Entropia Universe Loot

Information about the Entropia Universe loot system.

Entropia Universe loot in a nutshell

There's loot.

Loot tips

If you killed it loot it, and so on.

Loot collection pills

Developer notes and release notes

Developer Notes #16 - Buff Improvements & More

^{21 February 2018}

A quick update on some of the adjustments and improvements that are currently in progress.

Buff Improvements

We are currently working on further adjustments to buff stacking logic which will address issues related to heal over time, buff renewal, unintended buff stacking, and more. One of the priorities of this effort is to restore previous functionality of healing tools with over-time effects.

The current plan is to refine and test these improvements over the next 10-14 days and implement them in a patch soon thereafter.

Success Rate / Volatility Improvements

Starting within the next couple of days, and planned to last for 7-14 days, our balancing team will be testing adjustments to the manufacturing and mining systems.

Manufacturing

Overall volatility will be reduced during the testing period, while the overall chance of success will be increased slightly. In addition, Near Success outcomes will return more of the initial input.

Mining

Overall volatility will be reduced during the testing period, by increasing the size of the smallest possible claims.

***NOTE*** Please keep in mind that these tests will incorporate macro-level changes to the manufacturing and mining systems and thus the results or experiences for individual avatars and/or for small sample sizes may not differ significantly from current settings. Also note that the overall (macro-level) expected return for these systems will be unaffected.

Team / Shared Hunting Loot Distribution

Our team is also investigating the distribution of hunting loot for teams and shared loot scenarios, with an eye toward implementing a more equitable, balanced, and engaging distribution of both stackable and non-stackable loot. We expect the improvements from this investigation to be implemented within the next 1-2 months, after a full review and testing phase are completed.

Looter Professions

Continuing with the improvements implemented in Loot 2.0, our design team is finalizing the details of an exciting new group of professions focused on specialized hunting loot acquisition. Three new professions will be added: Animal Looter, Mutant Looter and Robot Looter, along with several associated new skills (including unique unlockable skills for each profession). We expect the new professions to be implemented during the spring.

Thread: http://www.entropiaplanets.com/threads/developer-notes-16-buff-improvements-n-more.22062/

Developer Notes #14 - Loot 2.0 Update

^{27 September 2017}

One of MindArk’s primary long-term goals is to make Entropia Universe as affordable and entertaining as possible for all participants. Toward that end, MindArk is continually experimenting with various adjustments to in-game systems, with an eye toward lowering cost to play while maintaining a reasonable level of revenue that enables continued development and marketing of Entropia Universe.

Reductions in Cost to Play On September 11th, we initiated a temporary test in which the MindArk fee for hunting was lowered significantly. In the long term, we hope that a lower MindArk fee will result in increased overall activity and new participant retention, and thereby compensate for the lower short-term revenue. We plan to continue experimenting with these revenue settings in the near future to gather more data.

Early data show positive results from those experiments:

• Hunters with turnover of more than 50000 PED since Sept. 11 have enjoyed returns of 98.6% on average.
• Hunters with turnover between 10000 and 50000 PED since Sept. 11 have enjoyed returns of 97.05% on average.
• Accounts created in 2017 have enjoyed returns of 96.94% on average since the changes implemented on Sept. 11.

As noted in a previous Developer Notes, Loot 2.0 drastically lowered the costs for armor decay and healing, which we can now confirm has led to a substantial increase in the usage of those mechanics. This is an example of the type of positive changes we are hoping to identify and implement in other systems: changes that benefit participants (in terms of lower cost to play) as well as MindArk’s revenue, resulting in a better overall gameplay experience and growth of Entropia Universe.

Loot Distribution Changes

As many participants have already noticed, changes have recently been made to hunting loot distribution, specifically regarding loot volatility and loot sizes. The overall net hunting return was not affected by these changes, but rather the frequency and size of various loot outcomes as a means of promoting more interesting and exciting loot outcomes and removing some of the more frustrating outcomes that were previously possible (especially on larger creatures).

