Items and Armor in Loot

Wanted to spin this thread up because a lot of people have been talking to me about items and such in loot pools, since my LA has been broken for a few months (which is being rectified). In these discussions though, several people have been giving feedback about the fact that armor was taken out of loot. I can understand (and others) why it was done, but Calypso's decision to turn up the armor drops has put Arkadia at a disadvantage. Now the perception is that hunters are shafted to benefit a very few amount of crafters who 1) have the bankroll to craft said armor and 2) only craft the top end, mostly perseus leaving much of the armor unused.

Discuss Let's make Arkadia better. What can Ark do?

 

I understand peoples concerns but prior to the change there was no market for crafted arkadian armour smaller than Aquila. And low lvl looted armour was mostly TT food. Really you are better off looting oils than low lvl L armour. So I think it was the right move. I have mixed feelings on the higher level gear. Obviously the current situation is good for me but I can understand how looting a piece of perseus can have a significant impact on overall returns when hunting the bigger mobs. I would like to see a little more of the Unl armour drops though. We see a lot of corvus but very little of the others.

On the weapons front, I think the shift to pirons in loot has been good for crafters and for hunters. The pirons are very good and I would think they would be preferred over hermans and the low decay means that they can be sold for good mu. But I still don't need to worry about looted hermans undercutting me. However, its a pity that they stop at SIB 37. Would like to see some higher lvl pirons dropping, say from big mobs or at events instead of those stupid TT food blades.

The other thing they can do is have a look at the herman bps that are only available as L and think about making some Unl bps that use more hunting loot - say other animal parts. Have a look at the MU of some of the hunting loot that is used regularly (eg halix tails). The supply of L bps is too unreliable for the crafting to have any real impact on demand and there is gap in available weapons for hunters.
Release Unl bps that create demand for more animal parts would be good for crafters and for hunters.

 

I do miss seeing all those items in loot, but certainly don't want crafters to suffer. Riptor loot was ridiculous for armor drops, most runs I'd come back with majority of loot TT as Ursa parts. Never managed to sell any on AH either, so they would always end up in TT which was sad because it's a good armor.

If the crafters can sell this and other stuff now that the drops were removed, than good deal! I see no problem there. Hunting loot still needs some spice added back though, getting all oils and hides is disappointing.

 

The problem with L armor market is that people have an irrational aversion to L armor except when there's no alternative, like Perseus. Secondly, something definitely needs to be done to loot to make hunting more interesting.

 

I actually like L armors, the only part that is horrible is when a piece breaks finding a quick affordable replacement part.

Things that are better about L armor:
1. Always full protection, it never looses protection over time as it decays.
2. Slower decay rate, the durability on L armor is much better then UL armor or most UL armor, add durability enhancers and gets even better
3. Sometimes the Markups are really low, not always but sometimes can find L armor sets cheaper then UL armors and replace parts cheaper then constantly repairing the UL stuff.

The only real strength of UL is you always have the armor available and don't have to spend time looking for replacement parts when a piece decays.

 

What about tiering? You lose all stats when your L item breaks - not so with UL items and that can make a big difference

 

I only use enhancers on L armors and my hoplite in ancient greece. The cost of enhancers is to great to always use on UL for they attempt to add to the effectivness of the armor so Tiering is not much of an addition to UL armor. With the exception of a few sets of uber armor you will never part with throughout your EU career. There is not point to use enhancers on low, mid and lower high level UL armors IMHO Enhancers are to expensive and uneconomical when they break to add much value.

 

While L armors provide (according to description), full protection on it's range until it breaks, UL gear for begginer playes like myself are the garantee to grow. Not everyone want to be an specific job. Me for example divide my time between hunting/crafting/mining. I'm still looking for my right spot on game, so why spend my hard earned ped on a piece of gear that eventually will break? I would like to see on Technician Terminals UL producing armors and weapons for the begginers, then he/she/I can decide to be a crafter or a supplier on the very beggining of the game instead of dividing my attention on possible profitable professions, with very low returns when there's any and not keep expecting globals that might never come to cover the losses. My view would be like this:

-craftable weapons 2-5 damage interval UL
-craftable armors 3 defense all stats UL
-craftable plates 1 point bonus L
-craftable medical tool 2-8 heal interval L
-craftable mining tool 50-140 depth interval 2 probes usage L

and of course those should might be craftable with materials begginer players can find. like Herman ARK-(0)L, how a new player would find animal thyroid oil to craft this? By the time anyone can kill mob that drops it the weapon itself won't be necessary anymore.

