[Dev Blog] Co-op Loot Changes
Loot Guarantee
Hi fellow Settlers!
The loot changes for coop adventures are designed as a test case to highlight our goals and the direction adventure loot adjustment should take from our perspective. To be able to get proper feedback we also decided to release information on drop chance and provide additional explanations. So here we are :)
Like all changes, there are reasons and goals behind them. We defined some simple goals.
Appeal Boost
One of the main goals for adjusting the loot of coop adventures is to boost the appeal of those adventures. To reach that goal we adjusted our balancing sheets to contain a coop boost modifier. It increases the default amount of resources and the drop chance for buildings if the adventure is a coop adventure.
High-Value Rewards
The second goal is to focus on rewards with a higher value. It includes resources which can’t be produced on the level where the adventures can be completed: Exotic Wood, Granite, Titanium Ore or Salpeter. Resources which can be produced will be removed from the loot. The only exception is Coins.
Economy Loop
Removing producible resources from the loot will boost the value of an optimised economy and support the basic economic loop of the game - as mentioned in one of the questions answered during the Q&A sessions.
Economic Challenge
Increasing the need and benefits of an optimised economy will result in an increase of the economic challenge for the game, and this challenge is exactly what we expect from a Settlers game. This economic challenge should draw the attention more towards game mechanics, planning and decision making.
Loot Guarantee
We are adding a loot guarantee for valuable items, similar to what we did with the book recipes. This means that certain items will be guaranteed to drop after a number of unsuccessful attempts.
The basic idea is that every time such an item fails to drop, an internal counter goes up in proportion to its drop chance, which is the probability with which it could have dropped. Once this counter reaches the equivalent of 150% of summed up drop chances, the item is guaranteed to drop on the next opportunity. The counter resets to 0 when the item drops, whether by chance or guarantee.
In practice, the counter might increase a bit slower depending on the availability of the item. We slightly penalize items that can be attained from a variety of sources in order to compensate for the advantages this flexibility offers.
Below, mathematically inclined settlers can find the complete formula for how much the counter increases every time an item fails to drop.
The formula takes into account the number of sources in the game that it can drop from, and that item's drop chance (e.g. 25% = 0.25) from the source that the player has just interacted with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Formula
counter_increase = 10.000 * drop_chance / (1.3 - 0.3 / reward_sources)
When the sum of these increases reaches 15.000, the item is guaranteed to drop on the next attempt.
The Future
Those changes are applied to coop adventures only. Based on the results of this test case we will decide if we want to apply those changes to other adventures over time, too.
Thank you for all the feedback. Read you later and have fun!
BB_Vierauge & BB_Alex
