Starlight parcels drop rate heavily nerfed not in your favor

unitakira

the drop rates have been messed with massively, 100 bags and the best i got was an armored orc wolf companion!!! a ton of scarfs and blue junk. last year it was epic companions and the works you had only pop around 10-15 to get some decent goods, now its all blue junk armor and R5 stones.. 100 bucks sunk and a green companion is the best? come on last year was fine but this year its a Scam!!

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evalira

Probably Cryptic trying to get back some money that they lost after last years exploit, which they stupidly allowed to happen again. At least this time they fixed it pretty quick. Just legit players get scanked whilst exploiters continue to make profit.

asterdahl

unitakira said:

last year it was epic companions and the works you had only pop around 10-15 to get some decent goods, now its all blue junk armor and R5 stones..

Just to prevent the spreading of misinformation on this subject, the drop rates have not changed in any significant way since last year. Of course, due to the nature of random drops, it is possible to get a streak of bad luck, or good luck, which might make it feel as if though the drop rates on valuable items improved significantly or decreased significantly since last year.

In the interest of transparency, the only things that changed in the gift parcel are as follows: your first parcel will give you a Beacon of Simril in addition to the standard rewards. Should you drop your Beacon, any parcel you open afterward will also give you one, and this will not affect other rewards. Your second parcel will always give a sabiki rig, however, sabiki rigs no longer drop normally, this was due to the market for these rigs being much smaller than the number that were entering the game so they weren't worth much relative to the other prizes they could potentially replace.

Additionally, any new event items added technically decreased the chance of getting another item from that event. For instance, the addition of the Chef's Fashion technically decreased the chances of getting other summer festival items slightly, due to the nature of the way the pack's data is setup. Most of the highly desirable items were unaffected, and the overall chance of getting these items has not changed.

gankdalf

rigs cost less than 200 AD in AH.

hustin1

This is purely anecdotal, but it seems like I'm getting quite a lot of blue junk even after opening far more than 20 parcels. The transmute drop rates seems about the same as last year, however (often enough to be annoying, but not maddening). I've opened maybe a total of 100 parcels across two characters, and my main managed to get the Frozen Demon Sled. I wonder what the drop rate is -- it must be REALLY low.

With all the events, perhaps it's time for the devs to do some blue-sky thinking on what we could do with all these extra event companions? I've lost count of all the frost mimics, fawns, and powries sitting in the bank, for instance (enough powries to field a redcap volleyball squad, complete with alternates). I've heard people ask for using them like RP, but I'd actually like to see something cooler and more imaginative.

bioshrike

They really need to adjust it so the level of the blue un-ID'd items reflect that of the character's "true" level, instead of their scaled-down one.

arabatur

bioshrike said:

They really need to adjust it so the level of the blue un-ID'd items reflect that of the character's "true" level, instead of their scaled-down one.

Agreed. Level 61 items are an insult to end game characters.

ghoulz66

hustin1 said:

I've opened maybe a total of 100 parcels across two characters, and my main managed to get the Frozen Demon Sled. I wonder what the drop rate is -- it must be REALLY low.

is it char bound..? Which would be stupid.

looomis

Last year it was like this:

Companions received from zen store parcels (bought with zen or as daily reward) are unbound, preservation wards are unbound and respec tokens are BTC (why, please why?).

Companions from parcels which you received from gift of simril are BTC. I assume other items are either BTC or BTA.

xgrandz02

Well after the Auctionhouse was flooded with companions and mounts nearly free, extrem cheap.
of course the devs have to do something about, with the first day of event all prices fell down extremely cuz of bugged Parcel-

scathias

I have been in 2 parties where first 90 gifts were opened, the next party opened 75 gifts. between the 2 I received a grand total of 3 bags, I believe I also got 6-8 epic lumens. A drop rate of 1 in 10 for epic items isn't that bad, but that was only ok when it was only the bags that were dropping. Honestly, now that these lumens have been added the whole experience really sucks. The lumens should have been added to a different system and left the gifts alone.

As to the parcels themselves, something here did get tweaked. we used to get lots of blue transmutes and scarves and whatnot, now it is mostly rank 5s. I opened over 100 parcels so far and got 1 respect token and no pres wards at all... more rank 5s though yay...
Part of the great thing about the parcels last year is that even when we didn't get epic items at least the items that we were getting were interesting and/or useful stuff we were interested in. changing this to yet more rank 5s which drop as a reward for nearly every other activity in the game (basic reward for every HE except the demonic ones) rank 5s in elol and SoT... i'm tired of rank 5s and I was looking forwards to retraining tokens so I could have some fun with my alts and respec them a couple times in the coming year and some more pres wards... now, yeah it really disappointing

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aeragar47

arabatur said:

Agreed. Level 61 items are an insult to end game characters.

At least you can feed the mimic with them.

darkstarcrash

arabatur said:

bioshrike said:

They really need to adjust it so the level of the blue un-ID'd items reflect that of the character's "true" level, instead of their scaled-down one.

Agreed. Level 61 items are an insult to end game characters.

If you're an "end game character" you're not going to wear this gear, and you can donate it to the SH coffer as easily as level 70 items, so I don't see the problem.

asterdahl

scathias said:

I have been in 2 parties where first 90 gifts were opened, the next party opened 75 gifts. between the 2 I received a grand total of 3 bags, I believe I also got 6-8 epic lumens. A drop rate of 1 in 10 for epic items isn't that bad, but that was only ok when it was only the bags that were dropping. Honestly, now that these lumens have been added the whole experience really sucks. The lumens should have been added to a different system and left the gifts alone.

