[Raise the drop rate / make drops better] for a party of 8

Disclaimer : This isn't a incentive to better the task of farming, as I find farming a casual way to make money but not the most effective. Also this post is mainly to see what the community thinks, do they agree or do not agree... etc

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Ok, I play Guild Wars when I have the time. Most of the time, I do AB or Elite Zaishen to get me warmed up. When I become bored I turn to PvE and work my way up the nightfall storyline with my monk.

During my adventures through the land of Vabbi, I have fought many dark creatures and have been rewarded graciously by the people who gave me the contracts to kill. While going through the corpse of my victims, me and my 7 companions (the Mighty Koss of the Sunspear, the Malicious Olias of the White Mantle, the Hot Zhed Shadowhoof of the Centaurs, the Almighty Devona of Ascalon, the Wise Aidan of Kryta, the Shortempered Cynn of the Shiverpeaks and the Intelligent Mhenlo of Shing Jea) were suprised of seeing the petty items that were carrying such dangerous foes as the Roaring Ethers! For Balthazars sake, how are we to feed our families? We work hard, in horrible conditions, fighting our way through an unforgivable desert where there are no oasis in sight. We rely on our preys to feed us humbly, but that is not the case... oh thy god please giveth thou the loot we merit from above!

/end-RP

So yes... I'm a casual player, and I also dream of affording a nice 15k set for my monk. Playing my way through the game is rewarding enough to achieve such a feist, but I also want to keep some money on the side to be able to purchase some deadly weapons for my heroes or to be able to afford some ale for the cold winter nights. (darn RP is too fun) I demand that the loot from monsters should be more valuable, even to sell to a merchant. Or else, what is the use of having junk, unless you have a large quantity of junk from which you can either salvage materials or sell for a petty sum. There is a sense of accomplishment gained when you get a rare drop, that feeling won't have a meaning if we get golds and green every minute, that is not what I'm asking. I would rather get some valuable drops that sold to a merchant would provide me with some money and motivation to go on travelling through the desert and into the torment. Getting some nice items is a nice feeling, which makes the experience of playing the game even better. There is no love lost when rewarding a party of 8 humans or AI, they deserve every cent. I'm tired of getting white drops after making my way through an area and selling the drops and making 200g... that is not very encouraging

So can anyone relate?

I can relate. I am so happy when I get a gold. I am not one to farm, I never have been. I play for hours everyday and hardly end up with any gold at the end of the day. For the time I spend playing I should be able to afford a pretty new set of armor or at least be able to buy that nice green scythe I have been eying on auctions.

I honestly feel that when I first starting playing GW it was easier to make money. Now I have a hard time keeping my gold above 10k:-( I don't want it to be too easy, but I also don't want to feel that I have to spend my time farming instead of actually playing.

Would be nice to increase values of whites, even if only by 5-20G, as that can then stack up if you get lots.

Also, another alternative is not to have heroes take a percentage of the money and items, as, with henchies you could use the explanation that they've got to look after their weapons if you're into RP or whatever, but heroes and equipped etc by the character, yet they lose items and money to heroes still. Just don't let heroes get any drops anymore may help

I miss the days where you could make 20-60K an hour easily just of merching crap and the occasional decent drop. Sure rare items were more expensive, but things that actually mattered to the casual gamer: skills, armor, and keys were much easier to obtain.

and that is exactly why they did it.

should have done it when the first solo farmer crawled out from

if you have a full party loot scaling is not there so nothing has changed for you.

...crawled out from...where exactly?

This looked like it was going to be yet another boring solo-farmer envy post but one can't be absolutely certain at this point. This post was cleverly crafted in such a way as to leave one guessing, dare I say, waiting for more? Sly, very sly...

I for one fervently hope that you will round out that statement, sort of polish it up a bit so that I and possibly others might benefit from what I just know will be some sweet enlightenment.

So many players from all levels of the game saying that they are indeed feeling some sort of loot-scale anti-farm, psuedo anti-bot pain, and you, well you say otherwise.

Nothing has changed indeed...

Heh heh, I too am looking forward to Loviatar's explanation of his post. Please, enlighten us all with your wisdom (or lack there of). Your attitude towards farming is as pathetic as it is ignorant. You obviously don't have a clue to what this thread is about. It's not about farming, it's about the lack of worthwhile drops in a full party just as the OP stated.

Yet you choose to start flaming farmers. ENLIGHT US! State your case, or stay the hell out of the conversation. Or, better yet..... EN FREAKIN LIGHTERN US! WTF is your problem?
To the OP, you are correct. Loot scaling is the new anti farm code. Get used to it (I'm sorry to say). It will never change.

