Animal Oil Consumption through self-sustainable Gizmos & Widgets

[Synial]

On every planet partner suggestion forum, I can find posts that read something like "too much oil dropping - find a use for oils!" etc. but all the posts seem to suggest that every planet partner recreate the wheel instead of present the argument that there is a popular use for bulk amounts of oils already in the game but it can not be readily accessed due to resource scarcity on any given planet that isn't Calypso.

I really just wanted to make this post to give feedback and outline why I (and I assume many others) are not crafting their loot on the planet they find them on - and this mainly stems from the inability to source materials needed to actually craft the oils into something useful.

There is the obvious answer that one could import the various needed materials but I don't think the average person wants to transport so much value in crafting materials and tie up [thousands of] ped in advance for no reason when they could alternatively just move it to Caly and mine it/purchase it when needed without the inconvenience of prior ped investment.

Referencing the "recreate the wheel" aspect from above - research into various planet partner patch notes indicate that they have tried to do so but did not understand the core issue and instead created blueprints that are practically useless or not balanced to address the problem (generally due to ingredient issues or requiring large amounts of sweat).

Research also indicates that various attempts have been made to introduce blazar and nova fragments to various planets but seem to have been implemented in a way that ignored the human element and didn't actually solve the problem.

Given that gizmos (and the prerequisite widgets) are a primary sink for oils - evidenced by public EntropiaLife data of many big hunters - The contentious questions (rhetorical, I guess, considering you can't discuss loot) are:

1. Is there a reason why Planet Partners do not have a specialized mining area with the ability to find consolidated and healthy amounts of Belkar, Alicenies, Lyst, Oil, & Narc at a more favorable rate than their planet-specific resources? I can drop probes over the entire surface of Toulan and come back with enough materials to craft many weapons that will not find their way to the market (efficiency inadequacies), and subsequently find myself with a lacking supply of materials needed to recycle one day's worth of oils into gizmos. This is not the case on Calypso for example.

2a. Is there a reason why nova and blazar fragments can't be made available through natural means to the people that would actually be using them? I have seen planet partner attempts to introduce nova and blazar fragments into their economy through similar methods available to the lower-level Calypso playerbase. There are generally not enough low-level players on smaller planets to meet the demand for oil consumption. In situations where there are a large amount of nova fragments available to be looted, the lower level players for whatever reason think it is appropriate to ask for several times the acceptable Calypso price just because they have looted it on a planet that is not Calypso... this is the human element as referenced above. In this situation a large-volume hunter will just opt to import/export their materials as the net cost is much lower.

2b. Would there be repercussions if planet partners were to introduce Nova Fragments on monsters that are hunted by higher level players? Would nova fragments on mobs such as the Lotus Invader and Cuhof Armor Instance Mobs cause a negative chain reaction on the rest of the loot table? Would it be the end of the world if (AS FOUND ON CALYPSO), that whenever you created a new monster or created a new daily mission that you occasionally were able to attach some Blazar fragments to them? Values of 500 seem to be generally acceptable from MindArk balance on Calypso without any negative repercussions to the loot table of the creatures in question.

-- This is just my take and I'm not saying that gizmos are necessarily the best answer for all planet partners - though they do serve Calypso fairly well. Any actual relevant use for bulk oils that don't have to be exported (i.e. conductors/springs) would be appreciated on Toulan/DSEC9.

 

[Heidi Stassinopolis]

I wonder if Tiering has a noticible effect on blazar availability? I only say this because I keep all the blazar I loot and save it for when I need to tier up ul equipment. Maybe there is more of it about than it seems but lots of it is sat in storages? Same result obviously i.e. a shortage.

 

[Synial]

There is the idea that hoards of resources sitting around affects drop rates, yes.

That is why I brought up the missions. There are daily missions with rewards ranging from 200-500 blazar on Caly (Calamusoids), and then there are the blazars given from the mission interface from dropship parts in Caly Space... and of course the large quantity given as part of the eomon/longtooth migration (both daily and big mission). RDI also introduced 3-5k from safe keys (and piles of emerald/ruby/diamond).

