Friday, August 18, 2006

Seriously, don't read this!!!

Quintins guide to argonaut loot

It took me quite a while to realize that all the little things I had noticed while hunting - and through intervention of my hideously insane brain translated into guidelines for me to obey during my hunting outings - could be put to a greater good by sharing it with you trigger-happy bunch of computer-addicted MA slaves.

I have recently specialized in hunting argonauts at Twin Peaks for no particular reason at all (unless you count the ESI I loot every friday). It seems reasonable to me to assume that all creatures can give you good loot and require different tactics to do so. For me personally the frequent argonaut hunts have provided me with both rascal and shogun armor sets, a justifier mkII and plenty of cash to play with in about three weeks... shocked yet? Just don't go thinking that I grabbed all the loot you should have been getting whenever big old Lootius was beating the living daylight out of you with his no-loot stick;)

Now I write down the guidelines I try to stick to when hunting my hairy little friends including the - admittedly rediculous - argumentation (laugh all you want untill you see me in angel armor) :
* Walk on towards a larger concentration of argos (yeah, we are at that level in our relationship:), don't waste ammo on the ones MA spawnes near you when walking, those will suck the PEDs out of you far worse than you'll realize. Profit is in the margins, not in the globals.
* 'The System' is to stop whenever two subsequent argos don't give you any loot. So no killing on the way back! Stop hunting for 15 minutes to let the loot cycle (yes, I'm a believer) get better, if impatient you can relog, that also works well for me.
* When you loot less than 1 PED, you ignore that kill in your counting (so count=1 before means count=1 after, simple?!?).
* When you loot more than 1 PED, you set 'The System' to zero.
* NEVER try to loot really quickly after the argo died, somehow the server is not ready yet and will just stress you out with you know what message.
* Forward falling argos must be looted soon, like before they stop moving. (yes I tried and it makes a difference for me)
* Backwards falling argos must be looted late, directly after they stop moving.
* Stand at the same height as the argo, or pay the penalty is excessive damage. Perhaps a harness-hit is prefereable to a punch in the face:) Flat ground is even better, that includes plateaus in the mountains!

Indications that good loot is available :
* You receive regular skill gain messages whilest shooting.
* Few people (green dots) are around, but many argos (red dots) are.
* You are low on ammo... :-(

Now there are no guarantees and you don't get more loot by really wanting it! If the above guidelines make the hunt sound boring, think back to whenever you get a 20% return on a hunt and the beating you gave your keyboard:)))

Good luck hunting and feel free to comment on my shamelessly superstitious thoughts;)
Of course insolence will be punished in PvP zone 3 :-)
What makes you think I'm kidding here???

1 comment:

Caramon said...

Interesting theories, Im not sure I believe tham all but it starts me thinking about how the loot server works....

It seems to be kind of standalone service, it gets a a kill and hands out some loot. (Sometimes its has to much work and lags for all)

If we could just work out its algorithm we have it made :-)

I just follow some simple rules to get economy. Simple enough so even I can apply them:
- Use a weapon that gives you maximum damage/pec and chance to hit
- Dont use better armor than you need
- Only hunt what you can kill easily and quickly
- Improve skills

/ Caramon "Use the opalo" Majere