Why do you get more ammo in your loot

No, no one hates you in MindArk office. Well they may be hate you if you own island full of treasures on Planet Calypso, but this is not the reason for the ammo in your loot. The reason is a flag called "disable auto-generated loot" which can be placed on individual creatures where it makes sense. Setting the flag means that auto-generated items such as ESI's, Oils, Makeup, Paints etc won't drop on the creature, instead only ammo and specifically assigned loot items will drop.

The flag was placed on the puny creatures because it didn't make sense to spread out a few pecs here and there in various trash item stacks, it only makes the game seem more expensive than it is it TT values get spread out.

The flag was also placed on big shared loot monsters such as wave spawner bosses because players have been complaining for ages about one or two people getting high TT items and full ESI's while others getting no loot at all. These creatures can still drop combat tokens which now becomes a more common occurrence since the TT value can't be used to fill up big L items etc.

And no you can’t get PED in your loot. It was possible few years ago, but it was changes for some strange legal reasons.

Player's Notes vol 1 part 2 - Hunting Loot Mechanics

It seems fairly certain now that the min/max loots and the 3.5x multiplier are in play.

Many posts here are right that there could be more factors behind the scene at work (and i imagine there is as well), but in the end, all we see is the min/max range and so that's all that really matters for us (the players), and all that we need to work with..

Also, I intended this post (a bit) to be somewhat addressed to Mindark as well as the players, in an effort to give some feedback to what we see and experience from our end.. I originally had posted this thread in the Dev's corner but was moved by the Mods.. It wasn't only about how we experience the system but also tried to highlight some possible problem areas in returns (missing multipliers) as well as the overall psychological experience of the hunt in general ( min/max loots, almost all losing loots, being over 90% of what we loot)

So, assuming that we do indeed have these min/max and multiplier barriers, what can that tell us?

Well I had some thoughts:

Is the Min/Max range a constant?

Using the min/max ranges we might be able to test a few things..

Weapon types and loot returns - Do all weapon types (laser,blp. mf, melee, rockets etc.) all produce identical min/max values?

In other words, Do I, as a laser handgun user have the same min/max loot values as a mf user? or a rocket user?

This could be interesting to verify...

A friend of mine reported to me (after these notes) that he had been hunting argo young and that the highest loot in min/max range he received was 1.24 peds.. this seemed a tad high to me, but here's the catch: He is a MF hunter,, so the next question is: Can anyone else, using laser/blp etc also record a 1.24 ped loot on argo young? or are the more eco weapon types have a slightly lower max range?

this could be very easy to test..

Does the amount of HP a mob regens affect the min/max range?

Much harder to test, but still possible using the min/max values, would be the element of regen.. if a mob was allowed to regen, would it still only produce min/max value loots or would it possibly shift higher (to compensate for regeneration)

To note, I personally have never been a big believer of either of these theories, but never discounted their possibility of existing either.. the min/max range loots could offer us a good standard to test these things against..

It still seems very certain that 1.5x - 3.5x multipliers do not exist in hunting..

But the min/max values i believe deserve a closer look now because they might have the ability to help us test some things..

Stefan 008 Bond

Player's Notes vol 1 - Hunting Loot Mechanics

Like so many of you out there, I have played this game for years and have loads of ideas and concerns about the game we love. It has been an idea of mine for awhile to finally put all these thoughts, however big or small out there in some sensible fashion..

Originally, I had planned to start these player's feedback notes off lightly: concerning some small things, bugs/annoyances, simple feature requests, while getting into deeper topics in later notes. The timing of the end of the year, Merry Mayhem, and Mindark's new roadmap (in which even they are admitting to loot returns being an issue that needs to be addressed) as well as quite a lot of hunters reporting some depressingly bad returns lately has changed my precedent a little. So i will now focus this post on sharing with everyone some things i have dicscovered about hunting loot mechanics:

Notes:
I have read these forums religiously for years, even though i don't post much, and what I am about to say is in no way common knowledge and I want it to now be.

This is NOT a loot theory.. these are insights about how the hunting loot mechanics work and can be in no way taken advantage of or otherwise abused. The sole purpose of this post is to help the game as a whole, not me you or any other group of players. As such, the info is more about the way hunting loot works now and hopefully can gain some insight on how it can be improved and not just in loot returns but i feel more importantly the hunting experience.