And since anet is building gw2 off of the same engine, it will be just as bad there. I feel very sorry for the new and casual players. Trust me, this used to be a very fun game where a casual player could actually work for their armor/weaps and actually feel a sense of accomplishment for it.

Good luck to you tho.

KANE

I dont see how going in full party will benefit more as you still have 1/8 chance of getting white items. whole party get more than if you solo but you byself still only receives 1/8 drop as if you are soloing.

i said it would not HURT him as he has ben going out with a full party both before and after.

he should get exactly what he got before with random drops and no loot scaling penalty.

NOTE THIS AS WELL

it has oficially stated that the scaling is not a straight 1/1

a solo run will only get the loot of 2/3 instead of the full 8

THOSE FIGURES WERE OUT LONG AGO

less ...........yes..........but not 1/8 as everybody is yelling

actually as a solo farmer you will get approximately 24%-28% of the drops. Which is still a load of Horse Dung. Loot scaling wasnt put in to hurt farmers it was put in to stop casual players from getting lots of gold to drive prices up. And when Anerf realized Loot Scaling was driving prices through the roof the implemented the exemptions list.

I say, double the current amount of drops for a full party while in a full party; half the current amount of drops for a full party while soloing - scale from there depending on the number in the party. At 4 players, you'd get what 8 players are currently getting. I think that would make everyone happy, personally.

Yes, it is true that theorytically loot-scaling hasn't hurt the casual 8 party player, yet the other point I wanted to discuss was the quality of the items...
They are almost invaluable, unwanted, useless at a certain point. I guess what I'm saying is that they can use a bit of spit-shine and spazz. It'll make us (people that hardly spend 1-2hour straight on guild wars) appreciate the time spent, enrich the experience what not.

Only problem is, 15k armor is supposed to be "elite" armor, which means that it's not just spoon-fed to you. By reducing drops, it also drops the cost of all green/gold weapons, so weapon purchases aren't much of a problem. It just makes these elite armors a bit harder to get. And their drop rate nerf has nothing to do with 8-member parties.

Can't have your cake and eat it too, bro.

first off i would like tp say i feel for the casual gamer......its stupid that a game can only really be enjoyed by ppl who play an average of 2-3 hours a day with maybe an hour or two of hard farming....it sucks...also 15k armor isn't the elite armor......FoW takes that cake. But uuhh not to dash your dreams bro 15k looks pretty cool too.

No, it can still be enjoyable regardless of what skin your armor is - unless it isn't enjoyable without high-end armor, in which case, look into that.

Skills...cost...money.

...Okay, and??

What's wrong, is it hard to understand?


People have a hard time having fun in a game based mostly on skills (rather than equipment), if they can't afford the skills. Thus, not enough money = not enough enjoyment. Doesn't have to have anything to do with the gear.

Skills can be acquired without money.

Unlock with balthazar faction + tome = No gold cost.

Given you have enough balth faction and lucky enough to get tomes.

Maybe instead of complaing for better drops, we should complain for easier acquisition of skills through playing the game instead of farming.

like i keep wanting quest rewards to give you skill tokens to trade in for skills.....

Well, now, I agree with that, too. Good ideas.

Personally, I don't have money issues. I can generally afford any skills I need or want. I'm just advocating for the newcomers, which at this point (3 full games, 10 character possibilities) would have a hard time being able to afford the most basic of things, much less items that can make the game more fun (like more skills, keys, hero equipment, multiple characters, etc.). A little more loot (maybe not the double I suggested) for full parties would give newbies more money to be able to afford the more fun things, not designed to give everyone OMGZORS 15k & FOW LEET armor and torment/crystalline swords falling from the heavens.

what about you get 125g for every party member in range after getting a skill point. this means for someone who spends there time soloing they get there awsome drops but a mear 125g every skill point. but someone who spends there time doing the missions that include 8 people they get a whole 1k. also this would give a helping hand to those new starters. a nice 500g for a four man mission (if they get a skill point). but also for those guys with so much money they give 100k away to someone who looks cool 1k isnt a big deal.
bring on constructive critasim
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skill token every mission? to many quests for that but i see where your coming from.

I'm going to assume from what you say here that you rely on drops mainly to get your income, and ive barely relied on it all. Since starting back into GW after a long break I created my ranger in elona, started him off in tyria which wasn't very profitable.

However, when I got to starting off in cantha I traded all my Imperial commendations in for superior salvage kits (selling for 1k to merchants, best deal you can get for most trade-in's) and repeated that up until Vabbi where 7 trade contracts got me some nice juicy rubies to sell. Salvaging was another side venture, breaking down all the salvage items til I got some pretty sizeable stacks and selling those for a pretty penny.

