Jagex made a mistake making the game so luck based

[Zephy]

Some years ago, the best boss monsters to hunt were the Dagganoth Kings (and maybe the Kalphite Queen). Back then being a DKer (or KQer) pretty much meant you were an elite player. They had some nice rare drops, but the rates were still quite reasonable. That is, they tended to be pretty consistent. Spend a week at DKs and you were almost guaranteed an amount of axes, rings, and other such drops. As far as wealth went among monster hunters, it was largely a matter of time and dedication. These bosses averaged a nice x gp per hour, but more importantly, if you spent so much as ten or twenty hours, you were pretty much going to come out with your expected value of return.

 

Enter the God Wars Dungeon. GWD introduced some new high tier drops, much rarer in terms of time to obtain. In particular, hilts were not only quite rare, but they came from a difficult to kill boss. At the time, being able to solo even a few kills off the boss was an accomplishment. This began a stream of wealth disparities. Someone who soloed for example an Armadyl hilt would be up over a hundred million gp, quite a large sum at the time. By sheer luck and potentially very little time invested, they were already ahead of a DKer who had been going consistently and building up wealth. Did GWD have a higher average payoff than DKs? Maybe, but that's almost besides the point. The point is that person A who spent a week at GWD and person B who did the same could be vastly differently off at the end. One could well have had a set of party hats while the other was still scrounging up gear.

 

Corp is the unfortunately progression of this trend. An increasingly more difficult boss, taking increasingly longer to kill, with increasingly rarer odds of dropping something increasingly more powerful. To get a Divine or Elysian today is the epitome of luck based success. Now don't get me wrong, someone on a pro corp team invested a ton of their time and effort into getting there. Certainly they deserve some benefit. However, I believe it was a terrible mistake to purposely widen the gap between someone who had lucked out on a sigil compared to someone who didn't. I don't believe it's reasonable to talk about odds or expected value so much any more. What's the 95% confidence interval for getting an Elysian/Divine off corp? Something like a year?

 

I think it would have been much better to have new bosses drop something that while good, is not exceedingly overpowerful nor too uncommon. Make it something players want, but not an absolute end all be all. Spread out the drops and give players something for their effort most of the time, rather than an extremely large lump sum very very rarely.

 

Now, I suspect I know why Jagex did this. It is important to them to maintain certain items at a very high perceived value to compete with and hopefully keep down holiday rares. Honestly, if GWD hadn't come out, and corp hadn't come out, who knows where the rares would be by now. At the same time, who is it that is usually willing to pay for a party hat these days besides merchants and guys who luck out at corp?

 

To those who've received a sigil, congratulations on your work and your luck as well.

 

I only wish it didn't have to include the luck.

[Aiel]

:thumbup:

although DKs are quite a bit of luck...(looks at his nearly 400 kill no zerker dry streak)

[applyapple]

It is absurd. But I'm of the opinion that killing stuff is fun, and shouldn't be a consistent way of making money, so I like it.

[Assume Nothing]

Lol at the disclaimer/signature. I agree that JaGex has increased the gap between rich and poor, due to luck based monsters like the Corporeal Beast. But how do we say if it's good or bad? Would you still play RuneScape if every 500 Armadyl kills meant an armadyl hilt, devaluing the hilt?

 

Luck can be good and bad, which makes it a hard subject to flame JaGex about

[applyapple]

Lol at the disclaimer/signature. I agree that JaGex has increased the gap between rich and poor, due to luck based monsters like the Corporeal Beast. But how do we say if it's good or bad? Would you still play RuneScape if every 500 Armadyl kills meant an armadyl hilt, devaluing the hilt?

 

Luck can be good and bad, which makes it a hard subject to flame JaGex about

How is luck either good or bad?

[Assume Nothing]

Lol at the disclaimer/signature. I agree that JaGex has increased the gap between rich and poor, due to luck based monsters like the Corporeal Beast. But how do we say if it's good or bad? Would you still play RuneScape if every 500 Armadyl kills meant an armadyl hilt, devaluing the hilt?

 

Luck can be good and bad, which makes it a hard subject to flame JaGex about

How is luck either good or bad?

 

If you get lucky, you get rich. Simple logic hurrdurr

[applyapple]

Lol at the disclaimer/signature. I agree that JaGex has increased the gap between rich and poor, due to luck based monsters like the Corporeal Beast. But how do we say if it's good or bad? Would you still play RuneScape if every 500 Armadyl kills meant an armadyl hilt, devaluing the hilt?

 

Luck can be good and bad, which makes it a hard subject to flame JaGex about

How is luck either good or bad?

 

If you get lucky, you get rich. Simple logic hurrdurr

However, luck is unreliable, so your riches may not last........

That's just whether luck is beneficial or not in the immediate.

[Bladewing]

If you don't like it, go kill dragons or aviansies or spiritual mages. Players who kill these monsters with a low drop rate take a risk of getting no drop, and therefore receive a higher reward when they do.

[Zephy]

If you don't like it, go kill dragons or aviansies or spiritual mages. Players who kill these monsters with a low drop rate take a risk of getting no drop, and therefore receive a higher reward when they do.

Sadly, the expected value of doing a boss is many times higher than any constant monster.

 

It would be great if you could get a constant 2-3m/h killing monsters, but you can't. (At least not without a yak at DKs.)

 

I know you're saying the game rewards risk taking. That's my point, that I really wish it didn't (to such an extreme extent), and think it's harmful to the divide between rich and poor.

[Bladewing]

The poor are people who complain about low drop rates, then go off to runecraft natures for 400k an hour. The rich people suck it up and keep doing what's good for money, even if it has a higher variance.

[applyapple]

If you don't like it, go kill dragons or aviansies or spiritual mages. Players who kill these monsters with a low drop rate take a risk of getting no drop, and therefore receive a higher reward when they do.

Sadly, the expected value of doing a boss is many times higher than any constant monster.

 

It would be great if you could get a constant 2-3m/h killing monsters, but you can't. (At least not without a yak at DKs.)

 

I know you're saying the game rewards risk taking. That's my point, that I really wish it didn't (to such an extreme extent), and think it's harmful to the divide between rich and poor.

Dagannoths are good. Not the DKs, but regular, level 88 dagannoths.

Their drop values are very consistent.