% chance. Now Bob's boots drop, and now 1 person in group has Bobs Boots. The boots now have 70%,  two people get them and the Boots chance now has dropped to 60%, all other Bob items are still at 80% this still leaves for a lot of killing but the longer it takes for the coveted Bob's Bobble to drop, the chance of it dropping increases, and your group may end up with 8 boots, but then the odds of the boots are at 0%. Your group can't end up with 20 pairs of boots. 

    Not a perfect system but it could lessen the incredably long flukes (where it just will NOT drop) and yet still keep the RNG in the picture.


    This post was edited by Zorkon at October 12, 2017 8:39 PM PDT
    • 1303 posts
    October 13, 2017 4:27 AM PDT

    Nephele said:

    To illustrate 1AD7's "heaven/hell" point. Way back in EQ when I was working on my fiery avenger (post-kunark), I killed Lady Vox almost every week over a period of 36 weeks trying to get that half of the book. I led at least half of the raids myself and the book dropped a fair number of times, but unfortunately  I was being idealistic and not reserving the drop, and instead counting on rolls, which I lost every time. My guildmates had finally had enough of my idealism and on the 37th week they just told everyone the book was reserved for me. If they hadn't done that I might never have finished that quest.

    Naggy's half of the book, on the other hand, I won on the second attempt (it didn't drop on the first one).

    This experience is why I am in favor of bosses dropping an "item" that can be turned in, in addition to normal drops. Not tokens in the "I have a stack of tokens I farmed" sense, but more like the head/ear/claw of the boss, that I can use to prove to an npc that I killed it and get some kind of reward. Apologies if that wasn't very clear in my previous posts, since I was using the T word :)

    And this experience is exactly why I am opposed to a token system. My original main was a paladin. I never got my epic, despite many raids to get the books. I had one piece, not the other. Rather than this being a discouragement, it felt like an epic struggle. For an epic weapon. In an epic world in which sometimes not even the  hero won.

    • 3237 posts
    October 13, 2017 4:34 AM PDT

    And sometimes people do win ... that epic weapon ... with the help of some epic luck.  No struggle.  Two players ... similar journeys ... one accomplishes epic feats, the other succumbs to the mighty RNG God.  May his soul rest in peace.  If only Frodo would have worked on his dice game ... his story would have been so much different.


    This post was edited by oneADseven at October 13, 2017 5:16 AM PDT
    • 793 posts
    October 13, 2017 6:23 AM PDT

    I don't think there is any one solution that solves all the issues. Fix one issue, create another, because everyone has different play styles, different ideas of what they think is fair, etc.

    The dev's have a tough job on their hands finding a solution that first, works within the vision of the game, and second that will satisfy the player base well enough to keep them around.

    That said, if crafting is as important as they desire it to be, then there can be trade offs. For instance, the FBSS may be the best item, but a crafter with the correct rare components can make something similar but not as powerful. It would have to be decent enough for those to desire it, but not so good that the FBSS is relagated as not worth the effort.

    Someone mentioned raid bosses dropping parts that can be used for crafting such as claws, scales, eyes, etc. That's a decent concept, but I would take it a step farther, and make components specific to armor peices. Examples: Toe = leggings or boots, Scales = Breastplates, claw = sleeves or gloves, eye = helm or shoulders, etc.

    But again, the crafted gear needs to be good enough to be useful and sought after, but not so good to make the dropped items worthless.

    • 1584 posts
    October 13, 2017 7:25 AM PDT

    Nephretiti said:

    One of the reasons I posted this was to get the community chatting about possible alternatives.  Please don't think that the one or two examples are my specific points.  I am more interested in the chatter here regarding this than either of those two ideas.

    I think MY idea (and by MY, I mean not mine at all) for a solution is as follows:

    The Stein of Maggok quest from EQ1.  Early on this was an amazing item to have.  It didn't look that great, but the stats were amazing.  It was a quested item that pretty much required you cross the entire game world to compile.  BUT the best thing is that it was a repeatable quest - and the item was lore.  So, you could never hold more than one.  If you completed it you could use it - or you could sell it to someone else.  There are many ways to play an MMO and I honestly believe that there is no ONE way to play.  If you love questing (I do), you should be rewarded for taking the time to complete a lengthy quest with a worthy item.  At the same time, if you HATE questing and prefer to grind (and I know there are those out there that do) you should be able to pick up the same item for grinding mobs.  My hope would be that a real effort be made to quantify time/effort so that getting the item through either method would be about the same.  For instance, say it takes 4 hours to quest the item.  In this case we should determine the mob cycle and adjust the loot table so that it would take about 4 hours to grind the item.  At the same time I would like to see estimated monetary rewards associated with the quests to match grinding for the same effort.  For instance, if you grind for 4 hours you are going to kill X number of mobs to get your stein.  During that time you would accumulate an amount of money from each of the mobs you kill.  If we do not add that amount to the quest rewards, then most folks would probably just go ahead and grind the itme.  The same goes for the estimated amount of XP.  Some folks would hate this idea.  I would suggest that instead of just risk vs reward an additional paradigm would be investigated:  effort/time.

