Lord Garak
Retinazer
I will be including only placeholder values in this thread. All values created by me serve only as examples and are not set in stone.
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The most frustrating experience the majority of Terraria players encounter is a failure to obtain a particular item after far exceeding its perceived rarity. This could be greatly alleviated with a system that applies parameters to the RNG. Such an overhaul could take a significant amount of developer time, but the algorithms themselves shouldn't be particularly difficult to code, and the game would be massively improved as a result.
Example of Enforced Droprates: I'm farming Angry Trappers. The Uzi is a 1% drop from these enemies. This means in a perfect world 100 Trapper kills would merit a drop. After I kill 50 Angry Trappers (50% of the maximum required kills) without receiving an Uzi, the game multiplies the droprate by (1.1). The chance of obtaining an Uzi is now 1.1% when I kill my 51st Trapper. After that kill, I still have no Uzi. The droprate is compounded again: when multiplied by 1.1, the 1.1% droprate becomes 1.21%. After 60 unsuccessful Trapper kills, the Uzi has a 2.59% droprate. At 99 kills, it is statistically guaranteed to drop, as the droprate increases to over 100%.
This system would ensure that any rare item drops within a fair time frame, whilst still retaining the thrill of RNG.
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But what about items that are not rare? Many bosses, and enemies such as mimics, have different lootpool mechanics than normal monsters. They guarantee a specific drop from a range of available items in that lootpool. In this case, the first item to drop will become marginally rarer, and the algorithm will automatically pad the droprates of the other available items. This way, duplicates are much less likely to occur.
Example of Dynamic Lootpools: I'm farming Golem for a Heatray. My first defeat of Golem nets me a Stynger. Originally every weapon had a 12.5% chance to be chosen for my reward. However, now that I have gained a Stynger, that weapon is less likely to drop next time- let's say it now has a 10% chance. The 2.5% that was taken from the Stynger's droprate has been automatically redistributed among Golem's other 7 potential weapon drops- each now has an additional .35% chance to drop, bringing them to around 12.85% each. If I kill Golem again and still don't get my desired Heatray, the item that drops that time also loses some of its dropchance- or maybe I got another Stynger, in which case I have even less chances to get one next time. Once again, the redacted droprates are shuffled into the items that I have not yet obtained.
Once every possible weapon is obtained from a boss, the system resets and the items have their normal droprates again- the cycle begins anew. This system increases a player's chance of getting an item they desire, and reduces their chance of obtaining duplicates.
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I put a couple days of thought (and 30 minutes of fiddling with a graphing calculator) into this suggestion. A signature banner and inclusion in my Suggestion Hub will be introduced shortly. I hope you enjoyed reading, and as always I implore candid criticism and support.
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The most frustrating experience the majority of Terraria players encounter is a failure to obtain a particular item after far exceeding its perceived rarity. This could be greatly alleviated with a system that applies parameters to the RNG. Such an overhaul could take a significant amount of developer time, but the algorithms themselves shouldn't be particularly difficult to code, and the game would be massively improved as a result.
Example of Enforced Droprates: I'm farming Angry Trappers. The Uzi is a 1% drop from these enemies. This means in a perfect world 100 Trapper kills would merit a drop. After I kill 50 Angry Trappers (50% of the maximum required kills) without receiving an Uzi, the game multiplies the droprate by (1.1). The chance of obtaining an Uzi is now 1.1% when I kill my 51st Trapper. After that kill, I still have no Uzi. The droprate is compounded again: when multiplied by 1.1, the 1.1% droprate becomes 1.21%. After 60 unsuccessful Trapper kills, the Uzi has a 2.59% droprate. At 99 kills, it is statistically guaranteed to drop, as the droprate increases to over 100%.
This system would ensure that any rare item drops within a fair time frame, whilst still retaining the thrill of RNG.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
But what about items that are not rare? Many bosses, and enemies such as mimics, have different lootpool mechanics than normal monsters. They guarantee a specific drop from a range of available items in that lootpool. In this case, the first item to drop will become marginally rarer, and the algorithm will automatically pad the droprates of the other available items. This way, duplicates are much less likely to occur.
Example of Dynamic Lootpools: I'm farming Golem for a Heatray. My first defeat of Golem nets me a Stynger. Originally every weapon had a 12.5% chance to be chosen for my reward. However, now that I have gained a Stynger, that weapon is less likely to drop next time- let's say it now has a 10% chance. The 2.5% that was taken from the Stynger's droprate has been automatically redistributed among Golem's other 7 potential weapon drops- each now has an additional .35% chance to drop, bringing them to around 12.85% each. If I kill Golem again and still don't get my desired Heatray, the item that drops that time also loses some of its dropchance- or maybe I got another Stynger, in which case I have even less chances to get one next time. Once again, the redacted droprates are shuffled into the items that I have not yet obtained.
Once every possible weapon is obtained from a boss, the system resets and the items have their normal droprates again- the cycle begins anew. This system increases a player's chance of getting an item they desire, and reduces their chance of obtaining duplicates.
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I put a couple days of thought (and 30 minutes of fiddling with a graphing calculator) into this suggestion. A signature banner and inclusion in my Suggestion Hub will be introduced shortly. I hope you enjoyed reading, and as always I implore candid criticism and support.
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