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The concept of "Rare"

Discussion in 'EverQuest II General Discussion' started by Dellmon, Oct 8, 2017.

  1. Dellmon

    Dellmon Member

    There seems to be a bit of a dust-up on both the official EQ2 forums and in Discord about the rarity of the NotD mount that comes from pumpkin tossing. Players are frustrated by the amount of repeated steps it is taking to win this RNG awarded mount. I've heard stories of over thousands of attempts with no success - and even some claiming to have cancelled their accounts over this. And to this point the "Red Names" in Discord have responded with "Its rare. I get you dont like that its rare."

    But this got me thinking - while this live-event mount seems to be the latest iteration of 'rare', what are players' opinion of rare things in game in other aspects - - be it Ascension spell components, Ancients, harvested raws, shinies, or that really awesome piece of gear you want...

    Not necessarily looking for feedback on any given item, but rather what is peoples' take on the use of the RNG and rarity values as a game mechanism to drive replay-ability?
     
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  2. Wurm

    Wurm Active Member

    Dellmon the biggest problem is the fact that NotD is supposed to be fun fluff.

    Making the mount RNG and extremely rare RNG at that flies in the face of "fun fluff"

    Especially now that the next expac is right around the bend and the mount will be made obsolete in a very short amount of time.

    I wanted it for the appearance, since I already have the raid mount. It would have been a nice update for others not so lucky.

    And since the old bat mount was probably BiS back in ToT and was easy to get makes it even worse.
     
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  3. Charlice

    Charlice Active Member

    Ridiculous. That about sums up the chance of the mount. It's a holiday FUN event ffs, it's not meant to be a grind. Are they really that out of touch with the players?

    I don't care if it's BIS, a stat-less bat mount would do, JUST GIVE ME THE OPPORTUNITY TO GET ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Maybe you could trade 5k Ancient Urns for one! That could work.

    Is it to redirect people to the Marketplace to buy a bat mount do ya think? ... that's all I can come up with.
     
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  4. Tekka

    Tekka That Village Idiot

    For me there is a difference between 'rare' and 'don't bother'.

    The rare food harvests for ToT fall into the former. While you might not get as many as you want or need, you at least get some.

    The bat mount - as well as an orange gi myself and a friend want from Tower of Tactics (I think that's the one, I get those mixed up. it's in Drunder) fall into the latter. Where it's so rare that if it weren't for folks posting they got one, you'd think it was just a rumor.

    I don't think it's bad for things to be rare, it keeps players engaged - so long as there is a demonstrable chance they can get what they work for.

    What they've done with this bat mount, though, is just crush the fun out of a player favorite game holiday.
     
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  5. Shmogre

    Shmogre Active Member

    Agree with the folks saying that this level of rarity and stats don't mesh well with a fun holiday event (especially after Tinkerfest showed how a community event could be fun without simply handing everything to the player right away).

    As for the question "how rare is too rare" question, it's subjective depending on the context - quick clicks, scripted key quests, or longer zone runs.

    For "clicky" type activities (harvesting, throwing pumpkins), I need to see some progress during an average uninterrupted play session. For me, that means if I don't see some sort of progress in about 45-60 minutes, it feels like I've wasted my game time.

    For "kill stuff to get gear to drop" or "do this scripted quest for a chance at a key for a chest" things, I would say about 10-15 runs through feel like my upper boundary of "worth the effort". Lots of wiggle room in this one, but in general, once I start counting my runs into the high teens, I'm less likely to keep trying. Incremental progress helps; as Tekka said, there needs to be a demonstrable chance to achieve the goal.

    (Aside: I actually really liked the ToV/AoM method of "do zones to get gear, then trade that gear for tokens to save up and get the piece you truly need". That encouraged repetition, made getting a useless piece of gear more palatable, and gave you a goal to grind for. Basically, it took the "mindless" out of the grind.)
     
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  6. Wurm

    Wurm Active Member

    That was the best method that they have used so far.
     
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  7. Endymion

    Endymion Active Member

    I like rarity, but not when it's tied to some trivial, easily repeated action since that means a) the drop rate is going to be balanced around that fact b) it's probably going to be botted/scripted.
     
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  8. CoLDMeTaL

    CoLDMeTaL Active Member

    The people who will spend tons of cash on 'scratch offs' for rare familiar or whatever are the ones keeping the game afloat.
     
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  9. Inire

    Inire Not really an evil duck, just misunderstood.

    this dev team has troubles building itemization and methods that are fun for players. just my opinion, they need leaders who have built things that are fun for players in the past. shame that most of those folks have left/been fired.
     
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  10. CoLDMeTaL

    CoLDMeTaL Active Member

    Talent is expensive.
     
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  11. Senya

    Senya Member

    Rare can be fun. This mount is not an example of that. There's a right way to implement things for players to chase, and then there's this.
     
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  12. Semperfidelis

    Semperfidelis Member

    I think it would help if the rarity were left the same, but more options for how to get it were added... like maybe killing the zombies in the long "Survive the Night" quest (only possible once a year), killing the skellies on Nek beach, killing any bat in game, green con or higher difficulty... drop from ANY raid mob that cons green or better... (I kind of miss those old places, don't you?) Just some kind of variety so you're not doing the same thing over and over. Lately there's been too much... sameness. We're a PC game that doesn't translate to thumb-play on a mobile. Use the flexibility.

    As for me, meh, I have a sick amount of mounts. I don't feel a big time urge to blast pumpkins beyond finishing the collections. Besides, the wings work so much better in dungeons. It would just be to show off in populated areas like PQs.
     
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