Yep, maybe it's the random drops.

Farmed Sis with full group of 15s, resulting in 8 rainbows for 90 minutes. Farmed Abby with full group of 100s for 90 minutes resulting in 9 rainbows.. 2 of the the drops were double rainbow for the group.

Doesn't seem like much difference to me.

Thanks everyone for their input. Five pages is a decent thread and the Dev's have had time to make an appearance. I saw Crickette's reply but no one else.

I am done posting in this thread. My intention was to bring light to what I perceived as a problem and the cause of the exodus of a large number of long time players. With Conan dropping in 2 months and Warhammer in Sept, we will see a large exodus of the hardcore players. I am sure the free player base will not be affected as greatly. Just wanted to let it be known probably the main reason I am going to Conan. I love DR and think the Dev's have done a great job with the resources they have been given.

Sorry that a developer hasn't gotten back to you until now. This issue has definitely been raised to the team... and I've been out of the office for the past week on vacation. I will ensure that we take a long hard look at the drop rates and will report back the results (including a comparison to the previous build). Give me a couple of days to scrounge up the data.

We definitely haven't done anything to the drop rates on purpose (that I'm aware of). We have added more mythic items, which will change things a bit... but not the number that are dropped.

The system is definitely random. Every monster has a chance to drop mythic items. Boss monsters have a higher chance to drop mythic items. Also, there is an increase to mythic drop chances once you hit level 90. I believe the best mythic drop chance is 1 in 30 from bosses in the HDoL.

What is missing from our system is an automated way to verify drop rates are where we want them to be. We really need to check this every time we make a build. An unexpected consequence of changing some item data somewhere could affect drop rates. I have no evidence that this has happened. Still, I'll make sure this kind of verification system gets created as soon as possible.

At the minimum, we can do a "sniff" pass on our boss item generators at build time to make sure that they pass muster.

We certainly don't want to change drop rates without telling you. The Abby fight was adjusted... it's possible that the drop rates could have been modified unexpectedly. We'll take a good hard look at this and I'll get what information I can to you as soon as possible.

Sorry again for the delay!

steve

Thanks Stephen. I, for one, really appreciate that our concerns are being addressed no matter the outcome.

Yes, thank you for the direct answer. I'm sure everyone appreciates your concern with a response, and will await the results to get it all figured out.

Very appreciated

What he said..... It's appreciated!

just my 2 cents worth but since i've started playing I get to a boss and then just farm them for days and days for experience and loot.I am now lvl 86 I have killed Sissirat over 300 times, Formed roc over 300 times, Frump and widowmaker 300+ also and never ever got a rb drop off the boss (i think the whole time i got 2 in chests) now I've been farming Ballzac and up until yesterday had killed him 300+ times and no rb drop until i killed him twice today and got 2 in a row (and of course they werent my class).But I have compensated this by taking all the millions and millions i made and buying from RB sally so i guess it isn't as bad as it could be but a few more RB drops would be nice....

Swiper is level 43 now....I've gotten AT LEAST 35 rbws drop for "swiper" either solo or in group from farming just Sissi, SC, Veregrim, and rotty. I'm sure if I actually had the ability to go back and count, it may be more, since I counted the ones when I ran SC, and it was 15.

Aerator is lvl 22 ranger. Just farming sissi and SC Ive gotten 6 solo, and 2 more in group.

Either I'm very very very lucky, and am somehow duplicating this luck across two characters, or the game is just unfairly balanced somehow to play style, groups, etc. I guess we'll find out for sure now. But I'll put money on the chance that I'll run rotty tonight for 2 hrs or so and I get a 50/50 chance of getting a rbw in that time.

Alrighty, here's what we've found out:

The mythic drop rates have not changed one bit between builds. When testing the boss generators, we found no difference between the drop rates this build and last build.

We've gathered some information on the chances for mythics to drop... allow me to share this with you.

Note: These chances are based on a solo player vs. a boss on normal difficulty. You can adjust them based on the loot modifier you see on the tooltip for the monsters.

Boss Drops
Most bosses will do three passes on an item generator called LegendIG. This generator will create a mythic item 1 in 300 times for players below level 90. At level 90, this generator will create a mythic item 1 in 100 times.

This means that you have a 3 in 300 chance to get at least one mythic when fighting bosses.

Boss Treasure Chests
The treasure chests found after a boss fight have a 1 in 500 chance to generate a mythic item until you reach level 90 where the chance is increased to 1 in 250.

HDoL Bosses
Bosses in the Horrific Dungeon of Legend also do three passes on the LegendIG. Their chance to drop a mythic is 1 in 100 until level 90 when it increases to 1 in 60. With three passes that gives you 3 in 100 or 3 in 60, depending on level.

Summary
Playing solo on normal is the worst case for getting mythic drops. Until level 90 you'll have a 1 in 100 chance to see some mythic drop when you kill a boss. After level 90 you'll have a 1 in 33 chance to see some mythic drop when you kill a boss.

Playing with more folks at a higher difficulty will increase your chances quite a bit.

This is where things stand right now. Perhaps the chances could use some adjustment. However, they have remained stable for several builds. It looks like there's no bug... except for some stingy drop rates.

steve

Hmm, well this has sparked my curiosity after LR pointed it out, so I think I'll speak up.

