Cardiff_Giant
-
Posts
266 -
Joined
-
Since we're talking about weapon options,
Would this be a bad time to ask for a "keyboard" weapon option?
War Mace might be the best fit, maybe as unlockable weapon option - OR possibly something included in GR?
Heck, I'd happily settle for it as a Craftable/Temporary Power!
Some days I REALLY want to "Homerow" things in this game, and before you ask - The awesome slow-mo scene from "Wanted" (at roughly 32 mins into it) isn't where I first saw this.
I'm not entirely certain where it first originated, But "Homerowed" was a skit on A.O.T.S. (Attack Of The Show) with Kevin Rose & some of the office staff, not long before he left the show to focus on Digg, DiggNation, Revision3 and some other projects. But, he did come back occasionally to fill-in for folks on assignment (or sick), and they did a sequel to the first skit.
Anywho, I also saw this in an 'Underground Fightclubs' segment on some show(?) - where the 2 fighters were wielding Keyboards & fought until one managed to win = by being the first one to break-off ALL the keys from their respective keyboard/weapon, via repeatedly bashing them on their opponent - about the head, torso, etc.
It was a mostly a bunch of geeks and suits - and to my surprise, they didn't wear much (if anything) in the way of protective gear and really beat the snot out of each other.
Yeah, uhm so... with Dual Pistols being an upcoming Powerset, I just figured now would be the time to ask about this for the "Wanted" homages, or for a "Cubical Worker" toon who's gone Postal - in an evil alternate reality "OfficeSpace"-style (maybe in Praetoria?) possibly sporting 'Goatees' or 'Vandykes' like the old ST evil mustaches/beards.
-
Hmm, my first thought when reading the title was - practically useless bonuses.
The 02% disorient imob. proc.
Debt Protection - seriously, Who really cares that much about Debt anymore?
Especially in such small percentages... Same thing with the +02% Knockback Bonus, and Confusion resist % (or any of the tiny % Mez resist bonuses).
Beyond that, it would be nice to see some small-ish sets, for things that currently only accept Common IO's.
A like maybe 3 piece - (Recharge), (End Red.), (Rech/End Red.) with some small or moderate set bonuses. to slot in Empathy's Rez maybe?
OK, that's not a great example - as some people just one slot it with a Common Rech. IO, people do the same with some other powers just slotting one-slotting Acc. and forgetting it.
Possibly... something to go in stuff like Siphon Power? Maybe a 3 or 4 slot IO Set with some combination of (Rech.Red., End. Red., Acc., Range)
and give the set some minor/moderate (but "non-useless") bonuses?
Perhaps, they could even give the sets the purple/pvp "trait" of not being affected by exemping - to go along with the new SSK rules?
Players often take powers just to be "set mules" - this might give people another slightly more useful option, and people love new shinies... even if they aren't that shiny.
-
Quote:If I'm not mistaken, the last time this subject came up and was commented on by Devs, they said it was some sorta "database issue"...Originally Posted by NordBlast
Are devs opposed to an idea of merged market itself or it is more opposition due to percieved or real problems with implementation of merged market? Any ideas?
As I can see it from implementation point of view, they would have to cancel all outstanding bids/offers before merge takes place. Without increasing inf cap, it might affect many players causing them to lose inf.
On another hand, if bids/offers stay intact during transition, due to huge disparity of WW/BM prices someone is going to lose/win big during merger.
Something to do with identifying each item, that there was some attribute that branded it Red or Blue?
OR, maybe that there wasn't a way to incorporate the existing market databases, because the databases/markets set-up didn't have a method (code wise) to interact with each other?
I'm 95% certain it was something very close to one of those things.
Aside from implementation, if it were a true merger... that would potentially cut the number of available "niches" in (roughly) half.
Pet recipes would be an "outlier" of sorts & maybe a couple other things like YinO's.
From the Devil's advocate perspective, that could really "downsize the Marketing Mini-game", seems like that could be bad.
Sure, there would be benefits (that have already been discussed to DEATH, over a couple years - need to go back into that 'can-of-worms' again), please
Maybe one of our Dev Overlords, or one of the new-ish Devs will re-visit the discussion again, and explain the current 'company stand' on the matter. That is of course AFTER, checking with their overlords for permission to speak on such matters.
Maybe it's an "impossible-ish" implementation problem, that could be worked out... IF they think its wise, and worth the time and effort to tackle another pseudo-impossible problem. (They're probably still doing some work on completing Power Customization... *ahem* Pool Powers.)
