Loot Scaling - I've just never understood it. - Page 2 - Guild Wars Forums

R_Frost · Aug 22, 2010, 05:49 PM // 17:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spookii

Loot scaling.

Can someone please explain to me what it is and how/why it works?

I feel like a newb all over again posting this, since I feel like most players who have 4 years under their belt understand it better than highschool geometry.

But really, I just don't understand what it is. In my understanding, it scales loot according to how quickly you kill foes + how many party members you have. So that solo players don't just pick up 8x what a full party would.

But...if that's so, then why does solo-farming (or even duo-farming) yield more cash? ;_; I'm so confused.

theres so many theories on how it works. yes it scales based on how fast you kill. i believe its been verified by many. ball up a mob and kill them all at once yields less drops then if you kill one at a time. the more you solo farm the less drops you will get compared to farming with more in your party. Loot Scaling was one of the many failed attempts to deal with the gold sellers and their bots. as with the many past attempts to deal with them it only pissed off the community more then it stopped the bots. at this point in the game Loot Scaling is something that needs to be updated or removed. reason solo farming or farming with less then a full party yeilds more cash, is the gold drops, or what little does drop isnt split with the party and in most cases solo farming is still faster, with what drops you do get, then a full party. you can do many solo farm runs in the amount of time it takes a full party to do an area and in most cases those many solo runs have resulted in more gold and drops then the full party got in the same amount of time

Chthon · Aug 22, 2010, 07:34 PM // 19:34

Sigh.
Yes, loot scaling is very nearly fully understood. Between the synch tests, the entry effect tests, the rate-of-kill tests, some obvious mathematical truths, and a little bit of knowledge of standard programming techniques, we know enough to say with reasonable certainty how it works:

There is a cap on income, probably in terms of gold/time.

The game keeps track of the gold value of every item assigned to you since you've entered the zone, as well as the time.

When you first enter a zone a phantom "dummy drop" is assigned to you. This is to prevent you from having $0/time when you make your first kill. (If we didn't have this, bots could evade loot scale by repeat zoning.)

When a monster dies and is about to drop an item the will be assigned to you, the game does the following:
1. Is the item loot-scaling-exempt (gold, green, rare crafting material, etc.)? If so, the item will materialize. If not, then ask...
2. At this moment, is your current gold/time value over the cap? If not, the item will materialize. If so, the item will not materialize -- it's been loot scaled.

In terms of its original goal of stopping the bots that used to make huge gold/time by farming easy monsters for white items, the system is virtually perfect. It is strictly impossible to ever do better than the cap if you're farming loot-scalable items and selling them to the merchant.

Ways to beat the system include:
1. Farm specifically for loot-scale-exempt items. (Ecto, etc.)
2. Farm for loot-scalable items that have a higher value when sold to crafters/collectors/other players than their gold value. (Certain collectibles, salvagables, etc.)
3. Farm for a single high-gold-value loot-scale-exempt item very soon after entry, then rezone and repeat. (Farm raptors for junk golds.)
4. Farm festival items (which seem to be not only loot scale exempt, but entirely outside the normal drop system.)

Spookii · Aug 22, 2010, 07:42 PM // 19:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chthon

Sigh.
Yes, loot scaling is very nearly fully understood. Between the synch tests, the entry effect tests, the rate-of-kill tests, some obvious mathematical truths, and a little bit of knowledge of standard programming techniques, we know enough to say with reasonable certainty how it works:

There is a cap on income, probably in terms of gold/time.

The game keeps track of the gold value of every item assigned to you since you've entered the zone, as well as the time.

When you first enter a zone a phantom "dummy drop" is assigned to you. This is to prevent you from having $0/time when you make your first kill. (If we didn't have this, bots could evade loot scale by repeat zoning.)

When a monster dies and is about to drop an item the will be assigned to you, the game does the following:
1. Is the item loot-scaling-exempt (gold, green, rare crafting material, etc.)? If so, the item will materialize. If not, then ask...
2. At this moment, is your current gold/time value over the cap? If not, the item will materialize. If so, the item will not materialize -- it's been loot scaled.

In terms of its original goal of stopping the bots that used to make huge gold/time by farming easy monsters for white items, the system is virtually perfect. It is strictly impossible to ever do better than the cap if you're farming loot-scalable items and selling them to the merchant.

Ways to beat the system include:
1. Farm specifically for loot-scale-exempt items. (Ecto, etc.)
2. Farm for loot-scalable items that have a higher value when sold to crafters/collectors/other players than their gold value. (Certain collectibles, salvagables, etc.)
3. Farm for a single high-gold-value loot-scale-exempt item very soon after entry, then rezone and repeat. (Farm raptors for junk golds.)
4. Farm festival items (which seem to be not only loot scale exempt, but entirely outside the normal drop system.)

Thanks for the replies, guys.

This post really makes sense to me, thanks for posting it.

Aug 22, 2010, 07:34 PM // 19:34	#22
Chthon Grotto Attendant Join Date: Apr 2007	Sigh. Yes, loot scaling is very nearly fully understood. Between the synch tests, the entry effect tests, the rate-of-kill tests, some obvious mathematical truths, and a little bit of knowledge of standard programming techniques, we know enough to say with reasonable certainty how it works: There is a cap on income, probably in terms of gold/time. The game keeps track of the gold value of every item assigned to you since you've entered the zone, as well as the time. When you first enter a zone a phantom "dummy drop" is assigned to you. This is to prevent you from having $0/time when you make your first kill. (If we didn't have this, bots could evade loot scale by repeat zoning.) When a monster dies and is about to drop an item the will be assigned to you, the game does the following: 1. Is the item loot-scaling-exempt (gold, green, rare crafting material, etc.)? If so, the item will materialize. If not, then ask... 2. At this moment, is your current gold/time value over the cap? If not, the item will materialize. If so, the item will not materialize -- it's been loot scaled. In terms of its original goal of stopping the bots that used to make huge gold/time by farming easy monsters for white items, the system is virtually perfect. It is strictly impossible to ever do better than the cap if you're farming loot-scalable items and selling them to the merchant. Ways to beat the system include: 1. Farm specifically for loot-scale-exempt items. (Ecto, etc.) 2. Farm for loot-scalable items that have a higher value when sold to crafters/collectors/other players than their gold value. (Certain collectibles, salvagables, etc.) 3. Farm for a single high-gold-value loot-scale-exempt item very soon after entry, then rezone and repeat. (Farm raptors for junk golds.) 4. Farm festival items (which seem to be not only loot scale exempt, but entirely outside the normal drop system.)