Solo/Duo and small group drops =)

[LadyEternity]

<DIV>Last night my husband and I (level 23 mystic/monk combo ) set out to test the new loot on solo and small group encounters. We headed to the thundering steeps and proceeded to kill bears, snakes, mountain lions, crabs and skeletons. We got armor and weapon drops...and an adept 1 spell, not to mention the 'parts' drops. It was simply wonderful!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>And the experience increase was beautiful! Now we don't have to kill the overly difficult group mobs =) <------- is beaming! We can get pretty nice exp off of yellow/orange solo mobs. Still a very challenging fight, gives loots we can use...including spell drops! And is more in-tune to what we can kill. I'd like to be one of the first to say these changes are awesome and make the game a MUCH better place, a much more fun enviorment! *claps* Good show =)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We did encounter one bug while out and about...other then the fact the damage on mobs was a bit to much. Sometimes when a chest drops on a solo encounter, and you click on it, the chest vanishes..without poping up a loot window. It happened three times last night during our play session...so the bug isn't encountered all the time, and I do not know how to reproduce it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But anyhow. Kodo's so far on the changes! I love them. Small groupers and soloer's are going to REALLY appriciate this!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I would also like to take a moment to ask a question. What is SOE's oppinion on what a "duo" should be killing. I am asking this because both me and my husband had issues with testing due to the fact that neither of us has any idea what 'content' is suppose to be for 'us'. So we'd like some clarification. I remeber vaguely reading that duo's were not really wanted to kill solo encounters. Group encounters sense leveling past 20 are WAY to difficult. Monsters hit to hard, and my wards cannot keep up. Thanks so much for any replies to my question =)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Asharia</DIV>

[C]

<DIV>Thanks for the feedback.  To answer your question about what a duo should kill:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Whatever they'd like to try.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Previously, we had strict ideas about the challenges and rewards offered by different play styles.  We've relaxed or removed most of those constraints.  Now, the challenge itself should determine the reward.  Tougher stuff will give greater rewards.  Easier stuff will give less rewards.  Stuff that doesn't really challenge you will provide little or no reward.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Go out and there and see what kind of trouble you can get yourself into <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Let us know how it goes.</DIV>

[Weesta]

<DIV>outstanding news!!! Im looking forward to this big time!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Weester</DIV>

[aeio]

<blockquote><hr>Cao wrote:<DIV>Thanks for the feedback. To answer your question about what a duo should kill:</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>Whatever they'd like to try.</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>Previously, we had strict ideas about the challenges and rewards offered by different play styles. We've relaxed or removed most of those constraints. Now, the challenge itself should determine the reward. Tougher stuff will give greater rewards. Easier stuff will give less rewards. Stuff that doesn't really challenge you will provide little or no reward. </DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>Go out and there and see what kind of trouble you can get yourself into <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>Let us know how it goes.</DIV><hr></blockquote>This begs the question if loot drops are in any way determined by the group that defeated an encounter, or are all loot drops pre-determined and connected to a specific type of encounter, regardless of who kills it. So if I kill encounter x by myself, will I be pulling from the same loot table that a group of 4 a few levels lower than me would pull from if they defeated the same encounter?

[Aeva]

<DIV>so wizards should see great rewards from solo white mobs because they are a huge challenge right? :smileyvery-happy:</DIV>

[Nuvi]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Cao wrote:<BR> <DIV>Thanks for the feedback.  To answer your question about what a duo should kill:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Whatever they'd like to try.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Previously, we had strict ideas about the challenges and rewards offered by different play styles.  We've relaxed or removed most of those constraints.  Now, the challenge itself should determine the reward.  Tougher stuff will give greater rewards.  Easier stuff will give less rewards.  Stuff that doesn't really challenge you will provide little or no reward.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Go out and there and see what kind of trouble you can get yourself into <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Let us know how it goes.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <P>does this mean that group (heroic) mobs will have a higher drop rate of chests now?i duo alot,and i can go thro 10-15 mobs some time without a single chest drop,and at level 30,taking on blue group mobs takes alot of time,even when duoing,this should be more rewarding then killing orange solo mobs that go down in under 30secs compared to 2-3 mins on group mobs,so my question is,will the group mobs chest drops for small groups (2players) increase aswell?or do i have 2 go for easier mobs (solo orange/red mobs) to get better/more frequant drops?</P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

[Qwindar]

<blockquote><hr>Cao wrote:<DIV>Go out and there and see what kind of trouble you can get yourself into <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </DIV><DIV> </DIV><hr></blockquote>THAT is the best thing I've heard on these forums!!!!