One last note before i get on it is that this is a bit of a rabbit hole.. so please be careful with how much further you read on.. I do not want this to be a flame fest nor do i want to upset or frustrate people with Midark or the game in any way, but i do realize the info can lead to some upsetment possibly but it is for the good of the game and I am trying my best part to help improve it, so I'm asking the same of all of you, try to be constructive!

and here we go.. there are 2 points of how the loot system pays out, these 2 points play together to create our hunting experience

Hunting Loot Mechanic #1 - Min/Max Loots

Every mob's normal loot will have a set range: A normal loot consists of all loots that are not No Loots/fragments and are not multipliers (what many call minis)

A very handy formula i use is 300 hp damg per ped spent (roughly ofc) this is derived merely by taking 3.0 damg per pec and simply moving the decimal out to get 300 damg per ped.. this is a reasonable and easy enough number to use for the EU community on avg. This number also helps to set the Max loot in the min/max loot range.. the minimum loot u can receive will be a fraction of that (seemingly around 1/10)

Example: An Argonaut young has 300 hp.. this is the classic 1 ped mob.. 300 hp damg per ped, it costs roughly 1 ped to kill an argo young. When you hunt argo youngs all normal loots you will receive (not frags, not minis/multipliers) will have a tt value range somewhere in the min/max range.. The max being the cost to kill - 1 ped while the minimum i haven't nailed down yet but something like 1/10 we will say.. so that's 10 pecs, all argo young loots will be between 10 pecs and 1 ped (min/max) - These are also essentially "losing" mobs, at best breaking even.. this range can be applied to any mob in game.. 600 hp? 2 ped per kill 2 ped max loot/ 20 pec min loot etc.

So how about those multipliers? (now it gets interesting)

Hunting Loot Mechanic #2 - Loot Multipliers, Where are They?

I am defining a multiplier as loots that you get over the min/max range,, a loot that gives you back more in tt than it costs to kill.

Here it comes..

Does anybody know that a 2x multiplier doesn't exist??(!!) - you cannot loot 2 peds off an argo young (1 ped to kill)

Does anyone know that a 3x mutiplier doesn't exist???(!!!) - it is also impossible to loot 3 peds off an argo young..

In fact: a 3.5x Multiplier is the minimum multiplier you can get in hunting! - you can get a 3.5 ped argo young

Hmm crazy right? Oh, but you probably want some proof right? (I would) well thanks to Stafinder's awesome tracker/E-Life we have all the info we could need..

Examples in proof:

We have some very large HP mobs in game that when you apply these formulas of 300 hp per ped, min/max loots and the 3.5x multiplier minimum.. they generate predictable global minimums (they cannot global under a certain amount because of the minimum multiplier)

A few mobs display this very well:

Longtooth have 4890 hp.. divide this by 300 hp per ped and you get 16.3 peds (we will call this 17 peds for ease of use) so 17 peds per kill is the cost to kill and the max loot you get in the min/max range..

now take the 17 ped and apply the 3.5x multiplier minimum - this gives 59.5 ped minimum multiplied loot (again we will round this up to 60 ped) so basically a 60 ped global is the minimum global u can get on a LT..

Tracker verifies this.. you can click through as many pages as you need to, but you will not see a single global of 50-59 peds in there... i believe the smallest global was 61 peds..

Daspletor have so much hp that they can verify both the min/max as well as the 3.5x minimum multiplier

a Dasp young has 7800 hp. /300 hp per ped gives 26 ped per kill.. its minimum global should be around 91 peds

a Dasp Stalker has 16990 hp! /300 hp per ped is actually almost 57 ped per kill! so they have so much hp that a normal min/max loot can generate small globals (up to about 57 ped) and then their 3.5x would jump all globals up to 200 ped and up..

You can also see the pattern change on mature rhino beetles from when the beefed up the hp back in May, they now have 6khp and cant global in 50-59 ped range where b4 they were often (when they had less hp)

How it Plays Out

Not only are the returns often a big issue, but so is the entire experience psychologically..

Lets take my recent runs in MM as a good exmpl because it has some nice round #s..
I was in Cat 2. at lvl 49 just giving it a reasonable go, i shot for the whole hour, using a L1100/a104 (lvl 45 to max) so 1 full hour hunting and i was averaging 100 kills per run on the spiders. So the round numbers are 1 full hr hunting, killing 100 mobs..

of these 100 mobs.. 90+ of my loots on avg are going to be the min/max loots (cost to kill or below), then there will be 3-4 novas/no loots, and 3-4 minis/multipliers to round out the 100 kills. This is the avg experience over and over. The returns are frustratingly bad but also the entire experience you feel frustrated as you wade through 90+ losing mobs . Good runs are solely dictated on just how good those 3-4 minis you get are ( how high above 3.5x you get)

The best way to describe how the min/max loot operates is think of your weapons.. Both the high(max damg) and the low (min damg) are in practice rare, resulting in an avg damg range..

min/max loots are seemingly like this as well, this results in the avg loot being rather far below the cost to kill, and near closer to 50% of cost to kill in practice. And as such if you go on a hunt and dont get any multipliers at all, you will be looking at a near 50-60% return..