This activity combined with doing all the quests, 100g isnt a fantastic amount but after so many quests you see how much of a difference it makes. But to the real point, after finishing cantha and elona i had accumulated enough money for primeval armor mats, the 75k to craft the armor, and a hall with no upgrades that i was able to nearly fully fabricate (excluding the 3 100k npcs and the 50k dye merchant) and this was all on the rangers part, no leftover money from the last time i played or help from others.

Of course this wasn't the most time efficient method, no run out of town and an hour later I'm a few dozen k richer, but ive never been one for the get rich quick things. Guess im too much for the tedious nooks and crannies of the game, but if you can't stomach that I'd suggest hard mode, It won't give you a drop every 3rd kill but it wont give you no cheap and worthless item either.

Yes this would be true if it wasn't for the fact that tomes only drop in hm. During your normal travels, getting your chars through any campaign you would get none of these. And I am not gonna play every tune I got through the game in hm because that would be just tedious.

I agree on the fact that tomes are cheaper then buying it at the skill guy.(Anet could lower this to 500 each?)

Casual players that were allways in 8/8 never was able to get 15k armor cause its obvius that its impossible to get 75k with 8/8 party. The only thing changed is farmers to cant get it too now.

Cmon lol. If even the cost of the skills are problem its easy to realize that you are so lazy lol They only cost 1k. It isnt much consider that a-net expect us to earn 1million for fow with a party of 8/8 isnt it

BUT if its really the problem (I dont know those times molre then 1 year passed away) The skill quests and tomes from selers(they sell form 300-500gold as I observed)

Where did you get that info, a link would be appreciated.

This is off-topic to the thread, but I agree 100%!

the skills token idea is actually really good, would give more incentive on doing quests, which don't have any meaningful rewards once you hit level 20.

play the game, without getting a rare drop by the time you finish nightfall for example you have more then enough for a 15k armour set.

By playing the game, I personally find enough plat for my skills, but I understand that game experiences vary. You only need 8 of them, though, so it's not too bad.

I agree with Lyra, that acquisition of skills should be a little, but not a whole lot easier.

this forces a few things on the player:
1. must play pvp to get faction (or buy the pvp-unlock thingy)
2. must play hard mode and must be lucky (and not title-wise) OR have enough gold to buy the tome

we are talking about casual players here - i kinda don't see the casual player blowing up HM and getting enough tomes to unlock a class.

the tomes are nice - but they are far away from being the solution to the stupid fixed prices!

after completing c1 (for the free skills - my monky is canthan though!) and c3 on my monky - opening the keyless chests, capping some monky elites and using mostly hero skill points to obtain skills i DIDN'T have enough gold to buy the Nightfall end-game armour!
so no - you don't have enough gold.
but if you get lucky you MIGHT have enough!

Well, with loot scaling anet just introduced another instance of killing the casual player and doing next to nothing against bots. I find it humorous that they finally had to remove the granite citadel mob because they could find no other way to stop the bots. Seriously though, it's pretty damn hard for a casual player to make money now...

A "casual player" doesn't need to make money.

I lol'd @ that for maybe 5 minutes, then noted on a sheet how stupid you are

It was in PC Gamer from Mr Strain in the issue about GW2. I can pm you the page or type out the entire couple of paragraphs if you'd like.

KANE

Edit: No:161, May 2007, Volume 14, Number 5, page 34 in the box marked, "New Technology".

Jeff Strain: We'll use the GW1 Engine as a foundation for the GW2 Engine, but we'll be rewriting and upgrading substantial portions of it to provide a visual experience that players will expect in a sequel to Guild Wars.

OMG! I damn near spit my lemonade out!


As a casual gamer, I would like to be able to make gold and maybe even eventually get nicer armor. I am not saying I should be able to get obsidian in any reasonable amount of time (maybe 1 set a year...lol), but 15k should not be that far out of my reach.

I think what he was trying to say is that "a 'casual player' doesn't need vanity gear", which is right - no one needs it. If you want it, you're gonna have to work for it. Sorry, but this is how it goes. Want spending money? 15k armor? Rare weapons? Then get your cesta out and get ready to merchant all those useless items you get from your farming runs.

im typin this from my wii, so ther mayve some typos

I don't know what he meant... but when he says casuzl player dont need money, that is actually false.

Yes, it is a very silly thing to say, which is why I don't think he meant to say it. However, the amount a "casual player" needs - let's assume it's just max armor/weapons and some extra skills - is very, very little (even cheaper if you're going for collector's armors).

Well Lyra, Atleast their bringing back skill quests in Gw:En which skips the skill tokens and gets straight to the skills

Nevertheless Skill tokens are a good idea.