Top 3 No Longer Good Enough?

[Navigata07]

There was a time where getting 2nd or 3rd place would truly be a high chance for obtaining an item for the launch collection (Alien Legacy, Space Monument, and Rocket Garden). You would get at least one item most launches, maybe missing one every 4 launches or so. Nowadays it appears to be the opposite. It appears only every 3rd or 4th launch you will get an item from the collection. What are your experiences like?

 

[Jostein]

I do a lot of second and third places, and for a long time that gave me a good payout per point invested in my launches. This spring however is my impression that the payout for this strategy have been poor. I don't know if its my luck that have changed or if the drop rates have actually changed.


If they really have changed the drop rates it makes it more attractive to do my own first place launches. But if everyone does that it becomes really expensive to launch.


Balancing a game is a difficult job for developers. And understanding "random" is even harder for the players...

@Navigata07

 

[Navigata07]

I do a lot of second and third places, and for a long time that gave me a good payout per point invested in my launches. This spring however is my impression that the payout for this strategy have been poor. I don't know if its my luck that have changed or if the drop rates have actually changed.


If they really have changed the drop rates it makes it more attractive to do my own first place launches. But if everyone does that it becomes really expensive to launch.


Balancing a game is a difficult job for developers. And understanding "random" is even harder for the players...

@Navigata07

Agreed. Looks like I'm not the only one that noticed. It's just not as efficient as it once was.

 

[Bob69bob]

Agreed. Looks like I'm not the only one that noticed. It's just not as efficient as it once was.

Not a lot in this game is.

 

[Navigata07]

Not a lot in this game is.

Touché

 

[Bob69bob]

Touché

Great effort on the data collection, btw. I’d love to see similar efforts to compare numbers over a lot larger base - not easy, I know. I tried for awhile on launch items and the best ways to gather an even collection rate. It takes 1000s of taps to really crunch the numbers with so many variables. 2 or 300 just isn’t enough.

I compared my collections with another long term player and was surprised by the difference (I can’t remember which red launch collections they were). I was convinced that one item was loaded to be less likely to drop than the other 4. My assumption was based on numbers like 200/250/180/0/190 - it looks pretty obvious that item 4 was suspect. Then I had to consider these numbers were after > 2000 launches. The numbers don’t look so far out of balance when considering that. The other players numbers after >5000 launches were something along the lines of 400/150/650/510/570 - a completely different item looking rigged but not really when the real numbers are 5400/5150/5650/5510/5570.

 

[Navigata07]

Great effort on the data collection, btw. I’d love to see similar efforts to compare numbers over a lot larger base - not easy, I know. I tried for awhile on launch items and the best ways to gather an even collection rate. It takes 1000s of taps to really crunch the numbers with so many variables. 2 or 300 just isn’t enough.

I compared my collections with another long term player and was surprised by the difference (I can’t remember which red launch collections they were). I was convinced that one item was loaded to be less likely to drop than the other 4. My assumption was based on numbers like 200/250/180/0/190 - it looks pretty obvious that item 4 was suspect. Then I had to consider these numbers were after > 2000 launches. The numbers don’t look so far out of balance when considering that. The other players numbers after >5000 launches were something along the lines of 400/150/650/510/570 - a completely different item looking rigged but not really when the real numbers are 5400/5150/5650/5510/5570.

Assuming you meant my case study in regards to "very seldom" drops. I agree that more data points would help, however, one thing you need to remember is that the "rare item" can easily change if you include too many points. For instance, with item 4 in your study, the correct percentage drop may be best captured after 500 chests. Between 500 to 5000, the "rare item" could've switched during that time, which of course would make things more even, depending on when the transition ends.
This is why I stop as soon as I collect one of each item. It gives me a snapshot of the drop rate at the moment.

 

[Kevin1010]

As far as i noticed with green only reward for 1st position.
Blue and red top 3 were good
But yeah indeed it seems it has changed
@Navigata07 @Bob69bob

 

[Bob69bob]

As far as i noticed with green only reward for 1st position.
Blue and red top 3 were good
But yeah indeed it seems it has changed
@Navigata07 @Bob69bob

Correct. I had no red prep last week so decided to do a bunch of green launches. I didn’t realise quite how many I had done and didn’t take note. When the reset happened on Monday, I given a nice surprise when I was awarded a chest with 7 gold tokens, a QL and a few other items.

 

[Kevin1010]

Correct. I had no red prep last week so decided to do a bunch of green launches. I didn’t realise quite how many I had done and didn’t take note. When the reset happened on Monday, I given a nice surprise when I was awarded a chest with 7 gold tokens, a QL and a few other items.

U got gold tokens from green launches?
Didnt know that that was possible lol

 

[Bob69bob]

U got gold tokens from green launches?
Didnt know that that was possible lol

Neither did I! Only for the top 3 launchers for the week.

 

[Navigata07]

U got gold tokens from green launches?
Didnt know that that was possible lol

Any top 3 placing will give you gold tokens. That includes launches as well.