Map Drop Nerfs?

[I3lackDeath]

This is something I noticed awhile ago but finally got annoyed enough to post about it. Across my semi permanent 55ish characters I used to find maps ranging from very easy to moderate with the rate of 1-2 for about every hundred or so things I killed. It been months, or maybe over year I forget exactly when, but that pretty much just stopped and now instead of maps i find malachites at about the exact same frequency. They still drop but the rates are abysmally low, like 1 ve map for every 700-1000 kills, it's rare if I even see one map for every 20 or so aas I grind. I don't really see any reason for that change, except making lower end maps harder to find on listsold, but the malachite thing is doubly annoying, since every time I see one of those I think " Gee that should have been a map but instead it's just more useless garbage".

 

[Hesyous]

You have bad luck. When I farm...sometimes I find 1 to 3 maps after only 80 to 100 kills. Sometimes I find none. I do notice they drop off of higher level mobs though. I think the lowest level mob I saw a VE Map drop off of was maybe level 50..... or 51. The level 59+ drop maps more frequent I think.

Again, sometimes....like days at a time no maps will drop, then out of the blue I get a few.

 

[I3lackDeath]

No it's not just bad luck, this is from months of observation. Can you explain to me why mobs that drop NO other gems of any quality suddenly stop dropping maps with any frequency and start dropping malachites out of the blue? And even the super low drop rate on the malachites makes no sense, considering it has like no value. The only thing that makes any sense is that the drop tables got tweaked for that to replace a map drop.

 

[Silosobi]

I dont know anything about this situation, but I do know a while ago, when tome drop rates got nerfed, those mobs started dropping malachites, and a lot of people assumed that a malachite drop means we would have gotten a tome by the old drop rate. It could all be weird coincidence, but it seems like there is more going on *shrug*

 

[Slaariel]

While malachites are often (not always) the 'Sorry you didn't get a map' drop, the map drop rate has been untouched in probably 4-6 years or even more. Basic map drop rates have never, in all my time as a dev, been even a blip on the radar of things we might want to change in either direction (until recently where I have openly discussed boosting simple map drop rates).

The most recent map changes include:

• Maps added to more zones (including Highkeep specifically)
• More map dig sites added to the entire world
• Ikisith maps invented

Also the 'Sorry you didn't get a tome' drop is cat's eye agate, not malachite. This rate might have changed early on but there has never been a time when cat's eye agate did not fulfill this function.

 

[Waldoff]

As a quick addition to what Slaar said - if you are getting the tome placeholder on new mobs, it may be because we just added tomes to a ton of new mobs.

 

[Silosobi]

Also the 'Sorry you didn't get a tome' drop is cat's eye agate, not malachite. This rate might have changed early on but there has never been a time when cat's eye agate did not fulfill this function.

Oh you are right it was a Cats Eye Agate! Been a long time since I needed exp.