Effects of Critical Hits/Damage on Loot

Finally, we have noticed several misconceptions in recent community discussions regarding Critical Hits that we would like to clarify. Critical Hits do not have a direct impact on loot value calculations per se. Since loot is now based on the actual cost to kill a creature in Loot 2.0, dealing more damage via critical hits (or by having higher damage per pec) does result in smaller loot events for a given creature, but this effect is directly proportional to the lower cost to kill and allows more creatures to be killed (i.e. more loot events) for a given amount of PED spent. Also, the composition of loot improves in such cases and results in a lower proportion of Shrapnel in loot. In other words, the use of items or consumables that provide increased Critical Hit Chance or Critical Damage can never have a negative effect on loot returns.

Thread: http://www.entropiaplanets.com/threads/developer-notes-14-loot-2-0-update.21802/

Developer Notes #13 - Loot 2.0 Statistics

^{14 July 2017}

The MindArk design team has been closely monitoring the impact of Loot 2.0, recently implemented in Version Update 15.15. We have also been following the many interesting and valuable discussions on community forums and thought it would be helpful to those discussions to share some hunting return statistics.

• Net return for all hunting activity since VU 15.15: 94.71%
• Net return for hunters cycling at least 100,000 PED since VU 15.15: 97.29%
• Net return for hunters cycling at least 10,000 PED since VU 15.15: 94.79%
• Net return for accounts created in 2017, cycling at least 100 PED since VU 15.15: 94.87%
• Net return for accounts created in 2017: 93.47%

These return rates are very close to MindArk’s targets for Loot 2.0, and indicate that the changes implemented are working as intended. Of course, we will continue to monitor, tweak and improve moving forward.

Happy hunting!

Thread: http://www.entropiaplanets.com/threads/developer-notes-13-loot-2-0-statistics.21702/

Developer Notes #12 - Loot 2.0 Follow-Up

^{26 June 2017}

This installment of Developer Notes attempts to clear up some of the questions and misconceptions related to the Version Update 15.15.0 - Loot 2.0.

Economy Parameter (soon to be renamed Efficiency)

One of the most misunderstood features of Loot 2.0 was the introduction of the Economy parameter and its effect on loot calculations. Based on feedback received via support cases and our monitoring of forum discussions, it appears that one cause of confusion is the use of the term ‘Economy’ for this parameter. As such, the Economy parameter will be renamed to Efficiency in the upcoming patch, which more accurately captures the effect of this parameter. Also in the upcoming patch, the tooltip text for the Efficiency parameter will be changed to the following:

Efficiency indicates the cost-effectiveness of a weapon (or weapon attachment) in creating damage. Efficiency values range from 1-100, and higher values indicate better efficiency. Efficiency is an inherent property of an item, and thus is not affected by avatar skills. Weapons that have scopes, lasers or amplifiers attached will display a modified Efficiency value (in orange).

A few additional points about Efficiency parameter will hopefully clear up many of the questions and dispel some of the more common misconceptions that we have noticed:

• The Efficiency parameter is not affected by avatar skills.
• The largest components by far in loot value calculations are costs, such as weapon deterioration, ammo consumption, armor deterioration, healing costs, etc.
• The Efficiency parameter is a relatively small component in loot calculations (no more than 7% of total loot value).
• The displayed Efficiency parameter for a given weapon does not correspond to expected overall loot return.

Optimal Loot

Another feature of Loot 2.0 that has sparked lots of discussion and speculation is Optimal Loot.

It is important to note that Optimal Loot only affects loot composition (what you loot), not the loot value (how much you loot). There is no Optimal Loot penalty for hunting creatures that are well below your avatar’s level; in fact most such kills will meet the requirements for Optimal Loot composition.

To best achieve Optimal Loot:

• Be sure to have the Hit Ability and Damage profession requirements maxed (10.0/10.0) on the weapon your avatar is using.
• Avoid over-amping (using a weapon amplifier that adds more than 50% of the maximum damage of the weapon to which it is equipped).
• Minimize healing costs and the need to interrupt damage dealing to heal.

In general, the lower the cost to kill a creature, the higher the proportion of loot composition will be Optimal Loot. There is no inherent “kill timer” for each creature; Optimal Loot is calculated based on costs, not on time.

Crafting, Resources and Economy

MindArk is working on restructuring and streamlining the item situation in Entropia Universe. This involves many changes to the crafting system and loot distribution, with the goal of reducing the number of components, resources and similar items in the universe, to ensure that the majority of items have a place within the economy.

