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.

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Originally Posted by Kreegan

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.

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As i see all the bugs and glitches in game, they probably have no capacity to code such "complicated" ****. So ur most likely wrong.

Yeah the mod system needs revamps in someway. It takes forever to get the rep needed to get mods and then you play a lottery every time you you purchase a mod box.

I have had similar luck, though I have not tracked the data. The other thing that is extremely frustrating is the fact that there a some weapons where certain mod slots are superfluous. The sight mod slot on detonators for instance, because there are no sights or scopes in the game for detonators. Infectors and BMGs have useless slots as well.

This in and of itself would be fine, but if Im spending thousands of resources to add a "random" mod slot on one of those weapons it shouldn't add one of the useless ones.

I am not a hater, for many reasons I am enjoying the game. While this particular bug certainly isn't the worst one, it's really becoming harder and harder to justify buying the game with some of these bugs that should never have made it to release.

I've noticed a similar "non-random" pattern to the mods and have commented on it to my friends; the ones that you get for completing side quests (for example) are never ones my current weapons have open slots for, or are for weapons that I don't even have my inventory.
It may gimp my damage right now, but I've decided not to bother modding my weapons for the time being. They level so quickly and the expense of adding extra slots or removing green and blue mods isn't worth the added grinding I'd have to do to get the resources and script to remove them. It just doesn't seem feasible to mod weapons at lower levels (I'm currently 808 EGO), so I save the mods I "think" I might need later and vendor the rest or trade with friends who can use them.

I have been seeing a very similar trend, even when I have tons of weapons in inventory and do a side mission the result seems to never match a current weapon slot. Only way I get the slot i need is to get all 4 on the weapon or have the mod when the weapon drops. 2 of the synergy cashe were worthless. Need a tradingpost/auctionhouse option badly for all the survivalist synergy items i have as a Vet.

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Originally Posted by Dwane

As i see all the bugs and glitches in game, they probably have no capacity to code such "complicated" ****. So ur most likely wrong.

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A lot (most) of what people are calling bugs in this game aren't bugs; they're just very poor design implementations or the result of poor design decisions.

I'm an old developer, so I see through a lot of the crap... bugs I can forgive; bad design I can't tolerate.

Coding what I suggested is not complicated; it's actually very simple to implement... less than 100 SLOC.

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Originally Posted by Nic

I have been seeing a very similar trend, even when I have tons of weapons in inventory and do a side mission the result seems to never match a current weapon slot. Only way I get the slot i need is to get all 4 on the weapon or have the mod when the weapon drops. 2 of the synergy cashe were worthless. Need a tradingpost/auctionhouse option badly for all the survivalist synergy items i have as a Vet.

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It doesn't work that way. Equip 2 survivalist weapons = synergy. Your background has nothing to do with it.

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Originally Posted by Kreegan

Okay, that's my conspiracy theory for the week.

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Hi Kreegan,
Liked your little "rant" :)
I kinda feel the same way, although I have been quite "lucky" a few times.

Also, I do a little immersion playing as a friendly trader/helper of other characters, so I spend a lot of time hunting for Specials at the different vendors.
I even buy stuff I don't really need to give others a good offer.

So far, I've sold a few orange, a few purple, quite a few of blue and a bunch of green weapons, shields and mods.

If you want, let me know what you're looking for and I'll keep an eye open, or I might already have something.
I've spent some bits on expanding inventory space, so I always have +50 items up for trade.

Feel free to find me in-game :)

Best Regards, Mark

Platform: PC - EU servers
Nametag: Thuna
Character: Phoenix Frost

then if you want a magazine slot added.. buy all the mods except the magazine, according to your theory you should get a mag slot.

This is actually quite useful if true....

ive noticed this as well. Also ive probably bought over 75 tier 3 containers and up and have only gotten one legendary weapon, and every other weapon is one i never use to prove this i kept getting shotguns and spanners and infectors. so i equip a shotgun now i never get them just launchers more and more spanners and infectors guess i need to try equiping those and maybe itll work.

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Originally Posted by M1ghtyQunn

I have had similar luck, though I have not tracked the data. The other thing that is extremely frustrating is the fact that there a some weapons where certain mod slots are superfluous. The sight mod slot on detonators for instance, because there are no sights or scopes in the game for detonators. Infectors and BMGs have useless slots as well.

This in and of itself would be fine, but if Im spending thousands of resources to add a "random" mod slot on one of those weapons it shouldn't add one of the useless ones.

I am not a hater, for many reasons I am enjoying the game. While this particular bug certainly isn't the worst one, it's really becoming harder and harder to justify buying the game with some of these bugs that should never have made it to release.

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It's as if the game developers think our characters are skilled enough to add a mod slot, but too dumb to know which mod slot they want to add.

They did remove some mods from the game for specific weapons, so they should lock out that slot, so when we spend 5k script to add a slot, we do not end up with a worthless sight mod on a BMG or a useless magazine slot on a rocket launcher.

Supposedly, they are going to add a skill for us to replace a mod with an upgraded version. It only makes sense, that we should be able to change sights once we find a nice one to replace the generic white sight.

Can you post your 'data'?

It's an interesting idea, if you could fix up your hypothesis a bit more, I'd love to do my own trial run.

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Originally Posted by Kreegan

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.

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An interesting hypothesis. MMOs often try "game store forcing," but...
1- Cant you just trade?
2- Mod bonuses Ive seen so far don't entice me to spend $$.
3- People can do tons of arkfalls for keycodes & resources to buy keycodes
4- You can turn looted weapons into resources.

There are easier ways to make you spend on the store.
5-They can make outfits carry EGO related bonuses. Good ones.

That will do it.

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Originally Posted by ben hardtop

ive noticed this as well. Also ive probably bought over 75 tier 3 containers and up and have only gotten one legendary weapon, and every other weapon is one i never use to prove this i kept getting shotguns and spanners and infectors. so i equip a shotgun now i never get them just launchers more and more spanners and infectors guess i need to try equiping those and maybe itll work.

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I get shields, grenades and infectors.

Out of the dozen tier 3's I bought I think there were 2 items I didn't scrap within 45 seconds.

I have to agree with the concept that the computer chooses a 50/50 chance of giving me the mod slot I don't want about 94% of the time.

With the amount of weapons being obtained and becoming obsolete as you progress through the game, I'd prefer weapon customization to not be random at all but require grinding of materials to be able to choose precisely what we wanted to customize. I'd rather spend twice as many resources to select which attachment slot I was adding opposed to getting a random one. In game like this I see no reason to not have a complex crafting system where the element of rng is only exclusive to the weapons we find but not to how we customize them.