An idea for container Drop Rates...

Hamfast · July 2014

First off, I have been farming for Motifs (Mostly) and Recipes in a more haphazard way then a more dedicated way, in the last few weeks I have found 4 Primal and 1 Barbaric Motif, several blue and a good number of green recipes... the numbers of items I wanted (Motif's and Recipes) dropped off precipitously when the junk items were added to containers. I also play D&D Next Encounters...

The current season's adventure has an interesting way to generate random encounters, they add an "Alert Level" to the roll, meaning as the alert level goes up, the chance for a random encounters raises from a low chance, to guaranteed, from a minor encounter to some really nasty ones... this got me to thinking about the container drop rates in ESO...

Each area a player enters can be assigned a level, 1 for Auberon, Glenumbra or Stonefalls... up to 5 for Reapers March, The Rift and so on. Cold Harbor would be 6, Craglorn and Cyrodiil would be 7 (perhaps higher)... Solo Dungeons would be a +1, open Group Dungeons add +2, closed Group Dungeons add 3 or 4... Bosses also have a +1... This value is used as a Multiplier that is used to determine the contents of Containers/Chests/Drops...

This means that if there is a .1% chance for a rare (Blue) Recipe, in Cold Harbor the chance would be (.1% * 6 = .6%)... the Boss in a Solo Cold Harbor Dungeon would have a (.1% * (6 +1 +1) = .8%) chance to drop a rare blue recipe... on the other hand, the Junk Items would be "Pushed" out of a containers in the higher level areas as the items in the container would have to fall in the 100% range for the container... levels of the items would, as they are now, be set by the level of the area/player...

Basically, this means a Blue, Purple or Gold Motif or a Blue or Purple Recipe would be more likely to drop in a container in a Dungeon in a higher level area then in the same container in a building in a low level area... Some accounting for the VR areas (Caldwells Silver and Gold) would need to be taken into account, but not as high as say Craglorn (Supposedly VR10-12)

liantos · July 2014

I like this idea, it's a nice reward for getting to the end of the game. It could potentially deter low level motif farmers increasing the overall value of these goods as well as promoting the underpopulated veteran dungeons with the promise of some real rewards.

I think there is some attempt at this kind of system already in place, If i'm not mistaken the later motifs are found exclusively in the veteran zones? (this is probably wrong but its what I hear often) But yes I think this is an excellent idea.

Hamfast · July 2014

liantos wrote: »

I like this idea, it's a nice reward for getting to the end of the game. It could potentially deter low level motif farmers increasing the overall value of these goods as well as promoting the underpopulated veteran dungeons with the promise of some real rewards.

I think there is some attempt at this kind of system already in place, If i'm not mistaken the later motifs are found exclusively in the veteran zones? (this is probably wrong but its what I hear often) But yes I think this is an excellent idea.

You are correct about the purple motifs, Barbaric and Primal are found in the VR1 to VR 5 zones (Cadwell's Silver) Daedric and Ancient Elf in the VR 6 to VR 12 (Caldwell's Gold) zones, reason to do the zones I guess, but in truth, a dedicated crafter will most likely be able to use them before they get to the VR levels as they require one or more of your smith like crafting profincy skills to have progressed to 6/9, 7/9, 8/9 and 9/9 for Primal, Barbaric, Ancient Elf and Daedric respectively. (I may have messed up the order of Primal and Barbaric)

It seems to me that the rare motifs should not be limited to the VR zones, but like the Imperial, exceedingly rare in the Non-VR zones. By the same token, the zone that imperial should be most likely found is the zone(s) where the Imperial NPC's are found... Cyrodiil (this is cutting my own throat in a way as I am not into PvP at all) Cold Harbor being the next most likely zone to find the imperial motif (albeit still very rare)

Curragraigue · July 2014

Recipes drop based on your level. So would make it disproportional for people looking for blue/purple recipes for lower level characters.

Gold motif only drops in pre-vet levels as well as I understand it so would not really help finding the Imperial motif.

I like the idea of better drops based on activity I'm just not sure it should be greater drops based on zone. I tend to find that I do currently get a better drop rate for things if I search in containers in an area while I'm on a quest. Probably just the RNG at work though.

Hamfast · July 2014

Curragraigue wrote: »

Recipes drop based on your level. So would make it disproportional for people looking for blue/purple recipes for lower level characters.

Gold motif only drops in pre-vet levels as well as I understand it so would not really help finding the Imperial motif.

I like the idea of better drops based on activity I'm just not sure it should be greater drops based on zone. I tend to find that I do currently get a better drop rate for things if I search in containers in an area while I'm on a quest. Probably just the RNG at work though.

I think the Recipes level may be based on the zone level, not the finder, I also think the Imperial Motif can drop in any level area... granted, I have never found one, a friend found one, I think in a VR zone.

The better chance of drops (and less junk) based on activity/location is a risk/reward thing... I can farm Kenarthi's roost all day on my VR4 Nightblade (AD) with no risk, my reward should be on level with that activity... if I kill the 3 named bosses in Toothmaul Gully now, by my own method, I should have a 3 times better chance to get an item then in Auridon proper, Reapers March would be 5 times, a boss in a dungeon in Reapers March 7 times... but 7 times zip point diddly is still not a very high chance... by the same token, the 5 or 7 times the chances should push the junk items out of the containers.... no more area level appropriate weapons that can't be sold (no gold value) or deconstructed (low inspiration/material return) clogging your packs...

I would also point out that a character who is just learning to be a Blacksmith who gets 100 inspiration is happy, it's a good jump in skill... at level 48 Blacksmith, 100 points is laughable... in other words, the junk items do have use to crafters at low levels, they get the inspiration to gain skills, but not as many items to fill their limited pack space