DEV'S, MEPPS, SPYTLE! RANDOM IS NOT FUN!

You must understand that the drop rates of the gear are 100% fully intended. They always have been. Even right back when DLC7 came out. Consistently, Mepps would jump into a thread complaining about the loot situation then and say "everything is working as intended".

We've also gone through the motions of "We've increased the drop rates of gear in the raids" popping up in the hotfix notes only for a minimal difference to be noticed.

The drop rates are set this way so we can't power level through content in a few runs, but it also leads to a situation that many of us face where we see absolutely nothing. This leads to some of us becoming discouraged, disheartened and disengaged meaning we give up even trying.

Also, base items drops have zero effect on gear drops. I believe how it works is that the system decides what your main drop is going to be, either 98 gear, 100 gear or a bonus mark (applicable only to the last 3 DLCs) then it "tosses a coin" on whether or not you're getting an R&D or Base Item and if the coin toss comes up positive, those items are selected from their own separate loot tables and given to the players. So basically removing base items would have zero influence on whether or not you get gear.

I disagree that all they need to do is increase the drop rate. That doesn't resolve anything and it's a pointless request to make because history has taught us that even when improvements have been made, you don't see a difference. The element of randomness is still there and people will continue to come up empty handed or see the same drops all the time.

If replay badge sales are the reason why they won't budge, they could quite easily make a system that has a long grind attached to it and use replay badges as an incentive to speed up the grind to those who want the reward faster than the intended rate. Thus opening up more opportunities to grab sales from those who don't participate in the gamble.

Ultimately though, Khalon wrote a great response in another thread emphasising the developers need to exploit cosmetics and vastly improve the marketplace so the dependency on the sale of replay badges is reduced. Then they can move away from this method of progression which can only be described as gambling.

For the WoTL P2 I had almost full drop gear... I was just missing 3 pieces, same for my boyfriend. and that isn't including the double drops we would get. This DLC I have gotten only 4 100 pieces. That includes my accessories. My boyfriend on the other hand is only missing a few. He has had extreme luck. We always play the content together. We also had replays. I did do 2 contents without him in hopes of getting a 100 piece, which I did get my 100 legs in ToD from Ares. Another person in my League has even worse luck than I do and he runs the content much more than I. However, I am unsure if he uses replays or not for he runs stuff when he is bored. I believe that 98 gear shouldn't drop in the Raids. I would much prefer marks over that 98 gear. Whenever I go into a raid I hope I get marks instead of 98. I refuse to use the 98 gear on my Healer. I do use it on my DPS side...but even then I haven't applied it because I want my marks for the vendor gear. Once I have all the 99 pieces, I will equip 98 or better for my dps. I think the 98 gear should just drop in the alerts, no 96 gear there and the 100 should be a rare drop in the raids.

I think making the last boss a guaranteed 100 drop would help. Leave the first 2 as they are. That way, it's still an achievement, but not just a pure luck $$$ sink.

You are missing the point. People do want to replay but not for 98cr gear. Developers said, paraphrasing (I have no idea what they really said but I image it like this) "ok, they don't want the extra mark, that's fine. We will have 4 tiers of gear...a pointless drop, a 3rd tier you buy, have the good gear in raids but make the loot system so low you cannot get what you want unless you replay multiple times (cater to elite who want to gear and feat as fast as possible). By the way let's replace that mark with the worthlless gear." Developers said, paraphrasing again (no idea but this sounds good), " hopefully this will keep the elite players happy that the time to level is 4 weeks now instead of 2 or 3 weeks.

I may get the ban hammer for suggesting what the developers said but basically the loot system needs to be changed from totally a crap shot.

A guaranteed 100 drop would resolve nothing. It would merely change the complaints from "I'm not getting 100 gear, only 98 gear" to "I never get the (most rare piece)".

Luck and random selection need to go.

101 as guarantee drop on Elite raid since the lockout and blablabla muh elite raid on which the gear will be useless after the next dlc
100+ on normal like L&W and A&B
100 for vendor
98 from Alerts

As for base items devs are slapping mid fingers AOE with everything

Kitchen & bath stuff survival mode only
Stuff that will grant you feats drops only from certain raids (better chances on T2 novice),weekly boxes and I guess some are faction-wise if not then tell me where in this world are Playhouse Dining Table,Mystical Coffee Table and Mystical Couch.