 

Murkalael I think maybe you are looking at the the L/UL question in not the best way.
UL armour decays and you have to repair. L armour decays (much more slowly) and it breaks and you need to replace. Either way you have to pay peds to either repair or replace. Cost in peds is determined by amount of damage absorbed and durability. With significantly higher dura, L armour costs you less per point of damage absorbed. On the flip side the 3% minimum condition is value you can't get from L armour while that's not really a financial issue with UL.

As you have mentioned, UL armour offers less protection as it decays. Given the low max TT value of low level armour, the drop off in protection can be quite steep unless you keep armour fully repaired.

One advantage of UL armour is that tiering is retained. You don't have to keep doing it over and over, unlike L armour. However, I believe that enhancers are of limited value on low level armour, comparing benefits to cost.

Finally, low level players skill up relatively quickly. Armour suitable for hunting starter mobs quickly becomes inappropriate as you move on to tougher beasts. So with UL armour, you end up with a set or sets that you no longer use and and to try and sell and that may not be easy, especially if it is crafted. You could TT it but then you lose the MU you paid. It could make a lot of sense to stick with L armour until its time to start using the Adj Musca you get as a reward for graduating from the mentor program.

If you really want to use or craft low level UL armour then I can direct to Settler or Bodyguard. I have bps for this and can run you up a set. But there is reason why you don't usually see these armours in shops or on auction. Their main use is as scaffolding to hang plates on.

And finally (for the second time, finally), I can't stress enough that crafting is a really bad idea for newer players. It's a ped sink to skill in. It's hard to sell the gear you can craft at low level. And you really need to have a good understanding of the state of the EU market. I strongly advise players to stay away from crafting for the first year of play while they gain understanding of the game and develop financial resources.

Regards,
KIkkiJikki

 

agreed, but it can be cool to be able to craft some noob L armors for ourselves, instead of paying high MU, in the case that maybe we can loot the stuff needed making some iron mission and with basic minning and/or trading skills.

 

Going on 5$ question at the beginning, what can ark do?

Since the changes in the armor loots, I have yet to see any (L) or unl armor being looted outside Aakas. Herman weapons have been replaced by pirons, so you would assume they are working on some new, uncraftable (L) armor(s) to drop from mobs. But no one knows anything about that yet.

So I think they should create some (L), uncraftable armor to be looted from creatures. (maybe something like Polaris that's good against Korwil, unless there is a totally fit cold armor set already to be crafted on Arkadia)

 

Don't know if armor loots are the same for all planets or different for each partners, but i have looted some armor parts(essentially grunt parts) on RT (on vampires mobs).
i'm currently making some noob iron on Ark since yesterday, will see if i can loot some pieces or not
(hope to loot some useful noob armor parts^^ my cdf armor is good but don't look so cool as the adj musca i'm trying to unlock^^)

 

I've looted tt weapons in the distant past on Ark but no armour so far. Guess they don't drop on the low end mobs anymore.

 

let em craft if they want. Its the cheapest way to pay for skills as chipping up is pricey in more than one way. Advice to craft Settler may not be a good idea. Pioneer is probably a little better for crafting skilling. as for other low level crafting, try stuff that uses sweat as an ingredient... or uses loot they get anyways... good ol eye oil/muscle oil combo, leather, etc.

 

Isn't that what Aquila is for? Add P3 and you are probably good for up to Alpha. Might need a fapper to pitch in for the really big ones.

 

Good idea. But for starters I generally recommend a place as repairer on a Mothership or Privateer, as you can get to BPC with only 150 ped or so.(also great to use towards finishing mentorship)

On-topic; Yes, I agree aquila is good. I didn't check the armors until after I posted that. (Went to (your) KJ's shop, nice displays there) Although, personally I prefer to hunt max maturity mobs, and Korwil + Aquila = not a very very good idea, but brilliant for the low end.

The big question regarding armor is; do we need more? We already got a ton of armors, each catering to specific needs. And soon enough we will get the Smuggler armor as well. On top of that, every patient, skilling player will eventually have the ability to hunt what they want with the armors we have been provided with.
(And I'm taking armors as an example because we got pirons in loot instead of hermans and people seem to be satisfied with it.)

 

I do not have an issue with armour not being in loot personally.

It gives crafters more to do.

Th problem? Not enough players for low end items in the market.

Not enough players in general for the market really.

 

Problem is not the market, because with an expanding market there would be even more drops. The problem, or non-problem actually, is that the lowest level gear only has one true function:

Loot window decoration

 

Looted UL Corvus thighs from small Halix today.

Thanks Lootius Corvus isn't "rare" anymore - getting swirlies for an item worth two PED at most was quite annoying.

edit: I looked it up on EL - the last "rare" Corvus was looted on Oct 13, which likely means it stopped being "rare" with VU 15.0/Arkadia 2014.3 on Oct 15. I for one welcome this change