Q&A Answers (May 07)

[711]

allright, some good responses, but... I know, not everyone likes buts =)

my Q was simple - "when did the last mod fap drop? exact date is not needed, quarter of a year would be precise enough." now, I might still be slow as I had no coffee yet, but how come there's no answer to this one?!? oh, I get it - there was no drop for last 3 years, so no point in frustrating players

so, any official cares to comment?



J.

It seems that any questions that dealt with specifics of the dynamic loot distribution system, such as "how many of X item drop" "how often does X item loot" "will X item drop more frequently" "when was the last X looted" etc. were not answered.

I can understand why such details are unable to be discussed, even if it is frustrating for us.

I guess my own question was omitted for this reason as well:

It seems the recent modifications to hunting loots have resulted in a higher maximum possible loot for low and mid-range mobs (e.g. exarosaurs, rippersnappers, snables).

My question is, has the maximum possible loot for larger mobs (e.g. Aurli, Daspletors, Hogglos) been increased as well?

 

[Djarro Morgari]

im very sorry, but if this answers take some months then i have to be worried for my money, cuz if it takes a few months to reply those answers who evryone can shuffle out of their sleeves in 10 mins, he must not be the sharpest knife in the drawer.

With all though respect marco

nice try, but i dont eat it.

 

[LuckyStrike]

im very sorry, but if this answers take some months then i have to be worried for my money, cuz if it takes a few months to reply those answers who evryone can shuffle out of their sleeves in 10 mins, he must not be the sharpest knife in the drawer.

With all though respect marco

nice try, but i dont eat it.

Or maybe the balancing manager is so busy with his regular duties improving and developing new feeatures for EU that it took some time to make the replies?

For myself, I would much rather have him working on entropia than answering questions from ungrateful forum people like yourself.

Compared to past communication with MA, this QA had more solid answers than usual.

Some people are never happy, jeeeez

 

[Etopia]

At least they came with the A,and thats nice.
Lets be better next time and ask things a way to make them reply , but , sadly , the Q and A turn out like politicien discution about any project.I bet its same in all country , you ask them something simple and clear , and they reply something that is so meaningless and so empty of interest ,that you dont even remember why you did ask that.
I do understand that some question could not be commented due to dynamic and all that stuff , but lot of them could have get better reply , or at least a reply.

 

[Lugzan]

It seems that any questions that dealt with specifics of the dynamic loot distribution system, such as "how many of X item drop" "how often does X item loot" "will X item drop more frequently" "when was the last X looted" etc. were not answered.

I can understand why such details are unable to be discussed, even if it is frustrating for us.

I guess my own question was omitted for this reason as well:

hmmm... might be. but "when was the last drop approximately" does not give out any objective or valuable information about frequency, number of loots etc.

well, why I even bothered to ask was that MA has stated that all items can still drop. so, why not just confirm a drop of one of rarest items? I do not like tergiversation, never did, never will!


=)


J.

 

[Sarubaboon]

nice one, good information

 

[soundboy]

You said you would give the answers to JANUARY's Q&A in four weeks and you take four months. You announce Frank as our new community rep but he never posts anything unless it's to suppress bad feeling over whatever issue has upset players. My final question to you I'll ask now as I will not post in one of your Q&A's again.

Are we supposed to be impressed with this customer care?

soundboy

 

[dolera]

You said you would give the answers to JANUARY's Q&A in four weeks and you take four months. You announce Frank as our new community rep but he never posts anything unless it's to suppress bad feeling over whatever issue has upset players. My final question to you I'll ask now as I will not post in one of your Q&A's again.

Are we supposed to be impressed with this customer care?

soundboy

most likely
I fear it's the best they can come up with

 

[fluKe]

I forgot I actually asked a question And I got a vague answer, my luck is changing woohoo

Do the guys at MindArk work on weekends?