The balance between looted and crafted items, along with items from other sources such as events, competitions, strongboxes, etc., will be improved to strike a better balance.

New blueprints will use existing components and resources as much as possible to sustain a thriving and interdependent economy between crafting, mining and hunting.

Thread: http://www.entropiaplanets.com/threads/developer-notes-12-loot-2-0-follow-up.21686/

Developer Notes #11 - Loot 2.0

^{8 June 2017}

Later this month, MindArk will be releasing a special Loot 2.0 Version Update that will overhaul the way in which hunting loot is calculated and distributed. Many of the features and systems added over the past few years have gradually led to this update, which will significantly improve overall loot returns for the vast majority (upwards of 98%) of participants.

The information in this Developer Notes article is intended to inform participants of the upcoming changes and to gather initial impressions and feedback to help ensure a smooth implementation of this exciting update. Please bear in mind that the changes described below are still being finalized and tested, so some specific details may be changed upon release, while other changes may require additional refinement or testing and therefore may not appear in the initial Loot 2.0 release, but instead in subsequent patches or Version Updates.

Loot Changes

• Loot calculations will be optimized and improved to better factor in the various costs associated with hunting activity, including: healing, ammo consumption, buffs, tool and armor deterioration, attachments, and more.
• A special hunting bonus pool will be implemented that will distribute funds from various sources, including skill misses, PVP, marketing and special events, which will improve overall loot returns for all participants.
• A new Economy rating parameter will be introduced, on a scale of 1-100, that indicates the efficiency of a tool and which influences loot calculations. This change from the once dominant damage/pec model will provide the design team with more freedom to release exciting and interesting items with a wider range of damage output and special effects. For example, our team will have the ability to create powerful new items that provide access to challenging and exciting content without dramatically increasing cost to play. Existing items will be assigned Economy values that reflect their relative efficiency to one another and to the entire array of items in the universe.
• Avatar skills will play a role in loot calculations and this role will be expanded in future Version Updates. Imagine new professions that offer hunting specialization opportunities and a way to incrementally increase net loot returns for dedicated and active hunters.
• MindArk has been monitoring the community discussions concerning so-called 'loot waves' and will implement changes in the Loot 2.0 and subsequent Version Updates that will address this issue by improving the distribution of resources and items, with the goal of ensuring that loot opportunities are more interesting, dynamic and fair for all participants
• Ammunition will be removed from hunting loot. This change has been requested by many participants over the years and will assist participants in more accurately tracking their results.

Loot value calculations and the composition of the items in loot will be affected by properly matching avatar skills and gear to the creature being hunted, rewarding efficient kills with more interesting loot. For optimal loot, it will be important to avoid inefficiencies such as low damage output compared to creature health, excessive time and cost to kill, overkill damage, unmaxed weapons and other factors. This system is intended to reward game knowledge, which has traditionally been an important and unique aspect of success in Entropia Universe, and to provide opportunities for participants to improve their loot returns via experimentation, optimization and specialization.

Also in the Loot 2.0 Version Update will be a range of improvements to various other systems with an eye toward lowering costs and increasing enjoyment for all Entropians. An example of such are the following planned changes to armor:

Armor Changes

• Armor now decays significantly less per point of damage absorbed.
• Armor no longer has a minimum decay based on total protection, it will now always decay proportionally to the amount of damage absorbed.
• Armor can now absorb all incoming damage down to a minimum of 0.1 point of damage taken, instead of the previous 1.0 points of damage.
• Armor and armor platings now decay independently based on the amount of damage they each actually absorb, rather than both decaying as if absorbing the full amount of received damage.
• Armor decay is now linear per point of damage absorbed, rather than increasing in cost per damage absorbed.
• A profession level requirement will be introduced for non-(L) armors. Meeting the required level results in the armor offering full protection at all condition values. If the profession requirement is not met, armor works as before, with protection decreasing relative to condition.

Our design and development teams have been working very hard on these important changes for many months now, and MindArk looks forward to incorporating valuable feedback from our wonderful and passionate community leading up to the release of Loot 2.0!

Thread: http://www.entropiaplanets.com/threads/developer-notes-11-loot-2-0.21667/

Links, references, contributors, categories

• Loot

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