Confluence Loot - Per Character Daily Cap

[Methais]

Cross posting this from the officials, since there are probably some Confluence hunters here that don't read the officials trying to figure out wtf has been up with the loot lately.

This place doesn't appear to follow normal loot rules at all, and I'm looking to hopefully get some clarification on how it actually does work.

For most of the past few years, I would farm the place pretty heavily, and the loot was consistently good, with stuff often dropping 2 gems at a time, etc.

Over the past 6-12 months or so, it's been acting much differently. When I first start hunting for the day, the loot is fantastic for the first hour or two, and then it abruptly drops off a cliff and drops almost nothing. I come back the next day, loot is good for an hour or two, then it turns to trash again.

It doesn't seem to matter what time of day I log in, it's steadily good for an hour or two, then garbage. I also pretty much never run into other people when I'm in any Confluence. Not saying other people don't hunt it, but I never see anyone, at least in Landing or Teras, which is where I primarily hunt.

But the fact that I can predict with pretty high accuracy when the loot is going to turn to trash, even if it's currently good, leads me to believe that this isn't a loot pressure issue. I was recently speaking with a capped ranger from Plat, and she's having the exact same issue, and she's the only person in Plat that farms the Confluence.

Another weird thing is this happens universally. If Confluence loot is good, it's good in every Confluence in every realm, regardless of which side you're hunting and all that. And when it dries up, it dries up in every Confluence in every realm. I've tested this several times with the same results every time. The Plat ranger is experiencing the exact same thing. This doesn't align at all with how "normal" loot systems work.

The Plat ranger I spoke with referenced some unrelated in game change that took place at about the same time that Confluence loot started acting weird, though I can't remember what it actually was and she's not on for me to ask right now.

But yeah, something's different with this place and it has been for a while now. It's almost as if there's some personal daily loot cap/pressure system in the place or something, though I haven't done any extensive testing with other characters to test that, since they'd all probably get wrecked in there.

I did a little testing just now on my bard, but he's not very far post cap so he can't really handle the place well. Pretty huge difference just on the few kills I had though:

You change your tune slightly, adding the element for Song of Sonic Disruption to your song...
Your spellsong is ready.
You weave another verse into your harmony, directing the sound of your voice at a huge ice elemental.
CS: +475 - TD: +398 + CvA: +25 + d100: +36 == +138
Warding failed!
A huge ice elemental reels under the force of the sonic vibrations!
Sound waves disrupt for 58 damage!
... 50 points of damage!
You sense a surge of essence being dragged from the elemental and into your multicolored soulstone.
The ice elemental dissipates into a cool breeze that fades rapidly away.
As the last of the ice elemental disappears, an uncut ruby, a green malachite stone, and an uncut ruby appear in its place.
The silvery luminescence fades from around a huge ice elemental.
The bright luminescence fades from around a huge ice elemental.
A huge ice elemental appears somehow different.
The brilliant luminescence fades from around a huge ice elemental.
A huge ice elemental glances around, looking a bit less confident.
The tingling sensation and sense of security leaves a huge ice elemental.

Your spellsong is ready.
You weave another verse into your harmony, directing the sound of your voice at a huge ice elemental.
CS: +475 - TD: +385 + CvA: +25 + d100: +54 == +169
Warding failed!
A huge ice elemental reels under the force of the sonic vibrations!
Sound waves disrupt for 77 damage!
You sense a surge of essence being dragged from the elemental and into your multicolored soulstone.
The ice elemental dissipates into a cool breeze that fades rapidly away.
As the last of the ice elemental disappears, a pink sapphire and a star ruby appear in its place.
The silvery luminescence fades from around a huge ice elemental.
The bright luminescence fades from around a huge ice elemental.
A huge ice elemental appears somehow different.
The brilliant luminescence fades from around a huge ice elemental.
A huge ice elemental glances around, looking a bit less confident.
The tingling sensation and sense of security leaves a huge ice elemental.
Sing Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Your spellsong is ready.
You weave another verse into your harmony, directing the sound of your voice at a huge water elemental.
CS: +475 - TD: +395 + CvA: +25 + d100: +32 == +137
Warding failed!
A huge water elemental reels under the force of the sonic vibrations!
Sound waves disrupt for 58 damage!
You sense a surge of essence being dragged from the elemental and into your multicolored soulstone.
The water elemental begins bubbling violently before evaporating into nothingness.
As the last of the water elemental disappears, a green sapphire and an uncut emerald appear in its place.
The silvery luminescence fades from around a huge water elemental.
The bright luminescence fades from around a huge water elemental.
A huge water elemental appears somehow different.
The brilliant luminescence fades from around a huge water elemental.
A huge water elemental glances around, looking a bit less confident.
The tingling sensation and sense of security leaves a huge water elemental.
Sing Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Your spellsong is ready.
You weave another verse into your harmony, directing the sound of your voice at a huge air elemental.
CS: +475 - TD: +385 + CvA: +25 + d100: +62 == +177
Warding failed!
A huge air elemental reels under the force of the sonic vibrations!
Sound waves disrupt for 82 damage!
You sense a surge of essence being dragged from the elemental and into your multicolored soulstone.
The air elemental shudders and then whirls away into nothingness.
As the last of the air elemental disappears, a blue tourmaline, a large grey pearl, and an uncut ruby appear in its place.
The silvery luminescence fades from around a huge air elemental.
The bright luminescence fades from around a huge air elemental.
A huge air elemental appears somehow different.
The brilliant luminescence fades from around a huge air elemental.
A huge air elemental glances around, looking a bit less confident.
The tingling sensation and sense of security leaves a huge air elemental.
Sing Roundtime 3 Seconds.


