Also, there's never been such a thing as a guaranteed drop in this game ever, from any boss, so it seems a little silly to whine about what's "fair" in this particular case alone. This all sounds like hoarders and IDOCers mad that they can't own one of everything in the game.
corguls sash is a guaranteed drop. one of the reasons its so cheap, and i would never ever actually do the content myself. ill just buy the item.
point being, if EM drops were high number clickies (lets say 5m each like other high number clickies) those who just want the deco would just buy the item rather than sitting thru a 1 to 2 hour event.
And this doesnt just apply to EM items. take blackthorns dungeon. Captains are extremely difficult. i actually did this content, and would still be doing it if the items were valuable / not as common. but as it is, since you can afk farm small mobs (appeasing those who wouldnt make a character capable of killing captains) the prices of those items has dropped so low that it negates the actual game content.
i will never do blackthorns dungeon again. ill just buy the item for 30m. 30m or 5 hours of my time? its not even a decision.
if events were all clickies / 100 plus drops, id probably stop doing 90% of events. Maybe just do the 1 shard with the best story (currently i play 24 shards for events)
and then many shards would not be able to have events at all because of such low turnout as you said. i dont think broadsword could rationalize paying any kind of hourly wage if its only 0 to 10 players at an event. Perhaps im wrong. (and yes on some shards there are between 0 and 5 homeshard players)
its even gotten to the point right now where im not doing events for the average, 100 to 175m drops. if i want those as deco id just buy them. im doing them for the small, about 1 out of 10 chance for the higher end drops that having to buy one would be a monetary inconvenience big enough to make me actually do the event myself.
im saying this as a player with above average UO wealth, but am by far not one of the richest (ive been taking in about 75bil annually the last few years. there are players who spend that in 2 months). those big spenders, the wealthiest in UO, do not do any events themselves. they just buy the items. if the drops become cheap enough, more and more players will be of this type and abandon actually doing the event because its easier and a rationally better choice to just buy the item.
The devs are treading a very slippery slope. theyve upped the numbers and made it extremely easy for to get these EM items, but are still hoping the rares collectors who only keep accounts open to collect these items will still do the events, or still actually want the items.
even most "average" items, most rares collectors dont even want at this point. which is fine, but its a decsion by the devs whether to keep the largest members of UO with many accounts, or the trade that paying customer in for a more casual player (in many cases 5 to 10 casual players if we're talking account numbers)
im fine with the EM system change, it lets a larger portion of the playerbase be able to experience getting, and owning these items. However it also means loss of players, or attendence, when its either easier to buy the drop for cheap because its so common, or so common that the serious collectors dont want the drop at all. Niether of which is good for the EM program.