Then again, last time they listened to us players about something like that ("customizable mobs/bosses must be in the MA") = we ended up with the whole MA/AE debacle.
I think this could (rather easily) turn into another "be careful what you wish for" situation, where we end up wishing they hadn't messed with it at all. *shrug*
Like for instance, oh idk... maybe the "PvP-revamp"!
-
Quote:Have you read Maelstrom's "full Biography" on the Going Rogue site yet?Originally Posted by Star_Engine
Just to be different from all you guys listing features, I'd like to see more development on "The Coming Storm" plotline.
He was "Whirlpool", then became "Maelstrom", and has non-"subordinate"/Ally status in relation to Tyrant - a seemingly unique thing in Praetoria.
IDK what that means - if anything so far as the storyline, but it could!
-
1. Ability to re-color Pool Powers.
2. More IO Sets!a. An optional additional IO Recipe (7th in most cases) for existing sets - especially those with Uniques.
b. Replace "Debt Protection" with something worthwhile, or significantly jack-up the tiny existing % ... to higher % people MIGHT actually value.
c. Same as above with + Knockback % Bonuses (Yes, I'm looking at you Air Burst).
d. More "Universal Sets" = Universal Accuracy slot-able in existing Heal, Debuff, (etc?) Sets that would count as a set recipe - for purposes of set bonuses. (Example: Place a 'Universal Accuracy' in instead of one of the Dark Watcher's To Hit Debuff IO's - and still get the "6th slotted" set bonus.)
e. More Travel sets (for example: a Leaping set slot-able in Hurdle, or Running/Flying in Swift - and/or fix the "Stealth IO in passive/auto powers Problem".)3. Another Villain Zone - (just one, an alternative to Cap D', say... level 15-30 or 20-35?)
4. "Flashback-able" Mayhem/Safeguard Missions. Some sorta "Rogue" versions that resemble them... (Destructible Objects would be a 'must have' in these, Mayhems are way more fun than Safeguards, because of this difference!)
5. "Gun-Kata" type Secondary!!! -
Quote:And the Base Editor!Originally Posted by Seldom
Oh, there are many more. Have you been inside Mr. Yin's store in Faultline? The guy is hording away stuff from our costume creator!
-
Well somebody (or more than one someone? whatever) is up to their old shenanigans...
Seriously, 595 Bids on Level 20 Common Acc IOs? - Blueside, someone used to do this Redside a year or so ago.
There's similar schemes = Several hundred bids on Lvl 20/25 End Mod IO Recipes.
and 50-100 or so listed for sale - at prices higher than the Crafting tables sell them for...
Well, somebody (or several somebodies) are setting themselves up for the weekend. I saw a bunch of items with 600 bids and 90 for sale, 1800 bids and 300 for sale... or some fairly similar ratio of placed bids vs. items for sale.
Example #1 = level 25 & 30 End Mod Recipes same deal, hundreds or thousands of buy bids - and 10 or 15% of that number listed for sale at MORE than half the price to craft = (roughly) more than twice what they sell for from the crafting tables.
Example #2 = level 50 Doctored Wounds (triple) Recipes - roughly the same deal, like 600 bids on the recipes and 60 for sale. (That was yesterday, iirc).
And there are plenty of other recipe/IO listings that look just like this = with 1200 bids and 90 or so for sale...
Despite all the people in this thread saying they aren't gonna be marketing this weekend, there are obviously some people that appear to be devoting a whole server worth of characters on one or (maybe) two niches.
I'm betting someone is overdoing it - getting just a little TOO greedy, and counting on more stupid and/or impatient people than there really are playing - maybe because of the reactivation weekend?
That doesn't seem particularly wise, I'm predicting that this Double XP Weekend will be much like the last one - less than stellar. Because, not everyone can crank out Common/Uncommon IO's and ALL expect to rake in huge profits.
Maybe some folks are shooting for smaller margins and betting on volume to make up the difference? That doesn't seem like it'd be worth the time trying to undercut everyone else on Common IO sales, but heck - what do I know?
-
Quote:No doubt... I mean out in the Shadow Shard and all?Originally Posted by Monkey_King
I can only assume the latter. Justin Augustine does not strike me as an eminently farmable TF.
-
Quote:Well that's good to know, it sounds relatively easy to fix - I hope its as easy as it sounds to fix - although I should probably know it isn't as easy as changing some flags in a MUD.Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler
Yes, bug. Capes, Auras, Weapons are supposed to be flagged to not suppress.