[Bhagpuss]

<DIV>I took my 13th level Summoner out into Commonlands on Test yesterday to take a look at the new drops.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In the first hour, killing only solo mobs, mostly blue cons, I had got two attuneable bracers (one Medium, one Very Light) with excellent stats for the level, one pair of Medium gloves, ditto, and a tradeskill book. I also got one non-stat Medium breastplate.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Both the quality and frequency of the drops astonished me. I thought the drop rate was just about perfect. Not so frequent as to make the drops trivial, but frequent enough that every kill had a sense of anticipation. The quality and usefulness of the drops was spot on, too.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Excellent change, in my opinion, and exactly the direction EQ2 should be moving. The name EQ has always been associated primarily with  PvE/dropped items gameplay and that is it's greatest strength. This change brings the type of gameplay full groups have always had well within the reach of solo and small group players.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The only possible issue i can see with this change would be a conflict between the increased availability of drops vs the need for crafters to find markets for their goods. I personally think that the very high added value this change gives to the solo and small group adventurer's experience more than outweighs any slight wobble it might put into the market.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[WolfGrimDa]

<DIV>This was encouraging news.  My account was to expire in early March and I believe I will keep it going longer so I can test this out as well.  This is the type of news I have been hoping to heere.   Thanks for the good feedback LadyEternity.</DIV>

[EtoilePirate]

I agree. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I play mainly solo or paired with one of my boyfriend's characters, and it's been nice to get a few more drops -- nothing spectacular, as I haven't been venturing anywhere spectacular with my level 12 predator with the most rotten luck ever, but some nice things I can wear and some I can sell. The change has been noticeable and is definitely appreciated. I look forward to seeing what I can find for myself next week.

[Nim]

cool.. the thing what i'm looking forward to is solo xp over lvl 30.. Anyone who gets lvl30 + will tell you Solo xp is pretty NON-existant.. you literally have to kill over 10 white con solo mobs to get 1% (withput vitality)Also the drops from solo mobs in an area (Everfrost Wolves for example) when drop a chest always drop a Teakwood Greatstaff.. But these changes will deinately make soloing more fun..Of course i'd expect group encounters to have MORE decent drops and maybe a slight increase in master chests.. as these are rarer than rare..

[yoddamomma]

<DIV>I have to agree with most here.  I am very pleased with the drop rate and quality of drops on solo and small group mob.  It was fun playing yesterday and killing different things to see what they might drop.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Fun stuff!</DIV>

[BigDa]

<DIV>Maybe I've been unlucky, but soloing, for me, has never dropped anything more than cash drops.  Never.  I do a fair amount of soloing - I soloed maybe 200 mobs (doing nightblood and evil eye mastery in EL) after the supposed increase in 'good' loot to soloers and maybe 100+ solo mobs in Feerrott.  Didn't get a single thing that wasn't mastery drop or cash-trash.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As far as I can see it's still only group encounters that drop adepts, etc. (and then rarely) at around level 40.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anybody see anything different at higher level?</DIV>

[Ethi]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Bhagpuss wrote:<BR> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In the first hour, killing only solo mobs, mostly blue cons, I had got two attuneable bracers (one Medium, one Very Light) with excellent stats for the level, one pair of Medium gloves, ditto, and a tradeskill book. I also got one non-stat Medium breastplate.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>This is going to destroy the economy once again....  You got like 5 good things and one money drop in one hour?  Thats one drop per 10 minutes.  Assuming group encounters are getting drops for a full group at a similar rate of one drop every 1.8 minutes.  Then items will be entering the world assuming like 2000 players at around 3-4 items per second.</P> <P>This is a huge increase in the amount of stuff going into the game and will flood the market with drops.  If these drops are better than crafted stuff then the crafting market will vanish.</P> <P>Today in a good group killing reasonable stuff for the level I'm getting maybe 1 item an hour on average.  Most nights 3-4 hours of playing will get me 3-4 items.  So it looks like this is a 6x increase in loot drop rates?</P> <P> </P> <P><BR> </P>

