I've been hunting 3 characters on different accounts in the Scatter for awhile now. They hunt separately and loot has been fine. Pretty much all of the boxes go to my main who picks all their boxes and sells all the loot. I recently purchased a Man O' War (yesterday) to do OSA with all 3 characters. I've been running into issues where I can go through an entire Frigate or Man O' War and loot on a character that doesn't get a whole lot of loot and not find any loot at all. I also experience the following on my main character when I search the treasure pile sometimes:
---
>search pile
You search around in the treasure pile for a few moments, but find nothing of interest.
Roundtime: 3 sec.
---
I feel like I'm no where near the loot cap but maybe things are getting thrown off since all the loot gets filtered through my main? I'm not sure if this is the loot cap or not too but I've been told it most likely is. I get that there is a loot cap but I don't understand why one character can put a group at a negative disadvantage now? If this is an effect of the loot cap then my character pretty much puts any group he's in at a disadvantage and what reason do others have to play with him in a group? It's kind of making me reconsider my big purchase of a Man O' War at this point if my group of characters all are getting punished for one character. This is a little disappointing. Any help on this is greatly appreciated!
Also OSA is awesome and I like the Man O'War but I don't like the idea that I'm not getting any loot now because I'm in a group after shelling out all those coins to play with more people. It doesn't really make a good selling point for people to tag along with me when there is loot issues. If my main hit the loot cap then that's fine then he get's punished on his own when he's looting but I don't see how it's even possible that he hit it unless there is a bug with loot being filtered through him.
Thanks
Neovik
GAMING2K1
RATHBONER
Re: Loot Cap Issues in group
03/27/2021 01:19 PM CDT
If you are getting less than the standard number of boxes for the target ship in the treasure pile, I think that'll be the loot cap, but I find only the salvage crates hold their value when I'm grouped. The loot from the other treasure pile boxes and critter drops plunges. If all the best stuff wasn't in the crates anyway, I'd be pretty upset about how much it dropped too.
I had put it down to level difference penalties, but maybe there's something uniquely horrible about the way OSA handles loot for groups.
I had put it down to level difference penalties, but maybe there's something uniquely horrible about the way OSA handles loot for groups.
LEAFIARA
Re: Loot Cap Issues in group
03/27/2021 04:48 PM CDT
Right now my hypothesis, from observations and different tests in January and March, is:
A group, as determined by who's contributing in battle, can collectively be at the hard loot cap even if none of its individual members are at the hard loot cap.
How this exactly works is the question. I'm not convinced it's completely linear, i.e. I don't think there would be no loot if 20 characters who have each looted 1.75m for the month group up and participate equally in battle. If that were true, we should all be finding nothing at KST invasions with one big group by the end of the month. (Unless invasion creatures are exempt like pay event creatures.)
At the same time, it seems clear that it's at least linear enough that there's no loot if a single character who's individually looted 35m for the month participates with other characters who have looted nothing.
Middle grounds might be where more testing is needed, but unfortunately that's also the hardest area to test. I'm honestly not sure how to approach it since we don't even know for sure how the loot cap determines the value of an item. (Not to rehash too much, but consider Trading, Influence, race bonuses and penalties...)
https://gswiki.play.net/Leafiara_(prime)
A group, as determined by who's contributing in battle, can collectively be at the hard loot cap even if none of its individual members are at the hard loot cap.
How this exactly works is the question. I'm not convinced it's completely linear, i.e. I don't think there would be no loot if 20 characters who have each looted 1.75m for the month group up and participate equally in battle. If that were true, we should all be finding nothing at KST invasions with one big group by the end of the month. (Unless invasion creatures are exempt like pay event creatures.)
At the same time, it seems clear that it's at least linear enough that there's no loot if a single character who's individually looted 35m for the month participates with other characters who have looted nothing.
Middle grounds might be where more testing is needed, but unfortunately that's also the hardest area to test. I'm honestly not sure how to approach it since we don't even know for sure how the loot cap determines the value of an item. (Not to rehash too much, but consider Trading, Influence, race bonuses and penalties...)
https://gswiki.play.net/Leafiara_(prime)
GAMING2K1
Re: Loot Cap Issues in group
03/28/2021 12:32 AM CDT
What doesn't make sense to me is that each character is completely fine when they hunt on their own and don't seem to be experiencing any sort of cap. But when they group the loot goes to nothing. Why would the group cap threshold be a problem when grouping when it's not a problem as an individual?
Also this seems to add more complications into the mix then it should. What is the incentive for someone to loot for a large group when it will penalize their cap? This seems to punish grouping and add mechanics in the mix that people shouldn't need to worry about while they are trying to play.
If I want to invite people on my newly purchased Man O'War they will pretty much not get any loot if they group with me. Why should me being part of a group punish others? Especially when I experience no loot issues when soloing on my own. This is a bit of a turn off if this is how this is suppose to be working.
Also this seems to add more complications into the mix then it should. What is the incentive for someone to loot for a large group when it will penalize their cap? This seems to punish grouping and add mechanics in the mix that people shouldn't need to worry about while they are trying to play.
If I want to invite people on my newly purchased Man O'War they will pretty much not get any loot if they group with me. Why should me being part of a group punish others? Especially when I experience no loot issues when soloing on my own. This is a bit of a turn off if this is how this is suppose to be working.
MAXMANJ
Re: Loot Cap Issues in group
03/28/2021 10:29 AM CDT
<< What doesn't make sense to me is that each character is completely fine when they hunt on their own and don't seem to be experiencing any sort of cap. But when they group the loot goes to nothing. Why would the group cap threshold be a problem when grouping when it's not a problem as an individual? >>
While it does discourage group hunting, it also makes sense. Groups have an easier, quicker time killing things and there are treasure boosts for group hunting I think(or were at one point). Allowing one fresh account to get three loot capped accounts to evade the cap would negate the point of the loot cap.
<< Also this seems to add more complications into the mix then it should. What is the incentive for someone to loot for a large group when it will penalize their cap? This seems to punish grouping and add mechanics in the mix that people shouldn't need to worry about while they are trying to play.>>
Does it, though? It seems like having a loot capped character in the group penalizes the rest, but I haven't seen anything that says that the group loot counts all towards the one person in the group who loots, rather than being divided by the number in the group.
Josh
While it does discourage group hunting, it also makes sense. Groups have an easier, quicker time killing things and there are treasure boosts for group hunting I think(or were at one point). Allowing one fresh account to get three loot capped accounts to evade the cap would negate the point of the loot cap.
<< Also this seems to add more complications into the mix then it should. What is the incentive for someone to loot for a large group when it will penalize their cap? This seems to punish grouping and add mechanics in the mix that people shouldn't need to worry about while they are trying to play.>>
Does it, though? It seems like having a loot capped character in the group penalizes the rest, but I haven't seen anything that says that the group loot counts all towards the one person in the group who loots, rather than being divided by the number in the group.
Josh
GAMING2K
Re: Loot Cap Issues in group
03/28/2021 03:21 PM CDT
So if you take 20 people out on a man o war or any other sort of groups what is the incentive to be the looter for the group? When you get penalized for looting while you then share the loot and distribute it when it only penalizes the looter for doing a service for the group. They eventually get to the point near the end of the month where there game play is impacted for being helpful. Does that sound like a fair mechanic?
