Drop and cash rates are inadequate.

[Idi]

Issue: gathering equipment for characters is far more difficult than it should be.

Narrative: While trying to aquire better armor and weapons for chars using higher level chars so that they can be more successful using the quest system, it becomes obvious that the drop and cash rate is inadequate to the point that it's not even worth the effort to the average player. Ten kills can net maybe a single drop, and that drop won't even be useful to the character you're trying to equip. Cash rewards are so low that they don't even keep up with the cost of buying buff pots, armor, or equipment. This eliminates the fun factor and makes trying to develop a character on this server tedious, unenjoyable, and largely a waste of time.

Recommendation: Increase the drop rates so that players can equip multiple characters for participation in RvR, and increase the cash rates so that they can afford those things that facilitate the process of prepping chars for RvR. As it stands now with the current settings, the game isn't enjoyable to play for the average player, and the player base isn't likely to commit to the server.

[Idi]

Ran a test tonight in DF on a shield tank to see what kind of drop rates were achieved.

Char: 49 hero specced for shield / parry and 1h
Buffs: Alchemy pot buff str, dex, con, str/con, dex/qui, haste, damage shield, end regen buffs were used throughout
Total time: 56 minutes
Mobs farmed: Essence Shredders
Total mobs killed: 14
Total tinder drops: 1
Total saphire seal drops: 4
Total rog drops: 0

So with about an hour of play this character managed to achieve pretty much nothing worthy of the time invested. The gold recovered average far less than 2g per mob, so call it 21 gold total, which probably didn't even cover the expense of the pot buffs needed to kill them. Even if you sold the tinder and seals, you'd get maybe, what, 34 gold for them, so 54 gold for almost an hour of time? That's horrid.

The drop and gold rate settings are insufficient to make the game enjoyable, and will contribute to a small and declining player base unless positive change is implemented to make it less like EQ and more like the game we hoped we'd be playing on this server.

[JeanClawVampDamme]

I hear what you’re saying. I spent roughly 40min or so farming redcaps last night only to end up with maybe 6 drops. Can’t tell you how many I killed, but it only takes maybe 15sec at most for a purple on my dark BD. I’ve even farmed red and purple dragon zone mobs, including the mini spawns and had similar results.
However, I think things are suppose to drastically change once we are able to ding 50. From reading the announcement, 1-49 is the “Leveling ROG” phase, so we are still on that loot table. 50+ is a whole new game.
I’ll reserve judgement until then.

[Marcus]

Ran a test tonight in DF on a shield tank to see what kind of drop rates were achieved.

Char: 49 hero specced for shield / parry and 1h
Buffs: Alchemy pot buff str, dex, con, str/con, dex/qui, haste, damage shield, end regen buffs were used throughout
Total time: 56 minutes
Mobs farmed: Essence Shredders
Total mobs killed: 14
Total tinder drops: 1
Total saphire seal drops: 4
Total rog drops: 0

So with about an hour of play this character managed to achieve pretty much nothing worthy of the time invested. The gold recovered average far less than 2g per mob, so call it 21 gold total, which probably didn't even cover the expense of the pot buffs needed to kill them. Even if you sold the tinder and seals, you'd get maybe, what, 34 gold for them, so 54 gold for almost an hour of time? That's horrid.

The drop and gold rate settings are insufficient to make the game enjoyable, and will contribute to a small and declining player base unless positive change is implemented to make it less like EQ and more like the game we hoped we'd be playing on this server.

It took you 1 hour to kill 14 mobs. I think that is the main hurdle to overcome. Try grouping up or fighting mobs you can kill quicker. Many people have multiple plat and multiple LGM crafts. Salvaging is a great way to make gold as well.