Increase drop rate/exp based on enemies fought in one battle
Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 2:04 am
Hey guys,
I know that any mention of changing drop rates is usually met with skepticism at best, but bear with me for a second here. I tried to condense my idea into the title so it'd be obvious that I'm not asking to increase the drop rate in general.
So here's my idea: If you are in continuous battle with more than one enemy, multiply the drop rate and/or EXP for every subsequent enemy by the number of enemies fought in this battle. Say you're in the cave under Lodar's house and you're being swarmed by three Hirathil ghosts and a bat. You defeat a ghost first and the multiplier is 1x. The bat goes second and receives multiplier 2x (since it's the second enemy killed in this battle). Consequently, ghosts two and three receive multipliers of 3x and 4x.
Here's my reasoning for my idea: Swarms are hard. My character is LVL60+ by now and can withstand about any normal enemy, but being swarmed by a couple of enemies can still knock me out. There should be some reward for surviving a battle with multiple enemies since several at once are way more difficult to beat. There just should be some kind of acknowledgement that says "yes, fighting several monsters at once is harder. Here, have something as a reward."
Furthermore, it would add some incentive to strategic battling -- drawing out battles against swarming enemies to increase the chain, ending rounds early so enemies can come closer, moving towards enemies -- things like that. It would also encourage people to think more about the order they defeat enemies in -- it would be beneficial to defeat the enemy with the highes EXP last so you'd get the highest multiplier. To be honest, I think the battle system right now is somewhat boring -- there are no elemental weaknesses to take into account, no magic, no different kinds of attacks. Every fight is basically the same -- run into the monster and tap the screen until one of you is dead.
I don't think the multiplier would unbalance the game at all. The maximum length of the chain is limited by enemies in an area anyway (enemies can't spawn while you're in battle, right?), so I don't think that you'd ever get an insanely high multiplier to drop rate/experience.
(EXP) Say you manage to chain five Hirathil ghosts. They give about 300EXP if I'm not mistaken, so that'd be 300*(1+2+3+4+5) = 4500EXP. For characters who are high-level enough to be able to beat five of them at once, that's really not a whole lot of additional EXP.
(Drop rate) It probably won't change any grinding for legendary items. As far as I know, there aren't any drops from swarming enemies yet, so the longest "chain" you can receive for normal enemies is probably two or three. If you're fighting three enemies with legendary drops, you'd get 0.01% drop rate for the first, 0.02% for the second and 0.03% for the third. This might seem like a lot, but you actually have to put in the effort of getting three enemies into one battle.
It probably wouldn't be all that hard to put into code either. There's already multipliers to drop rate and experience, so you'd just add an additional modifier. All of them should work on the base values, of course.
rate = chain multiplier * base rate + skill multiplier * skill level * base rate
The bold part would be the additional part.
(EXP) Say you have Quick Learner 4 (with skill multiplier 5% and skill level 4) and defeat 3 Hirathil ghosts at once for about 300EXP each. You'd get different EXP for each enemy since the chain multiplier changes.
1. EXP = 1 * 300EXP + 0.05 * 4 * 300EXP = 360EXP
2. EXP = 2 * 300EXP + 0.05 * 4 * 300EXP = 660EXP
3. EXP = 3 * 300EXP + 0.05 * 4 * 300EXP = 960EXP
for 1980EXP total.
(Drop rate) Say you have Magic Finder 4 (skill multiplier 50% and skill level 4) and defeat 3 enemies with legendary drops (I'm just writing out the third one since it has the highest drop rate):
3. rate = 3 * 0.01% + 0.5 * 4 * 0.01% = 0.05%
It'd be possible to adjust the chain multiplier, of course. I guess halving the multiplier would still mean a big enough reward without changing the numbers too much. I'm really not suggesting any specific numbers, just the idea of the number of enemies fought in that battle having an influence on the outcome.
I know that any mention of changing drop rates is usually met with skepticism at best, but bear with me for a second here. I tried to condense my idea into the title so it'd be obvious that I'm not asking to increase the drop rate in general.
So here's my idea: If you are in continuous battle with more than one enemy, multiply the drop rate and/or EXP for every subsequent enemy by the number of enemies fought in this battle. Say you're in the cave under Lodar's house and you're being swarmed by three Hirathil ghosts and a bat. You defeat a ghost first and the multiplier is 1x. The bat goes second and receives multiplier 2x (since it's the second enemy killed in this battle). Consequently, ghosts two and three receive multipliers of 3x and 4x.
Here's my reasoning for my idea: Swarms are hard. My character is LVL60+ by now and can withstand about any normal enemy, but being swarmed by a couple of enemies can still knock me out. There should be some reward for surviving a battle with multiple enemies since several at once are way more difficult to beat. There just should be some kind of acknowledgement that says "yes, fighting several monsters at once is harder. Here, have something as a reward."
Furthermore, it would add some incentive to strategic battling -- drawing out battles against swarming enemies to increase the chain, ending rounds early so enemies can come closer, moving towards enemies -- things like that. It would also encourage people to think more about the order they defeat enemies in -- it would be beneficial to defeat the enemy with the highes EXP last so you'd get the highest multiplier. To be honest, I think the battle system right now is somewhat boring -- there are no elemental weaknesses to take into account, no magic, no different kinds of attacks. Every fight is basically the same -- run into the monster and tap the screen until one of you is dead.
I don't think the multiplier would unbalance the game at all. The maximum length of the chain is limited by enemies in an area anyway (enemies can't spawn while you're in battle, right?), so I don't think that you'd ever get an insanely high multiplier to drop rate/experience.
(EXP) Say you manage to chain five Hirathil ghosts. They give about 300EXP if I'm not mistaken, so that'd be 300*(1+2+3+4+5) = 4500EXP. For characters who are high-level enough to be able to beat five of them at once, that's really not a whole lot of additional EXP.
(Drop rate) It probably won't change any grinding for legendary items. As far as I know, there aren't any drops from swarming enemies yet, so the longest "chain" you can receive for normal enemies is probably two or three. If you're fighting three enemies with legendary drops, you'd get 0.01% drop rate for the first, 0.02% for the second and 0.03% for the third. This might seem like a lot, but you actually have to put in the effort of getting three enemies into one battle.
It probably wouldn't be all that hard to put into code either. There's already multipliers to drop rate and experience, so you'd just add an additional modifier. All of them should work on the base values, of course.
rate = chain multiplier * base rate + skill multiplier * skill level * base rate
The bold part would be the additional part.
(EXP) Say you have Quick Learner 4 (with skill multiplier 5% and skill level 4) and defeat 3 Hirathil ghosts at once for about 300EXP each. You'd get different EXP for each enemy since the chain multiplier changes.
1. EXP = 1 * 300EXP + 0.05 * 4 * 300EXP = 360EXP
2. EXP = 2 * 300EXP + 0.05 * 4 * 300EXP = 660EXP
3. EXP = 3 * 300EXP + 0.05 * 4 * 300EXP = 960EXP
for 1980EXP total.
(Drop rate) Say you have Magic Finder 4 (skill multiplier 50% and skill level 4) and defeat 3 enemies with legendary drops (I'm just writing out the third one since it has the highest drop rate):
3. rate = 3 * 0.01% + 0.5 * 4 * 0.01% = 0.05%
It'd be possible to adjust the chain multiplier, of course. I guess halving the multiplier would still mean a big enough reward without changing the numbers too much. I'm really not suggesting any specific numbers, just the idea of the number of enemies fought in that battle having an influence on the outcome.