[Lancealittle]

<DIV>I think solo drops should be more rare.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>When you fight group mobs and get a chest you split the contents with the rest of the group.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Solo chests should be at least 1/4 the frequency of group chests.</DIV>

[BigDa]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Lancealittle wrote:<BR> <DIV>I think solo drops should be more rare.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>When you fight group mobs and get a chest you split the contents with the rest of the group.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Solo chests should be at least 1/4 the frequency of group chests.</DIV> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>It's not the chest frequency that bugs me, one way or the other, it's the fact that solo mob chests <EM>never</EM> contain Adepts or stat armor or whatever - not in my experience.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>IMHO 6x rarer is exactly right.  Currently it's 1,000,000x rarer on decent loot, i.e. none.  Maybe I've just been unlucky the last 300 solo kills...</DIV><p>Message Edited by BigDave on <span class=date_text>02-28-2005</span> <span class=time_text>07:17 AM</span>

[Prax]

<DIV>These changes sound great. At 44 I have bought the vast majority of my equipment off the broker. Usable drops are currently</DIV> <DIV>ridiculously rare on the live servers (and I'm not just talking solo !) and when they do drop, they are usually not usable for another few levels.</DIV> <DIV>Every single piece of amor I own is broker bought, and thats just not right.  Its about time these changes were made</DIV> <DIV>and usable armor is finally dropping. Too bad its a bit late for me as I'm about to move into the raiding game; but still there's</DIV> <DIV>lots of solo opportunities  left between 45 and 50. Decent drops makes grinding much less boring and more fun.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Ethelwo]

<DIV>Once an item has been attuned it is off the market. Most of these drops will be sold to city merchants and not through the broker. The idea is to let many players make enough money to buy things like food and drink and better pristine quality player made gear. It may have a slight negative effect on the market at first, but in the end it will allow more players to buy more crafted goods, and that will be good to the market.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I think this addition is long over due. The only thing that needs to be done is to add to the amount of cash drops for group encounters. It's one thing to split loot between two players and another to split between six. Group hunts giants: drops include meat, a few parts and idols. Adept 1s are very uncommon and other loot is very rare. Same goes for other group encounters. The loot situation has to be imporved accross the board to provide the propper balance or soon everyone will be soloing and not grouping. The best loot would be stuff to sell to city merchants and not stuff that can actually be of very much personal use. Why? because  players can take the cash they made and buy good stuff from crafters.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>New improved crafting books should be added to group encounters such as specific armor types for specific classes. Such as Ranger Armor or Monk armor volumes. The volumes may require new loot only items that also drop off same grouped mobs. The same can be done with weapons, Ranger bows and Assasin blades can be found in books dropped by group mobs. These craftable items require certain items also dropped by other group mobs to create. There can be generic armor and weapons as well as specific armor and weapons. This will only add to what crafters can build and enrich the game. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Many crafted pieces can have extra slots as well for attachments to be added to increase stats or add procs. Sages can make these attachments (Runes of Power). Sages would then be greatly desired in the game for their ability to make runes. The recipies for these runes would also drop off group encounters as well as the items needed to craft them.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Alchemist can make dyes and stains as well. Maybe some dyes and stains could even add an effects an addition to color, like making someone harder to see so they dont get hit as often. or add durablity to crafted items. A level 20 pristine crafted item wouldn't max out at L30 but maybe 31 or 32 instead with the application of certain staines or dyes.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Other crafting classes could have special craftable items added in the same way.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The sky isn't the limit with just a little imagination.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If SOE buckles down and gets on the right track well have a real nice game in the end.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Al it requires is new crafting books and items for crafting to be added to the loot tables of group and raid mobs. Adventurers hunt mobs and get new items to sell to crafters. Crafters make new items to sell to adventurers</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Vrazu]