I want to stop here because i just wanted to lay these things down as they are for the moment. without trying to attempt any solutions or fixes..

But at first take, I will only say it does seem that the absence of say, 1.5x, 2x, 2.5x multipliers in our hunting loot could be something to be looked at both for overall returns reasons, as well as the overall psychological experience of hunting. Also the min/max range,, maybe the min is too low on that (and again i'm not sure what it is, but can probably be tested and verified easily, i only used 1/10 as an exmpl, tho its close to that)

Stefan 008 Bond

Developer Notes 3

This Entropia Universe Buzz article is part of a new series of Developer Notes where the development team at MindArk will share various tips and bits of information about Entropia Universe with our participants. Some Developer Notes will address important issues that we have noticed being discussed on community forums, while others will be prompted by feedback and questions received via support cases. Our goal with the Developer Notes series is to help participants better understand MindArk’s goals for Entropia Universe, and hopefully correct several misconceptions that have arisen within the community that we feel might help participants make more informed decisions for their avatars. We hope that you find the Developer Notes article series interesting and informative.

Hunting Efficiency Examined - The last Developer Notes article sought to stress the importance of efficiency in Entropia Universe, but did not provide a clear definition of what is meant by the term efficiency. We would like to offer a bit more insight for the benefit of the community, and in this article will focus on ways to become more efficient in Entropia Universe’s most popular profession, hunting. Efficiency tips for the mining and manufacturing professions will be covered in a future article.

Efficiency in hunting has several components, the most vital of which is Hit Ability (sometimes abbreviated as HA). Hit Ability is a measure of how accurate you avatar is with a weapon. You can view your avatar’s Hit Ability on a weapon by right-clicking on the weapon and viewing the item’s information panel. Based on your avatar’s skills and the requirements for the particular weapon, a number between 0.0 and 10.0 will be calculated and displayed. The single most important effort a hunter can make in becoming more efficient in his or her hunting activities is to always use weapons which are “maxed” -- weapons with which your avatar has 10.0 Hit Ability. The importance of this cannot be stressed strongly enough.

A second and very important part of efficient hunting is to consider the relative cost of using a particular weapon, often referred to as weapon economy, usually measured as damage per PEC. This measures how efficiently, in terms of weapon decay and ammo consumption, a weapon produces each point of damage. An avatar will enjoy much better overall hunting results over time when using weapons with higher damage per pec. Many community websites, such as www.entropedia.info, offer detailed statistics on the economy of nearly all the various weapons available in Entropia Universe. The MindArk development team is also considering including more detailed economy statistics on the item information panel in an upcoming release to improve the availability of such information.

Another important part of hunting efficiently is making sure that your avatar has achieved the full damage capability of the weapon being used. Like Hit Ability, damage capability is calculated based on the avatar’s skills and the weapon’s requirements, and is shown in the format Actual_Damage / Maximum_Damage on the item information panel. For example: 10.0-20.0 / 10.0-20.0. To be the most efficient as possible, make sure to hunt with weapons on which your avatar has reached the weapon’s maximum damage potential.

Finally, be sure to hunt creatures within your avatar's skill level. Creatures within Entropia Universe are designed with avatars of varying skill levels and equipment in mind, and each creature type has different attack speeds, regeneration rates, hit probabilities and damage potential. It is a good idea to avoid excessive armor decay and healing costs when trying to hunt as efficiently as possible.

One of the wonderful things about Entropia Universe is its very knowledgeable and helpful community of participants. There is a wealth of information available to newcomers and veterans alike on the various Entropia Universe community websites and forums, and participants are encouraged to seek out the accumulated wisdom and tutorials available there. There are also many helpful mentors and societies that can be found in major cities on each planet, or contacted through the Mentor Register and Society Terminals.

We hope that this article has provided some valuable tips for your future hunting expeditions.
Happy hunting!

Developer Notes 2

This Entropia Universe Buzz article is part of a new series of Developer Notes where the development team at MindArk will share various tips and bits of information about Entropia Universe with our participants. Some Developer Notes will address important issues that we have noticed being discussed on community forums, while others will be prompted by feedback and questions received via support cases. Our goal with the Developer Notes series is to help participants better understand MindArk’s goals for Entropia Universe, and hopefully correct several misconceptions that have arisen within the community that we feel might help participants make more informed decisions for their avatars. We hope that you find the Developer Notes article series interesting and informative.

