Better Loot.

[Nutcutt3r 173]

7 hours ago, Captain Jack Shadow said:

Make the crates more colors, just to add some eye candy.  But make the colors meaningless

OK stopped reading there...

[Realist 504]

12 hours ago, Captain Jack Shadow said:

Yeah, it's basically like the white drops.  Does anyone even bother with them at low levels, if they are experienced with the game?  No.  Now...what I did do, was drop everything on the ground from white drops, to get other drops to spawn faster.  When a drop is cleaned out, and disappears, it causes a new drop to spawn...if not right away, after a very sort period, or so it seemed.

I don't go out of my way to do it, but I will run over a yellow drop, if it is close to my path.  The thing is, when I am traveling with others, they won't even stop for mid level crates.  This is why I would like to see them revamped.  The increasing of the gold was not enough, since the amount of gold in them was pitiful at best.  So, I would like to see them totally revamp this system.
 

• Make the crates more colors, just to add some eye candy.  But make the colors meaningless.
• Reduce the chances of useless blueprints.  It's depressing to get thatch wall after thatch ceiling after thatch roof, after thatch floor, after platform, after gate.
• Make the level of the crate actually matter.  We shouldn't be getting a lot of thatch in high level crates.  In fact, you shouldn't be getting thatch at all, in high level crates.  The type of item, as well as it's quality, should determine which level of crates it's in.  It's enough to make you uninstall the game, when you find that rare 2 digit crate, only to get a Masterwork, or Legendary thatch wall.  
• Make the quality of the crate imperceptible from a distance, as is the case with maps, and sunken treasure.
• Add a chance for the BP to be an item, instead of a BP, and add a random crafting bonus to it, so that it is truly useful.
• In place of some of the useless BPs, allow there to be useful resources instead...like some gun powder, fire gel, iridium, Agedwood, etc...  This should range all the way from just a small handful for a very low level crate, to a full stack in a very high level crate.

 

With some good changes to the crates, we might see more people out farming them.

Oh man, from what you are saying these drops/whatever are not doing good at all. I was really hoping they would knock off the low level crap.

if people have to travel a lot farther than they do on the island(ark) just to get a low level drop then screw that.

if they haven’t guessed by now, people will power level so damn fast in this game and their other game that these kinds of drops only have benefit for about an hour on initial play.

hey, maybe one day they will learn. If not, oh well. The inevitable will happen. Aka what is happening 

5 hours ago, Myth said:

It's a rare resource dropped from mythical creatures(Cyclops, Fire Elemental, Gorgon, Rock Elemental, Yeti, Drakes, Hydra), used to craft and upgrade Mythical quality blueprints and couple end game food recipes. 

Thank you for that myth. 

So basically it is element before extinction.

either way thank you for the clarification of that. I will make sure to note what needs to be done to obtain it.

[Remcott 13]

If they want the progression in this game to have longevity then the environment has to scale with you as you level somehow.  Once you have a bear and some fortitude points you're not going to die to much.  

Games like Diablo 3 that also use an RNG loot system to keep you farming for upgrades are successful cause as is being pointed out here, the armor and other drops were useful or could be salvaged for crafting materials.   Then when you finally got the drop you wanted you could keep going cause the next one might have higher stats than the one you currently had.

So BP need to have a similar feel.  If I am sailing I should be finding lots of gray BP early on, use them to make lower level boosted gear.  Then as you get to higher levels green, blue, etc.. progress feels like progress.  Slowly you get better armor or weapons etc.  Also things are way to safe.  The environment used to be savage.... now it's like crossing the street at a cross walk.  Except the cars are covered in bubble wrap and can only go 5mph.

1.0 initial release was a bit rough I agree, and things needed to be scaled back, but at the same time..... I looked both ways before I crossed that street cause there were rogue cars out there that didnt care about stoplights, gravity, or physics.  I miss feeling like going outside in Atlas is a challenge.   

I love ship packs, make more higher level ones, that we have to dodge if we are to low a level.  It annoys when I meet a pack like that now, but I also love knowing that I need to get stronger or that I cant just point, sail, and afk.  Then we can get a better BP loot drop as well.

Give level ranges a static pack build for flotsam.  1 food, gold, 2 grey BP one building one ship, 3rd BP 65% chance another grey, 25% chance green, 9% chance blue, 1% anything above that.  As the level increases the drop rate percentages shift to less of a chance on grey and higher chance of legendary or mythic.  Mythic should only be from top tier.  Same process can apply to maps etc.

 

[Captain Jack Shadow 488]

10 hours ago, Nutcutt3r said:

OK stopped reading there...

You should read more.  You might learn something.  When you start making the colors mean something, as they do now, people simply avoid the lower tiered crates.  So why have them in the game.  When was the last time you saw somebody stop for a yellow crate?  I haven't seen it since early last season.  You should learn to be a deeper thinker...think more critically.

The idea that you should be able to see the quality of anything, before opening it, is kind of silly.  That goes for maps, flotsam, and map bottles.  I personally enjoy the sunken treasure the most, because you don't know what you are getting, until you are right up near the wreck.  Too late to pass up even a 1.x sunken treasure.  You are already there, so might as well grab it up.  This adds to the discovery and exploration aspect of the game.  Plus, it's pointless to make things that people are just going to ignore. 

