Yep , I have to be one of the haters - I am sorry. Let me say first - I like you all - especially Taco and Lunchbox and few others there I can't think of off hand. I have nothing against the players and do not want you to mistake my frustration for jealously. I am happy that many people experienced that and got a fatty loot.
BUUUUtTTTTT that being said:
I am angry - and after almost 24 hours have cooled somewhat. I'm angry mostly with MA and partially with Arkadia Team. I KNOW Arkadia team does not control loot - they are however responsible for this event - so they are involved. I am angry at the extreme loot swings. I thought loot was supposed to be more balanced now. I guess that is wrong. At one point over 10 hours had gone by with what I think was no loot over 800 or 900 peds. Once I discovered the loot on Entropia Life I felt a knot in my stomach - seriously. Did I expect to see a big loot..? YES But the 2nd biggest of all time - OMG. What I am upset about is the HUGE swings in loot. Someone said it perfectly in that - so for 10 hours (or more) loot was set to 1 on the "dial" and then all of a sudden for 10 minutes it was cranked to 1000? That is pretty much the definition of instability. A large mob such as that SHOULD produce a huge loot like this. But what happened seemed to be at the expense of all others that had hunted there. Hours and hours went by with complete loss and devastation of players cards. One can say all they want about theories and how loot works, or how big mob/shared mob hunting works. Point is this is pure instability. If anyone thinks this isn't a "FU if you weren't there!!!" then please share with me how you feel that way. If it can produce something this big... where are more of the sizes in-between? I know there was a 31k some 11k and others. But why for almost half a day nothing over 1k or 2k for that matter?
ArkTeam - to their credit spent time and effort to reset the servers. Even they recognized something wasn't right. Loot slightly improved after they did, but just a little - and more like "back to normal" as it should have been.
For my part: I spent several hours way into the night and did all I could. I came back the next morning and hunted for long time. I TTed stuff that had MU to keep going - I had almost no weapon left. I even deposited more for ammo. There were no more guns for me to really use on Ark so I flew to Calypso - not intending to return anyhow. I then went out to see a movie and returned to discover the ATH size. Make it known - I did not spend nearly as much as others did or have. I spent as much time and $ as I could. I honestly had not lost that much ped in that amount of time in as long as I can remember. I logged back in to just see what's up. I was left feeling hopeless. I felt like "what is the point". The point and MY point isn't to get tons of loot, it isn't to get rich or make a profit. Believe me when I say this. When I deposit I expect fully that that money is totally gone. I just don't think I should be left feeling !!!!!, angry, and all around upset.
So - I fully expect some hate for my comments as well. That is fair - I am trying to be as tactful and respectful as I can. I honestly feel like if I saw an ATH of 80k or something I wouldn't feel the same. It is the fact that loot was soooo bad and then the 2nd largest loot ever drops. Something is not right there. I also know some people agree with me. I only want enjoyment for myself and all players. We have been saying here and I hear in game that people rather see 100 happy people than 10 happy people. I thought MA responded with changing loots - and I know some people didn't like that either. You can't make all people happy all the time - and that is acceptable. I am just left feeling bad - I just want to feel better and have some faith and hope restored.
I will be depositing again today to finish my LT mission, and strive to take a break from game after that.
Please know - I wish everyone the best. I am not trying to rain on your parade -I just wanted to be heard. I am happy for those that got a big loot! I wish that for everyone. Good hunting all! Congrats Taco!
No offense taken
Trust me, when big loots occurred in the past when I was offline, I have felt a bit of rage, and most of all, a broken heart, knowing how much I grind shared loot, and how much I love shared events in general.
In the time before the last event at Solfais, I began learning exactly what I need to do at these events in order to maximize my return. At Solfais, I finally was experienced in shared loot enough to make my understanding of shared loot profitable.
I have been part of 6 ATH's at shared loot (not counting the one with Stig). Obviously, during those ATH's, profit was no problem. Other times, I have woken up to look at the HoF list and been so broken-hearted that I wanted to leave the game forever. It has happened so much, that I am simply numb to it now, and understand it happens, and feel no emotion anymore when I see I missed something big. It happens. People for years now say "omg taco, you missed such-and such" when I am in TS or via PM...which infuriates me, because NO, I DIDN'T MISS SHIT!!! I was not on, I didn't miss anything. It was not mine to get! The only mob that owes me is the one I shoot at. Once I understood this, the broken-hearts stopped. The first rule of shared club is you CANNOT care about the loots that occur when you are off-line.
The key to withstanding ALL the other times I have spent at shared loot (minimizing losses, breaking even) is many-fold. You HAVE to establish your parameters (time available, and free ped available). You need be there constantly, shooting. You need to see the waves. You need to back off dps when you see the low loot wave...you need to max dps when you see the hot wave, or when your avatar is on an item wave. You have to figure our how long you ped will last and use the average dps that will make it last the WHOLE event (when I do this, I allow for roughly 50% of my loot to be tt-able, therefore allowing more time to shoot, but you must balance this, because you can't tt everything) You need to save your mu loots and not sell right after the event. You need to see if the small shit mobs surrounding the bosses are on a global streak, and increase dps on those. You need to be there every waking hour that you can. You need to have portable tt and repair. Never once, since solfais, did I miss a mob when I was in shared loot shooting, because I had to repair. Before the portables, if I knew I had to repair, I would go to the outpost when the current mob was at 20% hp, and I would be out of the outpost shooting when the next boss was at 80% hp, insuring that I still did my share of damage on each mob. I don't miss mobs during the time I want to shoot, and when I am done, I walk away and log out.
The main key, however, is that you need to determine the right dps, one that allows you to shoot the ENTIRE time that you can be online during the event, and NOT burn all your available ped in a few hours. Yes, if you are there a short time, you might get hella lucky, but you also might lose hella bad. Short bursts of shooting with limited ped on massive HP mobs is the biggest gamble there is in this game. Period. Treating it like I have explained above is the only way that you don't go home empty handed. Massive hp shared loot mobs have the same loot as other mobs, so hours of shooting with 10%-90% the cost to kill loots are therefore inherent in it.
I say all this out of respect. From what I know of you on forum and in game, you seem like a good person. I want you to do good at these, because for years I have seen you at these events often. So just remember. If you can go 2-3 hours with no multipliers on LT or evis, or wtf...then you can go just as many hours with non-multiplied loot on these too. The key, the only key, is maximizing time spent shooting.
