Hi,
with all due respect, but:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dion Red Strike
The Effect Other Games Have Had on Peoples Expectations of Gaming
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and what you're deriving from reminds me of ore deposits ordered in spirals ;-)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dion Red Strike
I got to thinking about this while reading another thread with people whining about loot....
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Guess your speaking about
this thread? Sorry Dion, but labeling people "whiners" that are discussing in a very civilized manner, bringing tons of proposals for improvement in a very long, lively and interesting thread doesn't exactly help your cause.
It makes you look like one of these well known old timers that have seriously profited from
MA's errors in the past, now playing a very different "non-game" than all participants that came later. And that now love to propose strange strategys to the newbies that might have worked 3 years ago, that love to paint
EU in the brightest colors to keep enough participants to further profit from their skills and gear no one of the newbies ever will have without depositing insane sums - profit is made from participants not from
MA, so they need a lot of "customer sheep", "loot pool feeders", and ppl that admire their Uberness, for sure. Exactly these are the ones usually harshly massacring any constructive critique, because it really doesn't suit their needs when the unwashed masses would become discontent - it's all about money in this "non-game".
Dion, please recognize my use of "
makes you look like" above - I don't know you, and I'm far from insinuating anything; it's just that this interpretation came to my mind when reading your OP, and I don't know if this was intended. Maybe I misunderstood, maybe you formulated unhappily, maybe you haven't read all of the very long thread I guess you're referring to, maybe you're referring to another thread.
No offense meant!
I guess the problem with loot very much participants obviously have is to be expressed rather shortly. There was a change in loot distribution some time ago, late '06 if I remember correctly:
- The values (and maybe the frequency, I'm not sure) of the "very big loots" have been dramatically increased.
- The values of the "usual loots" have been reduced seriously to compensate for this - there's just a given amount of money MA is able to distribute.
- The old time "always looters" aren't looting always anymore, instead there's a most tiny chance now that even a small mob might carry a serious jackpot.
This has very much added to the "gambling aspect" of
EU, making a rather big difference to the more constant loot in former
PE, and not all people are happy with this. I know that in '05 and '06 it was much easier to "keep alive", even if we didn't have (L) gear and didn't use the "amped opalo" exploit - even small mobs usually dropped at least a part of the cost-to-kill, and I know I rather often looted juicy things like GSI's even from small mobs. No profit, though. ;-)
In this time, when I was really low skilled, my favorite hunting prey was smaller Atrax that I killed with axe 2x0 (HA about 1.3 then ...) and Honor/ Determination - today this would be a pure roulette: If I don't have a really big global/ HoF or a really decent number of small globals it easily ends in a dramatic loss.
EU is dynamic, and things have changed - skills don't mean this much anymore, luck factor has to be your friend now!
The "usual loot" has been heavily nerfed in favor of few "big numbers", and this made
EU ways more like a lotto.
Right, "GSI" - this was what once ESI's was; low TT, but nice markup and ways more common, even among smaller mobs. Leads to the other change in loot we suffered.
The introduction of (L) gear completely changed the way
PE/
EU worked for the lower skilled participants:
- It was now possible to act with maxed gear.
- And, due to the other changes (see above) this was urgently needed.
- Because of the availability of (L) gear any UL weapon/ FAP you'd loot from mobs up to middle class became TT fodder.
- And the few remaining "cool loots" became near to non-existant meanwhile, as the prices for things like Marber Bravo, small FireForges, Nemesis etc. clearly shows.
Hunting up to middle class mobs (Trox Guardian?) these days doesn't give anything in loot anymore worth cheering, usually. For sure, one time in ages maybe ... But the best things I ever looted was Neme gloves (F) and a Bravo, and this was before the change. Some loots in this region since among my friends, but extremely rarely. And nothing better that I'd know of.
I looted a M2722 yesterday, and believe me, I was this much happy about this useless TT fodder - at least I looted
an item that I maybe might use one day!
IMHO it is exactly this sad situation that causes ppl to complain, and that caused the thread I linked above. For not-so-well skilled participants (like me, where my "combat" page doesn't show anything below 2K if sorted descending):
- it became very rare to experience kind of feeling of success - skill gains have been nerfed into oblivion, and even the occasional phat global usually consists of nothing but boring TT fodder
- there's no means at all to ever even come close to the top without depositing 5-digit $ sums, and even there a high first number might be needed
- the only means of survival seems to be absurdly grinding on boring small mobs/ crafting boring TT fodder endlessly! We have reached a point where even the meanest Korean grinder MMORPG's seems like fascinating action-packed games compared to month-long slaying of tantillions, month-long crafting of standard dampers, search for "AC" - you'll understand what I mean!
IMHO
EU at the moment has a serious problem, and the number of participants I meet "out in the wilderness" clearly proves this - very rarely I even meet one but the occasional miner. Right, Swamp Camp is full, there's a lot of interest for MMORPG like virtual worlds at the moment!
But
EU isn't able to keep this newcomers, and they usually fade away as fast as they joined. Places like PA or Twins that were overcrowded some year ago are now populated by maybe 20 avas, at my gaming times.
Discussing this problem is of essential interest for all of us, as it is to talk
MA into an improvement. We, as dedicated Entropians, are dependent of enough fresh blood, are dependent of enough co-participants, are dependent of a perspective for our own improvement!
Ignoring the major flaws we suffer, devaluating those that desperately try to work on an improvement as "whiners" isn't exactly what would help us all. IMHO.
Thanks for reading this long text!
Have fun!