Developer-Notes--12---Loot-2.0-Follow-Up

[Cxaxukluth]

Developer Notes #12 - Loot 2.0 Follow-Up

This installment of Developer Notes attempts to clear up some of the questions and misconceptions related to the Version Update 15.15.0 - Loot 2.0.

Economy Parameter (soon to be renamed Efficiency)

One of the most misunderstood features of Loot 2.0 was the introduction of the Economy parameter and its effect on loot calculations. Based on feedback received via support cases and our monitoring of forum discussions, it appears that one cause of confusion is the use of the term ‘Economy’ for this parameter. As such, the Economy parameter will be renamed to Efficiency in the upcoming patch, which more accurately captures the effect of this parameter. Also in the upcoming patch, the tooltip text for the Efficiency parameter will be changed to the following:

Efficiency indicates the cost-effectiveness of a weapon (or weapon attachment) in creating damage. Efficiency values range from 1-100, and higher values indicate better efficiency. Efficiency is an inherent property of an item, and thus is not affected by avatar skills. Weapons that have scopes, lasers or amplifiers attached will display a modified Efficiency value (in orange).

A few additional points about Efficiency parameter will hopefully clear up many of the questions and dispel some of the more common misconceptions that we have noticed:

• The Efficiency parameter is not affected by avatar skills.
• The largest components by far in loot value calculations are costs, such as weapon deterioration, ammo consumption, armor deterioration, healing costs, etc.
• The Efficiency parameter is a relatively small component in loot calculations (no more than 7% of total loot value).
• The displayed Efficiency parameter for a given weapon does not correspond to expected overall loot return.

Optimal Loot

Another feature of Loot 2.0 that has sparked lots of discussion and speculation is Optimal Loot.

It is important to note that Optimal Loot only affects loot composition (what you loot), not the loot value (how much you loot). There is no Optimal Loot penalty for hunting creatures that are well below your avatar’s level; in fact most such kills will meet the requirements for Optimal Loot composition.

To best achieve Optimal Loot:

• Be sure to have the Hit Ability and Damage profession requirements maxed (10.0/10.0) on the weapon your avatar is using.
• Avoid over-amping (using a weapon amplifier that adds more than 50% of the maximum damage of the weapon to which it is equipped).
• Minimize healing costs and the need to interrupt damage dealing to heal.

In general, the lower the cost to kill a creature, the higher the proportion of loot composition will be Optimal Loot. There is no inherent “kill timer” for each creature; Optimal Loot is calculated based on costs, not on time.

Crafting, Resources and Economy

MindArk is working on restructuring and streamlining the item situation in Entropia Universe. This involves many changes to the crafting system and loot distribution, with the goal of reducing the number of components, resources and similar items in the universe, to ensure that the majority of items have a place within the economy.

The balance between looted and crafted items, along with items from other sources such as events, competitions, strongboxes, etc., will be improved to strike a better balance.

New blueprints will use existing components and resources as much as possible to sustain a thriving and interdependent economy between crafting, mining and hunting.

Continue reading...

 

[Zarnia Foxtrot]

Hi. I didn't see a labelled thread on the forum where Monrians could comment about what they felt about the the initial changes of the loot 2.O so DME recommended I post here.

Honestly, at first, I didn't like or understand getting more schrapnel but I started to realize that I was able to do much more in game with the benefits of converting it to universal ammo and use it in replacement of the survey probes mainly in mining but also in ammo to be able to do more time hunting. It seems now, several days later, that they have been making changes again to include more loot items in the loot and there is a drop again in the larger amount of schrapnel given in the loot initially. I know some of items in the loot are useful but most of them are usually TT'd that are not commonly used like most of the extractors.

So, the main points I like and dislike are as follows (to be used as needed or wanted..LOL by you or MA and open to discuss from anyone interested in commenting)


1. Keeping more schrapnel in the loots is very beneficial. Please don't reduce it again to where it was before loot 2.0. It helps to balance the loot that has no value which currently is alot of the small pec item loot especially extractors.

2. Tailor (no pun intended). the loot to be what the player actually uses in crafting textiles or other crafted items. The extractors in small amounts are not even worth TT'ing and their only value is in TT'ing them if the player is not an active crafter in need of them. Waiting till someone has over 1000 to sell them profitably isn't for most players and hunting enough mobs to get that many doesn't happen quickly and will end up frustrating players not interested in mainly crafting.

3. An idea if not already in the works is to tailor the loot in the different mobs to be geared towards the needs of the level of the player. Lower level players need more exposure to a variety of items to find out what they would like to do as their profession. Higher level players, especially, hunters or miners, don't need as much variety. They do need more schrapnel to recoup some of their costs which grows as their skill level, weapon requirement lvl and tool requirement level increases. Although they probably wouldn't want ALL schrapnel, they would need alot more than the new player.

Some of this is probably already in the works with the next stages of loot 2.? but I just thought I would pass along my imput for whatever it is worth. Anyone is free to offer their opinions here too.

Z

 

[Zarnia Foxtrot]

Hello again. I was hoping that some other players would have commented. It helps to know if I was on mark with them and myself too. I wasn't looking to be confrontative but I just wanted to know if what I see and believe was accurate for me and them. However, since the loot 2.0 is moving forward with tweaking along the way, I do have a question if there will be a mining loot 2.0? Since I have been focusing on my melee skills being higher, my time mining is about half of what it was but still done daily. I have noticed the changes in the amount of found claims on Monria which is indoor mining. Since I have done most of my indoor mining on Monria/RT in the last couple of months, I have noticed a significant drop in the found claims in areas that I mine regularly since the loot 2.0 for hunting was established. Is that because it is in process of being developed for mining?

