EM rares - a discussion on numbers

[Smoot]

Simple poll. How do the number of items affect your desire of them?

Personally, i want my rares to be rare. Yes, its greed. Yes, its wanting to have something that someone else doesnt have. Having somthing special that sets you apart.

I think this is pretty normal and accepted in UO as well as in real life. Part of the fun of having a corvette isnt just its performance and speed, its that not everyone else has one. I somehow think that if everyone in a town drove a corvette, owning that corvette would simply lose some of its fun and appeal.

I know some people who who want all EM items to be not really "rare" but more a trinket of attending the event.
I also know some who have little interest in newer items simply because they are too common.
Its good to see players being able to buy some of these items who wouldnt be able to afford them as 10 drops, but with 20 to 40 (depending on random point drops) that price has come down enough to let more people get into collecting. However, personally i am less likely to want these items (i realize the devs dont make the game just for me, even tho they should)
I feel it would be nice to find some sort of a balance that might be able to provide new rares content for the both the casual, and the most serious rares collectors.

Myself, i think its a very slippery slope. You appease the more casual player making these items more and more common, players who may only play the game for a year or so, and you will be losing die-hard collectors who have been loyal to the game for years, and years to come.

I love the ability to deco a house well using EM items, so they will always hold some value as deco, but feel the higher numbers make them lose some of their appeal as collectors items. Im less likely to buy something, or even want it, because i know ill most likely always be able to find it. This is not the case when items are lower numbers.

Thankyou all for voting and the poll, and look forward to hearing some of your opinions on the subject.

 

[blend]

feel so boring .... Too many ppl "today item sale !!"
I like low dorp, Less than 5 and drop in minimum three months to six months each shard
But it would kill my current play style

 

[Polaris75]

feel so boring .... Too many ppl "today item sale !!"
I like low dorp, Less than 5 and drop in minimum three months to six months each shard
But it would kill my current play style

Definitely 1-3 months per drop... the EMs are just rolling out drops like candy now and they have absolutely no meaning. And of course people with are chasing down events just for the candy, and the aformentioned (somewhere) sale list hits Stratics within minutes sometimes... hehe. I like buying rares... but I dislike the way they are dropping at the moment. The event moderators need to begin to scale this back some (just my opinion, I know they're a dime a' dozen.) I like the "big drops" and the way the system is working when 20-30 people get something.... but it needs to be rare, about once every 1-2 months.

 

[Smoot]

really id be happy with even a true 10 drop sometimes (with no random points drops)

 

[Captn Norrington]

I picked both "more than we have now" and also "a 1/1 every once in a while". However I would much prefer that the occasional 1/1 items be something that cannot be sold. For example a title applied to your character, an item with your name on it locked down permanently somewhere in the game etc.

That way no one would be able to just turn around and sell their 1/1 item for billions less than a day after getting it. I feel that when people do that it messes up the entire concept of unique 1/1 items that are meant to be special rewards for the person that won them, not just more vendor fodder to get rich with.

As for why I picked "more than we have now", it doesn't necessarily have to be a clicky but I do think the drop rate should be high enough where everyone feels that they at least had a good chance of getting an item, as opposed to events where there are 150 people in attendance yet only 10 of them get anything. That causes the other 140 people to feel kind of screwed over that they put in the same amount of effort but got nothing. On top of it they then see the 10 people who won turn around and sell their items for a big pile of gold directly after the event ends, meaning the winners didn't care about the item at all, only the gold it could get them. That makes the players who wanted the actual item instead of the gold feel worse that the players who did win don't even appreciate the item.

 

[Smoot]

@Captn Norrington i get what your saying, but i guess i wasnt really thinking about the gold, or the "reward" side of things. lets face it, rewards in UO are very few and far between. ive done over 100 lady mels and never got a crimson.
I guess i was thinking more about the item itself. for me personally, im more likely to sell an item if theres 30 of them. if there were only say 5, or 10, yes it would be worth more, but i know many would also be less likely to sell it. especially because there might not be other drops easily available after only a day or two.
I also liked your idea of 1 of 1 account or character bound items / title / mount / etc. it probably wouldnt be popular, but would be a nice thing to really set your character apart and elimate any gold motive for doing the events.

 

[panoramix2009]

I would rather see even higher numbers than we have now (everyone drops or clickies most the time)

cause multi box not sure name (multiple account open and play same time)
the multiple account is not fair for other player try got drop if 1 person got 3-4 drop



for lower numbers drop need block multi box

 

[lineman]

To me what separates this game from every other mmo out there is the rares in this game. Lately the rares scene has been dull and drab with your occasional glimmer of light now and then. It really needs a jump start. Occasional Mesanna events now and then would do that, it would get some unique items back into the game. Another idea would be to have an occasional unique item at EM events. Even put it on a non boss mob during events randomly, maybe that way people would start getting involved more at events instead of 50% of the people there just standing around waiting for the main boss. One of the reasons why I went with a theme for my collection <blue> is because there is just to much stuff out there now. I said it once before that when everything is rare, nothing will be. Not sure if that makes sense or not but there it is lol. And I agree with Pan that if your gonna lower the drop count (which I wouldnt mind) you need to eliminate the multiboxing

 

[Smoot]

And I agree with Pan that if your gonna lower the drop count (which I wouldnt mind) you need to eliminate the multiboxing

i dont see what multiboxing has to do with needing a higher drop count. yes, its the reason for higher numbers. but if the number was lower that wouldnt mean non-multiboxers wouldnt get any less percentage than they do now.

personally, i would just do away with the standard drop number all together. have every shard be a 1 drop. with the random points accumulation it would still work for the number of drops to coincide with the number of characters there, and the player playing 1 character would still have a decent chance at getting an item once their points meet the threshold. yes, the multiboxers playing 5 to 10 accounts will still get more, but thats how it is now. And the issue im bringing up isnt about who gets the items, its about the desirability of the actual item in relation to number.