     

     

    But again - my goal of the post is to get the community talking about ways to go about avoiding bottlenecks via adjusting the loot tables, using tickets/tokens, etc.

    Honestly the best way to solve this is to have a mix of everything, becuase none of the ideas are terrible, like with your stein of moggok questline, you can quest it, or you can grind a certain zone and get a stein with somewhat like stats, like stein of moggok i like is 10 int 15 cha or something to this effect and the dropped item in the zone could be 12 int 5 cha, and basing it off of eq standards for stating the dropped would be more for wizards, mages, and the other int users and the moggok would be for tradeskillers, chanters, or simply trying to max your cha before you sell to grab at the most copper per sell.

    The mian point is we need a huge mix of everything, with the idea of still making it group orientated, long quest with good rewards, short quest with good rewards, long camps, huge dungeon crawls, and basically anything else we can think of, gauntlets, i mean i would even object killing mobs in a particular place that threatens a village close by and you turn in there ears or toes and gain rep with the village and grab decent gear, not the best by any means but at that level be worth trying to get to get some gratification for being there, and get a bump in your gear while your at it.


    This post was edited by Cealtric at October 13, 2017 7:26 AM PDT
    • 338 posts
    October 15, 2017 5:23 AM PDT

    You could always save up enough plat to buy the items you want off other players.

     

    Ticket systems and other forms of alternate currency really suck imo.

     

    It's a typical entitlement issue that people these days have.

     

    How about a game world where there are lots of items you just wont ever have... Hey maybe you won't even make it to max level if you die too often.

     

     

    Kiz~

    • 3237 posts
    October 15, 2017 6:52 AM PDT

    I have seen alternate currencies pulled off with great effect.  In FFXI, for example, you could earn BCNM tokens.  You wouldn't use them to "buy" gear, but rather unlock an instanced boss or ring event that has a chance to drop something nice.  I think a similar concept could be utilized in an open-world game.  The main thing I am against is currencies that have a maximum amount of "points" you can earn per week and then having gear hidden behind a time barrier.  For example in WoW you could only earn X amount of valor points per week.  That kind of thing sucks.  If all mobs have a chance to drop a token that gives you a "chance" to earn something awesome ... that's something I can get behind.  It wasn't uncommon to see a group band together and use all their tokens in a single session together.

    • 234 posts
    October 15, 2017 7:50 AM PDT

    Meh for no particular reason was bored this morning so made a RNG loot table thingy :P

     

    <!-- HTML generated using hilite.me -->
    public class Loot
    {
            private Random rand;
            private List LootTable { get; set; }
            public Loot()
    	{
    		rand = new Random((int)DateTime.Now.Ticks);
    
    		LootTable = new List()
    		{
            new LootItem(){ Rarity = .5, Name = "wood elf parts" },
            new LootItem(){ Rarity =.5, Name = "rusty mace"},
            new LootItem(){ Rarity = .5, Name = "rusty short sword"},
            new LootItem(){ Rarity = .2, Name = "Fine Steel Short Sword"},
            new LootItem(){ Rarity = .1, Name = "Spell: Drones of Doom"},
            new LootItem(){ Rarity = .1, Name = "Spell: Hail Storm"},
            new LootItem(){ Rarity = .01, Name = "True Shot Long Bow"}
    		};
    	}
    
            public List DroppedLoot()
    	{
            int itemsToDrop = rand.Next(0, 3);
            double minRarity = rand.NextDouble();
    
    		Console.WriteLine($"items: {itemsToDrop}, minRarity {minRarity:F3}");
    
            var result = (from loot in LootTable
            where 1 - loot.Rarity >= minRarity
            orderby loot.Rarity descending
            select loot).Take(itemsToDrop).ToList();
    
            return result;
    	}
    }
    
    public class LootItem
    {
            public double Rarity { get; set; }
            public string Name { get; set; }
    }
    
    //======== Kill 10 Mobs =============
    for(int kills = 0; kills < 10; kills++)
    {
    	Console.WriteLine($"\nMob { kills + 1 }\n=========");
            var mobLoot = new Loot().DroppedLoot();
            foreach (LootItem item in mobLoot)
    		Console.WriteLine(item.Name);
    }	
    


    =============== OUTPUT =================

    Mob 1
    =========
    items: 1, minRarity 0.774
    Fine Steel Short Sword

    Mob 2
    =========
    items: 2, minRarity 0.003
    wood elf parts
    rusty mace

    Mob 3
    =========
    items: 2, minRarity 0.003
    wood elf parts
    rusty mace

    Mob 4
    =========
    items: 2, minRarity 0.003
    wood elf parts
    rusty mace

    Mob 5
    =========
    items: 2, minRarity 0.003
    wood elf parts
    rusty mace

    Mob 6
    =========
    items: 1, minRarity 0.816
    Spell: Drones of Doom

    Mob 7
    =========
    items: 1, minRarity 0.163
    wood elf parts

    Mob 8
    =========
    items: 1, minRarity 0.510
    Fine Steel Short Sword

    Mob 9
    =========
    items: 2, minRarity 0.442
    wood elf parts
    rusty mace

    Mob 10
    =========
    items: 1, minRarity 0.924
    True Shot Long Bow

    • 753 posts
    October 17, 2017 4:31 AM PDT

    Can RNG be fingernails on a chalkboard annoying... trying to get a split thread through the eye of a needle irritating... 