There are other sources as well but I can't recall them at the moment (always running on fumes during mayhem ). None of the major sources are from natural loot though - meanwhile most planets are in a fragment drought requiring import/export.

I dunno. I only bring it up because I don't know what the planet partner to MA relationship is like with implementing this stuff. Maybe it is as simple as the next time they make a new mob and do something crafting related they can say something like "Hey you have this content on Caly that helps people self-sustain their crafting while hunting stuff they're normally hunting anyway - can we get that too?"

Being able to loot 3-5k blazar from a safe and/or getting a chunk of fragments every day from dailies and then just leaving a crafting terminal open when you go to sleep or afk is a decent amount of cycle that is being left on the table - simply because resources just aren't available. Said it before but yeah... I don't think the average person wants to ship around thousands of ped worth of materials to craft with before hunting on a planet so they can use their oils there - the fragments/minerals need local sourcing - or just an npc that swaps oil for shrapnel but I don't think thats gonna happen (lol).

 

[Heidi Stassinopolis]

Wasn't aware of this lol I must pay more attention.

Just another perspective, and not disagreeing with you on any of this but I moved everything in my various storages to Toulan a year ago, and now I am the "not average person" piling up oils and then doing a trip to Caly once in a while to sell it all off.
I'm not sure I see why you say people have to take all their loot to craft on other planets though? I do it the other way round, go to a planet to grab the specific loot etc and bring it home to craft where the rest of the stuff is. I guess that is more round about and long winded but I have access to various transport options so it's no issue.

Having said that I am only just really getting to grips with crafting relatively so not cycling huge amounts through the terminals.

*heads off to caly to get more blazar*

 

[Synial]

piling up oils and then doing a trip to Caly once in a while to sell it all off

I'm not sure I see why you say people have to take all their loot to craft on other planets though? I do it the other way round, go to a planet to grab the specific loot etc and bring it home to craft where the rest of the stuff is.

There's so many angles to this that I can't even address these comments in relation to my post without going full-blown blog post... I will go for the condensed version though.

Yes, people do not "have" to take their loot to other planets to craft with it. They can go to Calypso, buy stuff, bring that stuck back to where they were just hunting, and then craft the materials into other stuff, which they probably then have to export back to Calypso.

This really comes back to the systemic issues caused by space. I am under the impression that the existence of space, with lootable pvp areas between each planet, is intended to give items weight (in the meta sense) and force planets to build their own economies through natural means. Logging out on motherships to transport goods was an unintended (but now present) feature that enables some activities and playstyles. It would seem common business sense that planets do not want players to go to other planets to gather basic resources, but instead (decay/spend money) gather them on their planet - this is an impracticality due to current balance of loot, however.

What I don't understand is why planets with the lowest populations have so many resources that come in hunting loot that require components that are not even native to their planets [in acceptable supply] to even do anything with. Calypso for example has a majority of mobs where >90-95% of the loot composition is shrapnel. Many mobs on other planets have shrapnel composition of 25-35%!

The only logical explanation I can come up with is that the 1% of excess universal ammo generated through shrapnel is paid for by the planet partner on which it is converted by. If this is the case it seems logical planet partners have made an assumption that they will make more money if they are not paying the difference and instead let players elect to redistribute that shrapnel loss through markup generated through the Calypso auction or player trade.

From my data (yes data, not feelings), I would be decaying/spending more (in this case) on Toulan/DSEC if I were not exporting such a massive amount of materials back to Calypso, and subsequently spending some time doing things there that I could just as well be doing on Toulan/DSEC. Anecdotally, I think NI has learned this lesson as their development has progressed, showing a transition in loot composition from their oil saturated mobs to a more Calypso-esque table when they introduced the Moloch Depths (mostly shrapnel, tier comps, meta oils such as Liver/Spleen - and is now one of the best mobs in the universe).

By the way... if it wasn't obvious.. my posts/suggestions will, at the core, always have the planet partner's interest come first.. as I really don't think change happens on this type of platform without having the monetary interest of the planet as the #1 priority. This post is pretty much a long winded "let me spend more money on your planet more conveniently" - and could apply to most planets tbh.