Let's discuss Boss Drops in Normal

SlixSC is that you?
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/119235/

Or will you post like that soon?;D

It amused me if Devs suddenly wonder when their suspected core players suddenly start ranting.
I remember Chris was shocked at one of Kotaos postings when he finally lost it with those stupid changes.

"

It's such a farce having to play with basically only white gear every race, scrambling together blue items so you at least have a transmute or two. I'm not sure if everyone is affected by this equally, I don't believe it.

Selective droprates always denied by GGG.
Since somebody constantly bashing GGG isn't racing they deceided to decrease the droprates for players collecting demis all the time. Too bad those still playing are too bad that they are still 5-6 levels behind the best players even they find uniques in every race.

I always got troll drops. If I play caster - I have 7 blacksmiths in the beginning of act 2 and 2-3 rare 2h drops. If I play melee - I got alterations and rare wands.

"

Hilbert wrote:

SlixSC is that you?
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/119235/

Or will you post like that soon?;D

It amused me if Devs suddenly wonder when their suspected core players suddenly start ranting.
I remember Chris was shocked at one of Kotaos postings when he finally lost it with those stupid changes.

"

It's such a farce having to play with basically only white gear every race, scrambling together blue items so you at least have a transmute or two. I'm not sure if everyone is affected by this equally, I don't believe it.

Selective droprates always denied by GGG.
Since somebody constantly bashing GGG isn't racing they deceided to decrease the droprates for players collecting demis all the time. Too bad those still playing are too bad that they are still 5-6 levels behind the best players even they find uniques in every race.

Thing is, I'm not even that good at the game, so I find it hard to believe that GGG has somehow altered my drops in any way to prevent me from winning or anything like that. I would still lose to the very best players even if I had better RNG. I'm under no illusions that my bad RNG makes much of a difference there.

Still, I actually considered the possibility before that my account somehow got flagged for botting, but that too seems kind of strange because I never even play the regular game or trade with other players.

The only thing I ever did that could possibly lead GGG to blacklist my account for botting or shady trades was me transfering some of my currency to an alt account (same IP - http://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/lonestar420) (Ironically, this is one of my alts where I actually have substantially better RNG than on my main and managed to win first overall in a sig race, purely because I wasn't geared in 90% white items at the end of the race and found currency.... how strange is that?).

I mean, I know this sounds extremely whiny and I can't reflect on the experiences of other people, so it could be the case that my perception is simply off here, but in the past 2 seasons my drops have been considerably worse than when I first started racing, at least how I see it.

For example I don't even remember Brutus or Merveil dropping more than 1 white item in season 4 or 5, now it's pretty much standard that they drop substantially more white items than rare items for me.

Same is true for currency drops, I don't think I've seen an alch drop all season and I'm sick and tired of being told that it's just a streak of bad RNG, bad RNG isn't this consistent.

And again I fully admit that this could just be a problem with my own perception and me generally having a negative outlook on the game which then in turn makes the already negative experience seem even worse. But that's all I can do, share my personal experience with the game and hope for some improvement. But at this point it honestly feels like playing this game is like fighting an uphill battle.

But to PoE's credit one thing it does really well is ruining my otherwise good-fucking mood, gotta give the game credit for that.

PoE really has altered my own understanding of ARPG games, in other ARPG games I would feel this thrill of anticipation that you typically get when playing ARPG games. You know finding items, etc... whereas in PoE, before even starting up the game I feel that it is just pointless, because in a way it almost seems that the game is working against the player, trying it's hardest to not drop anything useful, which really defeats the purpose of an ARPG game.

I really feel that, at it's core this game, as any other ARPG, should be about finding items and give you this thrill of anticipation, but in that respect it is a complete failure, because rather than getting you excited it gets you frustrated, because 99.9% of the items that drop in this game are useless junk.

As much as I dislike D3, I actually really enjoyed playing it for a while recently, it lacks depth so it's not a game I could play for more than a week, but at least the game didn't feel like it was actively working against me. Don't get me wrong, I still think D3 is complete and utter garbage compared to PoE, but what really pains me the most is that I see so much more potential in PoE, which might never be realized because the developers have seemingly lost track of what makes ARPG games fun.

/rant

Flagged for botting? Terrex can tell you a story what happens if you reset sarn too often and quicksilver through it for Neglected Cellar.

"

Thing is, I'm not even that good at the game

You are good enough to receive a Demi if the Top player of class dies.

"

(Ironically, this is one of my alts where I actually have substantially better RNG than on my main and managed to win first overall in a sig race, purely because I wasn't geared in 90% white items at the end of the race and found currency.... how strange is that?).