I may HAVE to do this with some of my lesser played alts (with many powersets picked to fit into a VG "theme") - especially the toggles/armors Villain-side on Brutes and Stalkers.
My aging (somewhat decrepit) computer's video card tends to overheat when I'm trying to play various a characters. I'm looking to build a new-ish one and set this one aside for web-browsing, winamp, and whatnot.
I can't get past the character generator in Aion before it overheats - and I'm just barely above the minimum reqs for Aion - which ain't that bad (IMHO) for a 5 yr. old PC...
So yeah, this /suppressCloseFx command may indeed be a true "alt-saver" or at least let me play them between now and whenever I manage to get a new machine.
-
Quote:I seriously hope they got this in before the DXP (&/aka 4x Inf) weekend... *shudder* - otherwise the forum might get a little bit.. well = icky.Originally Posted by BurninUp
Information can be found in this thread: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?p=2294286
Basically, you don't see any increase in infamy/influence when exemplaring. You get exactly the same amount.
-
Well, I was gonna go with:
*cough* vidiotmaps.com *cough*...
**cough** map-pack (& the icon-pack while you're there) **cough**
Sorry, about that I have a cold.
But uhm yeah, Blondie pretty much spelled it out with a picture instead. -
How about inference?
Being a "grey currency" - that would work, you're not influential or infamous, per se - But people could infer that you might be... due to rogue-ish acts they think you're possibly (or probably) responsible for.
Plus (IMO) it sounds funny
Try it, I dare ya... -
Quote:I noticed this was still bugged in one of the Marshall Brass missions - "Rescue 3 PTS Workman" from the Clockwork... Leading them to the exit one at a time doesn't work.Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
I think the escort thing is just a bug. It's cropped up from time to time in dev-created missions as well. One thing I've noticed is that allies who aren't supposed to follow (and escorts who won't leave too, although I admittedly haven't run into many lately as MA authors tend to use them sparingly) are better at following than the ones who are actually supposed to follow.
(I'm 99% certain it DID work that way previously, when it "broke" again I have no idea.)
Right now, You have to lead them all around like a freakin conga line!
Only after you've rescued all three of them can you lead them to the exit & complete the mission.
It was bugged a LONG time ago, and I thought they would have had it fixed by now.
Either having the NPC's "fade out" like that one Rikti you Rescue in the Midnighter Arc Hero-side/Steel Canyon. I've seen a number of hostages doing this in various missions.
And in some cases the 'Glowie' you would've previously had to click-on after releasing the Hostage/Ally doesn't sometimes doesn't work. One of these is in that same Montague/Midnighter-intro Arc, you et a "you can't use this item" message - and oddly the "mission complete - exit button" pops up before that - the NPC doesn't seem to need to go near it, although that seems to be a major point of the story-text.
Another example: "Force the scientist to use the code-breaker tech" (or something to that effect) it's in the steal a Goldbricker rocketpack arc - also from Marshal Brass - I'm fairly certain he fades away as soon as you ill the mob(s) surrounding the Hostage, But in that arc you can go over and click the glowie for the cp/inf you get from that.
IDk what the heck is up with all this - none of the stuff "as-is" in the Dev missions/story arcs is game breaking, but it is somewhat "immersion breaking".
Truth be told, I've done most of these missions so many times - I've long since stopped reading the text for them... and ALSO why I noticed the handful of changes.
Like that Rescue the Rikti Scientist mission - mentioned above, I'd swear that at one point I had to lead that dude back to the Mission entrance. He even stills says "I'll follow you out" - but then promptly fades away running in the general direction of the exit... much like Percy Winkley does in the mission before that.
I'd swear I had to escort them out previously, But, that said I'm glad I don't have to mess with that anymore/currently(?), since I'm gonna want to unlock the Midnighters Club on every toon - but they might want to go back and edit the NPC text to something like "Thanks I'll find my own way out" or whatever... -
Quote:THIS --^Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
1: Yes. I've been asking for account wide storage for ages. As one that predominantly soloes, it would be extremely helpful. As would OFFLINE SG INVITES.
2: No. People: Quit Asking For Server Mergers. If you think your server is dead, MOVE. QUIT WHINING AND MOVE. There are a lot of us that prefer our low pop servers just the way they are.
I couldn't agree more with Bill Z Bubba on these two points.
