Arkfall Spawn Rates

[EpicFai1z]

great to see you guys actually posting on the forums so kudos to you, now on topic your post makes absolute sense however i think the main reason everyone just dodges the minor arkfalls is down to rewards theres really no point in wasting 10 minutes or so to get rewarded with no keycodes or on the occasion 1 and some poor loot when i could go do something else and feel more rewarded, so i suggest upping the rewards for the minor arkfalls and add something extra for being in the top 3-5 players,

This would also mean that major arkfalls rewards would have to be improved a lil by an extra keycode or something but with this i would say make the final boss more ressistant to explosive damage and just more badass as by far the hardest enemy from the hellbug arkfalls imo is the elite warriors as those things are dam resistant.

[Sdric]

[...]

I am Ego 5000.

I don't get exp from minor Arkfalls.
Most Minor Arkfalls don't even give me a Keycode.
The Scrip aren't worth the effort.
The drops rarely are better than white.
Never better than blue.

Why should I do Minor Arkfalls?

All you achieved with this patch is that there is now even less content for players like me.
Making the guillotine dull doesn't make me want to get waterboarded.

[Error404]

Minor arkfalls are a waste of time. No guaranteed keys and some paltry green and white salvage.

Major arkfalls are not too far off - A -CHANCE- at a good amount of keys, paltry green and white salvage and a -chance- at something nice.

See, the problem here is not the level of where you score (Because we all know that gunning down the forge with whatever bullet hose you please is not truly participating if you just want to top-board) but that the rewards are so weak.

I save up all day to buy a Tier 4, I buy a tier 4, I am near guaranteed to get crap. Up until recently, I had a month and a half without a rare, buying a mixture of T3s and T4s. It was finally ended by a T3 netting me a confessedly nice Grind Fragger. But, my point remains.

The allure of getting keys is becoming more and more tedious when the few fun ways to earn them are so randomized and few/far between that earning them becomes a true chore.

Confessedly, I will state, I am ego 5000, I have done it all, I have seen it all and I have even, to some extent, bought the T-Shirt.

But still, gambling away the keys I work hard for to get so little in reward feels like an insult, so herein lies the problem that I'm now finding.

Minor arkfalls - Getting the key is so random. Make it guaranteed. I don't care where someone places in the scoreboard, give them at least 1 key for making the effort to arrive and put at least a bullet into something.

Major arkfalls - Again. 5 Keys, guaranted. Once again, I do -NOT- care about another users participation. I do however care about what I get. Is it a little unfair that others can do most of the work and enjoy all of the benefits? Sure. But you work at Trion so I'm pretty sure you already know how that feels. We need to be rewarded for taking part. So many times I have top-boarded, only to be thrown 3 keys, a slap in the face with two greens and whilst my friend who just popped in gets 5 keys, a blue and a purple and a big pat on the back from the game.

How about XP-Scrip after an Arkfall for those whom have maxed their XP?

XP/5 = Scrip. 2000 additional scrip after every Arkfall for those with a maxed XP bar would be pretty nice...

[fmarin83]

Make them more difficult, especially "Mother of all Hellbugs". The matron is dead in under a minute. She should have the entire hellbug legion with her.

[Colif]

Minor arkfalls give weapon exp, for those of us not yet maxed on weapons, its useful.

I agree about the boxes, if they intend to make keys harder to get due to less major arkfalls around, they need to make the boxes worth buying. The carrot needs a shine, its not doing its job right now.

If they also fix the reward system for arkfalls so those at top don't just get green stuff, that would help also. I don't remember last time I got a purple by winning an arkfall.

[SaneFail]

Welcome to the Forums! You guys sure have gotten brave of late! Hope you have thick skin, some if these people are gonna rip you to shreds, no matter what you're saying.

I, for one, am very appreciative of your willingness to to share the thoughts behind the changes.

I really like the idea of this change. Majors should be EPIC.

That being said....this:

I agree with making major arkfalls a more "rare" occurrence. I'd rather see a lot more minors around, with the majors being a big deal. A major should be something everyone gets excited about, and wants to participate in. Right now, I see so many major arkfalls that I simply do not care about them. I've found the most efficient way to farm them, and simply run through for the rewards.

There needs to not only be an addressing of the arkfall spawn rates, but a fundamental reexamination of the arkfall experience.

One of my biggest issues with the game right now is how it rewards mediocrity, and seems to have this fear of rewarding players for performance. As it stands, the best way to get rewards in arkfalls is to run to the final stage of a major, shoot the boss once, and heal someone once. You are guaranteed five keys and the rewards. You can do one damage and heal one health, and get the equivalent rewards of someone who played through the entire arkfall. That should not be the case.

What I would like to see is the following:

• Default Reward: Players should get something for participating, at the very least. I think a base line guarantee of a small tier two box is fine, along with some experience, salvage, and two keycodes.
• Scaling Rewards: The more overall impact you have (kills, damage dealt, damage healed, revives), the more rewards you should get. Players who participate more should receive additional rewards.
• Rewarding Top Players: If you do the most damage, say in the top three or five of the entire arkfall, you should get something special. Whether that's a higher tier lockbox, extra keys, or anything that justifies the effort. Right now there's no reason to participate in the whole event. Effort should be demanded for better rewards, and entice people to participate rather than "tag" arkfalls for rewards.

