Archie Gremlin

If you're posting drop data here then you should probably know that we can't use your data unless you report certain things. We need the following to calculate your drop rate:-

• how many minions you defeated
• how many lieutenants you defeated
• how many bosses/EBs you defeated
• how many Pool A recipes you received (not Pool B or costume pieces)
• how much salvage you received

Please turn on chat logging. That creates a permanent record of your defeats and drops without you having to run a separate program such as HeroStats.

If you use Drop Stats then you can report the "minion equivalents" figure instead of number of minions, LTs and bosses. In fact, you can just copy the table that appears at the top of the output.

If you want to help isolate the bug then the following would be helpful:-

• your difficulty settings including virtual team size
• your archetype and level
• the map(s) you used
• the actual size of your team including padders
• any other factors you found interesting

Please avoid the temptation to post bad runs but not good ones. This skews the data horribly! The best way to do this is to decide that you're going to post, then play the game for a while, then post the results for the stuff you did after you decided to post.

(P.S. If you're having trouble with DropStats then please PM me. I'll be happy to help.)

I've just released a new version of DropStats. (Version 0.3)

The big change is that this version always calculates drop rates. It no longer gives up when faced by unknowns or failed heuristic rank checks.

It also displays the expected range of values for a run like this:-

I just completed an incredibly long arc in Ourob but didn't receive any reward merits. (I even checked the chat log for them.)

The arc was Madeleine Casey's "To Save a Soul". My team mate didn't receive merits either. We started the arc before I16 was released.

I did a series of runs on the Wall in Cimerora between the 20th and 28th August. The overall results were consistent with the Wiki drop rates.

The runs produced 6,153 defeats including 648 Lts and 19 bosses.

Live drop rates from the Wall
167 Pool A recipes.
Drop rate of 2.44% with 95% confidence interval of 2.09% to 2.84%.

450 salvage.
Drop rate of 7.89% with 95% confidence interval of 7.20% to 8.62%.

It's very noticeable that the pattern of runs looks completely different to the ones we get in beta. For one thing, 9 out of 10 of the runs have averages that fall in the 95% confidence range for the published drop rate and 3 runs have averages above the mean.

In contrast, only 3 out of 7 of the runs I did on beta are in the 95% confidence range for the old drop rate. Non of them had a drop rate above the expected value.

I've released a new version of DropStats. (0.2.1) This is much better tested than the previous version (0.2) and fixes lots of minor bugs.

I did some runs on the wall in Cim this morning. My results were 1230 defeats including 7 bosses and 128 lieutenants. This produced 28 Pool A recipes and 112 salvage. The drop rates are 2.04% and 8.80% respectively.

The 95% confidence on this run is 1.36% to 2.94%. i.e. it's consistent with both the Wiki drop rate and the drop rates we've been seeing on test. It is better than my other runs in Cim though.

I generally use TOs until about level 12 and then swap to common invention origins. I replace the common IOs every ten levels until I start buying sets. I find this much less hassle than messing around with dual and single origins.

Once I reach level 30 I start buying sets. I always create a build in Mids Hero Designer. I find it invaluable for choosing sets.

I never replace set IOs with the same IO at a higher level. The reason is that level 35 IOs tend to hit the ED soft cap. Upgrading them to 50's makes virtually no difference. It's worth replacing level 20 set IOs but I don't bother with them in the first place.

I will occasionally replace a cheap set by a more expensive one when I'm rich enough. I might do this with 1 set in a build.

This strategy can be surprisingly cheap. Most sets are not very expensive. They're even cheaper if you leave bids in for a day or two and bid on a range of levels. I get most of my IOs for between 50k and 300k and rarely pay more than 1 million. The only exceptions are the 4 or 5 high value uniques in each build but you can skip them.

I you want to be really cheap just frankenslot. It's almost certainly cheaper than using SOs 'cos they never expire.

I had terrible problems with the forums until this morning. The game (Defiant) was fine though.

I've just re-run the same paper mission at difficulty +1/8. The results are much the same.

Total defeats 1,317 including 0 bosses and 265 lieutenants.
Recipes 27, salvage 123.
Drop rates recipes 1.71%, salvage 8.75%.

Both of these runs have been pretty close to the average drop rate reported here.

P.S. My last post includes the number of bosses and lts. The minions are the difference.

I ran a Council paper mission a few times over the weekend on difficulty -1, team size 8 no bosses. I did a short CoT run first with bosses enabled which generated a huge proportion of bosses. That's why there's a few bosses in the results.

The results were:-
1,515 defeats including 11 bosses and 304 Lts.
36 Pool A recipes, 140 salvage and 16 enhancements.

This gives drop rates of 1.96% for recipes and 8.66% for salvage.

This suggests that my theory that team size 8 gives extra low results is wrong. Hey ho.

Grats