 

[Doer]

I know, not everyone likes buts =)

Well, Sir Mix-a-lot does, but not little ones like that, eh?

Sorry, i couldn't resist.

 

[Stryker]

It seems that any questions that dealt with specifics of the dynamic loot distribution system, such as "how many of X item drop" "how often does X item loot" "will X item drop more frequently" "when was the last X looted" etc. were not answered.

I can understand why such details are unable to be discussed, even if it is frustrating for us.

I guess my own question was omitted for this reason as well:

Looking at the recent high end mob's uber loots, I think its safe to say the harder mobs in game are still limited to the same cap

 

[Jimmy B]

Thanks Marco for the responses, some interesting answers and some hints at things to look forward to

Looking at the recent high end mob's uber loots, I think its safe to say the harder mobs in game are still limited to the same cap

I'd agree this appears to be the case. However, I think the high-end mobs drop the big ones more regularly than the low-end mobs. e.g. you get a 32k Hogglo every 15000 Hogglos killed, you get a 6k Exarosaur every 150000 exarosaurs killed. Numbers completely made up of course

Post 48
Will you ever actually release a list (sort of a 'Heads Up!') in regards to HOW and possibly WHAT drops certain new items?
Submitted by Sunab Naverith

We have no such plans today.

Some new items do come with hints as to what drops them though...H400 for instance

 

[Trig P]

Thanks Marco,

Being new to EU, I don't know how things were in the past, but for reading hear on EF and from in game chat, my inital impression is negative from long term players .
it is good to hear for the sorce (You & MA) that future develpmrnt is always in the works, but maybe frequent small updates would be better then one large one once a year. thats just my

 

[True Juan]

Not too informative. Like always.

But thx anyway.

 

[Kerham]

This took 4 months?

 

[Vedder]

Looking at the recent high end mob's uber loots, I think its safe to say the harder mobs in game are still limited to the same cap

Maybe... But I'm not sure.
It seems that the max loot from the low-end mobs now happens a lot less now than they used to. I mean "small exa" max loot near 300-500 peds was more common before than the 3k-5k max is now. (Numbers just made up, as I haven't checked the actual max before and after)

Ofc we should expect the max loot from the biggies to have become more rare too, and it only used to be every ~8 weeks or so, that a near max loot dropped from a 800+ HP mob.

Soo... too soon to conclude that the max hasnen't been raised for big mobs too, imo... I still expect to see a 200k+ hunting hof within the next months.

 

[Mega]

My question and reply 142 has been totally removed in an edit.

 

[RedBlack]

I wonder whats going to happen with the Day / Night cycle

 

[Sirhc]

hmmm... might be. but "when was the last drop approximately" does not give out any objective or valuable information about frequency, number of loots etc.

well, why I even bothered to ask was that MA has stated that all items can still drop. so, why not just confirm a drop of one of rarest items? I do not like tergiversation, never did, never will!


=)


J.

MOD fap is obsolete lol nah just kidding. When you look at how the tier is among adj, imp, mod items in other categories like Extractors for example there are a few adjusted, even less improved, and only one Modified. Unless it has a big f(L)eece pasted on it the modified items, even if they are not the greatest eco wise are very few, except for maybe MOD FAPs which happened to be duplicated when that bug/exploit existed.

I am not sure if MA could or would even tell us just how many MOD FAPs were actually dropped compared to how many were duplicated. This might however throw the whole tier system off or whatever MA uses in their "secret sauce" to determine loot.

Recently I have noticed a slight up tick in nice loots but only time will tell if its here to stay.

While I was under the impression everything still had a chance to be looted and now I know some things are obsolete I think it might add some player confidence if MA told us just what the obsolete items are.

I know my questions to the Balancing team would have been very different if I had know that one tidbit of information.

Like will obsolete items every be completely removed from the game?

Can we get a listing of obsolete items or at least a generalization (like looted clothing) of what else cannot be looted?

What were the parameters for determining something obsolete?