Efficiency Matters - One issue that we have noticed being discussed quite frequently on community forums such as PlanetCalypsoForm.com is the concept of efficiency (sometimes referred to as economy), especially with regard to hunting tools such as ranged and melee weapons. A growing number of participants seem to have adopted an approach based on the theory that “economy does not matter”, a theory apparently based on (faulty) field tests or other experiments. We would like to state here very clearly that avatar skills and efficiency on the tools used do indeed matter a great deal, and have a very significant effect on overall returns in all Entropia Universe professions. Any playtest experiments, theorycrafting or other analysis you may be presented with which indicate or suggest that efficiency does not matter are thus flawed either in their conception, data collection, data analysis or conclusions.

Personal Lootpools - Many of the theories which suggest - inaccurately - that efficiency is unimportant will often employ the concept of a “personal lootpool”, claiming that the “system” will eventually provide a sort of compensation to avatars who have been operating in an inefficient manner. Such theories are very much misguided. There is no such thing as a “personal lootpool” for individual avatars, and there is no system in place which tracks each avatar’s returns over time, or which provides compensation to individual avatars. As a result, long-term results in Entropia Universe are directly related to the choices made by each participant, and those who approach their chosen profession in an efficient manner will find more success than those who do not. Overall this is a very positive thing and an important part of the Entropia virtual universe concept, as it allows those participants who spend the time and effort to approach their activities within Entropia Universe in a smart way to improve their chances of becoming successful, just like in the real world.

Developer Notes 1

This Entropia Universe Buzz article is the first in a new series of Developer Notes where the development team at MindArk will share various tips and bits of information about Entropia Universe with our participants. Some Developer Notes will address important issues that we have noticed being discussed on community forums, while others will be prompted by feedback and questions received via support cases. Our goal with the Developer Notes series is to help participants better understand MindArk’s goals for Entropia Universe, and hopefully correct several misconceptions that have arisen within the community that we feel might help participants make more informed decisions for their avatars. We hope that you find the Developer Notes articles interesting and informative.

Independent Lootpools - One concern that we see very often on community forums, especially when a big All Time High is achieved, is that one profession is unfairly “financing” a huge loot in another profession. This misconception often results in one group of participants (i.e. hunters) becoming upset or frustrated that their activity is being used to fund the rewards given to another group of participants (i.e. miners). To hopefully dispel this misconception, we would like to inform participants that the loot pools for each main profession (hunting, mining and manufacturing) are completely independent of one another, and that a large loot in one profession has absolutely no impact on potential loots in any of the other professions.

Resource Distribution - In order to promote interplanetary trade and to stimulate the growth of local planetary economies, the availability of various resources will be periodically adjusted on each of the different planets within Entropia Universe. The MindArk balancing team monitors resource availability and distribution among the planets very closely, and is constantly making adjustments to achieve the goals of local planetary economy growth and interplanetary trade. One exciting side effect of this process is that it creates unique opportunities for observant and industrious participants to profit from shifts in supply and demand in local planetary markets and creates opportunities for speculation. Another benefit is that the reallocation process creates a more dynamic and challenging universe for participants to enjoy and adapt to.

How Loot works in Entropia Universe and Alienware Promotion

Loot

First thing to be clear on is that MindArk are in charge of the distribution of loots, not the creation of the items. For example, if Planet Partner create a gun, then they advise MindArk that the gun is for hunting loot and then MindArk set what it loots from and at what frequency. Hence apart from knowing that a gun can be looted, the Planet Partner has no more information as to where it can be looted.
In the example of the Alienware products, that is a promotion between Planet Arkadia and Alienware. So Planet Arkadia provide MindArk with either a 3D model or a certificate and request that it be placed randomly as loot across all professions in the quantity Arkadia Studio specify. Full details of the event will be made public on Arkadia Forum prior to the launch of Planet Arkadia.
Some people are too excited about this and expect that this will be like BONUS LOOT, but I expect this items to be like INSTEAD LOOT. So you must loot something with value more than 19 000 PED to have the chance to get the laptop instead of your regular loot. In other words you have the same chance to get 19 000 loot on Calypso and on Arkadia during the opening day and every other day. Of course if you are trader you can sell that laptop to some rich player for a lot more than it actualy cost and make good profit there. And you can always keep it for yourself and have a reason to spend few more years in the game.
To clear some other speculation up - no where was announce that this is a one off promotion with Alienware - Arkadia relationship with Alienware is very good and it is likely you will see similar promotions to support new product releases from Alienware. Planet Arkadia are also working on other promotions in the future with other well known brands.