Imagine making several cave dungeons for this game, with varying levels of quality loot inside.  These would be procedurally generated, and random in quality.  You just happen across them.  So when you come across a 1.x cave, you just ignore it.  So why even have it there.  What's the point of even designing stuff people won't use?  This kind of progression works in single player games, where you get better and better stuff, to deal with better and better adversaries, and harder and harder challenges, but this is a PvP game...on the PvP servers.  Thus MetaGaming is the way people play.  So if you want the game to have more depth, you have to create more width.  Don't want a Carbine to rule the Battlefield?  Make other weapons just as powerful.  Don't want the Bears to rule the battlefield?  Make the Lions and Tigers just as powerful.

What you seem to lack the ability to understand is that Flotsam is boring right now.  It plays into Metagaming, which means pull out the spyglass, and only stop the ship for the high quality Flotsam.  Kind of ruins the point of having multiple levels of quality.  Opening a Flotsam should be like opening a present.  You shouldn't know what's inside the crate, until it's opened.  This includes knowing the quality.

Edited May 20, 2019 by Captain Jack Shadow

[Captain Jack Shadow 488]

5 hours ago, Realist said:

So basically it is element before extinction.

Kind of.  Where as Element in ARK is needed for crafting specific End Game items, Mythios is needed to craft Mythical items.  So this is how that works.  Let's use Blunderbuss, since the Wiki gives picture examples.

So first you need to know that there are similarities and differences to ARK crafting.

• Common = 1x materials = Gray
• Fine (Ramshackle) = 2x materials = Green
• Journeyman (Apprentice) = 3x materials = Blue
• Masterwork (Journeyman) = 4x materials = Pink
• Legendary (Mastercraft) = 5x materials = Yellow
• Mythical (Ascendant) = 6x materials = Cyan

2 major differences are that Mythical requires Mythos, for both crafting, and repair, thus few people outside of Megas want these BPs.  Mythos is too hard to get for smaller companies.  You have too many other things to do.  Megas can have people dedicated to getting it, so they may actually do it.  So what smaller companies want, are Legendary BPs.  Yes, Legendary are the most sought after, and the Devs seem to know this, so they are actually more rare than Mythical BPs, which is really really dumb, because the smaller companies could use these to at least compete.  This simply adds to a HAVES and HAVE NOTS problem in the game.  Most people I have talked to, don't use anything over Masterwork, for the most part.

The company I am presently in...I suggested crafting a few of the Mythical weapon BPs, and I was told not to, because in a raid, you are very likely to be killed, and so all you just did was give the enemy a mythical weapon to use against you.  Even if it is broken, they just got a cheaper Mythical weapon to use against you the next time.  This is the problem of making them so expensive, and thus exceedingly rare.  But, as I said, a Mega is far more likely to use these, thus exacerbating the problem of Megas.

Another difference with ARK, and one not well thought out, is that you have to spec into both crafting with these BPs, and using the items created by them.  Ask yourself this question...if I hand you a sloppy ramshackle quality gun at a firing range, and a high quality competition quality gun, is there any difference to you, other than one will shoot more accurately, and consistently?  Do you need to take a class to get better, to use that higher quality gun?  No.  So, I have no problem with them making you spec into using higher quality BPs, but I do not like them making you spec into an ability to use them.  Even worse, you have to spec into crafting, to use.  Just makes no sense.  The community has made it clear that they do not like this.  They tried to recreate the wheel, to make this game different than others with skill trees, but the wheel can't really be recreated.  Skill trees need to make sense, but this one does not.  The skill points for crafting need to be a good bit higher than the "SEPARATE" skill tree for using.  This would be realistic.  The number of people who have ever been able to handcraft guns, swords, etc., have always been much more rare than the people who can adequately use them, and this is even more so when talking about fine craftsmen.  Yes, those who are exceptionally good with weapons are more rare than those who can adequately use them, but not even close to as rare as those who can craft them.  So it makes sense to have spec'ing into crafting cost more points than using, and you should not have to spec into crafting at all, to use a gun, nor even repair it.  I cannot craft guns, but I have repaired many guns, in real life.

 

So here is the final difference, as shown above in the list.  The higher the quality, the more variety of materials needed, as well as higher amounts of each.

 

A logical change needs to be made.  First, I would reduce the increase in quality with regards to damage and armor, for things like weapons, and armor.  Instead, increase the durability significantly. Maybe add a slight increase in accuracy for firearms, and maybe even a reduced weight.  Reduce the durability increase just a little for structures, and ship parts, but also reduce the weight, with each increase in quality.  Second, reduce the cost of Mythos.  Third, increase the amount of Legendary BPs we get.  Stop restricting them just because they are more sought after.

The idea should be that there is a benefit to higher tiered stuff, but the benefit should not replace, or nullify skill, and sadly, that is exactly what games like this often do, because they take the increases way too far.  This is also why so many people who can't put a lot of time into a game, end up leaving.  They soon learn that their defeat is hard coded into the game.  When you are running 100% Cannons, and planks, and you meet somebody with 200%+...you are at a severe disadvantage.  You can definitely be more skilled, and yet still lose far more often than not, and most people won't stick around for that.