Weapon mods, mod slots, and lack of randomness
I got suspicious about what I was seeing with drops and addition of mod slots to weapons, so I started tracking it across my two game characters for a couple of days.
Across several days (around twenty hours of game time):
(1) Not a single drop [of a mod] matched an available slot for any weapon in my inventories;
(2) Not one mission completion reward [of a mod] matched an available slot for any weapon in my inventories;
(3) When adding slots to weapons, not once did the added slots correspond to mods already in the inventories.
I did a set of experiments:
On my main character, I had one of every type of weapon in inventory. I deliberately bought a bunch of mods for the different weapons (that didn't match up with existing slots) and then spent a lot of time/currency adding slots to those weapons.
On one weapon, I had three slots; only the barrel slot wasn't added. All of the drops/rewards I received over three days for that weapon type were barrels... hmmm...
On one weapon initially with no slots, I had one mod in inventory. I added a modification slot; it didn't match the mod in inventory. I bought another mod and then added another slot; that slot didn't match either mod in inventory. I bought another mod, so the barrel slot was the only possible unmatched "random addition". Guess what slot turned up when I added a slot?
Across the data I collected, the newly added slots NEVER matched up with the available mods and new drops/mission completion rewards of mods NEVER matched up with available slots.
Random [bad] luck? Not likely. My sample size is large enough that the likelihood of this being random chance is slim, nada, non-existent, nichts, nil, and zero.
Supposition:
(1) Drops are NOT completely random, but algorithmically determined in a fashion designed to make you buy the mods you want instead of "just getting lucky".
(2) The addition of modification slots to weapons is not random (as advertised), but algorithmically determined in a fashion to force you to buy mods that match up with the slots you already have.
In other words, we're being pushed to the store...
Okay, that's my conspiracy theory for the week.