While I wouldn't have expected explicit answers at least they would have known what I am thinking about and it would give MA an opportunity to clarify things with there player base.

Ohhhh well there will always be questions at least they are answering some.

 

[LostInEntropia]

My question and reply 142 has been totally removed in an edit.

yeah I got a nolooter too

 

[Sunab Naverith]

Like will obsolete items every be completely removed from the game?

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that MA will never remove existing items (unless they were obtained by deceit - case and point, the original unlimited korss acquisition). Modifying drops after a certain date, stats, etc - yes, but removal - no.

Can we get a listing of obsolete items or at least a generalization (like looted clothing) of what else cannot be looted?

I asked MA in a support ticket about this, at first I got the cut & pasted response of "blah blah don't give out details of loot system blah blah". Second time, the person actually responded like a human and said something along the lines of "We won't give that information out, part of a dynamic universe if finding things out for yourself"

What were the parameters for determining something obsolete?

I believe the prefix "ancient" determine the majority of obsolete weapons. pity they don't have that for anything else...

On that same note, I swore somewhere Marco (or someone else..?) said that once an item is REMOVED from the drop pool entirely (probably due to insane eco... check mod merc and imk2 ), they tag it with that "ancient" prefix.




I also find it funny that within 2 days of my post a few pages back, suddenly items start dropping... nice items!
Tiger armor, mechel & loch weapons, some nice whips... etc..
I need to bitch about item drops more, lol!

 

[Blob]

I don't see why my question was omitted (post 206); I realise people were trying to answer it for me, but I would still like to know MindArk's opinion about whether the Adjusted Ravenger V1 will ever be ampable, especially now that we have news that melee weapons will also be ampable in the future.

 

[Teilk]

While a number of informative answers and hints as to what lies in the future came about, I cant help but point out that none of the questions regarding MA's plan to deal with the hyperinflated economy were addressed. At some point, there will be competition to EU (and most likely considerably more affordable), and when it appears on the horizon, I really hope that there is a plan to deal with it.

The problem that I see with the lack of attention to this issue is that if a restructuring of our economy were to happen, it would need to start soon, and very slowly and gradually take effect, lest a lot of investors go insane over a sudden drop in overall values of accounts.

 

[Joat]

At least they came with the A,and thats nice.
Lets be better next time and ask things a way to make them reply , but , sadly , the Q and A turn out like politicien discution about any project.I bet its same in all country , you ask them something simple and clear , and they reply something that is so meaningless and so empty of interest ,that you dont even remember why you did ask that.
I do understand that some question could not be commented due to dynamic and all that stuff , but lot of them could have get better reply , or at least a reply.

If we ask too good questions next time, I guess we will be excluded of the
list of questions they gonna answer.

About getting clear answer... I asked support what a PED was seen as,
and well, answer was quite funny.
This is from another post I did about it:

I asked if a PED is seen as a Virtual Item or not (EULA-related Virtual Item).
The answer was: 1 USD has a fixed exchange rate to 10 PED.
Not exactly an answer of what I asked, was it?
It's like asking if icecream contains milk, and and get answer
"-It's delivered by a Volvo".
Don't they dare to answer about PED? It's a part of their own EULA.
But it isn't fully covered in EULA thou'.
But I'm NOT angry or so at MA for the answer, I'm ok with it.
In general, what sometimes isn't said, says it all...

 

[jonboy]

While a number of informative answers and hints as to what lies in the future came about, I cant help but point out that none of the questions regarding MA's plan to deal with the hyperinflated economy were addressed. At some point, there will be competition to EU (and most likely considerably more affordable), and when it appears on the horizon, I really hope that there is a plan to deal with it.

The problem that I see with the lack of attention to this issue is that if a restructuring of our economy were to happen, it would need to start soon, and very slowly and gradually take effect, lest a lot of investors go insane over a sudden drop in overall values of accounts.

