Why was the gold drop rate reduced?

LonePirate

The patch notes include this gem:

• Humanoid monsters now drop more gold, but no longer drop gold 100% of the time.

After watching last week's ESO Live broadcast, I was under the impression that delve and dungeon monsters/mobs would be dropping more gold. The above patch note item suggests that is indeed the case; but very few humanoid monsters now drop gold and the result is an overall reduction in the amount of gold received.

For instance, I just cleared Quickwater Cave in Cyrodiil. I killed 71 humanoid monsters as well as both of the bosses in the cave. I received a total of 225 gold from all 73 of them. In 1.4 and earlier, I would receive a minimum of 4 and sometimes 5 gold per humanoid monster I killed. I should have received 284 gold at a minimum, perhaps even as much as 365 gold. The pittance of gold I received (ranging from 59-140 gold less than I should have received) is insulting to the player and is a step backwards. Delve exploring is now approaching an unrewarding state with so little gold received.

Dominoid

RNG monster. More testing needed.

LonePirate

Dominoid wrote: »

RNG monster. More testing needed.

I agree more testing is needed. However, there should never be a case where I receive almost 25% less gold in total. Yes, individual chances for receiving gold will vary; but over the course of 73 possible enemies that should reward gold, a reasonable pattern can be derived as the sample of this size.

killedbyping

Dominoid wrote: »

RNG monster. More testing needed.

Yeah, this is exactly what ZOS says when they stealth nerf something.
"You are just getting unlucky, RNG is RNG. Tons of evidence you provided is not the data"

Divinius

Obviously, the reduction in the amount of gold given is completely intentional.

Think about it: If you are a dev, and you want to reduce the amount of gold entering the system from mob drops, how do you do it?

If you just lower the amount each mob drops, people will immediately notice, and then rage and complain. But if you say you are "increasing the amount of gold that a mob can drop" and then also tack on the tiny little caveat that it's "no longer a 100% chance" that they will drop gold, then it doesn't immediately look like you are reducing the overall gold drop, and in fact, appears as though you are increasing it.

That is, until someone like the OP tests it, and figures out that they really are just cleverly lowering the amount of gold sourced by mobs.

Darkonflare15

I do not know if it is really reduce or not. I was just killing some enemies as a werewolf enemies. I killed 20 of them and got drops of 64 and 32 and 21 golds for a total for about 202. I guessing that it all about finesse because I had a drop consistently.