If there is going to be a mining loot 2.0, could one point be included in that update? There are many lvls of miners in EU...I am currently lvl 24 prospector personally. Whenever there are several lvl 50+ miners in a land area, I can always tell by the drop in number of found claims and the significantly reduced size of the claims. It would be close to a 70-80% difference in what I can find in mining claims. I know that lvl 50+ miners are entitled to expect more for their skills and time in the game, no question there. My issue is that the lower-mid range level players feel the difference but unlike me, aren't as vocal about expressing their frustration with the problem except maybe on the caly forum. Could there be an adjustment made to where the pinch on below 50+ miners isn't felt as much by lower level /midrange players?

Thanks for reading. Hope to hear from you.

Z

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

Someone who really understands the Loot 2.0 implementation should respond to your questions Zarnia, and I don't think MindArk is finished with rolling out everything that they're doing with this. However, I know of nothing Mining 2.0 or 2.0 specific to any profession directly. This current implementation is directly related to loot and the variables that feed into it.

With regard to Monria mining ... I'm not sure that the reconstruction affects what you're getting in claims, but I would have to ask Ant about that. Have you consulted the mining info and maps we have at the forum?

If any other miners have had similar experiences, could you post here please. I know that Curd was mining in the Shub Cavern a few days back and globaling nicely, but we haven't touched the caves and Shub Cavern yet with regard to the reconstruction we're going to do.

Hopefully, whatever tweaks MindArk is doing will make it all more efficient, but it's an interesting question to know just how the Loot 2.0 implementation affects mining and the claims you get, if at all.

 

[Eugenio Anhithe Wilde]

Hey @Zarnia Foxtrot

I'll answer what I can!

On the changes we made to Monria we didn't do anything with mining and that's the same as it was before.

For loot 2.0 I'm as much in the dark as everyone else as this is a platform change and I've only had a chance to play a little with it but I'll offer my opinions. The changes are all hunting related and I think the efficiency rating is really just to help players with their hunting set ups. Most of us don't have the time or inclination to calculate all the different eco values for different set ups. So for me this tells us to use an economic set up relative to the mob you're hunting.

Optimal loot is related to your chance of looting items, so reducing healing costs and using weapons you are maxed on should give you more rare loots.

I've been testing shoggoth hunting before and after the loot 2.0 and I have seemed to loot more of the items since 2.0. My set up has been no armour, rarely healing and using the low end weapons I loot from the shogs (photon, lancehead etc). I've only done a few thousand so not sure how statistically relevant it is but I've looted more items on the shoggoth: lanceheads, protons, rubios, azuros, b101s, pixie parts and those damned chapter 1s!

To me this suggests the best approach is to hunt at a level with efficient equipment, if you're hunting a mob inefficiently and you have high defense costs, the mob is probably too high for you and/or your set up.

On mining I don't think the challenge is the drop rate but the markup and I think this starts with crafting, there used to be a lot more ores and enmatters with a higher markup because crafters used them more. This is what I think is being worked on with the new blueprints and balancing of items. If there's more demand for crafted items (efficient weapons for example) that need mined resources then the markup on the ores and enmatters will increase.

I only really mine for fun and have sold my mining skills a few times so I'm not a pro miner but to me its always been the same with amped indoor mining, sometimes it sucks and sometimes its great. I just find its whether I drop enough bombs in one day or one month to have it average out.

Ant

 

[Zarnia Foxtrot]

Hey @Zarnia Foxtrot

I'll answer what I can!

On the changes we made to Monria we didn't do anything with mining and that's the same as it was before.

For loot 2.0 I'm as much in the dark as everyone else as this is a platform change and I've only had a chance to play a little with it but I'll offer my opinions. The changes are all hunting related and I think the efficiency rating is really just to help players with their hunting set ups. Most of us don't have the time or inclination to calculate all the different eco values for different set ups. So for me this tells us to use an economic set up relative to the mob you're hunting.

Optimal loot is related to your chance of looting items, so reducing healing costs and using weapons you are maxed on should give you more rare loots.

I've been testing shoggoth hunting before and after the loot 2.0 and I have seemed to loot more of the items since 2.0. My set up has been no armour, rarely healing and using the low end weapons I loot from the shogs (photon, lancehead etc). I've only done a few thousand so not sure how statistically relevant it is but I've looted more items on the shoggoth: lanceheads, protons, rubios, azuros, b101s, pixie parts and those damned chapter 1s!

To me this suggests the best approach is to hunt at a level with efficient equipment, if you're hunting a mob inefficiently and you have high defense costs, the mob is probably too high for you and/or your set up.

On mining I don't think the challenge is the drop rate but the markup and I think this starts with crafting, there used to be a lot more ores and enmatters with a higher markup because crafters used them more. This is what I think is being worked on with the new blueprints and balancing of items. If there's more demand for crafted items (efficient weapons for example) that need mined resources then the markup on the ores and enmatters will increase.

I only really mine for fun and have sold my mining skills a few times so I'm not a pro miner but to me its always been the same with amped indoor mining, sometimes it sucks and sometimes its great. I just find its whether I drop enough bombs in one day or one month to have it average out.

Ant

Ok. Thanks for getting back to and sorry it took so long to reply. Its been a very busy 2 weeks for me but thanks for letting me know what you could. It is appreciated.

PZ