Total night and day difference. I'd also like to state that the last time I saw 3 gems drop off of one kill was around when I first started hunting the place years ago, and the only times I see 2 gems drop is when I have a loot boost running, and even then it's pretty rare.

Went back in with Methais after, killed a ton of elementals on the cold side, loot was steadily trash. Went back in with bard immediately after, loot was consistently just as good as in the clips posted above. Went back in with Methais again, loot was trash. Went back in with bard after, loot was phenomenal.

I repeated this several times for about an hour with the exact same results. This is the same Landing Confluence Methais was in this morning that was good for an hour or so, and then dried up, but I seriously doubt it would have mattered which Confluence I was in.

Is this a bug? Or was this some sort of stealth nerf that got applied at some point within the past year? It very obvious that there's some sort of character based loot pressure system happening in this place, and not operating under "normal" loot rules.

If it's a nerf, then that's fine. But why would such a change like this not be announced anywhere and be done as a stealth nerf instead?

http://forums.play.net/forums/GemSto...erns/view/4162

Interested to see what Simu responds with, if they respond at all.

[Taernath]

If it's a nerf, then that's fine. But why would such a change like this not be announced anywhere and be done as a stealth nerf instead?

Because GMs like to be as opaque as possible.

[Astray]

I expect lots of "WE DESIGNED IT PERFECT STFU FGT" from Simu because they are incapable of having criticism leveled at them without crying foul.

[Methais]

They'll probably just ignore the post altogether. I've asked a few times before in the Confluence and the Treasure folder, got ignored every time. But those are mostly inactive folders anyway, so this time I posted it in the game design folder.

I wonder if it's an account based cap instead of a character based cap. I have no way to really test this, as Methais is the only character on that account.

Any other Confluence hunters have enough active capped characters to help test this?

[Donquix]

Confluence loot is now separated into 6 tiers.

When a character finds a luminescent core, they have seed 9 summation chance based on elemental lore - water to be increased to the next tier. Tier increases last 30 minutes.

Happy farming, they totally drop! --Estilid, probably

[Avaia]

I see the post but every time I click on it get "I could not find that post." Did they delete it on you?

[Alastir]

I've experienced something similar.

I can usually hunt the confluence for an hour or two before it's no longer worth it. Today I hunted for about an hour, started out getting a few drops per elemental, and then they just stop dropping things completely. Even using major loot boosts.

You search the area and find:
(stowed in a thin leather jacket)
a pale pink mistvein ruby
some essence of fire
Looted 2 items.
You search the area and find:
(stowed in a thin leather jacket)
an uncut emerald
an uncut diamond

I imagine they implemented an anti-Methais feature since you're known to hunt there so much. It would be nice if they had a change log so we didn't have to notice these things and ask about them. People will bitch about it either way, at least be transparent about changes so we're not surprised by changes.

[Methais]

I see the post but every time I click on it get "I could not find that post." Did they delete it on you?

I had to edit something, which means I had to repost it, and I forgot to fix the link on here.

http://forums.play.net/forums/GemSto...erns/view/4162

EDIT: Or maybe not, looks like it was the same link I originally had in OP. The post is still there on the officials though.

Someone had a similar issue seeing a post of mine when I was complaining about cores a while back. I forgot what the deal was though, I wanna say it had something to do with which forum view was being used but I don't remember.

But it's in Gemstone IV > General Gemstone IV Discussion > Game Design Questions and Concerns > post 4162

[Astray]

Can't find it with the new link. CENSORED!

[Methais]

I've experienced something similar.

I can usually hunt the confluence for an hour or two before it's no longer worth it. Today I hunted for about an hour, started out getting a few drops per elemental, and then they just stop dropping things completely. Even using major loot boosts.

You search the area and find:
(stowed in a thin leather jacket)
a pale pink mistvein ruby
some essence of fire
Looted 2 items.
You search the area and find:
(stowed in a thin leather jacket)
an uncut emerald
an uncut diamond

I imagine they implemented an anti-Methais feature since you're known to hunt there so much. It would be nice if they had a change log so we didn't have to notice these things and ask about them. People will bitch about it either way, at least be transparent about changes so we're not surprised by changes.

That's exactly how it goes for me too. When it dries up, even a major loot boost won't help.

I imagine they implemented an anti-Methais feature since you're known to hunt there so much. It would be nice if they had a change log so we didn't have to notice these things and ask about them. People will bitch about it either way, at least be transparent about changes so we're not surprised by changes.

Probably so, and then it got bugged and wrecked everyone.

Vyrshkana was saying it's always trash for her. I had thought she was having the same experience as you and I were until I was asking her about it earlier, but apparently it's worse in plat, because she's the only Confluence hunter there at all and dries up after a handful of kills.

She noticed it after this change happened earlier this year:

>Early this year, there was a coding change in the adventurer's guild that affected the confluence: It used to be that you could do confluence tasks given to you from a guild in one town in any town (barring child rescues), so if I needed gems from Icemule for something I could get tasks on Teras and go stock up gems while doing Teras bounties, for example. Now, the guild requires you to do the task in the city/area you get the task in. It's the same change(s) that added an heirloom's full description to the BOUNTY messaging after you find it. I'm fairly sure treasure in confluence plummeted after that.

As annoying as that place is to hunt, even moreso if you don't have a good bit of post cap exp, the loot is literally the only thing that makes the place interesting.