Upcoming Cultural Changes ETA

[Ngreth Thergn]

I don't know how it will be when it hits live, but at the moment on test, it is some orders of magnitude more abundant than sunshard. Keep in mind that there is the 'final combine' piece, which for smithing is some type of loam, and then there is the 'skill up' piece, which is some type of ore. The loam is considerably more rare (though still much more abundant than metallic drake scales). The ore is plentiful, even at reasonably high levels. At my current skill (255), I have at least 3 different ores that I can use for skill-ups and it all drops regularly.

At lower levels, the drop rates are extremely high. Mid-level mobs may drop 3 or 4 pieces EACH (which can be a mixture of silk, leather, ore and the associated components), in addition to their regular drops. Even high level mobs can drop 2 components, and it would be rare to find 3 mobs in a row that didn't drop something tradeskill related. I did a TBS mission last night and looted everything, and I would say at least half the drops were the new TS items.

Now do note, there is a bug on test. EVERY NPC isn the game is dropping the stuff, and not the intended NPC's (it is a code bug)
When it is fixed, it will be less NPC/s but no change in the rate on the apropriate NPC's.
For SKILLUP material at the LOWEST level it is 98% chane to drop 2d2 items... at the curent highest... it is about a 54% chance to drop 1d1 items, with 6 items on the table... spread amongst the 3 types: silk (50% total), leather (25% total), and metal (25% total)) from Humanoids. Then some other NPC's have specific tables that keep the overall ods for a particular drop the same, just only drop one of the three.

[Wyvernwill]

The more I hear about this... the more and more I look forward to seeing how these things work out. Maybe I'll be able to make my full suit in a week after the expansion goes live so I can stop chomping at the bit for it lol.

(and yes, I take the week after the expansions go live off of work... lame, I know.)

[Ursawraith]

chance to drop 1d1 items

Now where in norrath did you ever find a 1 sided die?

Those are some impressive drop rates for the mobs that are supposed to drop them making it quite farmable for anybody with a mind to do so.

Thank you Ngreth for continuing to serve us in great ways!

[Ngreth Thergn]

I do warn, that in the end, overall average... the cultural itself is rarer than it used to be, but I think that makes some sense. In some cases where drops were overly rare for a particular race, it is more common, but overall across all races, it will be rarer. It is the great stuff, with real value, and it should give some real value to cultural because it will not be common for ANY race. But despite that, with the huge amount of NPC's that will drop it, I think the drop rate will not be to bad overall, it just will not be as easy for some people to "farm" it as before.

[Deviator]

I do warn, that in the end, overall average... the cultural itself is rarer than it used to be, but I think that makes some sense. In some cases where drops were overly rare for a particular race, it is more common, but overall across all races, it will be rarer. It is the great stuff, with real value, and it should give some real value to cultural because it will not be common for ANY race. But despite that, with the huge amount of NPC's that will drop it, I think the drop rate will not be to bad overall, it just will not be as easy for some people to "farm" it as before.

so the overall drop rate has been nerfed, but does this affect the skill up path parts, or just the final item parts? i dont do cultural except for guildies/friends, but i do need to finish maxing my trophy and would hate for it to get harder than it is now.

[Xenephex]

Not to pre-empt Ngreth replying, but the skill up drops (the ore) and the final combine drops (loam) are already considerably different. The ore drops a lot right now on test - the loam much, much less frequently. So the skill-up path can exist without making the final products any more plentiful.

I should also note that it now requires TWO combines of nearly the same high trivial to make the final piece. The old pre sub-combines were fairly high trivial but still way under the final combine. That's not the case any more.

[Zopharr]

For SKILLUP material at the LOWEST level it is 98% chane to drop 2d2 items... at the curent highest... it is about a 54% chance to drop 1d1 items, with 6 items on the table... spread amongst the 3 types: silk (50% total), leather (25% total), and metal (25% total)) from Humanoids. Then some other NPC's have specific tables that keep the overall ods for a particular drop the same, just only drop one of the three.

Out of curiousity - is the 50% silk / 25% leather / 25% metal drop rate based on trying to make it easier to skill up tailoring (which has generally had a more difficult skill-up path than smithing), or average server population of the various classes?

Our alliance of ~65-70 active raiders (not necessarily representative) is overwhelmingly plate and chain. My perception is that silk classes are a lot less common than they used to be, particularly in the 65-and up range. It wouldn't be bad if tailors get a break for once - just wondering if my perception of silk classes becoming less common is true.

Thanks,

Garshok

[JonzeGirl]

Out of curiousity - is the 50% silk / 25% leather / 25% metal drop rate based on trying to make it easier to skill up tailoring (which has generally had a more difficult skill-up path than smithing), or average server population of the various classes?

My *guess*, based on comments from Ngreth in other threads, would be because the silk combines need 2 silks to make a swatch or whatever, where as the leather/chain/plate need just 1 ore/pelt or whatever to make the the usable piece.

~Clio

[Zopharr]

My *guess*, based on comments from Ngreth in other threads, would be because the silk combines need 2 silks to make a swatch or whatever, where as the leather/chain/plate need just 1 ore/pelt or whatever to make the the usable piece.

~Clio

OK, shows how much I know about cultural tailoring. Makes sense.

Garshok

[Ngreth Thergn]

so the overall drop rate has been nerfed, but does this affect the skill up path parts, or just the final item parts? i dont do cultural except for guildies/friends, but i do need to finish maxing my trophy and would hate for it to get harder than it is now.

The skillup path stuff drops like candy.

it is just the cultural combine itself that is on average rarer, on a per mob bases (but now drops on a huge amount more mobs than before)

[Ngreth Thergn]

Yeah. Tailors get a bonus on the "Humanoids" becasue they carry two silk paths while there is only one metal path. I may try and ajust this before it goes live, but I am not sure it is necessary as smithing is not in as much of a problem as tailoring is.

I did yesterday Half that drop rate on HUMANOIDS....

All this means is, in order to get a drop in general, it is the same for humanoids and for "specific" creatures (like spiders only drop silk, wolves only drop pelts, golems only drop metal) But the specific creatures will be more likely to drop a specific item , while the humanoids overall have half the chance for a SPECIFIC item. Humanoids have a slightly greater chance (very slight) to drop something overall, but not a huge a difference as it was.

I think the drops were coming in a bit too commonly, and I would rather in the end have to adjust it back to more common than to have to adjust it down like everyone hates. It may still be too common in the end, but this way at least I can get a better gauge of it, and if I have to adjust it down it will not be as extreme an adjustment. Hopefully instead I can adjust it to be a bit more common instead. In the end for something like this I have to see how it goes on live servers with thousands of players.

[Xenephex]

What about the 'rare' item for each type? e.g. Loam for smithing. Does that also drop more commonly from golems?

Also, what constitutes a golem? And can anyone help me think of places that have golem types of level 60 or above?

[Zopharr]

What constitutes a golem? And can anyone help me think of places that have golem types of level 60 or above?

I'm guessing the golem mobs from Thundercreast (Creator mission, anyone?). There are also 60+ golems in Relic. Those two come to mind.

Garshok

[Deviator]

are those rock guys(geonids???) considered golems maybe?

[Rinikku]

Hmm.... I'm not sure what Ngreth means by golems either. First image that popped in my mind was an earth elemental, but I don't think that's right. The stone statues from Thundercrest Isles... I could see those being considered golems.