Candelabra,bamboo plants and what not?T4 raids

I think they want our lairs to be plenty of bumper cars,feed monitors,diabolical tools,dojo training stuff and whatever instead of something that looks like this

http://s89.photobucket.com/user/tisiko/slideshow/Kourindou

have two more lairs to show but I'm rebuilding them,I really don't know how many in game currency I have wasted while doing so,but I pretty much know that for the Eastern Lair and her five stained glass chandeliers I wasted around 14 hours inside Bludhaven and 6 more hours for the tall modern lights on BiA/FR

See that empty space near in the mainframe?

A good kitchen was supposed to be there,and instead of the relax corner a bathroom,at least I can use single candle sconces from Halloween as a lewers to reach hidden lair areas with lots of bathrooms and kitchens

So please for St.Patty and upcoming events

If base items are supposed to be used in muh lig hole don't put them as requirement to fetch a feat,and add more everyday use base items on marketplace instead of hiding them on raids,that waste of time of survival mode or weekly and monthly boxes

Yep, I know people want to replay. I am one of them. I want to be able to work towards the best set of gear in the DLC. But I can't. Because there is no "path to walk" where I gain pieces at various stages down this path and reach the end of it with a full set of the best gear on. If I run or replay a raid, I'm basically gambling my replay badges away on a chance that more than likely won't yield a return. So I'm not going to replay and I'm also not going to subscribe when I'll be sitting there for 2 of the 3 months between DLC packs with nothing to do except roll the dice and hope my numbers come up once per week.

They may lose money from the players who spend hundreds, maybe thousands of replay badges on trying to get gear from a raid. But those of us who don't replay because we refuse to pay for something that has no guarantees will actually start to replay because there will be a return on our replay badge investment. Those players who start spending replay badges on a fairer system will probably make up the difference and maybe even exceed the normal amount of revenue that replay badges generate.

I am in complete agreement with removal of the bonus mark being a bad move but it was suggested by people who: A) Believe that the bonus mark is some how preventing the best gear from dropping (which it isn't) and B) People who don't want to run old content to get items to salvage for the feat.

This guy gets it.

This is what I want

NOTE TO THE DEVS: There is at least one other related thread going on about this basic topic. I have probably seen 10 or more ideas that would be better than the current system, and most of them have your interest as well as our interest in mind (meaning longevity, replays, and player satisfaction) Help us help you my friends

So people complained that after they rushed to complete the DLC as fast as possible that they had nothing left to do until the next DLC and because of this we now all have to suffer through random drops that we are not even expected to get all the gear. The people who completed everything as fast as possible and had nothing left to do, created their own problem and a fix to change things for the entire community was not required. While I understand it is impossible to satisfy the entire community as a whole, the drop system to satisfy these people will not work. Raids and alerts will still be old in the same time period regardless if you have all of the drop gear or not. We simply can only run content so much before we need more. It is tiresome to repeatedly spank cerberus over and over again. Those that choose to run the same raid multiple times a week will tire faster than those of us that pace ourselves. With people running the same raid multiple times for the drop gear it would seem the number of people that will tire sooner will only increase. and that does not even include the frustrated people that will tire of bad luck runs. I suggest that the devs put a poll on some of the ideas presented in the numerous threads or even their own on how the gear system should work and let the majority decide what we want moving forward.

thank you

Nope. What needs to change is your expectation that you'll always get what you want as fast as you want. The vendor gear will get you into the top raids currently as well as let you get started on the content in the next DLC. Working as intended.

You WANT the 100/101 gear, you do not NEED it. You can earn it by farming the raids. Will the fates bless you with good fortune this run? Maybe, maybe not. You may not get your desired drop but some else in the raid most likely did. Maybe your luck will turn on your next run.

One thing I will agree with is that it seems the drop rates are too low for the raid gear. If people are replaying 20+ times and getting crap each time, what chance do the players like myself that very rarely replay anything (I pay a sub, I'm not paying for much of anything over and above what my monthly stipend gets me) have of obtaining even a couple of pieces before the sun burns out?

I do not support vendor gear being the best at all. I do not agree with guaranteed drops in the raids, at least not with the personal loot method. I like chasing the carrot and farming content with friends hoping for that juicy loot. So long as I can progress to the next tier of content when it arrives, I'm totally fine with not getting it all, too. I hope the devs stick to their guns on this loot model going forward while continuing to tweak it. It's the right way to do things, people just need to give them time to perfect it and get used to it.

Well this is where we can disagree. At this point and time its not pointless, and would solve alot of the issues people are having at THIS moment. Maybe the devs need to take a look on how they implement a drop rate increase if nothing is being noticed.