This is also something I noticed, when I switched accounts last 2 seasons.
The gemmule accounts I only use to mule accounts had far better RNG in ALL races.
And it's not like the amount of races was much different. 135/220 RP
I suspect that GGG added something that "returning" players should feel more rewarded and are motivated keep playing, while "core" players receive the real junk drops and must stack rarity.

"

Same is true for currency drops, I don't think I've seen an alch drop all season and I'm sick and tired of being told that it's just a streak of bad RNG, bad RNG isn't this consistent.

I remember that changeable droprates have been denied for quiet some time till the botflagging got exposed.
But I remember that players always suspected that droprates were changeable because Kripparian found 1 Divine of the first Zombie in one race and 2 GCP, Exalted in the next one and the next after the next 1 exalted.
RNG streak? I highly doubt it.
Rather promotion so players will play the game.

"

PoE really has altered my own understanding of ARPG games

I stopped calling PoE an ARPG long ago.(OB release to be precise)
Races are the thing being closest to an ARPG.
Everything else reminds me of a pointless Asiagrinder.

And yeah PoE had potential but if you put the wrong people in the wrong places something like the current state happens. Unless it's an experiment how to drive players away.
And it's not like Balance/Drops are the only issues.

Support isn't even reading context anymore and you receive pms that your post has been edited, when you linked to a random player, playing 3-4h a day while keeping his PC online all day.
If that's considered shaming I believe that linking to twitch is also shaming. "Hey look that guys plays all day long..."
I am waiting for the day when a support member will remove every posting in the "Scammer Thread" created in 2012 and probate every user there for "Naming and shaming"
But that support member will then certainly be shamed as "Moderator of the Month"

Or wait I shamed a banned user creating 100% stupid threads. The link will read removed by support soon.
But you can always mail support if you think they are incompetent to receive:"I am very sorry how you feel..."

"

Hilbert wrote:

"

D2 had a good system. Increased boss drops the first time around. It always made killing that boss for the first time exciting.

The questdrop was introduced in 1.10 and was broken from the beginning. If you skipped the proper queststate sequence Andariel, Duriel and Mephisto would alway drop as if the quest was open.


Also you could easily break with somebody else getting the killing blow having different queststates.

Just to clarify, it was: The guy without the quest done needed to make the game, then be there for the boss being pulled. After that, he could leave the game.

Of course, he had to be on the quest. But as long as he left quick enough, he won't finish the quest.

I'm pretty sure PoE wouldn't have much trouble in preventing that, though. You already lose the party bonus for having others in the party if they leave before the boss dies or aren't close enough.

No what I meant was also known as dropbug.

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?449699-What-causes-Andariel-bug-drop-Test-results


As you know your character will be saved with queststates on the server and client and b.net were almost identical.
But queststalk is clientside only.


There were following NPC Quest states: Just Finished and Long Finished
The dropbug is that if you talk to warriv in the same game it sets the state to just finished but the quest is completed. Therefore Andariel will always do the quest drop.

Duriel could only be accomplished via 3rd party tools or on modded servers pretending you talked to jehryn already so you could just talk to meschif.

Act3 was possible via a Meschiftalk.

Act4 was impossible because interacting with Tyrael was essential
Act5 also was also impossible because Tyreal triggers it.

Another known exploit with the bad Queststate implementation was that you could tell the server "Hey I just finished Lam Esen" without actually having the book and finishing the quest.

PhrozenKeep offered has some threads about that.

"

I'm pretty sure PoE wouldn't have much trouble in preventing that, though. You already lose the party bonus for having others in the party if they leave before the boss dies or aren't close enough.

PoE uses 2. local modifiers by spawning mobs and on killing blow.

D2 used a global(how hard will you damage be reduced, how big is the player modifier) and a local modifier(players in area on killing blow adding to the global modifier)

Both systems are vulnerable to Questdrop exploits.
And a questdrop exploit in PoE might work either like you imagined it works in D2 or by swapping the entire party and having an undefined killer.

Don't you ever grow tired of this pointless crusade Hilbert?

Reading through your posts on these boards, after all these years I'm filled with an indescribable emotion.

For a long time people in racing circles have 50\50 or joking\seriously believed that dying on your first character in a race gives you much better RNG the second time around.

This is an entirely plausible scenario:

1. Die (bad feeling)
2. Keep playing. Get better drops for a short while (bad feelings replaced with good). +25 IIR\IIQ for 30 minutes?

This seems like something that could happen.