Lumens have not impacted the drop rate of Starlight Bags, Gifts of Simril work in the following way: you are granted seven reward tables, each of which contains two items this year, the first table may contain a light of simril, a starlight bag, or a star of fortune and a lumen of varying quality. The next six reward tables contain a light of simril and a lumen of varying quality.

Your chances of obtaining lumens of any quality does not impact your chance of gaining a bag or a star. It is technically possible, though statistically unlikely, to receive seven epic lumens and a starlight bag in a single gift.

kreatyve

asterdahl said:

scathias said:

I have been in 2 parties where first 90 gifts were opened, the next party opened 75 gifts. between the 2 I received a grand total of 3 bags, I believe I also got 6-8 epic lumens. A drop rate of 1 in 10 for epic items isn't that bad, but that was only ok when it was only the bags that were dropping. Honestly, now that these lumens have been added the whole experience really sucks. The lumens should have been added to a different system and left the gifts alone.

Lumens have not impacted the drop rate of Starlight Bags, Gifts of Simril work in the following way: you are granted seven reward tables, each of which contains two items this year, the first table may contain a light of simril, a starlight bag, or a star of fortune and a lumen of varying quality. The next six reward tables contain a light of simril and a lumen of varying quality.

Your chances of obtaining lumens of any quality does not impact your chance of gaining a bag or a star. It is technically possible, though statistically unlikely, to receive seven epic lumens and a starlight bag in a single gift.

Thank you for taking the time to explain this.

beckylunatic

bioshrike said:

They really need to adjust it so the level of the blue un-ID'd items reflect that of the character's "true" level, instead of their scaled-down one.

Meh. Just open the parcels when you visit your Stronghold, not on the event map.

beckylunatic

looomis said:

and respec tokens are BTC (why, please why?).

They're account bound. I have a whole stack of them in the bank. Are you immediately opening the container they come in? Don't. That's when they bind to character.

flyingleon

I am here to put some positive results. It is a small sample. In 24 parcels I opened, I got 2 mass of life, 1 pre.ward pack and 2 respec token. At least for me, the drop rate does not seem to be nerfed.

looomis

beckylunatic said:

looomis said:

and respec tokens are BTC (why, please why?).

They're account bound. I have a whole stack of them in the bank. Are you immediately opening the container they come in? Don't. That's when they bind to character.

I am very sure that the container of the token itself was BOC. I checked several times because thats the only thing I am looking forward too. If you're right, it would be quite devastating

beckylunatic

looomis said:

beckylunatic said:

looomis said:

and respec tokens are BTC (why, please why?).

They're account bound. I have a whole stack of them in the bank. Are you immediately opening the container they come in? Don't. That's when they bind to character.

I am very sure that the container of the token itself was BOC. I checked several times because thats the only thing I am looking forward too. If you're right, it would be quite devastating

I would only expect them to be character-bound from a Starlight Bag. As I said, I've got them in the shared bank for use as needed.

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kievitz

Seems a dev has commented, so a question and a statement. Are you using seed based RNG which has truly a random chance or a % chance to drop? If they are using a seed RNG ladies and gentlemen, it is possible that you will NEVER get a drop, seed based RNG is unpredictable and truly random, if the seed number in it is forever changing, thus creating true randomness. There so happy hunting .

kievitz

Just one more thing, i happen to know somebody who had 3, yes, 3 epic mounts, dropped out of lockboxes in a row, he opened 30 lockboxes on one sit. So i can definetly say NWO is not using a seed based RNG in lockboxes and even with a chance to drop this should not be possible. So if someone could explain this?

looomis

I can explain this. He was lucky. There is no need to discuss RNG.

kievitz

looomis said:

I can explain this. He was lucky. There is no need to discuss RNG.

The the drop mechanic is faulty. Because those kinda drops can occur, its hould be fixed. AND please, dont say it cant because i KNOW it can be fixed, either make a seed RNG, tho it might happen theoretically, that no one EVER gets any good drops or make the pure % chance to drop. Thank you.

PS. 3 epic drops in a row, screams bugged mechanics and THAT no one can deny.

matiagronx

looomis said:

There is no need to discuss RNG.

The all inclusive explanation of the the worst loot drop mechanics ever. 3 years and still counting...while everything shows a tampered and manipulative RNG mechanic we must not discuss it cause the god of luck justifies every result...

zibadawa

matiagronx said:

The all inclusive explanation of the the worst loot drop mechanics ever. 3 years and still counting...while everything shows a tampered and manipulative RNG mechanic we must not discuss it cause the god of luck justifies every result...

We really need to start passing laws that require people to pass a basic statistics and probability course before they're allowed to play MMOs...

kievitz

I have observed that, the more u open items in a row, more of a chance to get the best drop in a cluster/in a row. And other players have noticed this too.

bioshrike

zibadawa said:

matiagronx said:

The all inclusive explanation of the the worst loot drop mechanics ever. 3 years and still counting...while everything shows a tampered and manipulative RNG mechanic we must not discuss it cause the god of luck justifies every result...

We really need to start passing laws that require people to pass a basic statistics and probability course before they're allowed to play MMOs...

Or, the devs could be forthcoming and disclose the exact drop rate of each item in a given chance box, plus your particular roll...