Item drops - another approach?

[kalanen]

Let's imagine that original formula of item drops has been unchanged since the beginning:

The basic rule is that there's items "released" for someone to loot and use at all skill levels.

Example:
TT armors and weapons for everyone.
Pixie, goblin and such for 95% of peeps belonging to 5% lowest skilled group.
Shogun and such for 85% of players belonging to 6%-10% lowest skilled group.
Nemesis for 75% belonging to lowest 25% etc.

Up to mod/imp faps and weapons for 5% of 5% highest skilled players.

You get the idea and if you think it a little, it may sound healthy and fair distribution of items. (or maybe not, if you are new to the game and desperately want a mod merc.)

Now, if the playerbase was steady growing since beta, high end gear would be rare but dropping every now and then and markups would ofc be high but not insane. However it ain't so:

Top 1% most skilled players (especially after several uber chipouts and banned accounts) consists of maybe 10 players. So, according to suggested model of lootable items, there's too much uber items allready.

Think about the huge group of players who were brought here by CND publicity. They are having respectable skill levels by now. To me, frequent jaguar/angel drops have a strong connection with that.

There's more: crafted items - especially for midlevel players. For example fap90, 110 & adj do not drop, because there's enough crafted EMT-2600s and UR125s (roughly same "class" with mentioned lootable ones).

Everything suggests MA is, in the long term, bringing low lvl proffessions up (prosp/surv, para, mf proffessions to come) and slowing high lvl proffessions (rifle, hg) down.

Okay, enough shit, and now the question:

Do you see, why...

- "gaps" in skill level and amount of players vs gear suitable for their level needed to be filled with SIB stuff (without fucking the original item distribution system)?

- skill nerfs were actually for the best of the vast majority of the playerbase (i smell fanboy negreps here) and made further steps for making this game less boring for a newcomer possible. it also makes the system (inflation) less vulnerable to possible pits&peaks of growth in the future

- low level mob loot adjustment was needed to push down the importance of "eco" a little. This was done by making peaks shorter but higher.

...or am i too drunk?

[Dion Red Strike]

good post, great idea, and yes, that's how I think the system works

[Norbert]

Originally Posted by Dion Red Strike

good post, great idea, and yes, that's how I think the system works

Same here

[Talason]

Agreed!

[WoenK]

Nothing to add, must agree.
Even though I am sober

[Thorn]

I think that`s the way they might like it to work but in reality MA have more of the uber stuff in game now than they would like and in turn their increases motivation to nerf skills etc. I feel they had to drop all that good stuff early on to entice players and really not knowing what the future held. Now they simply "rebalance". But what you say does sound like a decent way to do it. Although foot guards may be one indication that they don`t. There is way more pixie goblin etc than needed and clearly not enough higher end pieces to complete the sets already out there. How many people are still waiting for footies afterhow long now?

[Gluepot]

But mod fap is maxed at level 3 so shouldn't there be dozens of them?

[kalanen]

Originally Posted by Thorn

How many people are still waiting for footies afterhow long now?

There is, and I really dont know what I'm talking about but having a hunch, for example more jag footsies than jag helmets. So despite that blatant "finally introduced", which annoyed the shit outta me, they're at rotation.

[kalanen]

Originally Posted by Gluepot

But mod fap is maxed at level 3 so shouldn't there be dozens of them?

Originally Posted by kalanen

Everything suggests MA is, in the long term, bringing low lvl proffessions up (prosp/surv, para, mf proffessions to come) and slowing high lvl proffessions (rifle, hg) down.

Mod fap and its stats, methinks, was a rookie mistake

[falkao]

good thoughts Kal.

The only thing I can add atm is, that when the items distribution is related to the skill distribution, then there must exist some kind of triggering mechanism, that decides when the next item should drop. So it won’t hardly be completely random.