*Note: I "snipped out" part of this quote, because I wanted to stress the (IMO) most important part. That being...Quote:Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
Inf IS money in this game. Any statement to the contrary is based on outdated design thoughts. SG/VGs do fund lowbies.
Account wide storage is nothing more than a logical boon of convenience to single account holders.
"Account wide storage is nothing more than a logical boon of convenience to single account holders."
I was in Hasting's (Bookstore) just yesterday, and I was browsing thru a magazine, and read about the changes to DDO & it becoming "DDO - Eberron Unlimited"... and I was suddenly very envious when I read about the account wide shared storage.
(On an unrelated note - I'm skeptical about the semi-free/micro-transaction model. But, I really dig the Eberron Setting for the PnP game!
Also, that they're finally gonna raise the level cap to 20, and it sounds like they made some major changes to accommodate players that want to Solo - which was reported to be essentially impossible when the game was first released. I'm actually tempted to try it out now) - Anywho...
And once again, Bill Z - "knocks it outta the park".Quote:Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
I hate it when I find myself on the same side of a debate with someone that posts like this.
My current SG and VG have 2 active players. Two. At one time my sg was in the top 10 on Pinnacle. The fact that the other player isn't always online makes the need for offline group invites MORE important so I fail to see why you've ceased caring about it unless your base isn't functional.
As for the rest of that tirade, the devs have done a great deal in assisting players. We used to have a 5 digit cap on trading. Once upon a time we didn't have bases or bins or teleporters or temp travel powers or vet rewards.
Dump the hyperbole. It makes people ignore you.
I'd like to point out that in addition to the Markets effectively making INF into "money", the fact that ALL of the various "Vault" locations somehow sharing the same space across (either the red or blue side of) server - (particularly Pocket D) and the existence of Portal Corp for that matter, makes it easily plausible for an account-wide shared storage space...
So far as the storyline and/or not shattering peoples' "sense of disbelief".
Even more so in the near future, given that "Going Rogue" will have side-switching, & the Praetoria "Zones". I have to wonder what they're gonna do about SGs/VGs/The Vault/The Markets (and I know much of that has already been discussed at length here on the forums).
I think its safe to assume the Devs have already got some sort of plans for handling these and possibly other "issues" related to some of GR's features that we may not know about yet. -
Quote:Well, Military Cybernetics, + "Flipper" from the TV show + the theme song of said show - referenced in the post name...Originally Posted by Hart
Heh, made 200m in 3 days grinding these things out in the AE and selling em for a mill instantly.
They always sold for slightly over a million, and I figured the guy who's flipping em would run out of seed money eventually. I was trying to knock the price back down by flushing the market with supply. I failed, but got wealthy enough doing it that I no longer care how much they cost.
I'm still stumped as to why someone would be willing to pay 2M for something it'd take all of 5 minutes to go get with tix.
I'm sorry, I don't speak riffraff. Didn't you see the monocle?
First thing I thought of was the Dolphin that had (Military Cybernetic implants courtesy of the Navy - he was a "retired sailor") from the movie "Johnny Mnemonic" - named Jones... it struck me as funny.
-
Quote:Wait, didn't Ice-T (as "J-Bone") say his name was "Jones"??Originally Posted by Hart
Dear Military Cybernetics flipper,
A-hahahahah hahahahah. Mwahahah hah, mwahah hah, mwa hah hah hah hah.
Yours truly,
~Hart
P.S. - Heheheh.
-
Quote:Yeah, I read that when he posted it.Originally Posted by Liquid
But there's no way in hell they're gonna say "fixed a bug in the drop rate that's been in since I9 but only recently found - due to recent increased scrutiny... and we finally found it - but only after we called it just a "perception issue".
I was trying to be semi-nice about it, that's a long thread you linked to - and what it amounts to is there is apparently no way to know if it's been plaguing some people's characters' since day one of I9.
I just found it more than a little ironic that the patch note was worded:
Fixed bug was causing drop rates to be slightly too low.
When it was a HUGE "perceived" disparity in the drop rate (at least for some folks) that caused the countless man-hours of players gathering drop rate data via the custom made chatlog parser and whatnot - aka the "increased scrutiny" - to get the Devs to look deep enough to believe it wasn't just "all in our heads".
Seems like the understatement of the century (IMHO), so far as post-I9 CoX is concerned!
"Color me" (I16) uber-cynical if you like, its no skin off my nose.
-
Are we sure it's that patch?
Or the one from 4 days ago? -
Quote:Originally Posted by Mid_Forever
"Rewards
- Fixed bug was causing drop rates to be slightly too low."