<DIV>One has to wonder what percentage of the gaming community actually crafts for a living?  Which should they focus on in regards to crafter vs. adventurer?  It should seem fairly obvious, even to the most jaded crafter that they are sorely outnumbered by adventurers.  So, who should SOE try to please the most?  For the greatest effect, for the least amount of work, they chose the casual adventurer (solo and group) who are likely in their 20's to 40's, barely making ends meet with the old system and beefing it up so that they.....gasp.....have fun playing the game.  We aren't here to play the market, we just want to adventure, have fun, find cool loot that is usable and desirable and rewarding.  We want to advance our character without having some crafter dictate how we do it or  how much gold it will cost us.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Here's an idea, how about crafters leech off each other, make their fortunes, control each other and their market and only have themselves to thank and blame for price gouging and ruining the fun of dropped loot in the game.</DIV>

[Rock]

<DIV><FONT size=4>I'm a Crafter in EQ2 but never expected to have a captive market. In DAOC they had a thriving Crafter market and abundant drops, no reason they cant find a balance here as well. I'm thrilled with the upcoming changes. Hopefully future changes can be made to Crafting to enhance usefullness of Crafted items such as allowing specific enhancements be placed on items or as another suggested Class specific weapons/armor.</FONT></DIV>

[Rpgplay]

<DIV><A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/view_profile?user.id=148" target=_blank><SPAN>Cao</SPAN></A><BR><SPAN>Lead Designer<BR>Posts: 13<BR>Registered: 11-08-2004 </SPAN><IMG height=8 alt="" src="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/i/p.gif" width=150 border=0><BR><A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/view_profile?user.id=148" target=_blank></A><BR> <P><SPAN>Viewed 3547 times<BR></SPAN></P><IMG height=1 alt="" src="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/i/p.gif" width=1 border=0><BR> <DIV>Thanks for the feedback.  To answer your question about what a duo should kill:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Whatever they'd like to try.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Previously, we had strict ideas about the challenges and rewards offered by different play styles.  We've relaxed or removed most of those constraints.  Now, the challenge itself should determine the reward.  Tougher stuff will give greater rewards.  Easier stuff will give less rewards.  Stuff that doesn't really challenge you will provide little or no reward. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Go out and there and see what kind of trouble you can get yourself into <IMG height=16 src="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/i/smilies/16x16_smiley-happy.gif" width=16 border=0> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Let us know how it goes.</DIV></DIV> <HR> Why not make the drops based on time invested, not on risk?

[Dionysoz]

Doh I cant wait for this to go live--me and my wife duo all the time so it would be great to finally make just a little more money exp since we dont plan on being guilded or to group alot since we dont have much to to play--Kids you know.

[Nim]

cool is these solo drops across the board? or jsut low lvls?I jsut stgarted hunting in Everfrost.. quite a lot of solos as well BUT.. the only drop from solo chests is always the exact same thing.. Teakwood Greatstaff.. no matter what you kill.. lvl 41-42 wolves drop it.. lvl 46 stags drop it..I'd like some variety..loloh also can't wait for better XP for lvl 30+ like i said previous post high lvl soloing at the moment might as well have XP off.. 10 kills white for 1% lolz

[Proudfoot]

<blockquote><HR>Why not make the drops based on time invested, not on risk?<hr></blockquote>Time investment doesn't make you better than anyone else. Powergamers getting to 50 aren't "better" because they got there first. They just have less real-world things to do, and feel the need to show-off in a computer game. Laugh if you must.These changes have been up for a week now, and my wife and I have made a new "duo" to try things out.1: We are now level 20, exp is noticably faster hunting now.2: We are NOT decked out in full Adepts, weapons or armor. So crafters, chill. Most of the drops are just vendor trash.3: What we do have is cash to burn, so maybe we can afford that over-priced crap that crafters sell...4: What we are finding often, which is nice, is crafting books/pages.5: We no longer huff about a solo mob add when fighting, as they add to the chance of a chest drop.6: Got a Taunt Master 1 book from a named Ratonga in the Down Below. I'd never seen him before, but we got him to spawn twice in about an hour, and he dropped the one Taunt book and trash legs once then second time he dropped a named halberd.The only con with the current setup is that SOLO chests now have a larger loot table than the GROUP chests. We have killed TONS of "Heroic" mobs in Antonica and Vermins Snye, and almost never get a chest drop. Duo penalty maybe? We do get the chests from Named mobs, thankfully. (Fanglord for the win!)