    YES.

     

    Can RNG be like sweet, sweet mana from heaven when it FINALLY goes your way?

    YES.

     

    That means it works.  If it aint broke, don't spend limited development resources fixing it.


    This post was edited by Wandidar at October 17, 2017 4:33 AM PDT
    • 2130 posts
    October 17, 2017 8:42 PM PDT

    Wandidar said:

    Can RNG be fingernails on a chalkboard annoying... trying to get a split thread through the eye of a needle irritating... 

    YES.

     

    Can RNG be like sweet, sweet mana from heaven when it FINALLY goes your way?

    YES.

     

    That means it works.  If it aint broke, don't spend limited development resources fixing it.

    This isn't a valid argument for, well, pretty much anything honestly.

    • 29 posts
    October 17, 2017 9:30 PM PDT

    Ok, I was going to read EVERYTHING, but that took too long, so here's two things people will say NO to:

    Remove the mob from the game after a set amount of time and install another completely different mob with different loot if people start farming the mob over exploring the world.

    OR

    Change the loot table infrequently.

    I play CCG games, and I do not end up with every Ultra Rare that I want, but I improvise by combining cards that I already have and learn what type of combinations work. Quickly I realize that having every Ultra Rare is not a good strategy at all since what I may need is a simple card. I want to strategize with my equipment and items so that even though the Warrior has an UBER sword, he'll need a mace anyway if he's fighting armored skeletons. The monk may have great fist wraps and super fast attacks, but when fighting a mob with a strong damage shield...he'd like a slow staff instead. All overly special items should have drawbacks and should be used when necessary.

    Haste may work better at killing a mob fast, but it should also drain endurance or something much more extreme if one keeps using it. Mana/hp regen items should dramatically lower the amount of mana/hp one has. Strong resist gear should have negative AC values. Stong weapons need to drain something from the wielder while also being unique in some way (specifically for raiding mobs). Super rare items should be so rare that they can be bound to a GUILD BANK and are indestructable when bound...and able to be summoned back into the guild's bank. Those types of items should be specialized for taking down the hardest of mobs and should be crafted with very rare components that can fall from a greater amount of trash mobs. Raids fight trash mobs all the time, so it may be good to get desirable crafting ingredients in order to craft something that can improve the raiding experience while the choice loot awaits them on the harder mobs that should be fought with the crafted equipment from the parts dopped off of trash raid mobs.

    Is the raid zone full of desireable mobs that fear and drain hp? The equipment crafted from the trash mob's loot can help one defend specifically against the threats in this zone, but using the equipment somewhere else can prove not so savory (and they'll also be the property of the guild, so the guild may know what item is found on what character - "Bob currently has this item. You do not have Guild Leader privilages."

    I guess the real solution is...a method to share your items with group/raid members that returns the item into your inventory so that no one will feel weak and overly-desireous of dropped items all the time. What is better than sharing anyway? These items only make the game easier, and making everything a cakewalk isn't very fun.

    • 2130 posts
    October 17, 2017 10:30 PM PDT

    I see a whole lot of "should" without many good explanations for why things should be that way. None of your suggestions really solve a problem, and some of them introduce even more problems.

    • 399 posts
    October 17, 2017 10:39 PM PDT

    Angrykiz said:

    ....

    How about a game world where there are lots of items you just wont ever have... Hey maybe you won't even make it to max level if you die too often.

    .....

    this....^^^

     

    Crticize the RNG all you want, there is no better system.  Anything else will make it seem trivial. Having raided in eq in high end raiding guilds for 16 years (1999-2015), I remember many many more instances of times I (and others) had to wait an extraordinarily long time for a drop and be over the moon when I (they) finally got it than the items I got fairly easy.  As a matter of fact I remember All hard fought/gotten items and no easily gotten ones.  

    So there's the argument FOR RNG; yeah it sucks if your item doesn't drop or you lose a roll several/many times in a row but damn, does it create memories.... 

    And that my friends, is why I am looking forward to pantheon.  Not because i want stuff the easy way or the hard way; no, I want it to be memorable.

    I dont want any thing given to me. If it takes a long time because of RNG, so be it.  The sweeter the victory and the longer the memory.  In the end, it's the memories and the connections that count.

    Here is a link to what makes people happy

    https://blogs.psychcentral.com/mindfulness/2013/12/what-makes-men-and-women-happy-a-75-year-studys-revelation/

     

    edit:typos, punctuation


    This post was edited by Durp at October 17, 2017 10:44 PM PDT