Boss Drop Rates Depend on Player Skill

Boss Drop Rates Depend on Player Skill
effort 4.285714285714286 7 quality 3.857142857142857 7 reasonability 3.375 8

The problem


The game currently feels too grindy and in a lot of cases it depends too much on luck.

The simplest solution I can think of could be simply increasing the drop rates from bosses, but I find that kinda boring and also wouldn’t completely eliminate the problem, because even if it is higher you could still be unlucky and not get anything, which is a problem because the game rewards you too much depending on your luck rather than your skill at the game.

The solution


(rather one of the solutions, but anyways…)

Instead of just increasing drop rates, the probability of getting a drop would depend on varying stats of the fight, such as:

  • Duration of the fight (+)*
  • Average health throughout the fight (+)
  • Damage blocked/parried (+)
  • Damage dealt/taken ratio (+)
  • Stamina usage (-)
  • Player level (to prevent abuse from higher level players) (-)
  • Amount of players (not sure about this one) (-)

(Plus and minus sign means the effect they have on your drop chances)*

The influence of each of these stats should be adjusted to be balanced and probably capped at a maximum and minimum so it doesn’t reward/punish you too much.

The minimum I think should be the current drop rate as I feel it is already low enough, but the maximum could be double the drop rate or maybe even more because I don’t really like the idea of fighting the same boss over and over again, it is grindy, repetitive and makes the boss not feel special at all. (take into account that even IF it was 100% drop rate it would still take 5+ times to get all drops from some bosses)

Reason to add/change


Like I said, the game currently feels too grindy and I feel it is due to the fact that it relies too much on RNG sometimes and not on actual skill. With this system it would reward skilled players for their skill rather than their luck which is always better and fairer, and in return make farming not a repetitive and boring task because you will always try to give your 100% to increase your chances of getting a drop.

Feel free to comment on any other ideas or suggestions you have.

2 Likes

so if your level is signifigantly higher than the boss you just stop getting drops from them.
wait nevermind I read the part right after that.

overall great idea.

1 Like

Nope, you would have the current drop chance, thats why i said there should be a minimum. Idk if it should be lower tho

Exploiters casually increasing their drops 10 fold

Really though I’m against this. At most I think a pity system should be in place that’s 5x the boss’ chance. So if you go 25 fights without a boss drop against Elius you’d get one but if you go 50 fights against Calvus without a boss drop then you’d get one. Could be lower, to like 2-4x, but I’m not really for this system. If you have skill then you can defeat bosses easier and quicker so you are already killing more bosses per hour or so more than other players who aren’t as skilled.

Hell compared to most games on Roblox the drops here aren’t even a grind. Even compared to World of Magic the boss drops here are not a grind as you’d have to often wait longer for an often lower chance and your reward was something that wasn’t even meta or really desired outside of the fact it was a boss item. That’s if you had a tracker too because if you didn’t have one grinding bosses was next to impossible to do consistently. AO has it so much easier and it really doesn’t need to get any easier than that.

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I mean, can’t exploiters just give themselves the items? Also if that happens is not really the system’s fault, more of a technical problem.

Sure, compared to WoM like you said it is really easy, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a grind on itself, a game is meant to me fun and entertaining, having to fight the same boss 50+ times to get all drops is a little bit insane.
This problem will probably aliviate once auctions are a thing, but until then i think it can be nice to have a way to reduce grind by actually playing and being good at the game.

I feel like drops already aren’t that hard to get like for example, Elius is 1 in 5 and if you’re max level it should take like a minute to beat him so it should take like an average of 10 minutes to get a drop

But I think this system still makes sense and would punish people who just get their friends help to grind bosses so it could definitely be put in place just as long as it doesn’t make grinding drops too easy. Like for example guaranteeing a boss drop even if you have really good stats is too much, but you can maybe increase the chances by up to 50% or something like that.

Also I don’t think duration of the fight should be a factor. If you have a shorter fight that just means you’re more skilled which would be shown through the other stats anyways and shouldn’t be something you’re punished for. If you have longer fights sure that means you’re not as skilled, but you also shouldn’t be punished for literally spending MORE time grinding

1 Like

Sure, but thats exactly my problem because if you want to get a drop when fighting him normally you most likely won’t be able to cuz either you die or it takes a lot of time between tries. You should be able to get drops while being on the recommended level, not having to farm him while at max, cuz yeah, then it is way easier and doesnt really need a buff.

Should probably add this to the post.

Yeah, you are probably right.

maybe then you can increase rates slightly if you’re a lower level too which is i think is in the original post too, this way it wouldn’t make it easier for max level players and the chances are proportionate to your level

1 Like

Yeah, should have probably clarified this since that is what it is meant to do.

I think it’s ok but there are some aspects I disagree with.

  • The amount of players should not be a minus factor. Personally, it’s MUCH easier to solo a boss rather than have a whole squad of 14 skill issue players pop up with you.
  • Secondly, I disagree with stamina usage being a negative. Dashing/stamina consumption is another way to reduce damage taken. According to that logic, damage blocked/parried should be a negative. It’s basically saying that people with certain play styles should be rewarded less (yes, this part is kind of biased since I play the same way I played in Online Fighting, Arcane Adventures, and World of Magic). Hence, things pertaining to damage blocked/parried/stamina usage shouldn’t affect the +/-.
  • Basically going off play styles, damage dealt should be a + and damage taken shouldn’t affect anything. Players that are close range are more likely to get damaged in a boss fight than players who zone.
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meta/unbalanced builds:

Hope they get nerfed

I’m pretty sure this was a thing in WoM, not sure if it still exists in AO though. Basically as more people fought the boss the chances of getting drops were lowered and based on the % of damage you did.

no no, there’s potential here.

1 Like

Yeah, the list is mostly just the ones that Could be taken into account, of course it doesn’t have to be exactly those, but either way I think that minus some details the idea is helpful.

Yeah, that’s why I wasn’t really sure about that one

This and the damage blocked/parried is to 1. Prevent dash spam and 2. To promote blocking since it is way harder to parry than to dash. Probably should only count damage parried since blocking its pressing G lmao.

I mean if you just spam dash mindlessly, your going to get hit or your stamina will be low and you’ll suffer HP from dashing.

yeah dash spam isn’t really a problem, i don’t think dashing should be a negative but blocking/parrying should be a positive just because it does require more skill

This isn’t how exploits work

This is how mmoprgs work, the game being grindy is part of the fun. If droprates are too low players will have nothing to do.

I personally dont think that the amount of players contributing should play a part, the boss already gets a ton more health if you have more people.

This will always be interesting to me, because AO has pretty much the highest boss drop rates in any vetex games ever