A few Q's based on observations in-game

(Due to the commonality of the keywords I was searching under, the results were far too many and skewed to give a decisive answer, so I figured I'd post here)

Ok I'm vanquishing an area with heroes and henchies only, an item drops from a monster. Why does it still have ".... which your party reserves for <name>." in the conversation window? Is anyone else likely to pick it up? Shouldn't this be for when you're with more than one real player, and why does it not happen when you solo HM farm an area?

This item that gets dropped from that monster is a blue item on the screen, but it's in the same normal text colour as a white item on the conversation window. Why is this so? This happens with all blue items and armors.

Of particular interest is the Assassin skill Scorpion Wire. From what I've seen, this is the only skill in the game that uses a real-world measurement (100ft) as opposed to 'adjacent', 'nearby', 'in the area', etc. Is this because it doesn't use a precise in-game measure like those mentioned?

That is all. Thanks in advance.

Because heroes and henchmen take their own share of the loot too.

As for scorpion wire, i dunno - its a trash skill imo so doesn't really bother me

It's because the heroes and henchies also get a share of the loot. Yes, the game could have been coded to act the same as when you are soloing, but it apparently wasn't. Only the programmers at NCsoft would know why.

If I recall correctly, in the early days, all drops were the same text colour (light green). At some point during an update, they changed the text colour for purple, gold, and green items, but not blue items. Again, only the programmers ......

My guess would be that the 100ft is basically equivalent to one of the other terms, but somewhere along the development cycle, when those ft measurements were changed to "adjacent", etc., Scorpion Wire got overlooked. Or Perhaps there is no equivalent to 100ft. Anyway, only the programmers......

All these things you mentioned are just little programming oversights that don't have a negative affect on the game (they're not "bugs" in that sense). They're the sort of little details that you can spend a lot of time fixing up (if you are a programmer) after you've fixed the bugs, grammatical errors, skill balances, GW2, etc., that your boss tells need to be done first.

100ft is jus outside aggro range
so there really is no proper word to describe it i guess
and since its the only skill that works from this range...there would be no need to make up a word for it?

Even simpler:

1) Player drops are coded to drop assigned to a player. Why have a whole secondary drop system that comes into effect when a player solos? But, yes, heroes and henchies do get drops, but they are almost instantly picked up. I say almost because sometimes you will catch a flash of an item before it disappears.

2) As has been said, purple, green and gold colors show in chat text but not blue. No real reason other than that it was never put in.

3) Snaek nailed this one...

Interesting - and here I was thinking that the hero/hench company only got a share of the coin. I guess the game code hides what the hero/hench actually get when an item drops for them.

Thanks again for the replies.

The effect of Henchman drops is less evident these days, but at the beginning of last year it was much more noticible. Back then monstors in an area used to drop a reasonably consistant number of items (give or take the randomness of drops) irrespective of party size. If you were in a party of real people or soloing you'd see the drops, If you were in a H/H party you'd only see a proportion of the drops.

April of last year ANet intoduced 'Loot Scaling' as a means to slow the effect of solo farming on the player market. Basically before the update the solo farmers would be picking up the loot that would usually be shared amongst a full party. With loot scaling the number of drops potentially available in a zone was reduced depending on people in a party. And there was much wailing and knashing of teeth

For scorpion wire:
"...you and target foe are more than slightly-more-than-earshot-range apart" just doesn't have the same ring.

You are mistaken. The text appears when you are solo farming in HM as well. Its hard coded into the drop system. It equally makes as little sense to change that coding for the different modes as it does to change it based on the composition of your party.

In over three years of playing, mostly with h/h parties, I have never seen this happen. Are you sure you're not just catching them dropping a bundle? I run Protective Was Kaolai on one of my necros, and when he drops it it appears on the ground for a split second.

[QUOTE=Parson Brown;4394833]Even simpler:

1) Player drops are coded to drop assigned to a player. Why have a whole secondary drop system that comes into effect when a player solos? But, yes, heroes and henchies do get drops, but they are almost instantly picked up. I say almost because sometimes you will catch a flash of an item before it disappears.

In my 3 years of playing, I've never seen a "henchie drop." Searched it and still found nothing... can any one else confirm this?

Am I? See pic below...



Ermm, not really. It just says what dropped it and the item dropped, not who it's assigned to (and it was the who it's assigned to part of the question that I originally asked about). Doesn't make any sense to put a player's name next to it if they're the only one in that area facing monsters.

I see where you're coming from, but it sounds like you better tell that to the programmers.

Whoops. *takes foot out of mouth

@Callista & lilraceangel3 There was a thread here about it a while back, a year ago at least. That's probably what Parson remembers. I've personally never had it happen.

I've seen it happen many times. The first few times I thought it was just a glitch on my end, or someone dropping a held item, but after a while I figured it was something like "monster drops item, then the item is assigned", rather than "item is assigned, then dropped".
The worst case was when I caught a glimpse of a boss dropping a green.

BTW - According to Guildwiki, 100' is the range of a Recurve Bow, staff, wand, and "targeted skills', so, yeah, there smply is no "name" for that range.

Well Quaker, if it were a Gold I would've been more pissed, seeing that most greens aren't really worth what they used to be anymore.