Beyond this, I would like to see the difficulty scale a bit better with arkfalls. Right now, I find arkfalls to be fairly boring and run-of-the-mill because they just do not present a challenge. I'd love to see either scaling mob density based on players, as well as harder hitting mobs. I want something that forces me to pay attention and put effort into the game, not something I can stroll through with relative ease. I think upping the damage numbers and scaling the mobs would give people more things to do, as the current arkfalls feature players fighting over things to kill.

Overall, I just want the arkfall experience to be more challenging, and reward players for participation and performance.

EDIT: Oh man, I forgot to extend a welcome to the forums. I hope you decide to post more, it's really cool hearing from you guys about what you find important, and what you are working on.

I want to give this guy 2 cookies.

First thing this morning when I logged on, I saw a Major Arkfall. I put on my tryhard pants and went to work. I bypassed all the rocket launchers and explosives at the first minor I came to and proceeded to solo the one farthest away. I then went to the Major and tore it to shreds. I placed first. I got 2 greens, 3 Keycodes and a handful of scrip. I don't get XP anymore.

While I was reading through this post and getting ready to reply, another Major popped up. I'm busy but I wanted SOME keys, so I tagged the first minor and then sat where the Major would spawn and kept reading the forums. I blasted into the Helion a few times then went back to the forums. I got 5 keys, 2 purples.

This should NOT be the case. It's counter productive. The randomness of it only serves to encourage the tagging.

As for the Minors...Most only give XP and very little scrip. If I still got XP, I might be enticed to participate. But I don't. There's really only 2 things for me to do nowadays. PVP and farm keys. I'm not one of those people who think the end-all be-all of a game is the loot. Far from it. But the "fun" factor of everything wears off after awhile and that's the only thing left. I've ran every co op til my eyes bled, I LOVED them. I used to hit every Minor and Major Arkfall and participate as much as I could, because they were fun. Now...been there, done that.

I won't go through specific suggestions because the post I quoted is damn near perfect.

[unlucky haha]

My name’s Shawn and I’m a designer working on Arkfalls. We have been getting reports of issues with the spawn rates of Major Arkfalls and would like to take the opportunity to address your concerns.

First, let me explain why we made the change. We discovered that Major Arkfalls were spawning at a rate close to Minor Arkfalls. This was causing Minors to be ignored since Majors were up almost constantly. Majors became common and less epic and Minors became much less necessary to the point players were ignoring them. A change was made to Major Arkfall spawn rates in an attempt to bring them more in line with our original design.

It is our intention or goal to have a constant flow of Arkfall events to experience. Minor Arkfalls will be the most common and should always be available. Major Arkfalls are more epic and therefore less common.

We are currently investigating the reported issue to confirm spawn rates are consistent with the above stated goal.

If you have any other thoughts about Arkfalls let us know.

Hi,having played since day one,so many changes have happend,,originally you were rewarded the higher up the score board on completion of the major arks...making it all random personally gave me nothing to aim for,and it lead to being able to just have 1 shot on a major ark for rewards and 1 shot on a boss for more keys,,bringing bk the better you do the more you'll get would be anawsome move...
2:having completed all the achievements/most of the goals/done the game 7 times/maxed out all weapons what is there left for me to do and i know alot are at my point to..love the game and have reached completion bar the new episode and weekend stuff..so its legendarys and mods,,now by you reducing the major arks,,its less keys,,example 20 hours previous to patch 150-200 earned form arks and weapon break downs..20 hours since patch 30 keys..so less and less insentive do actaully do them.ie:if there are less major arks,there should be better rewards form the tier boxes the rate of drops should be higher.
3:you used to get exp form major arks taking that away also made leveling weapons an endless and boring process,bringing back the xp in arks opens up the doors for higher skills on ya weapons.
4:i know the work it took you to get frieght up and running and with defiance in my opinion evrything cannot work at once,so if you are going to continue with this lowered rate of arks,what has it made space for in the game now..i personally worry about fan base,,lots are people are leaving,not playing so much because of unfortunatly negative things within the game,personally im die hard MMO so apreciate how hard it is to run such a project on consoles,,people can only put up with so much..even just a release dtae for the DLC would be nice as im sure along with my self and a lot of other players you have a a massive playing form day one and at ego cap with all goals competed so thearks are keepin us going till the DLC...ok peace and thanks for your work on the game

[unlucky haha]

I am Ego 5000.

I don't get exp from minor Arkfalls.
Most Minor Arkfalls don't even give me a Keycode.
The Scrip aren't worth the effort.
The drops rarely are better than white.
Never better than blue.

Why should I do Minor Arkfalls?

All you achieved with this patch is that there is now even less content for players like me.
Making the guillotine dull doesn't make me want to get waterboarded.

and to add to my 2 cents..yes exactly all of the above,,GREAT POST

[Gravi7y]

Minor arkfalls do not reward you.

Most players don't even know that you have to heal or revive to get a key. Therefor most players get 0 keys from minor arkfalls.

It would be a foolish waste of time to do a minor akfall instead of a co-op or replayable mission.

[Indra Echo]

Minor arkfalls do not reward you.

Most players don't even know that you have to heal or revive to get a key. Therefor most players get 0 keys from minor arkfalls.

It would be a foolish waste of time to do a minor akfall instead of a co-op or replayable mission.

Again, not all fun requires a reward. People are now getting so spoiled that even when they have something that entertains them they have no idea how to use it to entertain themselves. I can't imagine how bored such people would be sitting in a field of flowers. Everyone has to be spoon fed everything. Challenge yourself. Make your own fun in the game. Do things differently.

Honest to God this is a sad trend. If you don't get a cookie you can't do anything apparently.


Why in heck should you HAVE to be rewarded at all times? Try having fun.