I just saw yet another one of those threads saying "waahhh I got poopy loots and I demand MA changes the loot system to make sure I only get good loots" and was going to post this there but figured it would be better suited as it's own thread here.
Lets talk for a minute about the 90% return business and set the record straight...
It never ceases to amaze me how much people feel they are entitled to these days "just because".
People hit globals and hofs and have a 300% return on a run and they expect it's the norm and everything is cool... but they have a bad rut for a while where they're losing a bit and getting 50% returns and they're all bitching about how the loots have to be adjusted to give THEM more profitable runs just cause they spend a lot of money and how they feel their entitled to at least a 90% return all the time.
Let me ask you, is the guy that buys $500 in lottery tickets more deserving to win the jackpot than the guy that bought a $1 quickpick? More over, do you think the lottery cares about who wins and "what's fair"? It's a random outcome based on complicated statistics and probability that ensures the gaming corporation turns a profit. End of story.
Same with EU - it's all based on math and statistics to ensure the longevity of the global economy and even distribution of peds across the system regardless of individual players. (It's been confirmed there is NO personal loot pool)
So what, you're crying because you just had a 60% return on 5400 peds? Big deal. There are miners out there running with several thousands peds in level 13 amps to come back with less than a 20% return. And probably people out there with worse returns that just aren't bitching every 5 minutes about it. But it doesn't matter, you know why?
Because it's all subjective to the size of your sample data. Yeah a 60% return on 5400 peds sucks but what about when you look at the last 100,000 peds cycled through your account? Probably looking at a much better return rate, right?
What's that you say? Still a crappy return on your last 100k peds? Well lets take sample data for the last 1,000,000 peds spent across a bunch of different players. You look at that data and you'll start to see the mythical 90% return coming into focus. You'll probably see at least 900k peds being returned to those players. Some may have had 330% return, some 100%, some 90%, some 40%, a couple had 2000%... and every range in between.
(The remaining 100k peds go into the buffer portion of the loot pool reserved for big HoF's and as a backup to prevent the whole system from crashing after a lot of payouts have happened and the loot pool is low. Note: the loot pool is NEVER completely empty or every creature would be a no looter, every crafting click would fail and every bomb would be NRF.)
So again to reiterate, there is no personal loot pool and the mythical 90% return is based on global values over and infinite period of time. It doesn't always mean you'll get a 90% return on every run or that you'll magically get a huge ATH that pays out 90% of what you've spent (and are down) over the last 3 years. It just means that in general if you total up all the peds put in by all players in EU and the total peds paid out to all players in EU it will equal 90% of the totalwith 10% always remaining in the pool as the buffer. (This may be divied up in any number of ways - some will profit, some will lose, some will hit 90%, some will break even...etc.)
FACT: EU's loot pools are funded 100% by player deposits. Ergo - in order for some people to be able to turn a profit (or score a 2000%+ return on a big hof) many other people have to get less than 100% return consistently. Another way of looking at this would be if you've got $1000 to be given out evenly to 1000 people, in order for 1 person to have $2 that means one person has to get $0.
And if you're getting poor returns for a long while it doesn't mean the game is out to get you, it doesn't mean there is something "wrong" with the loot pool or system - it's just the nature of the beast.
No one profits 100% of the time in EU in any profession (hunting, mining or crafting). In fact most people in EU are running at a loss. Anyone that says they profit on every single run is full of crap. I'm not saying these people don't profit steadily and withdraw all the time, I'm just saying they can have bad runs too.
So hopefully that clears things up a bit. And next time you're having some bad returns instead of posting on the forum or sending in a support ticket demanding better loots you'll remember how the loot is actually spread out. And if you're constantly getting screwed with bad returns maybe it's time to rethink your strategy as it might not be the loot pool/system that's the problem.