While the idea of a quest that gives a guaranteed kick-butt item seems to appeal more to long term players, think about the item system we have. I see this going one of two ways:

1) The item(s) is (are) fixed per quest. If I complete "Its a Good Day to Die", I get a +Poison Damage crossbow that is set at my current level. Trouble is, if I do this before level 100, there's a good chance I'll immediately grow out of the item, or am twinking in which case, we're ok.

2) The item(s) is (are) random, as you hinted at LR, and you have a chance at getting something utterly crappy. Imagine if you battle your way heroically through HDoL, using only a shield and pots backwards (as the achievement says to do) only to get a... Wand with +Fire damage. Well that's just perfect since I'm still a Poison Ranger. That achievement just meant nothing unless I want to respec to mage.

(Quick disclaimer: Sorry if this seems like I'm hijacking the thread, figured I'd reply my whole idea here, rather than make a thread elsewhere and point to it. Also, the Title I refer to below is not the class title we already have, rather a prefix to your name that signifies an achievement.)

However, I do like the achievement idea, and always have. What I'd propose is to award titles, rather than gear. Tabula Rasa does this, and I enjoyed the way they implemented it. Many games have something of this nature, and I think its what you're looking for.

A title stays with you throughout the character's life, and you can collect as many as you want. Only one title can be used at any time, but you pick which one you want. Easy achievement quests at the start might award something cheesy, such as "Noobsauce", or "Punching Bag". As the game progresses, and the achievements get harder, they'd get better. Things like "Lord of Flushing Meadows", or "Ultimate Fighter of DOOOOOOOOOOOM".

These could easily fulfill your ideas LR with only changing one word:

1. New quests, other then the casual ones.
2. Get people do more then grinding, but actually do special things, like run a complete dungeon better then just one level for loot/levels.
3. Can create a new type of loot Title which is MUCH more rare, but at the same time not too random, so you KNOW you get one, when you do the Achievement quest.
4. Let people enjoy more of the game, as a large group now skips everything but leveling to 100 and then grind loot.
5. Make the game more interesting.

All in all, I think the outcry over getting loot that doesn't fit a build will grow a ton if the amount of work is increased. But by adding something fun in, and something that can't possibly affect any balance issues already in play, we fit with the theme of the game, and give you something to work for!

Ok. Thanks for the hard work and the information. Both are really appreciated Stephen

Hmm.. I go for that I stil like my idea, but if you can actually show the titles too it might be even more benefitial for players that like to show-off. As a suggestion is never perfect, I thought of some adjustments.

1. Make the item that you get from a quest from your class ONLY, this'll make it much better.
2. I still like the random idea.. yet with the stats that might suck you got a point. As it is a new loot type, why not do something wicked? The weapons you get from the achievement quests are set, but yet the skins can be different. 1 Stat for each class after completing the quest, 10 different skins. That might be cool aye?

As for the leveling folks, it has always been a problem, I do not see a reason to change it IMO.

I like this idea as well. I might add something as well for the sake of it. Have an epic weapon for all classes. However, this epic weapon can only be acheived if you do 100% of all the dungeons/side dungeons. Each new dungeon as you increase in lvls gives you a reward as cash and coin. I know I can honestly say i havent been to atleast 25% of the side dungeons as there was no need for them other to say I been there.

Then comes the tricky part of Epic weapon stats and lvl.

Edited by frankdreben1 (03/19/08 06:32 PM)

I think this problem MAY be related to an issue with the difficulty slider:

http://boards.dungeonrunners.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=51653&an=0&page=0#Post51653

http://boards.dungeonrunners.com/showflat.php?Number=51694#Post51694

When you guys started to report "nerfed" loot I personally wasn't seeing anything weird on my own character. However, for the past day and a half I noticed my loot has been somewhat, shall we say, less than thrilling. I checked and low and behold I'm still set at "insane" but the loot is dropping as normal. No wonder the mobs were so easy! I thought it was easier because I had gear I'm finally able to wear...

So something seems to kick this bug in, but I'm not quite sure what. Around this time period I:

1)reset an instance (which I actually RARELY do)
2)gained a level
3)Went into options and turned on sound

Now these may not be related, but I would like to see what you guys have to say about this. We definitely need more information on what could be happening here

Edit: I managed to get it back to "Insane" by selecting "Extreme" first. It took a couple tries, but resetting and logging out/logging back in seemed to help.



Edited by Crickette (03/20/08 04:56 PM)

sorry I thought this was reported already... will check the bugs board after this but...

Not only does the difficulty change without the slider being changed but also the slider will change to a differnt dificuly on it's own:)

I had been running Rotgut on easy basically so I didn't use pots and get some money. Finished the first mob and hit Rottie Dog and died... inattention death because in 10 runs I had not used a single pot....respawned and checked difficluty and the slider was on insane. Set it back donw to normal, reset instance, started the run and everything was back on insane. Finished the first mob, changed difficulty back to normal, reset, and it was fine.

I've also had the same or almost the same happen with Abby runs. Both of these have been on Steele.

I've also logged in, hit a dungeon, and died. in checking the slider it was on normal. Back in to the dungeon and the mobs were at insane. Moved slider to formidable and reset. Back in the dungeon and mobs were still on insane. Set slider to insane and reset, Set slider to normal and reset. Back into the dungeon and mobs were finally on normal. This has happened in both Embercore and HDoL.

I have mentioned this in game and several others have noticed it also.

Gary

I ran into this a couple of times. Typing in the difficulty (/difficulty normal, for example) seems to work more reliably while we're waiting for a fix.