Edit: "Slightly"?Sounds more like cautious, delicate, business-speak to me...Quote:Originally Posted by Jetpack
The slightly part is a bit worrisome.
Sounds like more testing is in order!
If it said:
"Fixed a bug that's been in since I9, but don't worry...
It only very recently (with I16's release) sent the drop rate through the basement - and only for some players not everyone.
And we're sorry, But we can't explain why it was only affecting some players - or we'd be telling you too much about how drops are awarded, and people might figure out how to game the RNG or something..."
Yeah, see that would've sounded well - uhm, bad. So they didn't put it that way.
-
Quote:This is literally the best idea I've heard suggested as a "fix" for this "problem", (or for any other "problem" in the semi recent past - that I can recall).Originally Posted by Chaos Creator
How hard would it be to require a new difficulty setting in the task force of ignore SRSLY/ 4XP Setting and make that required for Master Of badges?
It's the level 49 AV's or whatever that some people are ticked-off about correct?
And the related/supposed "cheapening" of the "Master of whatever TF/SF".
I mean this HAS to be the biggest "no brainer" answer there is right?
It's gotta be the ultimate - "Doh!", /facepalm "why didn't I/we think of that sooner?" answer to this... 'untenable situation' - causing untold spontaneous 'Badger-NerdRages' throughout the City of - and thereby threatening life as we know it!
-
Quote:Well, it was mostly just speculation on my part.Originally Posted by UberGuy
Why think that, when no one generally perceived a difference until this issue?
I don't claim to really, fully understand the drop code.
But after reading the post by Pohsyb regarding the bug...
Quote:Originally Posted by pohsyb
This was caused by an uninitialized variable, in this case specifically it was a structure declared locally when awarding a drop table.
About four function calls deeper, something was using a member of that structure to determine if you were fighting something grey (no drop). Uninitialized variables can be anything, but often have tendency to be zero, which would not cause a problem (actually any positive value would not matter).
This bug as been in since Issue 9 and was not caused by specifically by anything related to I16 (Whenever code is changed the tendencies of uninitialized variables can change). I suspect the changes made with I16 caused drop rates to be closely scrutinized.
Well, from what I gathered, it seemed (IMHO) to be a "likely suspect" - so to speak, why?
Because:
1. Its a semi-recent change to "drops" - specifically recipe drops.
I was thinking this could be the change to the code, that might have seemingly put - said errant "uninitialized variable" into the "structure" of the "drop table"
2. The unknown but apparently very low rate % chance for these to drop, might have responsible for putting a "zero" (or whatever) in a place that was previously unused - or "not called on"?
3. Again, I'm kinda straining a bit to get my head around the general coding & bug mentioned - trying to put it into something resembling a meaningful context - that I might then actually understand.
4. Example - maybe the bug is "set off" by killing a grey boss mob & and getting a successful "percentage roll" that would award a recipe from the Pool C/D table - IF the boss wasn't grey...
I have no clue which of these it checks for first, or how that works at all really. I was just guessing based on my (admittedly limited) understanding of the whole mess.
5. In this old thread linked below - there is a good deal of perceived wonky-ness in how these drops are supposed to work, comparing the people's various experiences getting them (or not), as it were.
Pool C Boss Drops
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=131724
This disparity between people's perceptions of recipe drops - was one of the first things to spring to mind when reading the current thread today.
Does this make a little better sense now? And TBH even if it doesn't - I don't know how else to explain what I was thinking.
-
Quote:Originally Posted by pohsyb
This was caused by an uninitialized variable, in this case specifically it was a structure declared locally when awarding a drop table.
About four function calls deeper, something was using a member of that structure to determine if you were fighting something grey (no drop). Uninitialized variables can be anything, but often have tendency to be zero, which would not cause a problem (actually any positive value would not matter).
This bug as been in since Issue 9 and was not caused by specifically by anything related to I16 (Whenever code is changed the tendencies of uninitialized variables can change). I suspect the changes made with I16 caused drop rates to be closely scrutinized.
So does that mean this bug could have (plausibly) been affecting some characters, (at least a rare few) for quite some time now?
Like, I always felt there were a couple of my (fairly numerous) alts - that almost never got anything but common recipes - and sometimes not even very many of those...
As far as the semi-recent "change" in the code that might have caused this - I'm gonna guess it was something related to adding in the chance for a Pool C/D Drop from Bosses.