Oh if you're referring to just DLC13, then fair enough and I agree. DLC13 is completed. It's pointless going back into it to make changes now. Going forward, though, a new approach is needed because it's not a fun and engaging system that they're using now.

A nice solution to this would be to adjust the drop rates of items for an instance every time it is ran based upon what has already dropped. If you run the content enough times you are virtually guaranteed to get what you want because the drop rates would adjust to favor those conditions. It would also decrease the odds of people getting the same item over and over while not getting something new.

Personally, In one raid run, I would like to have a 50% chance to get a top IL gear piece drop, with remaining drops split evenly between a chance to get (top-1) IL gear piece and a chance to get an extra Mark.

At any rate, with so many people experiencing runs of bad luck with drops, why not implement a “Luck” counter along with a secondary loot table for each raid.

For example, a character’s raid luck counter would increment by one each time he does not get a top item level piece as a drop. The counter would reset to zero whenever a top item level piece does drop. A check would be made of the counter value prior to each drop. If the value = 7 (or whatever number devs determine) then the secondary loot table would be used, which would only contain top item level gear. In this way, a character would be guaranteed a top IL drop at least every 7th drop in that specific raid.

Serious question:

Why not?

Exactly. What the devs need to realize is that there was no complaints for T1-T3. Even T4 was fine until they added codexes, but many of us did not care as the gear difference was extremely minimal. No one playing this game has an issue with a grind as long as the grind we each have to go through is uniform and fair for all players. The fact that the grind never ends for some players is what is upsetting those of us speaking out against this DLCs terrible gear set up, and the others before it. This newest DLC was just the straw that broke the camels back.

One thing I would like to also point out is this current random system would never ever fly in PvP. So why is it ok in PvE? Why is it that when we all PvP, our effort and time is respected, but yet when we PvE our time and effort means nothing? Before anyone in here says "PvE is not competitive like PvP", let me ask you, Survival Mode is not competitive? The DPS race is not considered competitive by many PvE players? Also for the people claiming "you don't need the 101 gear, it's optional", are you seriously trying telling us that a team of players wearing 101 armor is not going to have it easier in Survival Mode than a team wearing 99 armor? We all know the team/players wearing 101 have an extreme advantage. Let's also not forget the only reason that team even has 101 gear is because they got lucky. Which is complete and utter nonsense.

Once again devs, all we are asking for is a FAIR grind, that is equal for all players. Your PvP progression system is perfect. It requires a certain amount of time to be spent on a certain gear set before you can unlock the following set. I'm still wondering, why can't the PvP progression system be added to the PvE portion of our game? The answer to the loot complaints already exists in your game. Simply copy and paste already. Give us the PvP progression system in PvE.

Nope. Best gear should be in the vendor. Raid gear should be a three star style feat but not a lucky advantage.

Exactly. T4 was DCUO's "puberty" in my opinion. It was tough for everyone. The devs were trying to find the right formula for content, experimenting with PVP DLCs, Bases etc.

Next time you're in game, open On Duty up and look at the T4 content. It's non-existent. 2 Pieces of 4 player T4 content and 4 raids. We got that (if you count the Elite raid as the 4th raid) in DLC13. How can anyone be surprised that complaints were made during this time? Especially as this was intended to hold anyone who plays several times per week over for 14 months? Especially when the best gear was released at the very beginning of the tier. It doesn't surprise me at all that people wanted more from their content.

We're in a different place now. There's structure to the DLCs. You can predict what's coming next because they have a standard which the follow: Every DLC gets harder and introduces better gear. Now all we need to do is get rid of the random, luck based distribution system that would have been far better in 2012 when it was actually needed for engagement and replace it with a fair, progressional system that rewards players for their effort, not because they got lucky in the RNG.

I love the PVP gear concept and would love to see it brought to PVE with T7. I don't understand why the developers haven't done it before now. Forcing players to earn a full set of vendor gear before the next set opens. Anyone who complains it's going to take a long has the option of speeding things up with replay badges. Win/Win for the players who get a guaranteed reward and the developers who have a fair product designed to entice you into paying to speed things up.

Of course, whilst this is probably the best idea that benefits both players and developers, it isn't the only solution. Any solution that removes luck/randomly generated gear will work. Just as long as it benefits the developers too. Nobody is asking for a free handout here.

I want to go back to the T4 days. Four different Vendor gear. Yes it was hard and long to get all four sets but at least you knew you would achieve it if you put into the time and effort.