This is not a scenario that would happen.

1. Read Hilbert's posts.
2. Log in as "ChrisCEOLevel-Programmer"
3. With a nefarious glint in his eye, alter just Hilbert's drops out of spite, giggling to himself with glee.

Or this.

1. Read Hilbert's posts.
2. Wool pulled from my eyes.
3. Campaign for reform.

or this.

1. Read Hilbert's posts.
2. Think PoE must be filled with non crazy, fun loving people.

[Removed by Support]

God i love these forums.

Or you could use an economical point of view.

It's really easy to manipulate drops on a server/client game.

PoE already uses several known manipulations:

Decreased/No currency drops on flagged accounts(as bots)
Remember those accounts aren't banned right away they can keep playing for hours or even days.
So why not automate the ban?

No currency/unique trades on till level 24 and sometimes even more.
I have checked some of the threads and it seems those players were creating mule accounts instead of buying stashpages and they NEED to level up to stash uniques and currency on their mules.
The flags are automated but the system is totally ineffective because if for example boof would create boof5, 6 7... he would be automatically be flagged at some point and they put the restriction somewhere at level 45 and later even 51+
This system is ineffective because RMT related account create account names similar to the spambot ones instead of using real words.


So just from an economical POV how will you make more money with MTX?

PoE is totally beginner unfriendly and became unfriendlier over the time in 4 month leagues.
Somebody playing HC in another game won't play HC here he will join invasion and most likely die the first time he meets Bladeback Guardian.

So how do you spice it up? Create an account creation check and give those players some rarity.

How do you spice up the motivation for players returning? Of course give them some rarity modifier.

A player feeling rewarded is more likely to buy MTX.

Then add some rarity to players constantly paying so they keep on p(l)aying.

And now check what happens if you become a nonpaying "Coreplayer"
You don't receive any rarity bonus anymore and get low end drops like in screens.

I have heavy suspicions that this happened to me with OB. How come my CB Templar and my OB Templar had the same playtime but in CB I had over 20 level 68/69 maps and in OB I found like 3 maps and had to buy 4 other ones just to run out of maps again. Level 79 in Docks what an "epic" endgame.
And we talk about 9 Days playtime!

Same thing with season 3. The rewards weren't good and I had to kill Turbo Merv with a white Tribal Maul after playing quiet much in Season 2.

And everything after OB indicates there is a hidden system.
Why would you redesign a system where higher level mods are even harder to roll?
Not a single game uses such a system!
Why destroy everything that made people like CB?


I believe the devs put far more effort into that manipulation to motivate players to pay MTX than on the game.
Why create promotion videos of level 42 characters in level 35 areas with 20% 6links?

Because there are so many issues which are obvious that they added something right after having the idea without testing it at all.

For example reservation cost on the Vaal mask cleary shows that they never put it on a character.
And if the Vaal Mask is already that sloppy, Vaal Pact was most likely removed after a last second decision anyway to create an excuse for BIS gloves.
Just like Chaos resists got introduced 8h before OB.

And if Brian posts "There is no dropmanipulation" and later Chris posts on no currency threads that's a method to flag bots that's a big contradiction.

Same goes for denial that there is a huge drop of players.
We receive answers to pretend a world that doesn't exist.
Like:"We have 2 million accounts"
How many of those are banned spambots and CB-key creations?
A posting that indicates over 100k logins but could be wrongly interpreted as 100k active players.
A posting that talks about 60k active players but vaguely hints that was the SotV peak.
And then even post something like "The amount of core player is raising"
But if you calculate the retention rate with the peak on the same ratio you will see a dead game.

And because the playerbase became quiet small again the forum/reddit activity shows a dead game so regular devs could interact with the community again. But most devs are doing whatever he wants and not listening to any feedback.
But hey we got necromancer moderation now. You receive PMs from support for postings you made years ago because they mentioned a RMTboard ("Don't post stuff related to RMT please I edited your posting")
Others even have a harsher fate and get probations for posts they made before the "not hate rule" even it's triggered by necromancer postings.


And despite you denying it. You create pretty much the same threads AFTER me.
Who created the first Vaal Area Thread? It was me.
Who created the first Shrine Thread? It was Ritzh
I even created a thread questioning Demigod design because Vaalorbs turn them into RMT items.
But hey it takes almost 1 month, till there is a reddit and a post by Terrex.

My perception on game changes is way better than the devs or most players and I can predict impacts on the game.

And where is the promised no RNG race? This season is pretty much the same as last season with more randomness known as shrines and vaal areas.

[Removed by Support]