I'm no code-monkey... But, that seems like a recent enough "add" to the drop code to be a plausible cause, that and the discussion thread about them where some people reported they've never gotten any of them "yet"...
Which at the time, would've seemed to have been long enough for people to have gotten at least as many of these as they did Purples or PvP recipes.
That and the repeated questions about "What is the Drop rate on these?" =(Pool C/D recipes from Boss kills) supposed to be - vs. - what people were perceiving it to be.
IDK, who all remembers the main thread on that, but it sounds pretty familiar to this one, no? *shrug* -
Yeah, I've gotten some spam from a couple "new" sites (or new to me at least)...
And just last night I saw a toon running around, named something similar to - "hjmk cyhg" or something.
It could just be someone making a disposable toon to run some story arcs for Merits and then delete them later, or somebody's dual (or tri)-box tag along doorsitter/heal spammer.
Or someone with vetspecs making a disposable toon to get back part of their Inf "wasted" on creating (typically unsellable) Common IO's, like Holds or other Mez's - while working on Field Crafter? (Although, that would be a real waste of time for most folks these days.)
Or... Maybe all of the above - *shrug* -
You know I was thinking about this the other day but didn't want to mention it at the time but the I16 overview describes this as:
Quote:Just because the map is going to be "populated for 8" doesn't mean they're gonna do squa-doosh (aka anything at all) to a solo scrapper's - "populated for 8" drop-rate. "...control over the level they are detected to be when it comes to the dynamic spawn system." Doesn't necessarily mean the drop rate system is gonna change, but the Devs should know darn well - that's exactly what people are expecting/wanting from this new system!Enhanced Difficulty Options - Players can now fine-tune their difficulty levels by telling the game exactly how they want to be treated. They can choose to be regarded as a specific size team (even if they are soloing), and even have control over the level they are detected to be when it comes to the dynamic spawn system.
So if you ever wanted to see if your Scrapper could take on a map that is populated for an 8 person team, four levels higher than your own, now you can!
The difficulty settings of the mission owner dictate how the mission is handled, just as before, and you can change your difficulty settings at any Hero Corp.'s Representative in Paragon City or Fateweaver in the Rogue Isles.
Let's assume for a second that's this is the case - I'm thinking that when people go to complain about it, they would get a response along the lines of:
"Oh... We thought you just wanted the "challenge" of a "map spawned for 8" - and we gave it to you! Surely, you didn't REALLY THINK - we were gonna give you the drop rate of a "padded for 8 map" to go along with it, Hah, yeah right!
Oh. and good luck asking for "fillers" to "pad" your maps now, because they'll all think "you don't need fillers anymore", HAHAHA!"
That's just the Devil's Advocate in me talking there - above.
I don't honestly think they would try to pull any shenanigans like that right now.
As for the perceived drop rate discrepancy, it might have something to do with the way they're trying to handle the - "what happens to a team where everyone is running at "set for 8" (and possibly on different difficulty settings).
I read something about this - that in this situation it would set the spawns based on the actual number of people on the map... or something to that effect - I'm not sure which set of "Build Notes" or Dev Digest post I read that in - but something like that was/is in there somewhere.
IIRC, it was in answer to one of the most asked questions, "What happens if 8 people "set for 8" - and what if they're at different difficulty slider settings?", Etc.
I applaud your efforts so far, given the Pre-download that happened yesterday - I hope Synapse (or whomever) can figure out what's up with the drop rates ASAP. The other thought I had about this was - when Synapse recently replied to this and (essentially) said, "the drop rate code hasn't changed in I16".
I was thinking - maybe it slipped in sometime before? - maybe during I15 or one of the patches or something??
Heck IDK, it's just some food for thought - so to speak. Something to tide you over - while you're busy banging your heads on the walls of the Cargo ship map, *shrug* -
I'd suggest trying out the following:
From the "Arcane" Tab =
Square Stone Plint
Stone Floor Cross
Raised Corner
These barely 'flicker' at all when overlapped, unlike rubble that 'flickers' like crazy (in my experience). (IMO) They also look pretty nice when overlapped/placed around the edges of Arcane Inspiration bins - they match fairly well.
The "Book Podium" works pretty well to stack up vertically, rotating every other one 180 degrees - make a decent Pillar/Column, among other things... I've also used the Arcane "Small Arch" and "Wall Platform" with decent results.
Upon re-reading, (and looking at those links) I see what you mean about "legos". I wasn't thinking about "blocks" so much as structural supports, flooring, etc.