If numbers were lower, yes id get less drops (i dont multibox, dont care if its legal/illegal but not enforcable, whatever, im not investing more time into character building) but the drops i would get would have greater meaning to me. and with fewer of them, id be alot more likely to keep stuff that right now just goes on the vendor. and alot more likely to buy things i wanted. to be perfectly honest, rares collecting just isnt as fun when your almost sure to get the item or know someone selling it for dirt cheap. part of the fun is in the hunt. right now there is no hunt.

 

[lineman]

i dont see what multiboxing has to do with needing a higher drop count. yes, its the reason for higher numbers. but if the number was lower that wouldnt mean non-multiboxers wouldnt get any less percentage than they do now.

Well thats your opinion. When your playing 8 toons the odds stack in your favor its just simple math at that point. If they throw a unique on a random mob during an event it would balance out allot more. Multiboxers using key clones are on one target and if there are multiple targets on screen they would only have advantage on the target they are on. Either that or make multiboxing illegal.

And this all goes hand and hand with the desirability because when your talking only uniques dropping, well i agree with Pan, get rid of the multiboxing first. So if you want to add I would like occasional uniques at events with multiboxing not allowed into your poll, well that would be my vote. Until then ill just leave it blank.

 

[Polaris75]

Well thats your opinion. When your playing 8 toons the odds stack in your favor it just simple math at that point. If they threw a unique on a random mob during an event it would balance out allot more. Multiboxers using key clones are on one target and if there are multiple targets on screen they would only have advantage on the target they are on. Either that or make multiboxing illegal.

And this all goes hand and hand with the desirability because when your talking only uniques dropping, well i agree with Pan, get rid of the multiboxing first. So if you want to add I would like uniques only at events with multiboxing not allowed, well that would be my vote. Until then ill just leave it blank.

I like that idea of the unique items dropping on smaller mobs too. But only like 2x a year max. per shard or something. Even have 2 dropping in certain spawn areas not at events would be cool. (ie. Cemetery, Dungeon(s), Water Mobs, Mainland, Tokuno, Fel.) That would be a huge advantage to the people playing in dungeons and such. But there would have to be a huge wide diversity of creatures chosen and variance about it even in order to keep multi-boxers down here also. I see Lineman's point about that at events... and wholeheartedly agree. There's not much that can be done at events I think... but if they did it right they *could* fix it where a unique would drop from the game twice a year or so per shard. Nobody would know which spawn area it would spawn in next because it would be hand chosen by the EMs and devs to curtail to the particular item they were creating (and they should not tell us either.... or else mutli-boxers could then go to work.) That'd be sweet. Sorry I know it's off topic slightly... but sounded like a great idea for unique items only.

 

[Jack]

I have to say firstly that I'm new to Atlantic. I've been playing here for around 1 or 1.5 years now.

Also I'm new to the rares fórum.

Taking this facts into account I have to say I'm not quite sure about the level of current population of Atlantic compared with its own population in the last years. Because less population, what its natural in a 20 years old game while the amount of rares is maintained 10... 20 W/E... means more rares percentage per player.

But what you are saying its true, when something that is "rare" have 20 copies its not as much fun as if it was unique.

I personally think you might have been dealing with rares for a quite while, which means for me (as far as I know) you collect rares for quite some years now and you are no longer happy with regular "rares" (1/10, 1/20, etc) but you might have turned a bit more "selective" and now you are no longer satisfied with these but you want something more rare lique UNIQUES.

I think everyone deserves to be able to participate in the rares collection, but its own nature tends to make this market not only exclusive but hard to be in it.

If you ask me I would say reducing the amount of rares to 5 or 10 would make this market more selective, but many players wouldnt be able to participate.

I think also there should be more unique ítems so that ppl that have been collecting rares for years see satisfied theyre hobbie as I think that you don't enjoy collecting this "REGULAR" RARES (not sure how to call em) any more.

I hope you get your expectations satisfied as the ones that have been playing for many years but enter this market now we can see our 1/10 .. 1/20 expectations enough satisfied for the moment.

I hope I helped you.

Thanks & Regards,

Jack_Uo

 

[Queen Arya]

Clickies!
I enjoy the drop for the story line/story arc

 

[MeTheGreat]

I care most about the memory attached to an item; followed by its usefulness in decoration and/or as a wearable (graphic/color/name). From that, it follows that I prefer everyone drops or clickys, or at least
for the graphic to be made available to those without the ability to attend or the wealth to purchase event items.

I see the lure of having one of a kind items but would prefer that they be more random and chaotic than a scheduled event system that requires participation on a specific day and time,
and would reward different playstyles (a rare color of pet found among normal spawn on a particular day on one shard only, a random piece of bod-reward awesomeness,
an em that pvps on a toon for an hour with an uninsured or cursed item, or a stealable that is in one of the dungeons where stealables are normally found, a pack drop during mining or fishing).