I don't know if this is a bug, feature, oversite or working as intended. We have all been lucky enough to find 2 ground spawns in the same spot before. Jackpot. But the other day I picked up 7 (yes, 7) at once and I realized there is a problem with how these spawn. I saw an opportunity to make some coin after getting into Bloodfalls shortly after launch so I spent about a hour getting all the ground spawns I could. The zone is small so the collection items are incredibly dense in the zone compared to other zones. I made like 30-50 laps around the zone and got a whole bunch of them. However, there is a spot above the north cave you can't get to. I kept running in circles but after many, many laps, I started having a lot of trouble finding any more collections. That one on the ledge kept taunting me, so I figured out I could get there with rocket boots, and when I did, I picked up 7 shinies at once. The problem I noticed from this, is that since they ground spawns don't check to see if there is one present before spawning, they can pile up. If there happens to be 1 or 2 spots in the zone where players can't access or find the ground spawn, they can eventually start amassing in that spot. This can almost in a sense break the collections spawns until someone finds the pile(s). What occurred in Bloodfalls for me is a rare exception, I believe the most I found prior in a single spawn was 3, 2 is not terribly uncommon. In any case, I think that is a problem that should be considered for correction. Side bar, if adjustments are made, I think Bloodfalls is great. High contrast, very dense. Maybe too dense, but it was much more enjoyable than other zones. It would be nice to see shiney's "tuned" so the number that can spawn is reflective of the SQFT of the zone and the color of the shinies is considered (the recent yellow on ice expansions were not ideal). Thanks.
Pretty sure it's as intended. My personal record was 5 in a row from a ledge in Stratos. Everyone would pick clean the zone, then the only shinies left were on ledges and cliffside places you could get to sometimes only with jetpack/rocket boots. In my mind, if there's say, a nice even 10 spots a shiny can spawn, and 9 are more easily accessible, it makes sense that the 10th spot is going to stack up with shinies until someone cleans out that spot and gets those shinies back "into circulation" elsewhere.
accessible with tricksy tricks (as long as they're legit tricks) is still accessible. The piling up is only a problem if the location is uncollectable. I recall a particular fireplace in Argin-Hiz where collects would spawn, which was a funny thing for the Dev to do because the fire disguised the glow, yes? But the collects would spawn under the fire grate, uncollectable so that had to be changed. Years later there was an uncollectable spawn location in an ultimately-unused zone connection hall in Droga, and another in one of the Skyfire volcanos. Those had to change. Up the wall in Bloodfalls is fair game. Like Sindace's Stratos ledges.
It's been an issue since the onset of ground spawn shinies. Hard to find or unreachable spawn points amass collection items while the known spawn area gets sparser and sparser, until a zone/server reset. Your suggested solution of not letting ground spawns pile up with multiples sounds good to me.
I wasn't talking about the location of the spawn being an issue. I was just explaining how I discovered the issue. I could see it but I didn't know how to get it, but I knew it was there, it was there for a while. That one location doesn't need to be changed, and that one location is not why I posted. My point was about how they could amass in the location. The fireplace is a good example. A single ground spawn being in a well hidden location is one thing. For the zone to basically break until someone figured out there are a bunch of them hidden in that one spot doesn't make a lot of sense. It doesn't matter (in the context of my post) if in your example the spawn itself was broken. Bloodfalls is not the best example because you can basically see if from the zone in. It taunts you until you commit to getting it. It is a great location. Imagine however if there was a fireplace-like location, and by getting all of the spots I knew of, I broke the zone for everyone else until someone was lucky enough to happen across the mound of collects and effectively fix the zone. That shouldn't happen. And on the note of the fire place, there is a ground spawn in the NW corner of ME that is under a mob that doesn't roam. You can't pick it up until you kill the mob, despite all the mobs in the area not being able to see invis. I saw at least 1 person other than me try to get it. Shinies shouldn't require combat to obtain.
I disagree, I think that there existing an in-game means to acquire them puts them in fair territory. There's a similar spot in the Temple of Bertoxxulous (TBM expansion); there the NPC "camping" on the collects is a captive Health angel that can only be moved via a partisan quest from a whole other zone, the Ruins of Lxanvom - one with progression prerequisites! That still counts as accessible by in-game means, in my book.
We will continue to place some collection items in dangerous areas where you might have to fight for them. As for the original question. It is more difficult than it sounds to not repeat locations. At this time we have no plans to change this. Actual unreachable locations are a bug
Why create extra work if they can be reached and collected? There is no need to fix something that is not broken. Worst case it could be considered inconvenient , but get some rocketeer boots and your problem is solved in one zone for sure.
This. Or even shorter. Having some spawn under the world or on an unreachable ledge / up a wall / inside of a tree trunk etc -- kind of not okay. Having a 1-2 hour life on spawned shinines would be superb. And, really, anything that has multiple timed spawn areas (acorns, for instance).