I agree but why should MA care about the hyperinflated economy? People are buying the items at these rates therefore having to deposit, bringing in more money for MA.

I always laugh when i hear people talk about they like EU for its RCE because there is nothing real about it. MA dictate what and how many items drop therefore they control the economy regardless of what supply and demand are. I think MA have left it a little to late to restructure the economy tho i do admire their attempt to try. If everything that was useful was crafted by players then supply and demand would be in control by us.

Sure there would by high inflation on certain items as the crafters could try dictate the market price but then they risk losing their reputation and that will hit them in the pocket financially. The implementation of the (L) items will try rebalance the economy as there be a close comparative to the "uber" items we all crave.

As Teilk says this needs to be done over a period of time so as not to cause to much depreciation to some of the investors but someone has to take the hit.

 

[Witte]

While a number of informative answers and hints as to what lies in the future came about, I cant help but point out that none of the questions regarding MA's plan to deal with the hyperinflated economy were addressed. At some point, there will be competition to EU (and most likely considerably more affordable), and when it appears on the horizon, I really hope that there is a plan to deal with it.

The problem that I see with the lack of attention to this issue is that if a restructuring of our economy were to happen, it would need to start soon, and very slowly and gradually take effect, lest a lot of investors go insane over a sudden drop in overall values of accounts.

Isnt it the invertors responsibility to calculate this risk in? I dont see why it is an issue MA should solve. With (L) they already offer an alternative to play the game without big investments, and do about the same at the same or better efficiency. I dont see hyperinflation as a threat as long as there are enough alternatives, which there are, and new ones are addded each VU.

 

[Zabler]

Hey Marco, I just wondered why looted clothes have been deemed to be obsolete? I mean, we do have weaponcrafters, armorcrafters and so on.. And we still loot armors and weapons.. How come the chance of looting a really rare piece of clothing have stopped?

Might have been asked 1.000.000 or so... but anyways

Items considered obsolete (like old clothes found in the loot) will not be reintroduced.

And no, neither the Imp Mk2 nor Mod FAP is considered obsolete. Just very, very rare.

 

[DarkFire]

I don't see why my question was omitted (post 206); I realise people were trying to answer it for me, but I would still like to know MindArk's opinion about whether the Adjusted Ravenger V1 will ever be ampable, especially now that we have news that melee weapons will also be ampable in the future.

My guess as to why that question was left out is that the answer, regardless of what it might be, could affect the price of those guns.

 

[dolera]

I always laugh when i hear people talk about they like EU for its RCE because there is nothing real about it. MA dictate what and how many items drop therefore they control the economy regardless of what supply and demand are.

You can read "real cash economy" in two ways. My preferred way of reading is "(real cash) economy", where 'real' has nothing to do with 'economy'. It is that way of reading that makes me like the RCE of entropia. But for that matter, they could as well name it Real Cash Five Year Plan Economy
(although, that might have too much a communistic touch to be enjoyable)

 

[KP708]

If we ask too good questions next time, I guess we will be excluded of the
list of questions they gonna answer.

They won't exclude everything - MA know they must respond to users. No users = no game = no money for MA. In this case +(virtual) rep to MA for taking the time to answer.

But when I read the answers, I thought it sounded like a leading politician. Easy questions answered straight. Difficult questions given evasive answers. Not surprising - marketing is marketing and any feedback we get from MA is marketing plain and simple. Sorry if that sounds cynical but there it is.

So in short, Etopia is right - make the questions clear and unambiguous and difficult to evade next time. Then again MA staff all have the highest evade of us all.

Actually what did anyone expect. Q: why do I get rubbish loot. A: you're on our s**tlist for c**p loots. Only the people we meet down the pub get good loots. Of course they're really going to say that It's an impossible question. If the answer is 'it's just luck' that's what they'll say (they did). If it's actually what I just jokingly quoted, they're not going to admit it anyway, so they'll say it's just luck.